'How can I suggest any particular person? There were nine other people in the house, apart from the servants. Of course I think it was Rosamund or Romilly. The only other likely suspect is Judith, but I doubt whether she had murderous intentions towards me. All the same, it will not do, at present, to rule out anybody. No harm was done, as it happens, so the incident has little importance.'
'You can't expect me to agree about that, ma'am. But for the precautions you took, it might have had very great importance indeed.'
(4)
The failure of Hubert Lestrange to denounce Romilly as an imposter deprived the police of their principal weapon. He had briefed an efficient Counsel, and although the prosecution pressed home the incontrovertible evidence that his fingerprints, and his only, had been found on the hilt of the sword, his statement that he had done no more than pick up the weapon and hand it over to the police was accepted by the magistrates, particularly as he also claimed that as soon as he had seen the body lying out on Dancing Ledge he had immediately reported a drowning fatality (as he thought) to the authorities.
The medical evidence, which had been given at the inquest and repeated at the first hearing before the justices, had established that the sword could have been the means by which Willoughby had been killed, but the defence produced expert witnesses who questioned this. The upshot was that the magistrates, accepting Romilly's mistaken identification of the body as an error pardonable under the circumstances, and bearing in mind the absence of motive and that there was no evidence of opportunity, refused to commit him and dismissed the case.
'We'll get him later, on a charge of fraudulent misrepresentation, and see how we go from there,' said Kirkby grimly. He waylaid the Reverend Hubert as that mild cleric was about to step into Dame Beatrice's car to spend his last day and night at the Stone House before he returned to Italy. 'Might I have another word with you, sir? How can you be certain that your brother did not know Mr Romilly Lestrange?'
'Oh, I can't be certain. I can only speak to the best of my knowledge. I don't see how poor Willoughby could have known Uncle Romilly.'
'If both were present at your grandfather's funeral, sir?'
'I suppose they could have met like that, if Uncle Romilly had attended the funeral, but Dame Beatrice tells me that she is certain he did not. Lies have been told that I conducted the funeral service-why, I do not know.'
'As the so-called liar was not present at that ceremony, it was perhaps not so much a lie as a simple mistake,' said Dame Beatrice.
'You don't believe that, do you?' asked Laura, later.
'Not any more than I believe that this Romilly and Willoughby met at the funeral,' said Dame Beatrice cheerfully. 'Romilly could not possibly have attended that funeral. He did not even know that Felix Napoleon was dead until the lawyers sent out the news to him (or, rather, as they thought, to the real Romilly) in Africa, and that would have been after probate was granted.'
'Was it by accident or design that Rosamund went to live with Humphrey and Binnie before she had a chance to meet Hubert?'
'It would make no difference whether she met him or not. I am certain she does not know him,' said Dame Beatrice.
'She knew his brother Willoughby, and a bit too well, by all accounts.'
'That is a different story, and is the one which estranged the brothers, if you remember.'
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CALUSHARI DANCE-EVIL SPIRITS
And though the devil lead the measure, such are to be followed.'
All's Well That Ends Well.
'Surely you're not tailing me again?' said Romilly. The silvery, romantic portrait of a fashionable lady by Sir Peter Lely gazed down upon the scene with an equanimity at odds with Romilly's flushed and apprehensive countenance, Dame Beatrice's interested leer and Kirkby's massive masculinity. 'I've been acquitted. You've nothing on me now.'
'Just a continuation of my enquiries into the death of Mr Willoughby Lestrange, sir, together with a little matter of false pretences,' said Kirkby.
'You'd better come into the library,' said Romilly. 'Does Beatrice have to be present?'
'Yes, I do,' said Dame Beatrice. 'I can bring witnesses to prove that you are not what you represent yourself to be; that you are no relation of mine; that you have assumed the identity and have inherited the effects of a man you know to be dead. What do you say to all that?'
'Witnesses? What do you mean-witnesses?'
'It was very rash of you to bring me here before you had found out that my son knew the real Romilly Lestrange, and somewhat foolish to suppose that a man of your age could pass himself off as one who was at least twenty years younger than you are. Furthermore, I have noticed that you never wear, although you appear to possess, spectacles, whereas Romilly Lestrange was almost blind. Then, again, I doubt very much whether you can tell me the name of the sitter in a single one of the portraits in this house-and there are a dozen or more-or the name of the artist, unless the portrait is signed. Romilly Lestrange was a connoisseur of paintings. Apart from all this...'
'All right,' said Romilly, 'that's enough. I'll tell you everything. I've done nothing against the law. I haven't inherited anything except the ten thousand the lawyers sent me. That's in the bank, and, if you'll drop the matter, I'll pay it all back.'
'False pretences is a serious offence, sir,' said Kirkby. 'It isn't only the money you've taken out of the estate of the late Mr Felix Napoleon Lestrange which is involved. We believe that you have also been engaged in a conspiracy to kidnap the principal beneficiary and that you held her prisoner here until Dame Beatrice came along and rescued her. If you would care to make a statement-that is, if you have any explanation to offer...'
'May I write it in my own words? I give in. I think you've got me, but I'm not as much involved as you make out. If I could tell the story in my own words I think you'll see that I haven't done anything wrong except to pass myself off as poor old Romilly when, of course, as you say, I'm not Romilly. There's no law to say I can't call myself Romilly if I want to, is there?'
'Definitely, if fraudulent representation is involved, sir.'
'But it isn't. Give me a couple of hours or so, and I'll let you have the whole works.'
'Very well. My sergeant will sit in with you.'
'Oh, I shan't attempt to make a bolt for it, or kill myself, or anything of that sort.'
'I'll just fetch my sergeant, all the same, sir, but, before we leave you to it, perhaps you would answer a question Dame Beatrice wants to put to you.'
'I wonder that you believe I shall answer it truthfully!'
'It might very well be in your own interests to do so,' said Dame Beatrice. 'Besides-if I may anticipate my question a little-as Willoughby Lestrange was killed some days before your house-party guests arrived, a truthful answer, as you will perceive, can scarcely harm you. When I thought that you might have killed Willoughby because he was in a position to expose you, I could not believe that you would have drawn attention (as you did) to the fact that he had not turned up. Then I perceived a flaw in this reasoning. Suppose that Willoughby (as I now know to be the case) was not in a position to recognise that you were an imposter? I examined the facts, and discovered that it was more than probable that you and he had never met. In that case, you would have no more to fear from him than from any other of the young people you had invited to your house. My question, therefore, is-was Willoughby invited, or was he not?'