“Well now, can you corroborate that?”
“I don’t quite know what you mean by corroborate.”
Frank Abbott had a fastidious ear. He found Jane’s voice extremely pleasing.
Crisp said, “Do you know that Luke White threatened her?”
She hesitated, and then said, “Yes.”
“Will you tell us what you know about this threat.”
“I don’t know-” The words came out slowly and reluctantly.
Miss Silver said with mild firmness,
“Truth is always best. It harms no innocent person.”
Jane didn’t feel so sure about that. She was remembering how Eily had looked at her nail-scissors, and how she had said, “Suppose they had been a knife.” But she wouldn’t ever tell that. She was distressed and uncertain.
Crisp said, “Come now, Miss Heron!”
She said, “Luke White did threaten her. I heard him.”
“Where did this take place?”
“In my room. Eily was turning down the bed, and he followed her in. Mr. Taverner had been showing us the old smugglers’ passage. When we came back Jeremy-Captain Taverner-told me I’d got a smudge on my face, so I went up to my room. The door was half open and I could hear Luke White talking to Eily. I didn’t exactly like to go in-I thought it would be embarrassing for Eily. I stood where the steps come up-”
“He was threatening her?”
Jane’s voice had steadied.
“He said he would have her whatever she did, and she’d better come willingly. He said if she married anyone else, he’d come in the night and cut the man’s heart out. He talked about her being drenched with his blood. It was horrible. Then, I think, he caught hold of her. She called out, and he swore, and I made a noise on the steps as if I had stumbled. He came out then, and I went in to Eily. She was very much upset.”
Inspector Crisp made a little stabbing pass in the air with his pencil.
“The dead man had his left hand tied up in a handkerchief. There was a small wound just short of the knuckles. Do you know how he got it?”
“I saw him with his hand tied up.”
“When did you see that?”
“When he was letting Miss Silver in.”
“And that was when?”
Miss Silver said, “Nine o’clock, Inspector.”
“And how long after this scene in your room?”
“Just after. He was letting Miss Silver in as I came down.”
He made that stabbing pass again.
“Come, come, Miss Heron, I don’t think you are being frank. Did you know where Luke White got that wound?”
“I didn’t see him get it.”
“No-for you were outside your bedroom, and he and Eily Fogarty were inside. You heard her cry out, and you heard him swear. And then you saw him come out of the room. Could you see his left hand?”
“Yes.”
“What was he doing with it?”
“He was holding it with the other.”
“Did he say anything?”
“Yes, he said the window had stuck and Eily had called him in to help her. He said he had hurt his hand on the catch.”
“Did you believe him?”
After a long pause Jane said,
“No.”
She pushed back her chair and got up.
“I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you,” she said, and walked out of the room.
CHAPTER 19
Mrs. Bridling, in the chair pushed back by Jane, sat bolt upright and met Inspector Crisp’s questioning gaze with the agreeable consciousness that no one had ever been able to say a word they shouldn’t about her nor any of her family. Go where they would and ask what they liked, they’d only be told the one thing. Bridlings or Bents-she herself had been a Bent- there was only the one thing to be said about them-they were good-living, hardworking people, Chapel members for the most part, and nobody could say different. She was buoyed up by these thoughts, and by the fact that she had kept Constable Cooling waiting whilst she put on her Sunday dress, a bright royal blue, her good black coat, and the hat which she had had for her mother-in-law’s funeral three years ago with a nice bunch of berries at the side to take off the mourning look. Her gloves had been bought for the same occasion and were still very good indeed, being too uncomfortable to wear except upon high days and holidays. They pinched her fingers, and it was a dreadful struggle to get them on, but they gave her a good deal of moral support. She was a tall, thin woman with a screwed-up knob of hair under the funeral hat. She had pale eyes, a long pale nose, and very pale lips.
Inspector Crisp looked hard at her and said in his rather jerky way,
“You were here helping Mrs. Castell last night, Mrs. Bridling?”
“That’s right. I’ve got my husband bed-ridden and my hands full, but he’s willing for me to oblige Mrs. Castell. We went to school together when she was Annie Higgins and I was Emily Bent.”
“Old friends-eh? Well, you were here helping. What time did you leave?”
Mrs. Bridling smoothed down her black kid gloves.
“It was every bit of a quarter to nine. I’d reckoned to get off by the half hour, but she asked me to stay and do the glasses.”
“You’re sure it wasn’t later than that-it wasn’t after nine?”
“I wouldn’t have stayed as late as that. I’d Mr. Bridling to see to at home. I’m sure I don’t know when I’ve been so put out.”
“What put you out, Mrs. Bridling?”
“The same as would have put anyone out-getting all behind.”
Miss Silver gave a gentle cough and looked at Inspector Abbott, who immediately responded by enquiring in a languid voice,
“If you left at a quarter to nine you were not so very late. But you had to come back for your scarf, had you not?”
Mrs. Bridling nodded.
“Left it on the drip-board. I don’t know when I did such a thing, I’m sure. And why I didn’t notice it sooner was on account of my coming over so hot with my hands in the boiling water. ‘Come out hot, go home cold,’ as my father used to say. So I ran back for it sharp. I didn’t like keeping Mr. Bridling waiting, but I knew how he’d carry on if I come in without my scarf. Very particular he is about my keeping my throat well wrapped up, because he says, If you go and get yourself into hospital through acting silly, well, it’s all very well for you,’ he says. ‘You’ll be comfortable enough and waited on hand and foot,’ he says, ‘but who’s going to look after me?’ So I thought, ‘If he’s going to be put about, it had better be because of me being late, and not bring all that up again about the hospital not being able to keep him on account of his being a chronic case,’ so I just came back for my scarf.”
Crisp said, “What time did you get back to the inn?”
The pale eyes dwelt upon him.
“It’d be after nine. I’d gone a good bit of the way.”
“Did you see Mrs. Castell?”
“No. Her and Eily were talking-Mr. Castell’s niece, Eily Fogarty.”
Crisp said, “Ah!” And then, “Did you hear what they were saying?”
Mrs. Bridling looked down her long, pale nose.
“I’m not one to listen at doors,” she said in a virtuous voice.
Frank Abbott’s lip twitched. He had never encountered an eavesdropper who did not preface his statement by explaining just how abhorrent it was to him to overhear what was not meant for his ears.
Inspector Crisp made the accustomed response.
“I’m sure you’re not. But if the door was open-”
She nodded.
“Well, it was and it wasn’t. I was looking round for my scarf, and I couldn’t help but hear what Eily Fogarty was saying.”
“And what was she saying?”
“You may well ask! I’m sure I never heard such goings-on. The poor girl was all of a shake. Seems that Luke White followed her into one of the bedrooms, caught hold of her, and used dreadful language, and if it hadn’t been for Miss Heron coming along there’s no saying what might have happened. Eily said she had to pick up Miss Heron’s nail-scissors and run them into his hand to make him let her go. And all Annie Castell had to say was, ‘Lock your door nights.’ Well, I thought the sooner the girl’s out of the house the better, and I didn’t wait to hear any more, I just picked up my scarf and ran.”