‘In what way?’
‘Oh, every way. Mrs Graham was crying and catching her breath, and by the sound of it I should say Miss Graham was three parts carrying her. So I waited to see if she could get her into the house, and when I heard the door shut I got on my bicycle and went on to the Burford’s, and it was a false alarm, just as I thought it would be, so I made her a cup of tea and had one myself and came along home.’
Frank Abbott was reflecting a little sardonically upon the difference between the living spoken word and the stiff dead stuff to which the average police statement reduced it. There was no actual discrepancy between what Miss Cotton had just been saying and what she had signed at the police station last night, but there was exactly the same difference between them as there is between a living person and a corpse. The paper lay on the table before him. His eye picked out a sentence – ‘As I was proceeding along Hill Rise upon my bicycle…’ He was prepared to bet that Miss Cotton had never proceeded anywhere in her life. He said,
‘Did you come back the same way as you went?’
‘Well, I did.’
‘You passed along the garden of No. 1 Belview Road – were you bicycling or walking?’
‘I got off my bicycle and walked. There’s quite a bit of a rise there.’
‘See anything – hear anything?’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘Any lights on in the house?’
‘Not that I could see. There would be one on the upstair landing – they used to keep it on all night.’
There was a pause. Then he said,
‘I take it you know that Mrs Graham was found dead in that summerhouse you spoke of, and that she had been strangled.’
‘That was what I heard.’
‘Miss Graham found her, but not until something after seven in the morning. She says she left her comfortably in bed, and that she had no idea she had gone out again. She searched the house, and when she found that her mother’s outdoor coat and shoes were missing she searched the garden. She discovered her mother’s body in the summerhouse and rang up Dr Barrington. That is her story. Now what I want to know is this – what sort of terms was Mrs Graham on with her daughter?’
Miss Cotton looked at him out of those very blue eyes.
‘Miss Graham did everything she could for her.’
‘Mrs Graham was trying?’
Miss Cotton nodded.
‘She was just about the most selfish person I’ve ever known. It was Thea do this and Thea do that, from the first thing in the morning till the last thing at night. I don’t know how the poor girl stood it, I’m sure. And it was common talk that Mrs Graham had got her engagement broken off.’
‘To Mr Nicholas Carey?’
‘That’s right – and a real shame too. Always about together from the time they were in school, and fond of each other – well, it stuck out all over them.’
‘So you would say that Miss Graham was a good daughter. Was she fond of her mother?’
‘It was a miracle if she was.’
‘Oh, well, miracles happen. The question is, was she?’
‘She did everything she could for her.’
‘I see. Now tell me – you say you heard Mrs Graham say a number of things like “You wouldn’t care if I died – you wouldn’t care if you killed me!” That was talking to her daughter. Did you hear Miss Graham say anything to account for that?’
‘No, I didn’t. She was telling her mother that she would make herself ill.’
‘It wasn’t said in any threatening way?’
‘Of course it wasn’t! She was doing her best to soothe her down like she always did.’
‘She always tried to soothe her mother?’
‘Yes, she did. Anyone will tell you that.’
‘I just wanted to know. Now with regard to Mr Carey. Speaking of him to her daughter, she said, “He’ll kill me – send him away!” And, speaking to him, “Don’t dare to touch me – don’t dare!” Did you hear him say anything that would account for her speaking to him like that?’
‘No, I didn’t. Mr Carey is a gentleman and he spoke like one – kept his temper and said he was sorry but she wouldn’t let him come to the house and he had to see Allie, meaning Miss Graham, and he would come back and talk to her tomorrow. There wasn’t anything to make Mrs Graham say what she did. She was right down hysterical, that’s all.’
‘And you are sure that Miss Graham took her mother back to the house?’
‘I heard them all the way down the garden, and I heard them go in and shut the door. When I got to the corner I looked down Belview Road and I saw the light go on in Mrs Graham’s bedroom.’
‘Then it seems as if Mrs Graham must have gone back to the summerhouse later on. Are you quite sure you didn’t see or hear anything on your return journey when you walked the length of the garden as far as the crest of the hill?’
‘I didn’t see anything or hear anything.’
‘And there was no light on in the house?’
She stopped for a moment before she answered that – looking back – trying to remember. Then she said,
‘If the landing light was on, I wouldn’t see it – there’s a thick curtain there. The house looked dark.’
TWENTY-ONE
WHAT ARE WE going to do, Nicky?’
They sat close together on the deep sofa in the drawing-room. They were not leaning back; Althea’s left hand rested palm downwards on the stuff of the seat. Nicky’s right hand covered it. He said.
‘There isn’t anything very much that we can do.’ He didn’t like to say, ‘It will pass,’ but the thought was in his mind. They would have to get through the inquest and the funeral, and then they could get married and he would take her away. He wondered if she would want to sell the house, and whether the two lots of people who were after it would still be so anxious to buy now that there had been a murder there. The sooner he could get Allie away the better – right away. These things filled his mind, but it was a bit soon to start talking about them to Allie, so he just said there wasn’t much they could do and left it at that.
He wasn’t so stupid as to think they were clear out of the wood either. Miss Cotton’s statement was all right in a way and as far as it went. Fortunately, it did go far enough to make it clear that Allie had taken her mother back into the house and shut the door. It also made it perfectly clear that there had been a frightful row. He had an unpleasantly sharp impression in his mind of Mrs Graham screaming out that he wanted to kill her, and a few other helpful things like that. There really wasn’t any way out of the police having their eye on him as suspect number one. And he couldn’t blame them, since look where he would, he couldn’t for the life of him think of reasons why Nicholas Carey should want Mrs Graham out of the way, but as far as he could see, no reason at all why anyone else should.
He said abruptly,
‘It’s frightful for you, but it won’t go on being so bad. We’ve just got to go through with it – the police and everything. They’ll either find out who did it, or they won’t. Whether they do or not, there will be a lot of talk, and then there won’t be so much, and presently something else will happen and everyone will switch on to that. Miss Silver is staying on with you for a bit?’
‘Yes.’ Her voice became suddenly warmer. ‘Nicky, do you know, Mrs Justice rang up and said would I come to them. I do think it was terribly kind of her. Only when she heard I’d got Miss Silver here she said I couldn’t have anyone better, and I think she actually was a little bit relieved.’
‘You’d rather be here?’
‘Much rather. Mrs Justice is so kind, but she talks all the time, and she would keep wanting me to have cups of Ovaltine and things like that. It used to drive Sophy crazy.’