‘Not, I think, only the very young, my dear Frank.’
He laughed.
‘One endeavours to keep the end up. I am rewarded by being constantly told that I don’t look like a policeman. Which is sometimes extremely useful. Well, what have you got for me?’
She was knitting busily.
‘Nicholas Carey has left Grove Hill House.’
Frank leaned back as far as it is possible to lean in a dining-room chair. He had turned it sideways so as to be able to stretch out his long legs. He had rather a languid air which might be accounted for by the fact that the attractive cousin’s party had been kept up until very late. He said in a voice that matched his attitude,
‘He notified us to that effect.’
Miss Silver continued.
‘He was here for some time after tea yesterday, which gave me an opportunity of calling upon the Miss Pimms.’
‘My dear ma’am!’
‘I found it both interesting and instructive. They were extremely pleased to see me, and they imparted a great deal of information.’
‘Which I suppose you are going to impart to me.’
Miss Silver proceeded to impart as much of the Miss Pimms’ conversation as she considered relevant. Before she had really finished she found him looking at her with a touch of malice.
‘And what am I supposed to make of the fact that Mrs Harrison is a little too highly coloured for Grove Hill society, and that the Miss Pimms accuse her of having, shall I say, a come-hither in her eye when abroad and an inflammable temper at home? Dr Hamilton and the curate at St Jude’s don’t seem to me to have very much to do with the murder of Mrs Graham.’
Her glance reproved him. He was reminded of her scholastic experience. He had spoken out of turn.
Without further comment she proceeded with her narration and repeated Lily Pimm’s artless tale about the lost stone in Mrs Harrison’s diamond ring. That it did not impress him she was instantly aware. He looked at her quizzically.
‘And what am I supposed to make of that?’
Still knitting, she said without emphasis,
‘I have found the stone.’
He sat up with a jerk.
‘You have what!’
She loosened some strands from the pink ball in her knitting-bag.
‘I have found what I believe to be the lost stone from Mrs Harrison’s ring.’
‘And I am supposed to ask you where you found it?’
She said soberly,
‘I found it within a yard of where Mrs Graham’s body was found.’
‘What!’
She had no reason to complain of a lack of interest now. His cold blue eyes were intent. She said,
‘I cannot undertake to explain what prompted me to make a particular search of the gazebo. I knew that the local police would have been most thorough in their investigation.’
‘They don’t seem to have been quite thorough enough.’
‘I do not believe that you must blame them. Their search was of a general character. It had no particular objective.’
‘And yours had?’
She said simply, ‘I could not get that missing stone out of my mind.’
‘Where did you find it?’
‘There is a crack between the door-sill and the wooden floor of the gazebo. The stone had rolled into this crack. When the floor was swept fresh dust was deposited and the diamond covered.’
‘And how did you uncover it?’
‘I poked in the crack with a hairpin.’
He was gazing at her in a fascinated manner.
‘You poked in the crack. With a hairpin. That makes everything perfectly clear!’
She stopped knitting for a moment, dipped into the chintz bag, and produced a small cardboard box. Putting it down on the table, she pushed it over to him.
‘The diamond is inside, done up in tissue paper. I believe that it may be found to fit Mrs Harrison’s ring. If so, one cannot escape the conclusion that she was in the gazebo at some time after leaving the house of some people called Reckits, where she was playing bridge on the Tuesday evening. Lily Pimm who is, I believe, an entirely accurate witness was also at the party. She takes a particular interest in Mrs Harrison’s jewellery, and she says that she counted the diamonds – three in a diamond and sapphire ring, three in a ruby and diamond ring, three in a ring with two pearls in it, and five in a ring that was all diamonds. On Wednesday morning in the bus, when Mrs Harrison took off her glove in order to find some change, Lily Pimm noticed at once that there was one stone missing from the five-stone diamond ring.’
‘It could have dropped anywhere. Look here, if it had been missing when she put the ring on in the morning…’
‘Lily Pimm made the same remark, to which Mrs Harrison replied that she hadn’t put it on because she never took it off, adding that it was rather loose for her and apt to slip round on her finger, so that she might not notice that a stone had gone.’
He was frowning a little.
‘I still say that the stone might have dropped anywhere.’
‘If this stone fits Mrs Harrison’s ring – if it matches the other stones…’
He said a thought impatiently,
‘Is there anything special about it?’
‘I am not an expert. It is a fine large stone and of a good colour.’
He opened the cardboard box, took out the twist of tissue paper, and unfolded it carefully. The diamond slid down upon the polished table and shone there like a dewdrop.
Frank whistled softly.
‘It’s certainly a sizable stone, and very bright. Five like this in a row would be a bit overpowering, I should think.’
‘Lily Pimm said the ring was a valuable one. Someone in Mr Harrison’s family had brought the stones from India. Mr Harrison had them re-set as a wedding-present for his wife.’
He said in a meditative voice,
‘If the stone fits and matches the others, then Mrs Harrison will have to explain what she was doing in the gazebo between whenever it was she left her bridge party on Tuesday evening and… When did Lily go down in the bus with her on Wednesday morning?’
‘They caught the ten o’clock bus from this corner.’
He was sitting up straight enough now. He said as if he was thinking aloud,
‘If she dropped the stone in the gazebo – what took her there? I suppose…’ He broke off. ‘Do you happen to know whether she was here at all that evening? She was friendly with Mrs Graham – she might have dropped in to see her after the bridge party.’
‘No, Frank, she did not do that. It was some days since she had been to the house, and even if she had looked in as you suggest, I am unable to think of any possible reason why she should have gone up the garden to the gazebo.’
His shoulder lifted for a moment.
‘If this stone fell out of her ring in the gazebo, then whatever her motive was, she did go there. Is Miss Graham quite sure that Mrs Harrison did not look in on the Tuesday evening?’
‘She is perfectly sure.’
He picked up the diamond, wrapped it, and put it in the cardboard box. When the box had gone into his waistcoat pocket, he pushed back his chair and got up.
‘This is where I go and see Mrs Harrison and ask her what she was doing in the gazebo between Tuesday’s bridge party and Wednesday’s meeting with Lily Pimm on the ten o’clock bus.’
Miss Silver laid her knitting down upon her knee, but she did not rise.
‘Just a moment, Frank. There is something else which I think you ought to know.’
‘Another rabbit?’
She took no notice of this levity, but said,
‘It may, or may not, have a serious connexion with what I have been telling you.’
He sat down again.
‘What is it?’
‘It comes to me through Althea Graham. If she had not been in so distressed a state as completely to break down her self-control, she would not have repeated it.’
‘Oh, she was repeating something?’
She inclined her head.
‘I told you that Nicholas Carey had been here. They were together for some time, and after hearing from her about Mrs Traill’s evidence he seems to have arrived at the conclusion that his arrest was likely to follow. She was naturally very much overcome. Up to now she has maintained a wonderful degree of composure, but when Mr Carey had gone she broke down. In these circumstances she repeated something which I feel may be of the first importance. Mr Carey seems to have told her that Mrs Harrison had offered to give him an alibi, but that he had refused to let her do so. It appears she was prepared to state that he was back in Grove Hill House by eleven o’clock, and that they remained together for some considerable time after that. Miss Graham became more and more distressed while she was telling me this. I formed the opinion that whereas Mr Carey had told her very little about the details of his interview with Mrs Harrison, she had guessed a good deal more than she had been told, and was convinced that the proffered alibi would compromise Mr Carey in other ways. She said repeatedly that he would not do anything that would hurt his cousin – Mr Harrison is a cousin.’