‘And what did you do then?’
There was no colour in Ellie’s lips. They parted to say,
‘I went after them.’
Miss Silver experienced that sense of satisfaction which comes to the thinker and to the craftsman, the poet and the artist, when the tool follows the thought, the concept takes its shape, the right word comes into its own place. There had been at first the faintest stirring of an instinct which she had learned to trust. There was as yet no evidence, but the instinct had grown stronger all the way. It might be that now when it was most needed the evidence would be forthcoming. She said in her quiet voice,
‘Tell me what you did.’
Ellie repeated like a gramophone record,
‘I went after them. I don’t know why I did. I was afraid. I wish I hadn’t done it. I wish-’ Her voice died away.
‘Pray go on.’
‘They went up the drive. Geoffrey didn’t catch her up. It would have been quite easy if he had wanted to, but he didn’t. When they got up to the house he went in by the study window – it is round at the side. But Meriel went on.’
‘He did not speak to her?’
‘Oh, no. She just went straight on round the house and across the lawn!’
‘You followed her?’
‘I didn’t know where she was going. I don’t know why I wanted to know, but I did. She had a torch. When she put it on I could see her going away across the lawn to the garden where the summerhouse is, and the pool. I wondered why she was going there – I wanted to know. Then – then I got the idea that someone was – following me. When I stood still I could hear a footstep behind me. I was just by the corner of the house and Meriel was away across the lawn. I stood quite still behind a bush, and someone went by’
‘Someone?’
Ellie shuddered.
Miss Silver said, ‘Was it Geoffrey Ford?’
Ellie’s dumb reluctance was gone. The words which had been so painfully come by were pouring out. She caught at Miss Silver’s arm with both her hands.
‘No – no – no! Geoffrey went into the house. He didn’t come out again – it was someone else. It wasn’t Geoffrey – it wasn’t! That’s why I can be quite, quite sure he didn’t – he didn’t do anything to Meriel! It wasn’t Geoffrey! It – it was a woman!’
‘Are you sure about that?’
The grip on her arm was painful.
‘Yes – yes – I’m sure! She came up behind me, and she went on over the lawn after Meriel. She had a torch, but she didn’t put it on until Meriel had gone through the gate to the garden. She had the torch in one hand and a stick in the other. She went into the garden.’
‘You say she had a stick?’
Ellie caught her breath.
‘It was a golfclub – one of those ones with an iron head. The light caught on it when she switched it on. She went into the garden, and I stood under the bush and waited. I thought perhaps if they came back together, Meriel might be saying what she was going to do – about the police. Or if she came back alone, perhaps I could speak to her – could ask her. Oh, I know it sounds silly now, and she wouldn’t have listened to me, but I felt – I felt as if I had got to do something – for Geoffrey! And then I saw the light for a moment down by the gate into the garden, and one of them came back across the lawn. I didn’t know which one it was. She switched off the torch. She came past me in the dark and went into the house by the study window.’
‘Are you sure about that?’
‘Oh, yes, I’m sure. I’m sure about all of it. I wish I wasn’t. I keep going over and over it in my mind. I can’t forget any of it – not the least little thing. Why do you keep on asking me whether I’m sure?’
‘Because, my dear, it is very important. Everything you saw or heard that night is important. Will you pray go on?’
Ellie’s hands dropped from her arm.
‘I waited – I kept on waiting-’
‘Why did you do that?’
‘I didn’t feel as if I could go away. I thought Meriel would come back.’
‘But you said just now that you did not know which of the two women came back from the garden.’
‘It wasn’t Meriel – it wasn’t tall enough. I knew when she went by me.’
‘How long did you wait?’
Ellie pushed back her hair again. She had a bewildered look.
‘I don’t know. It was a long time. I don’t know how long it was.’
‘But in the end you came home.’
Ellie repeated the words.
‘In the end I came-’ There was a very long pause before she said, ‘home.’
Miss Silver said, ‘Did you know that Meriel Ford was dead?’
There was a look of startled horror.
‘I – I-’
‘I think you did. Will you tell me how?’
Ellie said in an extinguished voice,
‘It was a long time. I thought she would come – but she didn’t. I was giddy and I sat down. I don’t know whether – I fainted – I think I did. The moon had moved a lot – I could see it behind the clouds. I thought I would go to the pool and see why Meriel didn’t come. I thought I would have heard her if she had come already. I went across the lawn and through the gate to the pool, and she was there-’ An uncontrollable shudder went over her.
‘Pray go on.’
Ellie’s eyes were wide and staring.
‘She was fallen down – in the pool. I tried to get her out. I couldn’t lift her.’
‘You should have summoned help.’
There was a faint negative movement of the head.
‘It wouldn’t – have been – any use. She was dead.’
‘You could not have been sure about that.’
‘She was dead. It was a long time. She was right down in the water. She was dead.’
‘You didn’t tell anyone?’
‘I went – home. Mary was there – in my room. I didn’t tell her – I didn’t tell anyone.’
Miss Silver spoke slowly and gravely.
‘You will have to tell the police.’
There was a terrified movement.
‘No! No!’
Miss Silver said, ‘Do you know that Mr Geoffrey Ford is being detained for questioning?’
‘No-’ It was more of a gasp than a word.
‘He is under grave suspicion, and the police have detained him for questioning. You cannot withhold this evidence.’
Ellie burst into tears.
Chapter Thirty-nine
Superintendent Martin looked at Miss Silver with that mixture of exasperation and respect which it was not unknown for her to arouse in the official breast. There had been quite a neat case against Mr Geoffrey Ford. In addition to his own admissions, the butler Simmons had heard raised voices proceeding from the study when he passed through the hall at half past eight. It had been his intention to make up the study fire, but on hearing those angry voices he thought better of it and went back to the housekeeper’s room. He had had no difficulty in identifying the voices as those of Mr Geoffrey and Miss Meriel, and he had attributed no importance to the fact that they were quarrelling, since Miss Meriel was always in a way about something. Taxed with this evidence, Geoffrey Ford admitted that Meriel had found him in the study, and that they had quarrelled there, but he continued to deny that she had accompanied him to the Lodge, or so far as he knew, that she had followed him there. On the top of this Miss Silver produced Ellie Page with her story of having overheard Meriel Ford accuse Geoffrey and Mrs Trent of having pushed Mabel Preston into the pool. According to this statement she had accused them and threatened them with the police, after which she left the Lodge and Geoffrey followed her. Evidence that would hang Geoffrey Ford if she stuck to it in the box. Ellie Page had stuck to it with him all right, and at this second time of telling there had been very little of the agitation reported by Miss Silver. She had been anxious to tell her story and careful in telling it, and again, according to Miss Silver, the narrative though more coherent and rather more ample in no way differed from its original form. All very satisfactory up to a point. But if that point was to be accepted, the whole case against Geoffrey Ford broke down, because Miss Ellie Page deposed, and stuck to it, that Geoffrey Ford had entered the house by the study window, and that it was a woman coming up from behind her who had followed Meriel across the lawn and through the gate into the enclosed garden beyond. Miss Ellie Page could be lying to protect a man with whom she had been carrying on, but her evidence did not strike him that way. She was so set on this point and so sure of it, it really didn’t seem to occur to her that the earlier part of her evidence would bring him under suspicion. It was just something to be got out of the way before coming to the real point. And the real point was that she had seen a woman following Meriel Ford with a golfclub in her hand. She had seen this woman come back alone from the pool, and some considerable time later she had found Meriel lying there dead with her head and shoulders under the water. If that was to be accepted, bang went the case against Geoffrey Ford. A difficult business, taking part of a girl’s evidence to build your case on and rejecting the climax to which it led. A jury either believes a witness or it doesn’t. He thought the odds were that it would believe Ellie Page. Well, that left you with the good old three-card-trick and ‘Spot the lady’! If a woman followed Meriel Ford, what woman was it? Again an easy answer, if it were not that Ellie Page’s evidence didn’t lend itself to easy answers. A woman coming up from behind and following Meriel carried the overwhelming suggestion that it would be Esmé Trent. Quite in character that she should distrust Geoffrey Ford’s capacity to silence Meriel with fair words and make sure of it by some more drastic action. She could have taken up a golfclub and followed them, seen Geoffrey go into the house, and pursued her purpose. A nice easy theory ruined by the evidence of Miss Ellie Page to the effect that she had afterwards seen the woman enter Ford House by the study door.