“He’s still on the line?”
“Yes. He’d like to have a word with you. There’s a telephone over there. I know you’re going to forgive me,” Hilary said to Alleyn’s back.
“Then you know a damn’ sight more than’s good for you,” Alleyn thought. He gave himself a second or two to regain his temper and lifted the receiver. Hilary left him with ostentatious tact. Alleyn wondered if he was going to have a sly listen in from wherever he had established the call.
The Assistant Commissioner was plaintive and slightly facetious. “My dear Rory,” he said, “what very odd company you keep: no holiday like a busman’s, I see.”
“I assure you, sir, it’s none of my seeking.”
“So I supposed. Are you alone?”
“Ostensibly.”
“Quite. Well, now your local D.C. Super rang me before Bill-Tasman did. It seems there’s no joy down your way: big multiple stores robbery, with violence, and a near riot following some bloody sit-in. They’re sending a few chaps out but they’re fully extended and can’t really spare them. As far as I can gather this show of yours —”
“It’s not mine.”
“Wait a minute. This show of yours looks as if it might develop into something, doesn’t it?” This was the Assistant Commissioner’s stock phrase for suspected homicide.
“It might, yes.”
“Yes. Your host would like you to take over.”
“But the D.C.S. is in charge, sir. In the meantime Wrayburn, the Div. Super from Downlow’s holding the fort.”
“Has the D.C.S. expressed his intention of going it alone?”
“I understand he’s bellyaching —”
“He is indeed. He wants the Yard.”
“But he’ll have to talk to his Chief Constable, sir, before —”
“His Chief Constable is in the Bermudas.”
“Damnation!”
“This is a very bad line. What was that you said?”
Alleyn repressed an impulse to say “you ’eard.”
“I swore,” he said.
“That won’t get you anywhere, Rory.”
“Look, sir — my wife — Troy — she’s a guest in the house. So am I. It’s a preposterous setup. Isn’t it?”
“I’ve thought of that. Troy had better come back to London, don’t you agree? Give her my best respects and tell her I’m sorry to visit the policeman’s lot upon her.”
“But, sir, if I held the other guests I’d have to — you see what a farcical situation it is.”
“Take statements and let ’em go if you think it’s O.K. You’ve got a promising field without them, haven’t you?”
“I’m not so sure. It’s a rum go. It’s worse than that, it’s lunatic.”
“You’re thinking of the homicidal domestics? An excellent if extreme example of rehabilitation. But of course you may find that somewhere among them there’s a twicer. Rory,” said the A.C., changing his tone, “I’m sorry but we’re uncommonly busy in the department. This job ought to be tackled at once, and it needs a man with your peculiar talents.”
“And that’s an order?”
“Well, yes. I’m afraid it is.”
“Very good, sir.”
“We’ll send you down Mr. Fox for a treat. Would you like to speak to him?”
“I won’t trouble him.” Alleyn said sourly. “But — wait a moment.”
“Yes?”
“I believe Wrayburn has a list of the domestic staff here. I’d like to get a C.R.O. report.”
“Of course. I’d better have a word with this Super. What’s his name? Wrayburn? Turn him on, will you?”
“Certainly, sir.”
“Thank you. Sorry. Good luck to you.”
Alleyn went in search of his wife. She was not in their rooms, which gave evidence of her having bathed and changed. He spent a minute or two with his head through the open window, peering into the wreckage below, and then went downstairs. As he crossed the hall he encountered Blore with a tray of drinks and a face of stone.
“The party is in the library, sir,” Blore said. “Mr. Bill-Tasman wished me to inform you. This way, if you please, sir.”
They were all there including Troy, who made a quick face at him.
Hilary was in full spate. “My dears,” he was saying, “what a relief it is.” He advanced upon Alleyn with outstretched hands, took him by the biceps and gently shook him. “My dear fellow!” Hilary gushed. “I was just saying — I can’t tell you how relieved we all are. Now do, do, do, do.” This seemed to be an invitation to drink, sit down, come to the fire, or be introduced to the Colonel and Mr. Smith.
The Colonel had already advanced. He shook hands and said there was almost no need for an introduction because Troy had been “such a dear and so kind,” and added that he was “most awfully worried” about Moult. “You know how it is,” he said. “The feller’s been with one, well, more years than one cares to say. One feels quite lost. And he’s a nice feller. I — we —” he hesitated, glanced at his wife, and then said in a rush, “We’re very attached to him. Very. And, I do assure you, there’s no harm in him. No harm at all in Moult.”
“Upsetting for you,” Alleyn said.
“It’s so awful,” said the Colonel, “to think he may have got that thing, whatever it is. Be wandering about? Somewhere out there? The cold! I tell my nephew we ought to ring Marchbanks up and ask him to lay on his dogs. They must have dogs at that place. What do you say?”
Alleyn said, and meant it, that it was a good idea. He found Mr. Smith bearing down upon him.
“Met before,” said Mr. Smith, giving him a knuckle-breaking handshake. “I never caught on you was you, if you get me. When was it? Ten years ago? I gave evidence for your lot in the Blake forgery case. Remember me?”
Alleyn said he remembered Mr. Smith very well.
Cressida, in a green velvet trousered garment, split down the middle and strategically caught together by an impressive brooch, waggled her fingers at Alleyn and said, “Hi, there.”
Hilary began offering Alleyn a drink and when he said he wouldn’t have one was almost comically nonplussed. “You won’t?” he exclaimed.
“Not on duty, alas,” said Alleyn.
“But — no, really! Surely under these conditions. I mean, it’s not as if you were — well, my dear man, you know what I mean.”
“Yes, I do,” Alleyn said. “But I think we must as far as possible reduce the rather bizarre circumstances to something resembling routine police procedure.”
Hilary said, “I know, I know but—” and boggled. He appealed dumbly to Troy.
“It would have been lovely to have come as a visitor,” Alleyn said politely, “but I turn out to be no such thing. I turn out to be a policeman on a job and I must try to behave accordingly.”
A complete silence followed. Hilary broke it with a slight giggle.
Mrs. Forrester said, “Very sensible,” and to her nephew: “You can’t have it both ways, Hilary, and you’d best make your mind up to it.”
“Yes. All right,” Hilary said and gulped. “Well,” he asked Alleyn, “what’s the form then? What would you like us to do?”
“For the moment — nothing. The first thing of course, is to set up an organized search for the missing man. Wrayburn is bringing in people to that end as soon as they can be assembled. They’ll be here within the hour. Later on I shall ask each of you for as detailed an account of the events leading up to the disappearance as you can give me. In the meantime I shall have a word with Mr. Wrayburn and then, if you please, I would like to look at Moult’s bedroom and at Colonel Forrester’s dressing-room. After that we’ll have a word with the staff. Perhaps you’d be very kind and tell them, would you?”