They were coming into the room now, the Scotland Yard man, and Inspector Sharp, and Miss Silver. Chairs were pulled out and they sat down. He sat down too. His hand and arm were numb. The Scotland Yard Inspector said,
‘Miss Silver tells us that you want to make a statement with regard to the murder of Mrs Graham. Is that correct?’
His own voice astonished him. It was louder than usual and at a higher pitch as he said,
‘You are going to arrest Nicholas Carey, aren’t you? He wrote and told me. I didn’t want to have to say anything, but I can’t let him be arrested. It wouldn’t be fair, because he really hadn’t anything to do with it at all.’
Frank Abbott said,
‘Just a moment, Mr Harrison. If this statement involves yourself, I had better warn you…’
Jack Harrison shook his head.
‘No – no – I hadn’t anything to do with it either. It’s just that my wife is involved – to a certain extent – and of course not in the murder. But…’ He broke off. ‘Perhaps I had better tell you what happened.’
Inspector Abbott said he thought it would be a very good plan, and Inspector Sharp got out a notebook. Jack Harrison waited until they were ready for him. Miss Silver, sitting at the end of the table, watched him. They all watched him. When he began to speak his voice had lost the high strained pitch, it was lower and more natural. He sat back in his chair, his right arm hanging stiffly. An earnest, conscientious person who had been much perplexed in mind and was now doing his best.
‘It was that Tuesday evening. We had been to a bridge party at the Reckitts’. We got back at about half past seven. When we had had our meal I went into my study – I generally do in the evening. I left the door ajar. I wanted to know if anyone came to the house, or if my wife went out. After the daily maids have gone there is no one in the house but ourselves.’
Frank Abbott said,
‘Mrs Harrison was expecting someone?’
‘She was meeting a friend. I didn’t know where they were meeting.’
‘What friend?’
‘A man called Worple – Fred Worple. My wife had been on the stage – she knew him then. He turned up here a week or two ago. He has relations in the town. He met my wife again, and they have been seeing a good deal of each other. I didn’t care for the friendship. Worple is a shady, flashy type, and I told my wife that it wouldn’t do her any good to be seen about with him. She was angry, and she said she would do what she liked.’
‘Yes, Mr Harrison?’
There was rather a long pause before Jack Harrison went on. He was looking at Mrs Graham’s polished dining-table, but what he saw was his own study table with the ink-stained blotter, and the telephone fixture on the right. He saw himself putting out a hand and lifting the receiver. He said,
‘I had a call to make. When I took up the receiver my wife was talking on the extension in her room. She said, “All right, Fred – half past ten or a quarter to eleven,” and then she rang off. So you see, I knew that she was meeting Worple, but I didn’t know where. At a quarter to ten I went into the drawing-room and told her I was going to bed.’
‘You have separate rooms?’
‘Oh, yes.’
‘Next to each other?’
He shook his head.
‘It’s a big house. It’s been in the family a long time. I have the room I used to have when I came to stay as a boy. My wife’s room is at the other end of the house.’
‘Well, you went to bed?’
He shook his head.
‘No, I went to my room and waited. One of my windows overlooks the side door. I thought if my wife was going out, or if she was letting anyone in, that she would use this door. The front door bolts make quite a noise when they are drawn back. So I put out my light and sat by the window and waited. I went on waiting and nothing happened. I thought I wouldn’t do anything until a quarter past eleven, and that then I would go along to my wife’s room and see whether she was there, because there were two other doors which she might have gone out by. My watch has luminous hands. At twenty past eleven my wife came out of the side door and went on round the house and out of sight. I was all ready to follow her in a dark raincoat and tennis shoes. It takes just five minutes to walk from Grove Hill House to The Lodge. I want to make it clear that I could see my wife in front of me all the way. When I turned the corner into Hill Rise she was standing still – in fact I very nearly ran into her. On the other side of the road a woman was running down to the corner, and the bus was coming down Belview Road. When it came to the corner by The Lodge it stopped and the woman got in. I was only about three yards away from my wife. As soon as the bus had gone she ran the rest of the way and went in by the tradesmen’s entrance of The Lodge. It is right on the corner and runs along by the hedge to the little yard outside the back door. As soon as she turned in like that I guessed that she had been meeting this man Worple in that kind of a summerhouse at the top of the Grahams’ garden. They call it a gazebo. Of course you will have seen it, because that is where Mrs Graham’s body was found. I don’t know why she went there. She always goes to bed very early. I let my wife get round the house, and then I followed her. When I came out on to the path that goes up the garden I could see her ahead of me. I want you to be quite clear that except while I was following her round the house she was never out of my sight. Is that quite clear?’
Inspector Sharp nodded and said, ‘Oh, yes, Mr Harrison.’
Jack Harrison went on in the same precise and methodical manner which he had used throughout.
‘I could see her, partly because I was looking for her, and partly because I have very good night vision. Neither she nor any other person could or did see me, because by the time they were heading my way I was standing still against a dark background.’
Frank Abbott said sharply,
‘The other person? What other person?’
Jack Harrison looked faintly surprised.
‘There was a man in the gazebo. As you know, there are steps going up to it. When my wife had reached the top step, a man rushed past her, knocking her down.’
‘Do you mean that he hit her?’
‘Oh, no, I don’t think so. He was just in a hurry to get away.’
‘Mrs Harrison must know whether he hit her.’
The surprise became more apparent.
‘I haven’t spoken about it to my wife. She has no idea that I was there.’
‘All right, go on.’
He did so in a meditative tone.
‘If she lost a stone out of her ring as you say she did, then I think it must have happened when she fell. Her hand could have struck the jamb.’
‘Very likely. But go on about the man.’
‘He came running down the path very fast. I stepped into a garden bed to avoid him. There is a little step down to the yard outside the back door. He must have forgotten it, because he tripped and came down sprawling. He was up again in a moment and ran round the house and away.’
‘Did you recognize him?’
Jack Harrison shook his head.
‘Not in the way of seeing his face. But it wasn’t Mr Worple.’
‘How do you know it wasn’t?’
‘He wasn’t tall enough. Mr Worple must be not far off six foot. As this man went past me be was not much taller than myself, but there was a good deal more of him. Not a tall man, but broad. A heavy man by the way he fell.’
Miss Silver had said nothing all this time. She listened, and she watched with keen attention. She did not herself feel any difficulty in identifying the man who was broad but not tall, and who fell heavily, with Mr Blount.
Frank Abbott said,
‘What happened after that?’
Jack Harrison replied in the simplest manner.
‘He got up again.’