'Why should he suppose a thing like that?'
'There is a great deal of money involved, Your Worship, and there again we need to probe into the facts.'
The magistrate turned to Romilly.
'Is there anything you wish to say?' she asked. The solicitor was the one to answer her.
'Not at this stage, Your Worship, thank you. We have no objection to a remand, and we realise that, on a charge of this nature, there can be no question of bail. We reserve our defence, both now and at the next hearing.'
'Very well. I order that the accused be remanded in custody for fourteen days, after which time he will again appear before the court to make an answer to the charge of wilful murder. The court will then decide whether the police have made out a case sufficiently strong to warrant a committal to the Assizes.'
(2)
The next thing I've got to do,' said Kirkby to Dame Beatrice, 'is to rustle up something a lot stronger and more telling than anything I've got at present. We're batting on a very sticky wicket.'
'I am not batting at all,' said Dame Beatrice.
'I can't count on your help? I was hoping you'd turn Miss Rosamund inside out for me.'
'I will do that, if you like, but I must warn you that I think you're got the wrong murderer.'
'Oh, come now, Dame Beatrice! If Sir Ferdinand is right, and Romilly Lestrange is an imposter, surely the first thing he'd want to do is to eliminate the one person who could discredit him.'
'But Willoughby was not that one person. You yourself have already mentioned my son.'
'Ah, yes, I know. But my contention is that Romilly hasn't a clue that your son was acquainted with the real Romilly, whereas the latter would almost certainly have been acquainted with his brother's children. It seems to me that the answer lies in Kenya.'
'Lies dead in Kenya,' amended Dame Beatrice. 'The real Mr Romilly, I mean.'
'Murdered, you think, ma'am?'
'Not necessarily by his partner, whom I take this Mr Romilly to have been. Either he died a natural death, or he may well have been murdered by the adherents of Mau-Mau, in which case you are unlikely to be able to get at all the facts.'
'Anyway, a likely review of the situation might be as follows: the real Mr Romilly, subsidised by old Mr Felix Napoleon, his natural father, sets up in Kenya with a partner, this man who calls himself Romilly Lestrange. At some point-we don't know when and, for present purposes, it doesn't much matter-the real Mr Romilly either dies or is killed. In the early 1960's Kenya becomes independent.'
'In the December of 1963.'
'Oh, was it? Well, perhaps at that time, or maybe earlier, or maybe later, the surviving partner, this Mr Romilly, comes back to England. Well, men in a foreign country, perhaps living mostly among natives, with the nearest English neighbours miles away, no doubt get to know a fair amount about one another and about one another's business. They also get letters, we'll say, from home, perhaps regularly, perhaps once in a while. One of the letters, I don't mind betting, was to tell Romilly of his brother's death. Another, written, no doubt, by Mr Willoughby in his capacity of secretary to Mr Felix Napoleon, was to tell him that the old gentlemen, too, had died.'
'You think, then, that this pseudo-Romilly was still in Kenya in 1966? It is quite likely, in spite of the troubles there, I suppose.'
'Whether he was still there or not, ma'am, I bet he knew his partner had expectations under the old gentlemen's Will.'
'Yes, and very considerable expectations, if certain eventualities came to pass.'
'Those being?'
'That if the heiress presumptive died at any time after her twenty-fifth birthday, he, in his impersonation of Mr Romilly, inherited the fortune.'
'Didn't you also tell me that if she could be proved incapable of managing her own affairs, Mr Romilly would also benefit?'
'Yes, that, I think, is why he called me in in my professional capacity. He knew that I should find her completely capable, in spite of his own insincere insinuations to the contrary. He also...' she cackled mirthlessly... 'realised that I am incapable of murdering the girl before she reaches her twenty-fifth birthday. If she died now, you see, I myself would become the legatee. Mr Romilly-we must call him that, until we know his real name-does not want to administer the inheritance on Rosamund's behalf. He wants the money to be his entirely. For that reason, I believe that Rosamund is in no danger from him until after the 29th of May, so, although I believe he will make an attempt on her life after she passes the age of twenty-five, I do not believe he murdered Mr Willoughby. There is no evidence that he had ever seen him.'
'Oh, but, look at it this way, ma'am. He's lived and worked with the real Mr Romilly over a number of years. How many years we don't know, but if, as Sir Ferdinand suggested to you, they went out to Kenya soon after Mr Romilly left the University, it must have been a fairly considerable number. He'd surely have known of Mr Romilly's relatives, including his two nephews, Mr Hubert and Mr Willoughby. Likely enough, he'd been shown their photographs. That means he would have been in a position to recognise them, whereas they wouldn't know him from Adam.'
'All this is nothing but surmise, you know-that he would have seen their photographs, I mean.'
'Granted, ma'am, but it's a probable and workable hypothesis. Besides, he claims he had seen photographs. Well, now, his partner dies. All he has to do is to keep that fact dark, so far as relatives in England are concerned-it isn't as though there were any women to poke and pry...'
'Except Rosamund, of course.'
'Too young to be interested in an uncle I don't suppose she'd ever met. I think we can leave her out of my argument. Well, the partner comes home when he gets a letter addressed to the dead man reporting the death of old Mr Felix Napoleon, assumes Mr Romilly's identity, buries himself down at Galliard Hall, adopts the heiress and knows that all will be well so long as he can choke off Mr Hubert and Mr Willoughby, the only relatives who might possibly realise that he wasn't their uncle. He stages this house-party, so as to have plenty of suspects on the spot, entices Mr Willoughby down, murders him and makes himself, as he thinks, secure.'
'Yes,' said Dame Beatrice doubtfully, 'but we have no evidence to show that Mr Hubert and Mr Willoughby had ever met their uncle or seen a photograph of him. Men do not usually send photographs of themselves or their grown-up nephews to other men. We may assume, too, that both nephews were very young when Mr Romilly emigrated. They may not even have been born, in fact. Their father was younger than Romilly. I do not see why they should have been in any better position to expose the imposter than Rosamund was, and she, it is quite clear, has no idea that her guardian has no right whatever to claim kinship with her. He made a very bad slip when he told me he was married to her.'
'There's this fact that neither Mr Hubert nor Mr Willoughby was invited to join the house-party, ma'am.'
'Yes, but thereby hangs a tale. It seems that they were invited, but the letters did not reach them.'
'Sabotage, eh? Miss Rosamund, do you think? Well, then, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to allow me to question her.'
'I myself would like to hear what she has to say. She is staying with Laura's family in the Highlands. When could you make it convenient to accompany me there?'
'I'd much sooner talk to her down here, ma'am.'
(3)
Laura's father worked for the North of Scotland HydroElectric Board, and the family occupied a pleasant, fair-sized house at Moy, about a mile beyond the point where the River Spean emerges from Loch Laggan. Laura, who had spent only a couple of days in Scotland, and had returned with Gavin and the nurse, sent word that she would be visiting the family with the object of returning to the Stone House with Rosamund, whose stay in the Highlands had never been intended to be other than temporary. She and Dame Beatrice were met on their arrival with the news that Rosamund had vanished.