“Yessir. I did that about seven o’clock. Mr.Bragg was to come up a bit later an’ stoke up the stove.”
“Did you place any soaps or salts on thelittle shelf above the tub?” Marc asked, recalling, as he did so,the layout of the room he had been shown on Wednesday.
“Matter of fact, I did, sir. Several bars ofperfumed soap and a big jar of bath salts.”
“Please, think carefully before answering: did you notice whether or not Mrs. Macaulay’s spare bottle oflaudanum was on that shelf?”
“I don’t haveta think, sir. It was there atseven o’clock. I recall ‘cause I reached over the tub an’ had toshunt it aside a bit in order to get the pot of salts to sit thereproperly.”
“Thank you, Miss Finch,” Marc said, andnodded at Cobb to return the tray. Priscilla took it eagerly anddisappeared into the dining-room.
“That was serendipitous, Cobb,” Marc said.“We now know the laudanum was there at seven. I believe we can takeMiss Finch at her word — for now. So, sometime between seven and,say, twelve-thirty in the morning, someone in this house slippedinto the bathroom and removed it. All our guests knew where it wasbecause Macaulay announced its whereabouts at supper, and certainlythe servants would know.”
“You want me to head downstairs an’ start inon them?” Cobb asked around a mouthful of mince tart.
“Yes. I’m setting up in the library. Meet mefor luncheon at one o’clock. That should give us time to completethe interviews and jot down some preliminary remarks andconclusions. Then we’ll go into the library and compare notes. Withany luck, we’ll develop one or two leads that will dictate ourafternoon activities.”
“I reckon we’re gonna need a littleluck, Major.”
Marc could not bring himself to treat Robert Baldwinand Francis Hincks as murder suspects, so he asked Macaulay tobring them into the library together. In addition to the matter ofthe murder itself, the three friends and political colleagues wereacutely aware of the complications it would bring to theirdeliberations here. However, as tempting as it was to plungedirectly into a discussion of these complications, they resistedthe urge admirably. Robert and Hincks sat down at one side of theconference table and quietly faced Marc in his role asinvestigator.
“Graves Chilton was found in his office earlythis morning,” Marc began, “poisoned by some sherry he had drunkthat had been laced with laudanum. We have reason to believe thelaudanum came from the bathroom off the rotunda, and was removedfrom there after seven o’clock last night. Although it is possiblethat Chilton committed suicide, all the circumstances point todeliberate murder, carried out by some person who shared a drinkwith him some time after midnight.”
From their expression it was clear to Marcthat his colleagues had already gleaned most of thisinformation.
“You’ll need to know whether we saw or heardanything pertinent to the matter,” Hincks said.
“Yes. We all had supper together atseven-thirty, and then drifted to the parlour and billiard-roomshortly before nine, except for Tremblay and Bergeron, who wentinto the northwest wing. A few minutes later I was called away home- Beth is fine and the baby still due, by the way — and Macaulayhas assured me that everyone except the butler had cleared thissection of the house by ten o’clock. We presume Chilton tidied up,then went to his office and opened up the estate’s ledger, thoughit appears he decided to take whiskey from his flask rather thanwork on the accounts. However, he may have been using a pencil tomake notes of some kind in the ledger, for we found evidence thatthree pages had been removed from it, presumably taken away by thekiller.”
The sinister implications of these latteractions were not lost upon Robert and Hincks, but Hincks saidsimply, “I was exhausted and went straight to my room. I was asleepby eleven and did not wake up until roused by the commotion thismorning. That isn’t a lot of help, I’m afraid.”
“I also went straight to my room, but I didnot sleep right away,” Robert said. “Louis and I had a frank talkin the parlour — his English, thank Heaven, being better than myFrench. When we learned that your Beth was likely in labour andthat you might not be able to rejoin us for at least a day andperhaps not at all, Louis and I decided on a strategy to formulatea written agreement to seal our alliance. We would each go to ourroom and write out, as best we could, the main points ofconvergence from our two days of talks — me in English, he inFrench. If you did return, we two would meet with you for an hour,have you go over the two drafts with us, and make a fair copy ofeach. I would date and sign the French document, Louis the Englishone. If you did not return, Clement Peachey from my chamberswould be conscripted to play your role.”
Marc wanted to talk about this intriguingdevelopment, but said instead, “So, you were at your desk for sometime after ten o’clock?”
“I was — until about midnight. I left onlyonce to visit the water-closet a few steps down the hall.”
“Did you hear anything? Anything at all?”
“As a matter of fact, I did. Just beforetwelve, as I was about to get into bed, I heard footsteps in thehall on the floor above me — one person, I’d say, walking slowlydown towards the stairway. What I actually heard was the creakingof the floorboards under the hall carpet.”
“That’s very helpful, Robert. You see, wethink some person came to Chilton’s office about that very time. Ineed to know who it was.”
“My God!” Hincks cried. “I hope you’re notsuggesting one of our Quebecers was involved?”
“I’m not suggesting anything, Francis — really. If someone from our floor or theirs was out for a stroll,unable to sleep perhaps, they could be a material witness, couldhave seen or heard something vital that will itself point us to thekiller. Without some hard facts to go on, Cobb and I are helpless.So, Robert, could you tell from the sounds which of the rooms thismidnight stroller might have come from?”
Robert thought about this. “Well, thecreaking started at my end of the wing, of that I’m certain.”
“Maurice Tremblay is in the room aboveyours,” Marc said. “I’ll need to quiz him closely on thematter.”
“He isn’t happy with our accord,” Hincks saidmeaningfully.
“True,” Marc said, “but I’m not jumping toany conclusions.”
“And a good thing none of us is,” Robertsaid. “This incident could jeopardize everything we’ve achieved sofar — or do worse.”
“You’ve given me more than I expected,” Marcsaid. “There is just one more thing. The doctored wine was anexpensive Amontillado sherry, not from Garnet’s cellar. Do you haveany idea where Chilton could have got it?”
They had no idea whatsoever. They had seen noevidence that any of the guests had brought in their own supply ofspirits.
“Before we let you get on with theinvestigation,” Robert said as he started to get up, “could we askwhether or not you might find an hour sometime before the end ofthe day to meet with Louis and me?”
“Yes, of course. How about seven o’clock,here in the library? By then I hope Cobb and I will be close tosolving this case.”
“We need to get the documents signed,” Hinckssaid, “in spite of these desperate circumstances.”
Marc sat back down and motioned for them tosit again. “We have a more serious problem,” he said, “one I wasgoing to tell you about later today.” Reluctantly he informed themof the coroner’s decision to give the police until noon on Mondayto charge someone with the murder before he made the incidentpublic and set a date for an inquest, in effect putting Elmgrove inquarantine and threatening to expose its secret doings to generalscrutiny.
Hincks gasped at this last revelation. Robertsank back in his chair.
“Well, then,” Hincks said when he hadrecovered from the shock, “we’ll just have to get LaFontaine’ssignature on the accord before he and his colleagues learn of thispotential catastrophe.”