Alleyn paused and looked at the undistinguished, dogged face.
“You have had a great shock,” he said, and added in a voice so low that Blandish put his hand to his ear like a deaf rustic: “It’s no good trying to protect people who are ready at any sacrifice of loyalty to protect themselves.”
Templett laughed.
“So it seems,” he said. “All right. That’s how it was. It’s no good denying it.”
“Mrs. Ross gave you the letter on Saturday?”
“I suppose so. Yes.”
“Did you guess at the authorship?”
“I guessed.”
“Did you notice the smell of eucalyptus?”
“Yes. But I’m innocent. My God, I tell you I had no opportunity. I can give you an account of every moment of the day.”
“When you were at the hall with Mrs. Ross, did you not leave her to go down to the auditorium?”
“Why should I?”
“Mrs. Ross told me you shut one of the windows.”
“Yes. I’d forgotten. Yes, I did.”
“But if Mrs. Ross says she had shut the window herself in the morning?”
“I know. We couldn’t make it out.”
“You noticed the open window, shut it, returned to the stage, and lowered the curtain?”
“Did she tell you that!”
Templett suddenly collapsed into the chair behind him and buried his face in his hands. “My God,” he said. “I’ve been a fool. What a fool!”
“They say it happens once to most of us,” said Alleyn unexpectedly and not unkindly. “Did Mrs. Ross not mention at the time that she thought she had already shut the window.”
“Yes, yes, yes. She said so. But the window was open. It was opened about three inches. How can I expect you to believe it? You think I lowered the curtain, went to the piano, and fixed this bloody trap. I tell you I didn’t.”
“Why did you lower the curtain?”
Templett looked at his hands.
“Oh, God,” he said. “Have we got to go into all that?”
“I see,” said Alleyn. “No, I don’t think we need. There was a scene that would have compromised you both if anybody had witnessed it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you at any time speak about the letter?”
“She asked me if I’d found out — I may as well tell you I’ve got a note somewhere from Miss Campanula. I thought I’d compare the paper. I’d been so rushed during the day I hadn’t had time. That’s why I didn’t destroy the thing.”
“When you opened the window did you look out?”
“What? Yes. Yes. I think I did.” There was a curious note of uncertainty in his voice.
“Have you remembered something?”
“What’s the good! It sounds like something I’ve made up at the last moment.”
“Let us have it anyway.”
“Well, she caught sight of the window. She noticed it first; saw it over my shoulder, and got an impression that there was something that dodged down behind the sill. It was only a flash, she said. I thought it was probably one of those damned scouts. When I got to the window I looked out. There was nobody there.”
“Were you upset by the discovery of an eavesdropper?”
Templett shrugged his shoulders.
“Oh, what’s the good!” he said. “Yes, I suppose we were.”
“Who was this individual?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“But didn’t Mrs. Ross say who it was? She must have had some impression.”
“Ask her if you must,” he said violently. “I can’t tell you.”
“When you looked out they had gone,” murmured Alleyn. “But you looked out.”
He watched Dr. Templett, and Blandish and Fox watched him. Fox realised that they had reached a climax. He knew what Alleyn’s next question would be, he saw Alleyn raise one eyebrow and screw his mouth sideways before he asked his question.
“Did you look down?” asked Alleyn.
“Yes.”
“And you saw?”
“There was a box under the window.”
“Ah!” It was the smallest sigh. Alleyn seemed to relax all over. He smiled to himself and pulled out his cigarette case.
“That seemed to suggest,” said Templett, “that somebody had stood there, using the box. It wasn’t there when I got to the hall because I went round that way to get the key.”
Alleyn turned to Fox.
“Have you asked them about the box?”
“Yes, sir. Mr. Jernigham, Miss Prentice, every kid in the village, and all the helpers. Nobody knows anything about it.”
“Good,” said Alleyn, heartily.
For the first time since they got there, Dr. Templett showed some kind of interest.
“Is it important?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Alleyn. “I think it’s of the first importance.”
iii
“You knew about this box?” asked Templett after a pause.
“Yes, why don’t you smoke, Dr. Templett?” Alleyn held out his case.
“Are you going to charge me?”
“No. Not on present information.”
Templett took a cigarette and Alleyn lit it for him.
“I’m in a hell of a mess,” said Templett. “I see that.”
“Yes,” agreed Alleyn. “One way and another you’ve landed yourself in rather a box.” But there was something in his manner that drove the terror out of Templett’s eyes.
Smith came in with the transcript.
“Sergeant Roper’s outside, sir,” he said. “He came down with Mr. Bathgate and wants to see you particular.”
“He can wait,” said Blandish. “He’s wanted to see me particular about ten times a day ever since we got busy.”
“Yes, sir. Will I leave this transcript?”
“Leave it here,” said Blandish, “and wait outside.”
When Smith had gone Blandish spoke to Dr. Templett for the first time that evening.
“I’m very sorry about this, doctor.”
“That’s all right,” said Templett.
“I think Mr. Alleyn will agree with me that if it’s got no bearing on the case we’ll do our best to bury it.”
“Certainly,” said Alleyn.
“I don’t care much what happens,” said Templett.
“Oh, come now, doctor,” said Blandish uncomfortably, “you mustn’t say that.”
But Alleyn saw a gay little drawing-room with a delicate straw-coloured lady, whose good nature did not stretch beyond a very definite point, and he thought he understood Dr. Templett.
“I think,” he said, “you had better give us a complete time-table of your movements from two-thirty on Friday up to eight o’clock last night. We shall check it, but we’ll make the process an impersonal sort of business.”
“But for those ten minutes in the hall, I’m all right,” said Templett. “God, I was with her all the time, until I shut the window! Ask her how long it took! I wasn’t away two minutes over the business. Surely to God she’ll at least bear me out in that. She’s nothing to lose by it.”
“She shall be asked,” said Alleyn.
Templett began to give the names of all the houses he had visited on his rounds. Fox took them down.
Alleyn suddenly asked Blandish to find out how long the Pen Cuckoo telephone had been disconnected by the falling branch. Blandish rang up the exchange.
“From eight-twenty until the next morning.”
“Yes,” said Alleyn. “Yes.”
Dr. Templett’s voice droned on with its flat recital of time and place.
“Yes, I hunted all day Friday. I got home in time to change and go to the five o’clock rehearsal. The servants can check that. When I got home again I found this urgent message… I was out till after midnight. Mrs. Bains at Mill Farm. She was in labour twenty-four hours… yes…”
“May I interrupt?” asked Alleyn. “”Yesterday morning, at Pen Cuckoo, Mrs. Ross did not leave the car?”