“Dear Mavis quite opened her heart to me-A little more tea, Lee dear, and not quite so much milk-no, dear, not three lumps of sugar-two will do very nicely. How refreshing tea is. You see, Lee dear, she thought that you had shot poor Ross.”
Lee set down the teapot and gazed at her.
“Mavis thought that? Why?”
“Well, she saw you there, my dear. She sat down and burst into tears and told me everything. I am afraid she has been very foolish indeed, only-only-nothing really wrong, thank God. I don’t wish to speak evil of the dead, but poor Ross ought to have known better-his own cousin, and he couldn’t marry her because of Aggie Crouch all those years ago, and there wasn’t even a divorce.”
“Be calm, Lucinda-you’re getting tied up again.”
Lucy Craddock blew her nose on a handkerchief with a narrow black border.
“It wasn’t as if Mavis didn’t know he was married either, for I felt it a duty to let her know.”
Peter looked at Lee and saw how pale she was.
“Tell us what happened on Tuesday night,” he said firmly-“what Mavis told you. We know she threw over Bobby and went to the Ducks and Drakes with Ross, and then came back here with him, after which she biffed him with a decanter and swooned all over me.”
“Oh, my dear boy, she thought I was here-she did indeed.”
“I can’t think why she should. We all knew you were pushing off on Tuesday, but I suppose Mavis is mutt enough for anything. Now, Lucinda, the biffing and the swooning took place soon after one a.m. At three o’clock both Miss Bingham hanging over banisters and myself in hall of flat saw Mavis come in off the landing. She said she’d been picking up a bag. Police, self, and Miss Bingham all quite sure she had been back to Ross’s flat. Suspicion a good deal concentrated on Mavis until you made statement to the effect that you found Ross dead at a quarter past two. I suppose that’s why you made it.”
Lucy Craddock looked shocked.
“Oh, my dear boy, it was perfectly true.”
“Yes, but you made it to clear Mavis all the same. Now what did she tell you? I pushed her off into Mary’s bedroom at about twenty minutes past one. What happened between that and three o’clock?”
Lucy Craddock dabbed her eyes.
“Poor dear Mavis-she was very unhappy and very frightened, because, you know, Ernest and Gladys Grey are so very strict, and they thought she was with Isabel Young. She threw herself down on the bed just as she was and cried her eyes out. And she must have fallen asleep. She said she woke up very stiff and uncomfortable. She still had her dress on, but she thought she would take it off and go to bed properly. So she put on the light, and when she wanted the face-cream out of her bag the bag wasn’t there, and it came over her that she had left it in Ross’s flat. At least, what she hoped was that she had dropped it on the landing, but when she went out and looked it wasn’t there.”
“Was the landing light on?” said Peter quickly.
“No, it was all dark, just like it was when I was there at a quarter past two. The switch is by Ross’s door, and she went over to put it on, and then she saw that Ross’s door was open, and the light on in the sitting-room.”
“Both doors open? Did you leave them like that, Lucinda?”
“Yes, I did. But I didn’t leave the light on. I couldn’t leave it shining down on him like that.”
“But Mavis found it on?” Lee said the words almost in a whisper.
“Yes, my dear, she found it on. And she came into the room, and there was Ross lying dead on the floor just as I had seen him-and oh, my dear, you were standing over him in your night-dress with that dreadful pistol in your hand.”
“She walks in her sleep,” said Peter quickly. “She didn’t remember anything about it afterwards, but her foot was stained, and her nightgown, and she’s been going through tortures ever since because she didn’t know what to think.” He took Lee’s hand and held it hard. “Darling, do stop looking like that! Lucinda found Ross dead a good half hour before you walked in on him, and old Lamb proved to you that you couldn’t have fired that revolver if you’d tried.”
Lucy Craddock nodded.
“But of course it was quite natural for poor dear Mavis to think what she did. You see, she saw you with the pistol in your hand, and she was too frightened to scream. She wanted to run away, but she simply couldn’t, and then she saw that you weren’t seeing her at all, and she realized that you were walking in your sleep. She said she didn’t know what to do, because she really did think you had killed Ross. And all at once you turned away and let the pistol fall out of your hand, and then you came walking past her and out of the flat. She heard you cross the landing and shut my door. Well, then she went over to Ross, and knelt down by him, and took his hand to see if he was really dead. And he was. Oh, my dear boy, she was braver than I was, for I couldn’t have brought myself to touch him. And when she was sure about that she said to herself, ‘Oh, I must find my bag, or they’ll think I did it.’ And it had slipped down between the cushion and the side of the chair. That is why I didn’t find it when I was there-only the powder compact, which had fallen off her lap and rolled. And when she got back to Mary’s flat-oh, my dear boy-there you were!”
Peter gave a short laugh.
“And there was Miss Bingham hanging over the banisters and fearing the worst.”
“I have never really liked her,” said Lucy Craddock. “She asks so many questions, and if you don’t tell her, she finds out just the same. And I’m afraid, my dear boy, you spoke very harshly to poor Mavis. She was dreadfully upset because her dress had got stained when she knelt down by Ross, and she was afraid that you would notice it. She cut out the stained piece and burned it-”
“Yes, and left the rest of the dress pushed in amongst Mary’s clothes for the police to find. You know, Lucinda, I honestly don’t think that Mavis has got a brain, or if she has, it is definitely sub-human.”
Lucy Craddock shook her head.
“A pretty girl like Mavis doesn’t need to have a brain, my dear. Gentlemen really prefer it.”
“And that brings us back to our starting-point,” said Peter. “The brainlessness of Mavis may be the reason why she has disappeared, but for the life of me I can’t see-”
“You don’t think she’s eloped with Bobby?” said Lee.
“Well, I don’t know. Up to Tuesday, when everyone would have liked her to get engaged to Bobby, Mavis wouldn’t look at him. Would a warrant for his arrest make her feel that she loved him passionately and must incontinently elope?”
“It might,” said Lee.
He looked at her, and she blushed.
“Meaning that if they arrest me, you will marry me at the gallows’ foot.”
“My dear boy!” said Lucy Craddock in a horrified voice.
Peter laughed.
“Well, I don’t think Mavis would. Anyhow, here are the facts. Bobby went off to his stockbroking office as usual on Thursday morning. Then he went out to lunch and never came back. By the time old Lamb had made up his mind to arrest him he wasn’t there to be arrested, and so far he hasn’t been traced. A ham-headed mutt, but I still don’t think he shot Ross. Now our cousin Mavis was all present and correct on Thursday. She had breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea in the Grey ménage, a good deal of the time being taken up with painful family scenes of the first magnitude. A happy English home!”
“It is no good being too strict with young people,” said Lucy Craddock. “And I am afraid it wasn’t a very happy home.”
“Well, she was still there on Friday morning. She had been served with a summons for the inquest, and Uncle Ernest and Aunt Gladys were preparing to support her through the ordeal. She went out for what Aunt Gladys described as a breath of air at about eleven o’clock, and nobody has seen her since. I can’t make that fit in with Bobby at all. I think she was fed up with Aunt Gladys and Uncle Ernest, and she lost her nerve and bolted.”