‘I thought you believed she was killed here at the back of this house.’
‘It is a simple matter to pick up a piece of slate and carry it away. I think the murder did take place at the back of this house. There is the evidence of the dead pig. But all this is mere speculation. There is much to be cleared up. We need some help, I’m afraid, and I do not see where it is to come from, unless the Lovelaine family have knowledge which they have not disclosed.’
‘I don’t know much about the father, but I don’t think Sebastian and Margaret have kept anything back,’ said Laura.
‘Not deliberately, I feel sure, but in talking together in their own home and in recounting their experiences, something may strike them. I propose to call upon them in the hope that it may be so.’
‘And what about the smugglers? I hope Dimbleton won’t get into trouble. I did my best for him.’
‘Gun-running is not the most innocuous of occupations.’
‘No, I agree about that. He’ll have to take his chance, of course. By the time Gavin gets our message, though, I don’t think anything will be found on the island. We still haven’t actually seen any rifles or ammunition or anything, have we, when one comes to think of it.’
‘Neither do we know where the guns, if any, came from, or what was their destination, but all that can be left to the police.’
‘Anyway, we’ve spoilt the smugglers’ little game, I expect, and the authorities can pick the stuff up at sea, perhaps, but the whole thing must be on a very small scale, wouldn’t you think?’
‘Even one gun is a lethal object, of course,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘and it gives me great satisfaction to think that we may have helped to queer somebody’s pitch, however small it may be. Our dear Robert must be told all about that locked old lighthouse.’
chapter seventeen
The End of the String
‘Turn darkness into day,
Conjectures into truth,
Believe what the envious say,
Let age interpret youth.’
Thomas Campion
« ^
As soon as she and Laura had returned from Great Skua to the Stone House at Wandles Parva, Dame Beatrice rang up Gavin and asked him to come over.
‘Well, that’s fine,’ he said, when he heard the story of their short stay on the island. ‘It’s certain that we shan’t pinch these smugglers on the island itself, but we’ll get them all right if they try to shift any more of the stuff, and then we must have a coast-guard station there. Moreover, we can get away with ransacking that old lighthouse, because we can claim it as belonging to Trinity House and therefore that it’s Government property. I’ll let the Customs and Excise people know. They’ll soon sort it all out. But your theory that Eliza Chayleigh was murdered comes into a different category altogether. I don’t see that you’ve much to go on, either, even in view of the open verdict given at the inquest. I’ll ask for a full report and see what your inspector chap has got. What’s your own next move, Dame B?’
‘I propose to visit the Lovelaines who, by this time, will have been reunited.’
As it happened, Laura had the address because she had promised to write to the two young people. Marius and his children welcomed her and she was introduced to Clothilde. She came to the point with what Laura, who had accompanied her, thought was singular abruptness.
‘Not to beat about the bush,’ she said, ‘I am looking for evidence that your sister, Mr Lovelaine, was murdered either by Constance Crimp and Ruth Cranby, or by the latter and an accomplice, probably a man.’
‘The farmer’s wife? What can she have had to do with it? There was no communication between the Cranbys and Lizzie!’ exclaimed Marius. ‘My son has told me that neither Allen Cranby nor Ransome Lovelaine ever visited the hotel. They supplied dairy and garden produce, but that was the extent of their dealings with Miss Crimp and Lizzie.’
‘So far as the two men are concerned, that is very likely true. I doubt whether Ruth Cranby was a stranger to Miss Crimp, though, and one must remember also that it is possible that Dimbleton and Miss Crimp had built up a flourishing little business smuggling guns on to the island and exporting them at a profit.’
‘Yes, it was guns,’ said Clothilde, in a small voice. The others stared at her, her husband in amazement, her children with sardonic amusement and Dame Beatrice interrogatively. ‘Oh, yes,’ Clothilde went on. ‘You had better have the whole story. It is time it all came out.’
‘You do not need to tell Dame Beatrice your reason for going to Great Skua,’ said Marius, recovering himself and speaking gently. ‘It has nothing to do with the present discussion.’
‘She had better hear it all,’ said Clothilde, ‘if we are going to talk about Eliza’s death. To my shame, Dame Beatrice, I ran out of money. In fact, I got into debt and had to overdraw at the bank. This had happened before, and on that occasion my husband took a lenient view which I did not deserve. I could not face him with the same situation again.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Boobie!’ exclaimed her son. ‘It was a joint account! You had every right to draw on it.’
‘But not to get myself into debt and then to overdraw on it,’ said his mother, determined to martyr herself, ‘and when the same thing happened a short time ago, Dame Beatrice, I felt I could not go to my husband and confess until I had tried to find some means—any means—to put things right. My husband himself, I thought, found me the answer. He received a letter of invitation from his sister to spend a paid holiday on Great Skua at the hotel she owned. When I studied the brochure she sent, I realised that her prices were high and this caused me to decide that she must be in a fair way of business.’
‘Instead of which, the hotel is head over ears in debt, just like you,’ said Sebastian.
‘I could not possibly know that,’ said his mother, impatient at the interruption. ‘Well, Dame Beatrice, I knew that my husband had always sent money regularly to his sister. You see, he had inherited everything from his parents and she had been left nothing. It occurred to me, therefore, that by going to Great Skua I could point out to Eliza that for many years she had been sent money which belonged rightly — that is to say, lawfully — to our family purse. I then intended to ask her to hand enough of it back to me to clear my debt to the bank. It was not a great sum and, had it been my first peccadillo in this respect, I should have had no hesitation in going to my husband and confessing what had happened.’
‘Shows a lack of confidence in a loving spouse that you didn’t,’ muttered Sebastian. ‘Oh, Boobie, darling, well art thou named!’
‘I have other resources,’ said Marius to Dame Beatrice before he turned an irate face towards his son. ‘There was no need for my wife to distress herself.’
‘At first—before I over-spent—I was extremely angry that Marius was determined to accept the invitation and take the children with him,’ continued Clothilde, ‘and I think my over-spending was really a kind of revenge. Later on, when I came to my senses, I was relieved that I had taken my stand. On the excuse of going off on holiday to my cousin’s, I pawned my watch and one or two things for the fare — this was before the others were due to travel — and I went to Great Skua, intending to go from there to Cousin Marie’s cottage, as I had said I would.’
‘And did you contact Mrs Chayleigh?’ asked Dame Beatrice, as the narrator paused.
‘No, I did not. I enquired for Eliza at the hotel and they said at first that she was far too busy, they thought, to see anybody. (I did not give my real name at the desk, but used my maiden name, which I did not believe Eliza would remember. I was most anxious, you see, that, when Marius and the children arrived, they should not be told that I had been there). I said that my business was urgent, so I was told that if I cared to book a room they would let Eliza know that I was there. Well, I needed a room, in any case, so I booked in.