Dance to Your Daddy

Amabel had given up stripping the bed. She now sat down upon the mattress.

'Oi don't want nothen to do with the police,' she said sullenly. 'Oi don't know nothen, so I can't say nothen, can Oi?'

'Then I shall ask Violet.'

'Her won't say nothen, neether. Teddn no business of ourn, I tell ee. Best ee leave et alone.'

'And Luke won't admit to me what he said to you both, of course. Luke is Mr Romilly's creature. Did cook hear the remark Luke passed?'

'No, her was haven her afternoon off.'

'So Luke did pass a remark.'

'You're setten traps for me!'

'I'll tell you what Luke said, if you like. You can confirm it, or you can deny it. It will not make the slightest difference because, you see, I know.'

'Well,' said Amabel, 'ef ee knows, ee knows, so what call have ee to bidger-badger me loike thes here? Oi never thought, when Oi just mentioned it casual-loike to Mess Corenna-'

'I won't badger you any more, Amabel. At some time or other-it is immaterial when- Luke overheard Mr Romilly say that he could not understand why the Reverend Hubert and Mr Willoughby had neither turned up nor sent a note of explanation, but Luke remarked to you and Violet that he did not see why they should have done either, since he knew for a fact that neither of them had been sent a note of invitation to join the house-party. That is so, isn't it? He always reads the envelopes before he posts the letters, and he knew that nothing had been sent to Mr Hubert or Mr Willoughby Lestrange. Why, then, should Mr Romilly have appeared so concerned at their non-appearance when he knew perfectly well that they had not been invited? That was the substance of Luke's remark, I think, and that is what you told Miss Corinna, isn't it? Well, you've done more good than harm to Mr Romilly, so do not worry any more about it.'

CHAPTER ELEVEN

OXDANSEN-CROWNER'S QUEST

'He's for a jig, or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps.'

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

(1)

'An odd circumstance has cropped up, Dame Beatrice,' said Kirkby. 'You remember, I suppose, that Mr Romilly Lestrange identified the body as that of Mr-or, rather, the Reverend-Hubert?'

'Indeed I do.'

'Well, it seems much more likely to have been that of his brother, Mr Willoughby.'

'Really?'

'You don't seem particularly surprised. Don't tell me you'd thought so, all along.'

'Oh, no, I certainly had not thought that. As to my not appearing to be surprised, well, when we were told that Willoughby had disappeared, I assumed that he, too, had been murdered, because, according to my reading of the case, that would have been the obvious thing to have happened. As I told you, I made it my business to find out why neither of the brothers, the sons of the illegitimate Mr Caesar Lestrange, had attended the family reunion. It seems clear that they did not go for the very obvious reason that they had not been invited.'

'You told me that that is what you thought. The interesting thing now, in view of this violent death, is to find out why they, among all the members of both families, should have been left out.'

'Exactly. And why, having been left out, one of them should have been more or less in the vicinity of Galliard Hall and should have been murdered. What makes you think that the body is that of Mr Willoughby and not that of the Reverend Hubert?'

'Because a member of his parish, which was in Buckinghamshire, has come to us with evidence that the Reverend Hubert went out to take up a position as vicar of the English church in Bella Luganti, on the Italian Riviera, where there is a flourishing community of English exiles in retirement. We've checked on this, and it's true. He's there, all right, and is greatly concerned to learn of his brother's death.'

'Is he returning to this country?'

'We shall ask him to attend the inquest and positively identify the body, as Mr Romilly seems to have been in error.'

'In that case, I hope you will promise him police protection when he comes.'

'You think that will be necessary?'

'I think it would be a wise precaution.'

'Against whom? I can see that you have somebody very much in mind, Dame Beatrice.'

'Yes, I have. In fact, I have three persons in mind, two who might be in collusion, and the third who might be unconnected with them, in so far as motive is concerned.'

'No use asking you, I suppose, who they are?'

'Well, I hesitate to name persons against whom I have no real evidence. I can merely think of a possible motive for their wishing to have the two brothers out of the way.'

'But evidence of motive would help us enormously, Dame Beatrice.'

'When I used the words I was ill-advised. Evidence of motive is too strong and exact a term. All I meant was that, if certain suppositions of mine are right, then a motive would appear to emerge, but that is as far as I ought to go. The evidence given at the inquest I should make the issue clearer.'

'And with that I shall have to be satisfied, I suppose.'

'Only for the time being. I must confess, though, that, in the interests of his own safety, I wish you could have found some evidence of the identity of the corpse other than the testimony of the Reverend Hubert.'

'You don't mean he'll say it's his brother's body if it isn't, surely! You don't mean he's your lone wolf of a suspect? It's established that he's been on the Riviera for quite a little time, you know.'

'No, he is not my third suspect, but I fear for his safety, even if you give him police protection, should he put in an appearance at the inquest.'

'If we protect him, Dame Beatrice, he'll be all right, I assure you.'

'In England, yes. In Italy?'

'Oh, I see. But to whose advantage would it be to liquidate him?'

'I am still not prepared to mention names, but you can see that it might be to the advantage, perhaps, of the person or persons who killed his brother.'

'If it is his brother, as I say. The next problem is that, if Romilly Lestrange was wrong, why was he wrong?'

'Presumably because he did not know either of the brothers particularly well, and that is readily conceivable, especially if he had been introduced to both of them, we will say, at the same time, and a great number of years ago, perhaps. He has been living in Kenya until fairly recently, you know.'

'His story about the finding of the body is pretty fishy, don't you think?'

'I have an open mind about that. It is only fishy if he is the murderer, wouldn't you say? And, of course, suspicion must rest on him if, as the servants think likely-I will not put it more strongly than that, although, of course, they did-neither Hubert nor Willoughby was invited to join the house-party.'

'Could you make that a bit clearer, ma'am?'

'Yes. I mean that, if they were not invited, why should Romilly insist that they were, and make such a point of not having had a letter of explanation to account for their non-appearance? But, to return to my previous point, surely a routine enquiry will unearth somebody as capable as Mr Hubert of identifying the body?'

'I know you well enough to take as broad a hint as that, Dame Beatrice. Right! We'll scrub the Reverend Hubert and find another witness. The lawyers can do that for us, most likely.'

'I do not think you need trouble them. If it is Mr Willoughby, I have the witness you need in my own care.'

'Miss Rosamund Lestrange, you mean, ma'am? I'd sooner find a man. I don't think the corpse is something a young lady ought to be asked to identify. The doctors couldn't make it look exactly pretty, you know, after the bashing it got on those rocks. No, we'll find someone, all right. We'll track down somebody on the staff of the last hotel his grandfather stayed at. That should do the trick, I think. Mr Willoughby was Mr Felix Napoleon's secretary until the old gentleman's death, I think you said, so there will be a number of people in the Carlisle hotel who'll remember him.'