‘Oh, as long as my business detains me.’
Guy turned sharply and looked at Cribb and then turned back to his father. ‘What did you say his name was?’ he asked.
‘I told you,’ said Prothero with a glare. ‘This is Mr. Cribb.’
‘I thought that was it! And you’ve only been in the town a day or two? You’re the man from Scotland Yard, aren’t you?’ demanded Guy triumphantly. ‘Investigating the body they dug up on the beach. I’ve read it in The Argus. What do they call you-Inspector Cribb?’
‘Sergeant only, I’m afraid.’
‘You’d better watch out, Father. Sergeant Cribb’s looking for a murderer. Better get home quick and pour your poisons down the wash basin. Business! You’re a fly one, Sergeant Cribb, aren’t you?’
‘It’s never been the custom of detectives to give cards to everyone they meet,’ said Cribb, matching the sarcasm. ‘Perhaps you think I should give you an account, item by item, of what we uncovered the other morning. It’s not my notion of lunch time conversation, but if you can enjoy a slice of sirloin at the same time, I’m sure I can. What would you like to know? Ah, here’s the waiter. Are we all for steak, gentlemen?’
‘I think the soup was quite sufficient,’ said Prothero, palely.
‘What about your son?’
Guy shook his head. ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’ll have a cold collation later.’
‘Steak for one, then. Well done, if you please,’ said Cribb. ‘As it happens, gentlemen, it’s the victim I’m concerned to identify. I’ll find my murderer later. I want to know who the unfortunate woman was. There isn’t much to go on, you see. Dark hair. Age about thirty. Small to medium height. Slim in build. Wearing a sealskin jacket and black skirt. Could be every other woman you pass in the street. That’s why I have to know about women who haven’t been seen in the town since Saturday-for whatever reason. It’s my job to investigate every report.’
Prothero frowned. ‘Am I to infer that you are concerned for the safety of my wife?’
‘Yes, sir, since I have it on quite good authority that she hasn’t been seen in Brighton since Saturday.’
There was a moment’s uneasy silence.
‘Your wife didn’t accompany you to the ball,’ Cribb added as if to strengthen the point.
The colour rose in the doctor’s cheeks. ‘I told you. She doesn’t go out in the evening. She was in one piece on Sunday, dammit, and if you’d asked me in the first place I could have told you so.’
‘You accompanied her to the station on Sunday morning?’
‘Er-no. They took a cab.’
‘Your wife, the maid Bridget and Jason?’
‘Good God, man! Do you even know the name of my servant?’
‘Did the three of them travel together, sir?’ persisted Cribb.
‘Naturally.’
‘You saw them leave?’
‘Of course! After a late breakfast. They would have caught the half past eleven train. If the change at Horsham didn’t delay them, they must have been home by one.’
‘That’s good news, then,’ said Cribb, leaning back in his seat as the steak was placed in front of him. ‘Would you be so kind as to pass the French mustard? Whoever this young woman was, she was killed on Saturday night. Not far from your hotel, so you can understand my concern.’
‘There were scores of men and women on the front that night,’ Guy suddenly said. ‘It was the firework show. I saw them from the hotel window. I expect a soldier got too much drink inside him and killed the doxy he was with. Then he dragged her into one of the lock-ups under the arches and left her until the next night, then he came back and set to work with the cleaver. There! I’ve solved the case for you.’
‘It’s one possibility,’ said Cribb, without much gratitude. ‘You say you watched the fireworks from the hotel. Were you with your stepmother?’
‘She was asleep,’ Prothero stated confidently.
‘No, Father. She got up to watch the fireworks.’
‘But she had taken her usual sleeping draught.’
‘I think not. We watched the show together from your bedroom. She would tell you herself if she were here. I went out on the balcony for a time, but she was wearing her peignoir, so she remained inside.’
‘The suite overlooks the front, I gather,’ said Cribb.
‘That’s so,’ Prothero confirmed. ‘My wife and I have a double room with a balcony, the best in the hotel. Jason sleeps next door-or did until Sunday-with Bridget, and their window looks on to the sea, too. Guy is on the other side of the building, across the corridor. The boy’s right, Mr.
Cribb. There are always people along the front at night, and on the beach. Soldiers, sailors, silly little sluts of shop-girls and females of a certain profession. They don’t go there just to promenade, I promise you. Brighton is not all it seems by day in the King’s Road, you know. One has only to see the colonnade of the Theatre Royal between eleven and midnight- a veritable Gomorrah. The women of the town flock there from their sordid houses of assignation in Church Street and Edward Street and some do not even have the decency to take their clients back there. The Pavilion grounds aren’t fit to walk through by night, and you may ask your friends at Brighton police station to verify that, if you wish.’
‘I’m sure I shan’t need to, sir. Now, gentlemen, the pastries here are recommended, I believe. Cooked on the premises. You’ll have one on Scotland Yard, I hope, seeing that you haven’t eaten very much.’
Guy stood up suddenly and tossed his crumpled napkin on the table. ‘I don’t want pastries. I need some fresh air.’
‘His condition,’ Prothero explained by way of an excuse, after the red blazer was lost to view. ‘It’s in the blood, inherited from his late mother. Providentially, I am able to subdue the attacks if I cannot dispel them altogether. I will have a pastry, if you please.’
The tray was brought and coffee served at the same time.
‘I should think you’ve had your difficulties with Guy, then,’ said Cribb.
‘In which way, exactly?’
‘Oh, I was meaning that it’s difficult to correct a child when it’s liable to bring on an attack of asthma.’
‘Less difficult than you would suppose,’ said Prothero defensively. ‘I’ll allow that he has abominable manners, but he’s been chastised like any normal boy. We’ve done all that Christian parents can.’
‘Perhaps the school was negligent,’ ventured Cribb. ‘You mentioned that he is starting at a new one.’
‘Quite soon, yes.’
‘I wonder if I’ve heard of it.’
‘I shouldn’t think so. A small private academy. There is still some doubt whether he will go there, so there is no point in my mentioning the name.’ The subject was obviously closed.
‘I didn’t wish to be indiscreet when the boy was here,’ said Cribb, ‘but you won’t mind if I now enquire whether it was a lady-friend you accompanied to the homecoming ball?’
‘I fail to see what relevance it has to your investigation, but I am not ashamed to tell you I was partnering Miss Samantha Floyd-Whittingham, who happens to be the daughter of a senior officer of the regiment. She is purely a social acquaintance.’
‘Goes without saying, sir. You didn’t by any chance leave the ball for a part of the evening, perhaps to watch the fireworks?’
‘Indeed, yes. Most of the guests did. We stood in the Steine Gardens for twenty minutes or so. We could see sufficiently well from there.’
‘And then you returned inside, sir?’
‘Of course, until the ball ended, soon after one o’clock. Then I drove the young lady to her lodgings in Lewes Crescent and returned to the Albemarle. I was home before two.’
‘I don’t doubt it, sir.’
‘Samantha is still alive, I assure you. I saw her yesterday.’
‘I wasn’t thinking she was dead,’ said Cribb.
‘Oh. You are concerned about my wife’s safety, but not about my-er-friend’s?’
‘Seeing that my information is that your friend has copper-coloured hair and the dead woman’s is brown, that’s correct, sir. There’s just one other matter, if you’ll indulge me a moment more. You’ve been most forbearing, if I might say so. Has your servant Bridget been with you long?’