The Skull Beneath The Skin

They heard Ambrose's returning footsteps on the stones. He was carrying a folded red-checked table-cloth. While they watched he shook it out then let it fall gently over the body. Cordelia thought that, as a temporary shroud, it was hardly the most appropriate covering he could have found. He knelt and tucked it solicitously round the body as if making it comfortable. Still no one spoke. Then Sir George turned to Simon and barked out his order. 'Right, boy. Let's get on with it.'

Simon had already judged the depth of the pool and this time he dived. His body cleft the water in a neat curve parting the water lilies. There was a flurry and a brief commotion. And then his sleek head broke the surface and he raised both his arms high. Between them he held a dark wooden box about twelve inches by nine. A few seconds later he had pushed his burden into Ambrose's waiting hands and was drawing himself up over the side of the pool. He gasped:

'It was caught under the netting. What is it?'

For reply Ambrose opened the lid. The musical-box, watertight, had emerged a little scratched but otherwise undamaged. The cylinder slowly turned and a tinkle of sweet, disjointed notes plucked out a familiar tune, one which Cordelia had last heard during the final rehearsal, 'The Bluebells of Scotland'.

They listened silently until the tune was at an end. Then there was a pause and the next tinkle began, soon to be identified as 'My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean'.

Ambrose closed the box. He said:

'The last time I saw this it was with the other musical-box on the props table. He must have been taking it back to the tower room. This would be the direct route from the theatre to the tower.'

'But why? What was the hurry?'

Roma frowned at the box as if its appearance had disappointed her expectations. Ambrose said:

'There was no hurry. But he was drunk and I suppose he was acting irrationally. Munter shared my slight obsession with order and he strongly disliked any of the things in the castle being used as theatrical props. I suppose his muddled brain thought that this was as good a time as any to start putting things to rights.'

Cordelia thought that Sir George had been remarkably silent. Now he spoke for the first time.

'What else has he moved? What about the other box?'

'That was kept in the cupboard in the business room. As far as I can remember, one box was there, the second with the clutter in the tower room.'

Sir George turned to Simon.

'Better get dressed, boy. You're shivering. There's nothing else to do here.'

It was a dismissal, almost brutal in its peremptoriness! Simon seemed to realize for the first time that he was cold. His teeth began to chatter. He hesitated, nodded, then shambled off.

Roma said:

'That boy has more talents than I gave him credit for. And how, incidentally, did he know what Clarissa's jewel box was like? I thought you only gave it to her when she arrived on Friday morning.'

Cordelia said:

‘I suppose he knows in the same way as you and I know; because we've been to her room and been shown it.' Roma turned to go.

'Oh, I realized, of course, that he must have been in her room. I was just wondering when exactly.' She added:

'And how did he know that Munter was carrying the box when he fell? It could have been lying there on the bottom for months?'

'It was a safe assumption, surely, given the position of the body and the fact that it and the box were both caught by the netting.'

Ambrose's voice held a lightness and a determined incuriosity which Cordelia sensed was a little too controlled, a little too careful. He added:

'Why not leave the questions to Grogan. One amateur detective in the house is surely enough. And accusations of murder come more appropriately from the police, don't you feel?'

Roma turned away, hunching her shoulders more deeply into the collar of her dressing-gown. 'Well, I'll get back to bed. Perhaps I could have some tea in my room too when you get around to making it. And when I've had my stint with Grogan I'll relieve you of my presence here. Either the Courcy curse is still operative or, in your paradise, death is becoming infectious.'

Ambrose watched while, she stumped away and disappeared into the shadows of the arches. He said:

'That woman could be dangerous.'

Sir George was still staring after her departing back. 'Only unhappy.'

'With a woman that amounts to the same thing. And with those beefy swimmer's shoulders, she shouldn't wear a padded dressing-gown. And she shouldn't choose that shade of blue, or any blue for that matter. I suppose that we may as well see whether the second musical-box is back where it's normally kept.'

Back in the business room he knelt and opened the doors of a walnut chiffonier. Cordelia could see that it contained a number of box files, two carefully wrapped parcels which could have been ornaments as yet unpacked, and a box in dark wood similar in size to the first. He placed it on the table and raised the lid. The box plucked out the tune 'Greensleeves'. Sir George said:

'So he did return it. Odd? Probably couldn't rest until he'd started putting things to rights.' Cordelia said:

'Except that he's changed them around. This one belonged in the tower room.'

Ambrose's voice was unexpectedly sharp. 'How can you possibly know?'

'Because I saw it there on Friday afternoon while Clarissa was rehearsing. I went to explore the tower and found the room. I couldn't be mistaken.'

'They look very alike.'

'But they play a different tune. I opened the box in the tower, this box. It played "Greensleeves". The one used at the rehearsal played the Scottish medley. You know. You were there.'

Sir George said:

'So yesterday afternoon he fetched this one from the tower and not from the business room.' He turned to Ambrose. 'Did you know that, Gorringe?'

'Naturally not. I knew that we had two boxes and that one was kept here, the other in the tower room. I didn't know which was which. They aren't a particular passion of mine. When Munter told me what he also told the police, that he hadn't left the ground-floor apartments and that he'd fetched a musical-box from the business room, I saw no reason to doubt him.'

Cordelia said:

'When Clarissa or the producer first asked for a musical-box, he acted as one would expect. He fetched the nearer and less valuable box. Why trouble to go all the way to the tower room when there was a box easily to hand here in the business room? He wouldn't have gone to the tower room if Clarissa hadn't rejected the first box.'

Ambrose said:

'The only entrance to the tower is from the gallery. Munter lied to the police. At about two o'clock yesterday he was within a few feet of Clarissa's door. That means he could have seen someone entering or leaving. The police may feel that he could have gone in to her himself, locked door or no locked door. And that's why he was so obsessive about returning the boxes, each to the room he said he'd taken it from. He needn't have troubled, of course, I don't see how anyone could have known the truth. It was pure chance that you, Cordelia, wandered into the tower and found the second box. Whether the police believe you is, of course, another matter.' Cordelia said:

'It wasn't altogether chance. If Clarissa hadn't ordered me out of the theatre I should have watched the rehearsal to the end. And I don't see why the police shouldn't believe me. They may find it easier to believe that. I was curious to explore the tower room than that you, who are so fond of your Victoriana, didn't know precisely where you kept each of your musical-boxes.'