‘Still here, sir?’ Armitage’s brisk voice cut through his increasingly rambling thoughts. ‘Why don’t you go off home and leave me to clear up the bits and pieces?’
‘Thanks, Bill, but we’re almost done for now. Look, I’ll be telling my boss that I want you moved from whatever you were doing to join me in this case. It would be good to be working together again.’
Armitage allowed a flash of eagerness to light up his stern features for a moment and then he replied soberly, ‘I’d consider it an honour. And a pleasure, Captain.’
They smiled at each other with mutual regard.
‘Before we both head off into the night, Bill, one last thing. You were very quickly on the scene. . on patrol outside, I understand? Did you notice anything untoward? Crash of breaking glass too much to hope for, I suppose?’
‘I’ve been going over and over it, sir.’ Armitage almost ground his teeth with frustration. ‘Didn’t hear a thing. I could have been round the other side of the building and it’s a windy old night, sir. Sorry I missed it. I circled the building using my flashlight at intervals. I gave the ledge outside a good dowsing. It runs all the way round and I’d marked it as a useful platform for anyone wishing to gain unlawful entry.’ He paused for a moment. ‘I saw nothing. Not even a stray moggie. Disappointing that. I was. . hard to explain. . keyed up the whole evening. Sure something was about to happen.’
Joe nodded.
‘And I’d persuaded myself that if there was going to be trouble it would come from outside.’ Armitage succinctly filled Joe in on his observations of the company in the party room. ‘I’d ruled out that lot as pretty useless. Couldn’t see any man jack of ’em staggering further than the nearest taxi.’
‘You say no one left the room immediately after Dame Beatrice except for old Lady What’s-er-name and Westhorpe?’
‘That’s right, sir. Of course, I’d no idea at the time she was a lady policeman. She was just a pretty girl in a rather revealing silver frock to me. It must have been about ten past midnight when she went out. That would have been five minutes after the Dame. I went out on patrol at twelve fifteen and got back inside about twelve fifty by which time there was quite a stir-about in the manager’s office and I was sent straight up here with Robert to keep the lid on, sir.’
‘So thirty minutes, near enough, separate your last sighting of Dame Beatrice and Tilly’s finding her body?’
‘Yessir. I beg your pardon, sir, but. .’ Armitage was uncharacteristically hesitant.
‘Go on, Bill.’
‘Well, I’ve learned in this business to trust no one. And I did come upon the young lady bold as brass standing over the corpse. . no real idea of why she should have been in the room at that hour. . nothing she was prepared to confide in me, anyhow. I checked up on her movements downstairs.’ His tone was of defiance rather than pride.
‘Quite right. And?’ Joe was serious but encouraging.
‘Well, I thought it was a bit off, her taking nearly half an hour to get up here, so I asked about that. She was observed rendering assistance to the old lady who was feeling a little unsteady and that took up some of the time. She finally turned the old dear over to the care of an attendant whom I have interviewed, sir, then she went up to the reception desk where she joined a queue for some minutes to find out the number of this room — as she said, a large theatre crowd had just come in. Then she went up by the stairs. The lift boy has no recollection of a young lady in a silver dress taking the lift but he can’t swear to anything much as every lift load was a full one around that time. It would have taken her inside ten minutes to get up here and locate the room. I’ve just timed it, sir. Though she is a rather. . um. . athletically built young lady. She could have sprinted up.’
‘You’d really like to pin this one on Miss Westhorpe, wouldn’t you, Bill?’ said Joe, amused.
Armitage flushed. ‘I can’t deny the thought has its attractions, sir.’ He grinned suddenly. ‘And wouldn’t you give a lot to hear her exchanges with the judge! Can’t say I haven’t tried to work out how she could have done it but. .’
‘But you keep coming back to the picture of Tilly Westhorpe in spotless gloves and gown (apart from the hemline) snooping around the crime scene?’
Armitage sighed and nodded. ‘We’re looking for someone covered in blood, sir, with an emerald necklace, a jemmy and a bloodstained poker concealed about his person.’ He grinned. ‘Constable Westhorpe’s get-up didn’t even conceal Constable Westhorpe!’
‘No indeed. As you say — an athletically built young lady! But how likely is it that it was the murderer who got in through the window?’
‘Somebody broke in and he didn’t come to change a light bulb! I’ve looked at that window. Those marks were made from the outside. The glass shattered inwards. Look at the way the shards have fallen. Could you fake that?’ He shook his head impatiently. ‘Do you think we’re playing at detectives, sir?’ he burst out in some anxiety. ‘Over-egging the pudding? Poncing about being clever when all we should be saying is it’s a burglary gone wrong? I must say, common sense says that’s what it is.’
‘I’d like to come to that conclusion,’ said Joe, ‘but there is something distinctly odd about this set-up and I think you’ve seen it too. Constable Westhorpe certainly has. I’ve heard from her. Now you stop poncing about and tell me clearly what are your impressions.’
‘It’s the violence I don’t like, sir. Cat burglars don’t kill. We all know that. If our lad had got in in the hope of lifting the odd necklace left lying about while its owner was in the bath and he’d been disturbed, he’d have legged it back the way he came or even, if he had the nerve, said, “Excuse me, madam, wrong room!” and strolled out of the door. It’s been done.’
‘Westhorpe thinks the Dame caught him at it and went for him with the poker.’
‘Could have something there,’ said Armitage grudgingly. ‘But he could still have run. I must say, face to face with a poker-wielding, six-foot redhead, I’d scarper. And, anyway, one blow would have incapacitated her, wouldn’t it? Why go on and on? Did you count the wounds? Four or five, I’d have said. Sort of damage you get in a domestic altercation, sir. No, there’s more to it than just a burglary.’ Armitage sniffed the air. ‘It’s gone now but it was still lingering when I got up here to find the body. Can’t explain it scientifically, sir, but. . well. . you remember in the trenches how you could smell. . I mean really smell fear?’