“I’m sure it was.”
“When you came to see me yesterday I had a ghastly headache and could hardly think. Did you ask me if I went out on Friday night?”
“Yes. You told me you were at home.”
“I thought I did. Honestly, I don’t know what I could have been thinking about. I was at home practically all the evening, but I went out for about half an hour. I drove from here to post a letter. I quite forgot.”
“That’s not very serious.”
“I’m extremely relieved to hear you say so,” she said, and laughed. “I was afraid you’d be angry with me.”
She had a comical trick of over-emphasis, as if she parodied her own conversation. She drew out the word angry, making a grimace over it and opening her eyes very wide.
“Is that the whole story?” asked Alleyn.
“No, it’s not,” she said flatly. “The thing is, on my way down I came by Church Lane, past the hall. Church Lane goes on over the hills, you know, and comes out close to my cottage.”
“Yes.”
“Well, there was a light in one of the dressing-rooms.”
“What time was this?”
“It was eleven when I got back. Say about twenty to eleven. No, a little earlier.”
“Which dressing-room was it, do you know?”
“Yes. I’ve worked it out. It was too far away to be either of the women’s rooms, and anyway they’ve got blinds. Miss Prentice, who is a very pure woman, thought it wasn’t quite nice for us not to have blinds. The one Billy Templett uses has its window on the far side. It must have been the squire’s. Mr. Jernigham’s. But the funny thing about it was that it only flashed on for a few seconds and then went out again.”
“Are you quite sure it wasn’t the reflection of your headlights?”
“Absolutely positive. It was much too far to my right, and anyway it wasn’t a bit like that. The glass is that thick stuff. No, a yellow square just popped up and popped out again.”
“I see.”
“It may not be anything at all, but it was on my conscience, so I thought I’d own up, and come clean and all that. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. It might have been Dinah Copeland messing about over there, or any old thing; but as every moment after Friday seems important — ”
“It’s much better to let the police know of anything you remember that may have even the smallest significance,” said Alleyn.
“I hoped you’d say that. Mr. Alleyn, I’m so terribly worried, and you’re so human and unofficial, I wonder if I dare ask you something rather awkward.”
Alleyn’s manner could scarcely have been more formal as he replied: “I am here as a policeman, you know.”
“Yes, I know. Well, when in doubt, ask a policeman.” She grinned charmingly. “No, but honestly I’m in a horrid — awful muddle. It’s about Billy Templett. I’m sure you’ve already heard all the local gossip, and you’ll have found out for yourself that the charming people in this aristocratic part of the world have got minds like sinks and worse. No doubt they’ve told you all the local lies about Billy Templett and me. Well, we are great friends. He’s the only soul in the entire district with an idea beyond hunting and other people’s business, and we’ve got a lot in common. Of course, as a doctor, he’s not supposed to look on women as anything but sets of insides and collections of complaints. I never dreamt it might actually do his practice no good if he saw rather more of me than old Mrs. Cain and the oldest inhabitant. Oh, dear, this is difficult. May I have another cigarette, please?”
Alleyn gave her another cigarette.
“I may as well choke it out before I lose my nerve altogether. Do you suspect Billy of this beastly crime?”
“As the case stands,” said Alleyn, “it appears to be quite impossible that Dr. Templett should have had any hand in it.”
“Is that true?” she asked, and her voice was as sharp as a knife.
“It is a very serious offence for a policeman to set traps or deliberately mislead his witnesses.”
“I’m sorry. I know that. It was just the relief. You remember that letter you showed me yesterday? The anonymous letter?”
“Yes.”
“It was written to me.”
“Yes.”
“I knew I hadn’t taken you in. You are a clever beast, aren’t you?” She laughed again. Alleyn wondered how many people had told her she laughed like a gamine and whether she ever forgot it.
“Do you want to amend your statement about the letter?” he asked.
“Yes, please. I want to explain. I showed the letter to Billy and we discussed it and decided to take no notice. When you showed it to me I supposed you’d picked it up somewhere in the hall, and as I knew it had nothing to do with this murder, and I wanted to protect poor old Billy, I said I didn’t know anything about it. And then he came in and I thought he’d take his cue from me and — well, it went wrong.”
“Yes,” said Alleyn, “it went very wrong.”
“Mr. Alleyn, what did he tell you last evening when he went away with you? Was he — was he angry with me? He didn’t realise I’d tried to help him, did he?”
“I don’t think so.”
“He might have known! It’s one of those hideous things that turn into a muddle.”
“I’m afraid your explanation has gone equally astray.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that you knew where Dr. Templett put the letter and that it is very unlikely we picked it up in the hall. I mean that yesterday you spoke instinctively and with the object of getting out of an awkward position. You have since remembered that there is a fingerprint system, so you come to me with a story of altruistic motives. When I told you Dr. Templett is not, on the evidence we have, a likely suspect you regretted that you had shown your hand. I think I know a frightened woman when I see one, and yesterday you were very frightened, Mrs. Ross.”
She had let her cigarette burn down to her fingers. Her hand jerked and she dropped the butt on the floor. He picked it up and threw it in the fire.
“You’re wrong,” she said. “I did it for him.” Alleyn made no answer.
She said, “I thought she’d written it. The murdered woman. And I thought old Prentice was going to play.”
“Dr. Templett didn’t tell you on Saturday morning that it would be a physical impossibility for Miss Prentice to play?”
“We didn’t discuss it. Billy didn’t do it and neither did I. We didn’t get to the place till nearly eight o’clock.”
“You arrived soon after 7.30,” Alleyn corrected her.
“Well, anyway, it was too late to do anything to the piano. The hall was packed. We were never alone.”
“Mrs. Ross, when I asked you yesterday about the episode of the window, why did you not tell me you saw someone dodge down behind the sill?”
She seemed startled but not particularly alarmed at this. She looked at him, as he thought, speculatingly, as though she deliberately weighed his question and pondered the answer. At last she said:
“I suppose Billy told you that. It was only an impression, through the thick glass. The window was only open about two inches.”
“I suggest that you were alarmed at the idea of an eavesdropper. I suggest that you noticed this shadow at the window only after you had been for some little time on the stage with Dr. Templett, and that enough had taken place in that time for you to be seriously compromised. I suggest that you told Dr. Templett to shut the window and that you lowered the curtain to ensure privacy.”
She tilted her head to one side and looked at him under her lashes.
“You really ought to join the Women’s Circle. They’d adore that story at a tea-party.”