‘Nevertheless,’ replied the actress, ‘I’d like to hear it said. When someone like you says, “That goes without saying”, he can always claim afterwards, perfectly honestly, that he never actually said it.’
The Chief-Inspector smiled wearily.
‘I solemnly promise not to repeat anything I hear inside this room in the next few hours that proves to have no bearing on the solution to Gentry’s murder. Satisfied?’
‘Satisfied. Then I’m in.’
‘Well,’ said Trubshawe, ‘we seem to be heading for a majority here. For the others, shall we take a vote? Remember, ladies and gentlemen, we can’t proceed unless you’re all prepared to participate. So who, among those of you who haven’t yet spoken up, supports Dr Rolfe’s proposal that I undertake an immediate interrogation at which all of you are present throughout?’
The second hand to be raised was Madge Rolfe’s. Then Don shot up his arm. And then, to everyone’s astonishment, Mary ffolkes more tentatively raised hers – to everyone’s astonishment, because her friends had always known her to be the sort of wife who would wait until she had learned exactly what her husband’s thoughts were on any given topic before daring to air a view of her own.
It was obvious that the Colonel himself was taken aback, for he gave her a sharp glance before (reluctantly?) raising his own arm.
Then there was silence.
Trubshawe finally turned towards the Vicar, who was seated next to his wife, a pained expression on his almost anaemically pale features.
‘Well, Vicar,’ he said. ‘As you see, Miss Mount, Miss Rutherford, Farrar, Mrs Rolfe, Don and now both the Colonel and his wife – they’ve all agreed to be questioned. That leaves just you and your good lady.’
‘Yes, I realise that,’ said the Vicar vexedly. ‘I, uh – well, you see, I – I – I really don’t think it’s –’
‘You do understand, don’t you, that if you refuse, we can’t conduct the investigation at all?’
‘Yes, you have made that point, Inspector.’
‘You’ll all have to sit about waiting for the police to turn up, wondering which of you did it, why they did it and whether they’ll do it again. Is that really what you want?’
‘No, no, of course it’s not, but I shan’t – I shan’t be bullied, you know. I’m a free agent and – well, it does seem – I’m sure Cynthia feels the same way, don’t you, my –’
‘Oh, for cripes’ sake, Clem!’ Cora Rutherford ejaculated. ‘We’re all in this together! And, frankly – I’d never say this except under circumstances as exceptional as these – but, frankly, you really have the least to lose! I would wager, from what Gentry hinted at last night, that most of us have already rumbled your Terrible Secret. And it’s going to come out anyway, whether you like it or not.’
‘She does have a point, Reverend,’ said Trubshawe softly.
The Vicar gazed helplessly at his wife, whose twinkly-eyed decency and pragmatism, precisely the modest English virtues one would expect to find in the helpmeet to a man of the Anglican cloth, were of scant assistance to him in a dilemma of this order. Then he gulped – you could almost hear him gulp – and said:
‘Oh, very well. But I do insist that – that –’
‘Yes?’
‘Oh, well, no, nothing. Yes, yes, I agree.’
‘Good,’ said Trubshawe, rubbing his hands in anticipation.
He looked at his watch.
‘Ten-fifteen. You’ve all been up now for over two hours. May I suggest you repair to your bedrooms, freshen up and get dressed. Then we’ll all come together in, let’s say, twenty minutes – inside the library.
‘And what,’ he appended to what he’d already stated, ‘what does go without saying is that none of you take it upon yourself to go wandering up to the attic. Not, you understand, that I don’t trust you. Except that, if Miss Mount is right, and I think she is, there’s at least one person in this room whom none of you can afford to trust. You get what I mean?’
They all got what he meant.
‘So, Colonel,’ he said, ‘would you like to show me the way?’
They were already deep in conversation as they entered the library, Tobermory plodding faithfully behind them.
‘I must say I began to think that Vicar chappie was going to scupper the whole scheme,’ the Chief-Inspector could be heard saying.
‘Yes, he’s something of a fusspot all right,’ answered the Colonel. ‘But he’s also a nice well-meaning old bird and all he needed was a poke in the ribs.’
‘I believe I’ll start the ball rolling with him, just so he’ll have no time to change his mind.’
‘I say, Trubshawe, this is a rum affair and no mistake.’
‘That’s true enough,’ said the policeman. ‘I never in my career came across such an outrageous crime. It’s like something out of one of Evadne Mount’s – whatyamacallums? – whodunits.’
‘Don’t let her hear you say that. Said exactly the same thing myself and had my head snapped off for it.’
‘Really? I’d have thought she’d take it as a compliment.’
‘Oh, you know what people are like. You pay them the wrong kind of compliment and they react as though they’ve never been so insulted in all their lives. Alexis Baddeley, I’ll have you know, won’t be doing with locked-room murders.’
‘Is that so?’ replied a bemused Trubshawe. ‘Choosy about the kind of murders she solves, is she? Wish I could have been.’
‘I’ve no patience with Evie’s stuff myself, but Mary tells me that, apart from locked rooms, you’ll find the whole trumpery bag of tricks. You know, a secret passage that only the murderer has a key to. A clock and a mirror facing each other at the scene of the crime, meaning the dial was read in reverse. Some black sheep of a family shipped off to South Africa and supposed to have died there, except that nobody’s certain he really did. All the usual whodunit hoo-hah. Load of codswallop, if you ask me.’
‘Well, we won’t have to go looking for anything of that kind in this case, I’m sure.’
‘No – except that, as it happens, ffolkes Manor does have its own secret passage. It’s a former Priest’s Hole, you know, located in a panel behind one of these walls. I should show it to you some time.’
‘Thanks. I’d like that. For the moment, though, I can’t see how it could possibly be relevant to Gentry’s murder. From what you told me, there was such a loathing of him among your guests, it seems to me that all I’ve got to do is find out the individual reasons for that loathing and, of course, who got there first.’
During the latter part of their conversation, the Colonel had begun to grow slightly fidgety and his agitation at last caught Trubshawe’s eye.
‘Something the matter, Colonel?’
‘Ah well, Trubshawe … yes. Yes, I have to say there is.’
‘What is it?’
‘Well’ – he took a deep breath – ‘you are planning to question all of us, am I right?’
‘Right.’
‘Which means me too, I suppose?’
‘Well, naturally, Colonel. I really don’t know how, in all fairness, if your guests are prepared to submit to the ordeal, I can leave you out. The others simply wouldn’t have it.’
‘No, no, of course not. It’s just that, like Cora, I know I didn’t murder Raymond Gentry and there are certain facts I’ve kept from Mary all these years, facts – from my past, you know – facts that would break her heart if they were suddenly to emerge at this late date. So I thought …’
‘Yes?’
‘I thought, if I were to give you those facts now, in private, just the two of us, you could – well, you could keep them out of the questioning.’