‘Do you fish or sail or anything?’
‘I’ve sailed a bit. As a matter of fact, I’m over here on a job.’
‘How interesting!’
‘Pigs. Wanted to study the bacon industry over here. Been all over the place—up here, in Eire—everywhere.’
‘I adore pigs.’
‘Really? That’s surely very unusual in one of the fair sex. Tell me more about yourself.’
‘I’m afraid I’m not an interesting sort of person. I’d much rather hear about you. Has it taken you long to—er—study the bacon industry?’
‘I’ve been over here since the end of August.’
‘Indeed? I’m afraid I’m gregarious. I couldn’t do even an interesting job unless plenty of other people were doing it, too. My husband always says that I’d be the last person on earth to be a Robinson Crusoe.’
‘Oh, I had my Man Friday—or, rather, girl Friday—all right, but only for a week or two. She had to go back, then, to complete her education.’
‘Oh, your daughter, you mean?’
Basil found this suggestion immoderately amusing.
‘Now, I ask you, Mrs Gavin!’ he protested. ‘Do I look the sort of bloke to cart adolescent daughters about with me? No, my dear lady, I want a chance to enjoy myself when I’m off the leading-strings.’
‘Oh, I see. A college student, then?’
‘Yes, and a very charming and quite sophisticated one.’
‘I should have thought a Youth Hostel would have suited a student better than a hotel like this, or, possibly, one of those holiday camps.’
‘Yes, but, you see, my dear Mrs Gavin, they wouldn’t have suited me. And as (if you’ll forgive a rather crude statement) I was paying the piper…!’
‘Yes, I see. Students aren’t usually very well off, although they certainly seem to have more money to play with than I was given when I went to college. I suppose they get paid jobs in the holidays.’
She gave Dame Beatrice the sign they had agreed on, and Dame Beatrice got up from her chair and walked slowly towards the door. Laura said:
‘Ah, my boss is ready to go, so I’ll say good night.’ When she and Dame Beatrice were alone, she said disgustedly, ‘Not a word of sense did I get out of him. He was stalling the whole time.’ She repeated the conversation verbatim, and then added, ‘Wouldn’t it make you gnash your teeth?’
‘No,’ Dame Beatrice replied, after a moment’s pause. ‘I can see how to go on from there. I think you’ve done well. He has admitted coming here with a student and his denial of having stayed at a holiday camp is really immaterial because the police will soon prove whether it is the truth or not, and if it is the truth, that has cleared a red-herring out of our way, and if it is a lie there is some reason for his telling it, and that reason may be important.’
‘I’d better pass him on to you, then. There’s one thing, though. I don’t care a bit for his type. He’s definitely a bounder. But I can’t see him as a murderer. He might hit another man over the head with a bottle or a pewter pot if he had a row in a pub, but I don’t see him harming a woman beyond, perhaps, slapping down on her. I’m certain he wouldn’t use poison.’
‘We seem to have lost sight of the fact that poison, and a particular poison, was the vehicle. When we get back I think we might spend a little time in research. My knowledge of the properties of coniine could be more profound, I feel.’
‘You’ve changed the subject,’ Laura pointed out, ‘and rather unfairly. Shouldn’t you be agreeing or disagreeing with me on the question of Piggy Basil’s tendencies to commit murder?’
‘I understood from you that he has no such tendencies.’
‘Well, that’s what I meant. What do you think about that?’
‘I am no judge. Probably everybody has the tendency.’
‘All right. Stall, if you want to. As for the hemlocks, spotted or other, I don’t see that they matter any more. The cause of death is known and the poor girl is buried, so what more can we do, apart from finding the murderer, or helping the police to find him?’
‘Well, child, as I pointed out just now, you believe that Mr Basil would not use poison, even if he were capable of committing murder by other means. It will be interesting to find out who would use poison, and, in particular, this poison. Opportunity is important; so is knowledge.’
‘Yes, I see. He could, so he did. That sort of thing isn’t evidence. It’s only a pointer. And why do you say so confidently that it will be interesting to find out who used the coniine? Are you hot upon the trail? If so, I think you ought to bring me abreast of the march of events.’
‘To say that I am hot on the trail is too optimistic a statement, I fear. All the same, I do feel that we have made some progress. We know now that Mr Basil never was a patient with a broken leg, and, apart from that, do you not realise that we have learnt one fact of primary importance since we have been here in this hotel?’
‘There’s only one thing I’ve learnt,’ said Laura, ‘and that is that, wherever Norah Coles may chance to be, she certainly isn’t with Piggy.’
‘And you do not consider that a fact of primary importance?’
‘Well, it means that he isn’t as black as some people would like to paint him, but that only bears out my argument that he wouldn’t commit murder.’
‘At any rate, the girl will have to be found. Finding her may or may not help to solve the mystery of her sister’s death, but as her complete disappearance, so far as we are concerned, is a mystery in itself, I feel a certain amount of interest in it.’
‘Yes, I see what you mean. If she isn’t here with Piggy, where is she? It’s quite a point, isn’t it? Shall you tackle him along those lines?’
‘Possibly. You remember that she disappeared well before the night on which Miss Good says she saw the large and ghostly horseman?’
‘Yes. Do you think they will exhume the sister if Norah Coles isn’t found soon?’
‘I have no idea. Of course, it is only a question of time before she is found.’
‘Yes, once the police hit the trail they don’t easily give up and they’re usually successful. She can’t remain hidden for ever.’
‘She might remain hidden longer dead than alive, child.’
‘Dead?’ cried Laura. ‘Good Lord!’
‘Let us keep open minds upon that subject,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘I should have been happier, I confess, if we had found her here with Mr Basil. But there is one thing I am very glad to know.’
‘Yes?’
‘I am very glad to know that the dead girl worked for a time in that agricultural college in Berkshire. It clears up the only point which has been troubling me. A little knowledge can sometimes be a useful thing, you know.’
‘Are you speaking of yourself and this “little knowledge” I got from Mrs Pock at the post office?’
‘No, not exactly. Think it out for yourself. Like most young mothers, you are neglecting your intellectual gifts, child.’
chapter fifteen
Piggy Comes Cleanish
‘…for if there are hours when it is good to reflect and be prudent, there are others when we ought to know how to take a sudden resolution, and execute it with energy.’
Ibid.
« ^ »
My secretary informs me that you are interested in pigs,’ said Dame Beatrice, seating herself opposite Basil at a small table in the lounge. It was a quarter to ten. Laura had breakfasted early and had gone for a walk. This was partly personal choice and partly to leave Dame Beatrice a clear field. ‘I am so glad to hear it. More people—many, many more—ought to take to pig-breeding. My nephew now—you may have heard of him—Carey Lestrange of Oxfordshire—has bred pigs almost from boyhood, and look what a fine man he is!’