“Bless my soul!” said Colonel Anstruther in a tone of dismay.
Mr. Brook got up and pressed the bell.
“I think we must ask Mr. Somers to explain himself,” he said.
XXIV
Algy Somers came into the room, and found it hostile. Colonel Anstruther, grey of hair and red of face, was standing with his back to the fire. Inspector Boyce sat stiffly at the writing-table. Mr. Brook, whom he knew by sight, looked up from a notebook and then down again. It was borne in upon Algy that he was here not only to be questioned, but also to show good reason why the suspicions of the occasion should not be focussed upon his person. It was a very disquieting impression. Colonel Anstruther’s cold stare and Mr. Brook’s detachment did nothing to modify it. He could hardly sit while Colonel Anstruther remained standing, yet this position intensified the suggestion that he was in some sort a prisoner at the bar.
The Chief Constable opened the proceedings.
“I should be glad if you would repeat your account of what happened last night, Mr. Somers.”
“I have made a statement in writing, sir.” Algy’s tone was quiet and pleasant.
“You wish to adhere to that in every respect? Nothing you’d like to add to it?”
“Nothing that I can think of, but if there are any questions you would like to ask-”
Colonel Anstruther looked past him.
“Mr. Somers’ statement, Boyce.”
The Inspector brought it over and went back to his seat. Colonel Anstruther frowned at the typewritten page.
“You say, Mr. Somers, that Miss Hardwicke asked you to drive her down to Cole Lester. When was this?”
“Well, I was having a bath when she rang up-I suppose it was about seven o’clock. By the way, she didn’t ask me to drive her to Cole Lester, she asked me to lend her my car. I wouldn’t do that, but I offered to drive her, and she stipulated that I shouldn’t ask where we were going.”
“And when did you find out?” There was a sneering tone in Colonel Anstruther’s voice.
A young man with political aspirations must learn to keep his temper. Algy kept his. He said,
“When Miss Hardwicke told me to make for a village called Colebrook, I guessed at once that she was going to Cole Lester to see her cousin.”
“And you want us to believe that you asked no questions?”
“I had promised not to, sir.”
“Perhaps you were going down to Cole Lester in any case?”
Algy allowed himself to be surprised.
“Oh, no, sir. My acquaintance with Lady Colesborough is very slight.”
“Have you ever talked to her on the telephone?”
“Certainly not.”
Mr. Brook looked up.
“Did Miss Hardwicke give you any explanation of why she was going down to see her cousin in the middle of the night?”
“No, she didn’t tell me anything.”
“But you had your own ideas on the subject. Do you mind telling us what they were?”
Algy hesitated.
“It’s rather difficult to say. I was a good deal concerned about Miss Hardwicke. She is very young, her people are abroad, and I had an idea that she was letting herself get mixed up in something that might-involve her in some unpleasantness. As soon as I guessed we were going to Cole Lester I thought it was something to do with Lady Colesborough. I had to let her go off into the grounds by herself, but I didn’t feel at all happy about it, and as soon as 1 thought it was safe I followed her.”
Colonel Anstruther returned to the statement.
“You say you followed Miss Hardwicke up the drive, and afterwards along the path that skirts the house. Did you know the place? Had you ever been there before?”
“No.”
“Then how did you find your way?”
The question came at him sharply, but Algy took it with a smile.
“I had a torch, sir. I didn’t use it more than I could help, because I didn’t want Miss Hardwicke to know that I was following her.”
“And you maintain that you followed Miss Hardwicke all the way?”
“Oh, yes-definitely.”
Mr. Brook spoke in his quiet voice.
“Taking into account the time that passed before you followed Miss Hardwicke, would it have been possible for you to reach the far side of the yew hedge by the time the shot was fired?”
“Oh, no-certainly not.”
“But if a shorter time had elapsed-if you had followed Miss Hardwicke immediately, then it would have been possible?”
“No. I should still have been behind Miss Hardwicke, and she was certainly not more than half way down the tunnel when she heard the shot.”
“Mr. Somers, are you aware that the path which skirts the house divides at a point level with the terrace?”
“I know it now, but I knew nothing about it last night.”
“Miss Hardwicke took the right fork and came out upon the lawn. If you had taken the left fork you would have passed the end of the yew hedge and come out upon the strip of grass behind the rose garden. You know that now, don’t you?”
“Yes, I know it now.”
“But you didn’t know it last night?”
Algy’s eyebrows went up.
“How could I know it? The place was utterly strange to me.”
“You had never been there before?” The sneer was still in Colonel Anstruther’s voice.
“No, I had never been there before.”
Mr. Brook took up the question.
“You had never met Lady Colesborough in these grounds?”
Algy smiled.
“I had met Lady Colesborough exactly three times before last night-twice at a night-club, the Ducks and Drakes, where she was with a party and I was with Miss Hardwicke, and once at the flat of some cousins of mine, the Westgates, where we dined at the same table and I afterwards talked to her for about ten minutes in the midst of a crowd of people. She told me that she adored London and hated the country. I can’t remember anything else about the conversation.”
“You haven’t answered my question, Mr. Somers.”
“I thought I had. I had certainly never met Lady Colesborough either here or anywhere else, if by that you mean a clandestine meeting.”
“And you have never been to Cole Lester before?”
“I have said so quite a number of times.”
“But if you had been here before-if you were familiar with these grounds-you will agree that you could have reached the strip of grass beyond the yew hedge before the shot was fired?”
Algy smiled.
“I am not inclined to agree to a purely hypothetical case.”
“Will you agree that a man who took the left fork would naturally outstrip anyone who, taking the right-hand turn, would have to find their way across the lawn to the entrance of the yew walk?”
“No, I don’t agree at all. I should think that the distance would be about equal.”
“But if the man who took the left-hand fork had a torch and used it, and if he ran, I think you will have to admit that he could have reached the place where the shot was fired in plenty of time to meet Sir Francis, snatch his pistol, and fire that shot.”
“Well, I don’t know that I’m admitting that either,” said Algy. “Lady Colesborough says the man she went to meet was at the window in the yew hedge when she got there. She doesn’t say anything about his coming up at a run and snatching the pistol. From what she told me, she and Mr. Zero were talking through the window and she was handing over a packet of letters, when she heard someone running and Sir Francis arrived on the scene. Isn’t that what she says in her statement?”