Jerome’s shoulder lifted.
“Well, you know, it might be from anyone.”
“So I told her.” March’s tone was dry. “Imagination has its uses, but women have too much of it-they work it to death.”
Jerome gave a short laugh.
“I wonder how many letters of this sort Henry had had in his time. I should say the only novel feature was the attempt to disguise the handwriting. Women are not generally so discreet, especially when they are working up for a final scene.”
“You think it was that?”
“Looks like it.”
There was a moment of silence. Then March said,
“Then you never saw any sign of mutual attraction between Clayton and Miss Day?”
“It never came into my head. Henry had that sort of manner with women-he looked at every girl he met as if he were head over ears in love with her. And of course they fell for it.”
“Do you mean that he looked like that at Miss Day and she fell for it?”
“My dear March, he looked like that at my Aunt Columba-he looked like that at old Mrs. Pell, Pell’s mother, when she wasn’t far short of a hundred-he looked like that at Mrs. Robbins. And they all fell for it. I don’t suppose Lona was any different from the rest, but as to anything serious-as you say, Miss Silver has too much imagination.”
All the same, when March came out of Jerome’s room and saw Judy Elliot at the end of the passage he walked to meet her.
“Will you do something for me, Miss Elliot?”
“Of course.”
“Could we go into your room for a minute?”
They went in. He left the door open, standing just inside where he could see the corridor and the door opening on the back stair.
“I just want to time something. I want to know just how long it would take anyone to run up those stairs, lock Mrs. Robbins’ door, go into the next room as far as the window, and come back again. I want to time you whilst you do all that.”
Judy looked doubtful.
“I think Mrs. Robbins is up there asleep.”
“Well, try the locking business with one of the other doors. You had better go up first and prospect. I want you to know exactly what you are going to do, and to do it as quickly as you can. You don’t need to go into the first room, only open the door just far enough to get the key, then put it in on the outer side and turn it in the lock. After that go into the attic from which Major Pilgrim and Robbins fell, walk across it to the window, stand there whilst you count ten, and then come down as fast as you can. I want you to start from just outside Captain Pilgrim’s room and come back there. Abbott says you’re to be trusted. I’m checking up on something, and I don’t want it talked about.”
Judy gave a little nod.
“I won’t talk.”
“All right. Now go off and have a look at the course!”
When she came back he sent her to the end of the passage.
“Turn when you get there, and I’ll take the time from that.”
A minute later she passed him running lightly, and was out of sight on the stairs. Standing there and listening, he could hear her. But if he hadn’t been listening… He wondered. And if she had taken off her shoes, there wouldn’t have been anything to hear at all. The old builders built well and solidly. Not a stair had creaked, and the walls were thick.
He stood looking at his watch, and heard the light footsteps come again. She was back to where she had started in just two and a half minutes.
chapter 38
As Frank Abbott passed through the hall he was aware of Miss Silver at the morning-room door. She seemed to be emerging, but as soon as she saw him she stepped back. As she continued to hold the door open and looked at him with a smile, he rightly supposed that he was being invited to enter. When he had done so she closed the door and moved away from it.
“I am glad to have seen you. I was coming to ask Superintendent March whether a search of the other rooms was intended.”
The formality amused him. Superintendent March! And she had been calling him Randall under all their noses for the last half hour! He wondered whether it was decorum or disapproval which dictated the change.
He said, “I don’t think so,” and saw her purse her lips. There was no doubt of the disapproval now.
“Frank, it is of the first necessity that Miss Janetta’s room should be searched, and immediately. The Superintendent has seen Miss Day, has he not?”
“Yes, he’s seen her.”
“Will you tell me what passed-what he said to her, and she to him?”
“Well-I don’t know-”
“Was the subject of hashish mentioned? Indeed you must tell me. It is of the first importance.”
“Well-”
She interrupted.
“Was it mentioned?”
He smiled at her.
“You don’t give me time-do you?”
She said very gravely,
“There may be no time at all. Was it mentioned?”
“Yes, it was.”
“Pray tell me what was said.”
“March asked her about Robbins-whether she knew that he had this drug, and whether she had ever seen him under its influence. Then he asked her whether she had ever suspected that Jerome was being doped.”
“What was her answer?”
“She was much overcome. She exclaimed, ‘How wicked!’ ” His voice was dry in the extreme.
Miss Silver said,
“That would be enough to put her on her guard. I am persuaded that she has a supply of the drug. She will now take the first opportunity of getting rid of it. It may already be too late, but Miss Janetta’s room should be searched at once.”
“Why Miss Janetta’s room?”
Her look reproved him.
“My dear Frank, it is surely the obvious place. If you had an illicit drug to conceal, would you ask a better place than the room of a malade imaginaire? Miss Janetta enjoys her ill health and affords it a full complement of medicaments-the array of bottles in her room is quite staggering. How easy to hide the pin you wish to conceal in a box full of somebody else’s pins! If I were in Miss Day’s predicament I would certainly have placed my stock of cannabis indica in one of Miss Janetta’s pill-boxes, and if I had not already removed and destroyed it I should at this moment be engaged in doing so.”
He found the suggested picture an entrancing one. Maudie, the soul of rectitude, in possession of an illicit drug- Maudie suspected by the police and driven to the destruction of her secret store! The vision was delectable in the extreme. He gazed at her with admiration and said,
“You know, you’re wasted on virtue. You’d have made the most marvellous criminal.”
“My dear Frank!”
He made haste to placate her.
“Don’t crush me-I’m a sensitive plant. I’m just having a spasm of being glad you’re not on the other side. Murder as one of the fine arts wouldn’t be in it.”
She shook her head at him.
“There is no time to be lost. Will you go to the Superintendent-”
“It wouldn’t be any good. It would only put his back up. He never did like the idea of searching that room. It’s the sort of thing that gets the police a bad name-invalid old lady prostrated with grief howked out of bed and into hysterics. Nobody but you would have screwed him up to it in the first place. Mind you, to do him justice, I believe he’d face up to any amount of adverse criticism if he thought it was called for in the way of doing his job, but he’s dead against stirring up a lot of trouble for what he thinks is no reason at all. He gave in to you and ordered the search because he respects your judgment even when he doesn’t agree with it. But all this was before Robbins went out of the window. As far as March is concerned, that alters the whole case and puts a full stop to it. If you ask him to have Miss Janetta’s room searched now, he will say no. He won’t like saying no to you, and he won’t like being put in the position of having to say it. Speaking very respectfully, I would suggest that it isn’t good tactics to ask for something that you know will be refused. You lose-prestige. And prestige is always the ace in your hand when you are playing this kind of game. No good throwing it away, you know.”