Harriet went home, sat down on Paul Alexis’ chair and stared at Paul Alexis’ ikon. She really felt quite upset.
She had sat there for an hour, without removing her hat and gloves just thinking, when there was a commotion on the staircase. Feet came up two steps at a time and the door burst open so hard upon the preliminary knock as to make the knock superfluous.
‘Hullo-ullo-ullo! Here we all are. What’s up? Anything exciting? So sorry I was out — Here! I say! Hold up! It’s all right, you know — at least, it is all right, isn’t it?’
He gently extricated his arm from Harriet’s frenzied grasp and shut the door.
‘Now then! My dear, what’s happened? You’re all of a doodah!’
‘Peter! I believe I’ve been kissed by a murderer.’
‘Have you? Well, it serves you right for letting anybody kiss you but me. Good Heavens! You raise all, sorts of objections to a perfectly, amiable and reasonably virtuous man like myself, and the next thing I hear is that you, are wallowing in the disgusting embraces of a murderer. Upon my soul! I don’t know what the modern girl is coming to.’
‘He didn’t actually kiss me — he only hugged me.’
‘That’s what I said—.I said “disgusting embraces”. And what is worse, you send urgent messages to my hotel, so that you can get me here to be gloated over. It is abominable. It is repulsive. Sit down. Take off that vulgar and idiotic hat and tell me who this low-down, bone-headed, bird-witted, dissipated murderer is who can’t even keep his mind on his murdering, but rushes about the country embracing and hugging painted-faced females that don’t belong to him.’
‘Very well. Prepare for a shock. It was Haviland Martin.’
‘Haviland Martin?’
‘Haviland Martin.’’
Wimsey walked very: deliberately to a table near the window, laid down his hat and stick upon it, drew forward a chair, placed Harriet in it, drew up a second chair, sat down in it himself, and said:
‘You win. I am astonished. I am thunderstruck. Kindly explain yourself. I thought you were out this afternoon with the Weldons.’
‘I was.’
‘Am I to understand that Haviland Martin is a friend of Henry Weldon’s?’
‘Haviland Martin is Henry Weldon’’
‘You have been wallowing’ in the embraces of Henry Weldon?’
‘Only in the interests of justice. Besides, I boxed his ears.’ ‘Go on: Begin from the beginning.’
Harriet began from the beginning. Wimsey bore fairly well the story of the vamping of Henry Weldon, merely interjecting that he hoped the man wouldn’t make himself a nuisance later on, and listened patiently till she came to the incident of the plate-washing.
‘I was sort of wriggling — because I didn’t want him actually to kiss me, you know — and I looked down and saw his arm — it was round my waist, you understand—’
‘Yes, I grasped that.’
‘And I saw, a snake, tattooed all the way up his arm — just as it was up Martin’s. And then I suddenly remembered how his face had seemed kind of familiar when I first saw him — and then I realised who he was.’
‘Did you tell him so?’
‘No. I just yelled, and Mrs Weldon came up and asked what was the matter. So I said I’d seen a snake — it was the only thing I could think of; and of course it was true.’
‘What did Henry say?’
‘Nothing. He was rather grumpy. Of course, he thought I was just making a fuss about his kissing me, only, he couldn’t tell his mother that.’
‘No — but do you suppose he put two and two together?’
‘I don’t think he did. I hope not.’
‘I hope not — or he may have bolted.’
‘I know. I ought to have stuck to him like glue. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t, Peter, Honestly, I was frightened. It was silly, but I saw Alexis with his throat cut and the blood running all over the place — it was horrible. And the idea that — ugh!’
‘Wait a moment. Let’s think this thing out. You’re sure you aren’t mistaken about the snake and that Weldon really is Martin?’
‘Yes. I’m sure he is. I can see it perfectly now. His profile’s the same now, I come to think of it, and his height and size, and his voice too. The hair’s different, of course, but he could easily have dyed that.’
‘So he could. And his hair looks as if it had been dyed recently, for the matter of that, and re-bleached. I thought it looked funny and dead. Well, if Weldon is Martin, there’s undoubtedly some funny; business somewhere. But Harriet, do put it out of your mind that he’s a murderer. We’ve proved that Martin couldn’t possibly have done it. He couldn’t get to the place in time. Had you forgotten that?’
‘Yes — I believe I had forgotten it. It seemed so obvious, somehow, that if he was there at Darley, in disguise, he must have been up to something or other.’
‘Of course he was up to something or other. But what? He couldn’t be in two places at once, even if he was disguised at Beelzebub.’
‘No, he couldn’t — could he? Oh, what an idiot I am! I’ve been sitting here having the horrors, and wondering how in the world we could ever break it to Mrs Weldon.’
‘We may have to do that in any case, I’m afraid,’ said Wimsey, gravely. ‘It looks very much as if he had some hand in it, even if he didn’t do the throat-cutting part of it. The only thing is, if he wasn’t the actual murderer, why was he at Darley at all?’
‘Goodness knows!’
‘Something do do with the bay mare, that’s a certainty. But what? What was the point of the bay mare at all? It beats me, Harriet; it beats me.’
‘So it does me.’
‘Well, there’s’ only one thing to do.’ ‘What’s that?’
‘To ask him.’
‘Ask him?’
‘Yes. We’ll ask him. It’s just conceivable that there’s some innocent explanation of the thing. And if we ask him about it, he’ll have to commit himself one way or another.’
‘Ye-es. That means open warfare.’
‘Not necessarily. We needn’t tell him all we suspect. I think you’d better leave this to me.’
‘I rather think I had. I’m afraid I haven’t handled Henry as well as I thought I was going to.’
‘I don’t know. You’ve got hold of a pretty valuable piece of information,’’ anyhow. Don’t worry. We’ll turn friend Henry inside-out before we’ve done with him. I’ll just pop round to the Resplendent now, and see that he hasn’t taken alarm.’’
He popped round accordingly, only, to find that Henry, so far from bolting, was dining and playing Bridge with a party of other residents. Should he break in on them with his questions? Or should he wait? Better wait, perhaps, and let the matter crop up quietly in conversation the next morning. He made a private arrangement with the night porter to give him the tip if Mr Weldon showed any signs of departing during the night, and retired to his own quarters to do some hard thinking.