It was at this point that Miss Silver drew back from the sill upon which she had been leaning. The conversation which she had overheard alarmed her very much. She considered that the time had come to take a step of which the Chief Constable could not possibly approve, a fact which she deplored without allowing this in any way to deflect her.
As she emerged upon the landing she observed that Richard Cunningham’s door was ajar. On the impulse, she turned and knocked. It was opened immediately, and showed him to be fully dressed. When he had joined her on the landing she said, in a low tone,
“Mr. Cunningham, I am not easy. Will you do just what I ask you?”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I am going through into the other house. The door has been unlocked, and I have taken the precaution of oiling the bolts. If I call you, come at once. If I do not, stay in the passage on this side of the door.”
“Do you want me to call Wilkins?”
“No-there must be no noise. If there should be any disturbance, you can call to him. I think you had better take off your shoes.”
A low-powered bulb afforded enough light for him to see that she had not neglected this precaution herself, and that even in black woollen stockings her feet were remarkably neat. They carried her without any sound at all past Ina Felton’s empty room to the door between the houses. When he joined her there the bolts were drawn back and she was turning the handle. The passage and the landing beyond were dark, a circumstance which she considered providential.
Leaving the door ajar behind her, she went forward along the passage and disappeared from Richard Cunningham’s view.
Chapter 40
Cassy Remington came across the landing from her sister’s room. She did not put on the light, because she had lived nearly twenty years in the house and could have walked about it blindfold either by day or by night. As she opened her bedroom door, someone moved over by the window.
On the instant her hand was at the switch. The light showed Penny very pale. She had been leaning out filling her lungs with the fresh salt-tasting air. She stood up now and fixed her eyes upon Cassy Remington.
“Good gracious me-what a fright you gave me, Penny! What are you doing in the dark? And what do you want?”
“I want to speak to you.”
“Well, I’m here, aren’t I? And half the insects in the cove will be here too, with the windows open and the light drawing them.” She came across the room at a run as she spoke, pulled the casements to, drew the curtains across them, and said sharply, “Well, what is it?”
As she came back into the middle of the room, Penny’s eyes followed her. It was a crowded place. There was a big old-fashioned bed, a monumental wardrobe, a tallboy, a double wash-stand with a marble top, a pedestal table in polished walnut covered with knick-knacks, photograph-frames and odds and ends. A steaming cup of coffee rested upon the latest book from Miss Cassy’s library list. In the middle of everything else Penny found room to wonder about the coffee, because Cassy never took it at night-she said it kept her awake. At a second impatient “Well?” she said,
“I want to speak to you. I must.”
Cassy Remington had not shut the door behind her when she came in. She did not shut it now. Why should she? Felix was in his room across the landing, and Florence in hers. If either of them opened a door, she would hear it at once- she was very proud of her quick hearing. They were both behind shut doors, and there was no one else in the house. She left the door as it was, and said softly,
“What do you want, Penny?”
Penny was dreadfully pale. She said,
“I want to speak to you. I want to tell you I heard what you said just now-in Aunt Florence’s room.”
Cassy made one of her jerky movements.
“I should think you would be ashamed of listening at a door. Like a spy!”
Penny shook her head.
“No, I am not ashamed. You said you were going to tell the police it was Felix. You said you were going to say that you saw him come in from the road at twenty to five.”
Cassy nodded.
“It will be my duty. I ought to have told them at once.”
Penny said, “But it isn’t true. I left him up on the cliff. I got here at a quarter to five. He wasn’t here until a great deal later than that. Inspector Crisp had come.”
Cassy Remington laughed.
“That is your story! Mine is different. I shall say he came in by the gate at twenty to five. I shall be asked about it at the inquest, and that is what I shall say. On oath!”
“Why?”
“Really, Penny!”
“I can tell you why. I can tell the police. They took away that dress you washed, didn’t they? You told them you washed it on Saturday and rolled it down for ironing in case you went down on the beach after tea today. But you didn’t wash it on Saturday. The door of your wardrobe was open this morning when I came in to help you make your bed, and that navy blue dress was hanging there. It hadn’t been washed then.”
“What does it matter when it was washed?”
“It wasn’t washed at lunch-time.”
“I suppose you went and looked in my cupboard!”
Penny said, “No-why should I? But I washed my hands in the bathroom just before lunch, and the basin was clean. After I came in from the cliff I went to wash again, and there were blue stains. Navy always runs. So I knew you had washed something that ran blue.”
There was a silence in the room. Outside on the dark landing Miss Silver waited for it to break. She could see no more than the handsbreadth of the open door had to show-a section of wallpaper, curtains, coverlet, carpet. Nothing to inform her of where Penny was, or Cassy Remington. But her ears served her better. They told her that Penny was over by the window, and Miss Remington a good deal nearer the door. She had already made up her mind that if the distance between them were materially lessened, she must be prepared to enter the room. Meanwhile it was in the highest degree desirable that she should be able to see what was going on. She reflected that Cassy Remington would be facing in the direction of the window, and consequently would have her back to the door. She decided to take the risk of widening the handsbreadth and applied a gentle pressure.
The edge of the pedestal table came into view, with the cup of coffee standing on Miss Cassy’s library book. A little more, and she could see Miss Cassy’s shoulder, arm, and hand. The arm hung straight. The hand gripped on a fold of her grey skirt. If it had been clenched like that upon anything which would have served as a missile or a weapon, Miss Silver would have gone in at once, but all that it clutched was a piece of grey flannel. But with what energy, what a fury of bloodless knuckles, strained muscles, and digging nails!
The door moved a very little more. Cassy Remington’s head came into the picture. It was turned towards the window. The silence was broken by a light, high laugh.
“Really! My dear Penny, how ridiculous you are! If you want to know, I rinsed out some handkerchiefs with blue. What a grand discovery! What a marvellous piece of news for the police! Are you sure you wouldn’t like to ring them up about it at once?”
Penny said quietly and steadily, “There isn’t any blue in the house. I finished the last a week ago.”
The hand remained at its dreadful tension, but the light laugh came again.
“Oh, my dear Penny! It doesn’t occur to you that I might have a store of my own? Really, you know, this is all too absurd! You’ve let yourself get worked up about nothing! And I’m going to send you to bed with a nice hot drink and one of Florence ’s sleeping tablets.”
“No!” The word came on a quick uneven breath.
Cassy Remington said,
“Oh, yes, my dear, I think so. Little girls who are all worked up and fancying things had better have a good long sleep and forget all the nonsense they have been frightening themselves with. You can have my coffee. I shouldn’t really take it at night-it keeps me awake. I had a fancy for it, but I won’t take it now. Florence let me have two of her tablets last night, and I only took one. I’ve got the other, over by the bed.” As she spoke she moved away and out of sight. “I expect you will find one quite enough. I am sure you need a good sleep. You can’t swallow tablets, can you? I remember how tiresome you always were as a child.” She came back into sight again, reaching forward over the table. “Here you are-just one tablet. You can dissolve it in the coffee yourself. And I’d like to see you take it, because you really do need a nice long sleep.”