“Well, you were right.”
As he released her and moved over to the fire, she said,
“Did you arrest him?”
“No. He had cyanide on him. He is dead.”
“How extremely shocking!”
“It will save a lot of scandal, but of course-it shouldn’t have happened.”
She seated herself. He dropped into the chair on the other side of the hearth and went on speaking.
“You know, he put up such a good case that I began to think I was heading for a crash. Even if Allan Grover’s evidence had been admitted it could have been torn to shreds. Nobody loves the eavesdropper-and a clerk eavesdropping on his employer!” He made a gesture. “If it hadn’t been for your backing, I would never have taken it as far as I did this morning, and right in the middle I got one of the worst hollow sinkings I can remember. The fellow was so respectable, so imposing, so virtuously indignant-it just didn’t seem possible.”
“What happened, Randal?”
“We had a search-warrant. He opened his safe and stood back to watch us whilst we turned it out. At some point in the proceedings he must have walked round his chair and sat down with his back to us. He had the poison on him, and he must have taken it when Drake fetched out the two shoe-boxes which were right at the back of the safe. Remember the gold Florentine figures-the four Seasons? There were two of them in each box. We had just got Summer out, when he groaned and fell over.”
Miss Silver repeated a previous comment.
“Very shocking indeed.”
March said grimly, “I shall probably be criticized for having allowed it to happen.”
“You can hardly be said to have allowed it.”
“No, but I was off my guard. The fact is, my mind was a good deal taken up with the idea that we had bitten off more than we could chew.”
“My dear Randal!”
“Sorry-it slipped out. Anyhow that’s what I was feeling like. And then Drake was opening one of those shoe-boxes, and I saw a golden foot sticking out. Holderness must have seen it too, and once anyone had seen it the game was up. I ought to have gone over to him at once, but I took just that first moment to feel relieved and to see the figure come out of the box, and by that time the mischief was done. Now why in heaven’s name did he take those figures to start with, or having taken them, why did he keep them?”
Miss Silver gave a gentle cough.
“I imagine that there may have been two reasons. The loss of the figures would suggest a burglary. And without doubt Mr. Holderness would be aware that they were extremely valuable. He may have thought that he would be able to dispose of them abroad by some roundabout method-there are ways in which these things can be done. As far as keeping them in his safe is concerned, where else would you expect him to keep them? The possibility of suspicion falling on him would not, I think, have entered his mind. He could lock the figures away and feel quite secure. And so he would have been if it had not been for Allan Grover and your search-warrant.”
He smiled at her.
“You are too modest. The proper ending to that sentence is-‘if it hadn’t been for Miss Maud Silver.’ And as to its being my search-warrant, I can tell you there was a time when I came very near to disowning it. I had some embittered thoughts about my own weakness in having given way to your very considerable pressure. May I ask now what you did expect us to find?”
“Just what you did find, Randal.”
“The figures?”
“If Mr. Holderness was the murderer, I had no doubt that they would be there. And after hearing Allan Grover’s story I had no doubt that Mr. Holderness was the murderer.”
“Then it comes back to ‘if it hadn’t been for Miss Maud Silver.’ ”
She was knitting industriously. Over the clicking needles she shook her head.
“Oh, no-I can claim no credit. I merely noticed one or two points, and having met Allan Grover, I thought it might be helpful if I could have a talk with him.”
Randal March continued to smile at her with a good deal of affection. He leaned forward now and said,
“Ah-those points. Are you going to tell me what they were? I should very much like to know.”
“Certainly, if you wish it. As you are aware, I came to the case with a perfectly open mind. I knew none of the people, I had no preconceived ideas, and I was therefore very much on the alert for the impressions which I was bound to receive. To begin with Miss Cray. I found it quite impossible to believe that she had any guilty knowledge. I found her open, candid, honest, and extremely scrupulous about involving anyone else. It was quite out of the question that she should have taken those Florentine figures or committed a murderous attack upon Mr. Lessiter.”
The warm colour came up into Randal March’s face. He nodded and said,
“Go on.”
Miss Silver measured the pale blue cuff which she was knitting. It wanted half an inch of the right length. She pulled a fresh strand of wool from the ball and continued.
“With regard to her nephew Mr. Carr Robertson, my impressions came to me almost entirely through other people. He was in no mood to allow me to question him, and I did not expect him to do so. But when Miss Cray with obvious sincerity declared that he had at first been quite certain that it was she who had killed Mr. Lessiter, and that even now he was not quite sure that she had not done so, I was inclined to accept her statement, and to consider that the murderer must be looked for elsewhere. The third suspect, Cyril Mayhew, I dismissed after hearing what Allan Grover had to say. Everything else apart, if he had wished to steal, there must have been many things which might have been taken and either not missed for months or never missed at all. The extreme improbability of his removing these noticeable ornaments from the room most constantly occupied by Mr. Lessiter, and the certainty that such a theft would immediately be discovered, occurred to me with considerable force. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed clear that the figures had been stolen, not only by someone who knew their value, but by someone who intended that value to suggest a motive for Mr. Lessiter’s murder which would disguise the real motive.”
March said, “That might have involved Carr Robertson.”
Miss Silver shook her head.
“Superficially, yes-but actually, no. Consider the evidence. He has suddenly discovered that it is James Lessiter who has seduced and deserted his wife-he rushes out of the house. But he does not go up to Melling House-he walks over to Lenton and spends quite a long time with Miss Elizabeth Moore. They were at one time engaged, they had been separated, they now become reconciled. It is just possible that a man in those circumstances might commit a murder, but I think it extremely improbable, and I certainly do not think that if he had done so he would have brought that bloodstained raincoat home and introduced it to Miss Cray with the accusing remark, ‘Why did you do it?’ ”
“He did that-”
“Yes, Randal. It convinced Miss Cray of his innocence, and it convinced me. Though I had not seen much of him, I had received a very definite impression of his character. He might have been worked up to the point of violence, but he was incapable of duplicity or theft. And if he had killed Mr. Lessiter, it was inconceivable that he should have tried to shift the blame on to Miss Cray.”
“Yes, that’s true enough. And where did you go from there?”
She coughed gently.
“I considered Mrs. Welby, but I could not arrive at any conclusion. Both from my own observation and from what I had heard about her I judged her to be of a cold and self-centered disposition. I was sure that she was untruthful, and I suspected that she was dishonest.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“How devastating! All that, but not murder?”
She shook her head reprovingly.
“I could not believe that she could have brought herself to hit a man over the head with a poker. If she had been going to murder anyone she would, I am sure, have employed poison. A woman of her fastidious refinement would have to be carried quite outside herself with passion before she could kill a man in so brutal a manner. And Mrs. Welby was, I am convinced, incapable of being carried out of herself by passion. All the same, I was sure she knew something that she was keeping back, which was of course the case.”