破镜谋杀案21

Thirteen I 癐 suppose it couldn’t possibly have been the mayor?” said Inspector¹ Cornish wistfully. He tapped the paper with the list of names on it with his pencil. Dermot Craddock grinned. 癢ishful thinking?” he asked. 癥ou could certainly call it that,” said Cornish. “Pompous², canting old hypocrite!” he went on. “Everybody’s got it in for him. Throws his weight about, ultra sanctimonious³, and neck deep in graft⁴ for years past!” 癈an’t you ever bring it home to him?” 癗o,” said Cornish. “He’s too slick for that. He’s always just on the right side of the law.” 癐t’s tempting⁵, I agree,” said Dermot Craddock, “but I think you’ll have to banish⁶ that rosy⁷ picture from your mind, Frank.” 癐 know, I know,” said Cornish. “He’s a possible, but a wildly improb- able. Who else have we got?” Both men studied the list again. There were still eight names on it. 癢e’re pretty well agreed,” said Craddock, “that there’s nobody missed out from here?” There was a faint question in his voice. Cornish answered it. 癐 think you can be pretty sure that’s the lot. After Mrs. Bantry came the vicar, and after that the Badcocks. There were then eight people on the stairs. The mayor and his wife, Joshua Grice and wife from Lower Farm. Donald McNeil of the Much Benham Herald⁸ & Argus. Ardwyck Fenn, USA, Miss Lola Brewster, USA, Moving Picture Star. There you are. In addition there was an arty photographer from London with a camera set up on the angle of the stairs. If, as you suggest, this Mrs. Bantry’s story of Marina Gregg having a ‘frozen look’ was occasioned by someone she saw on the stairs, you’ve got to take your pick among that lot. Mayor regretfully out. Grices out — never been away from St. Mary Mead⁹ I should say. That leaves four. Local journalist unlikely, photographer girl had been there for half an hour already, so why should Marina react so late in the day? What does that leave?” Sinister¹⁰ strangers from America,” said Craddock with a faint smile. 癥ou’ve said it.” 癟hey’re our best suspects by far, I agree,” said Craddock. “They turned up unexpectedly. Ardwyck Fenn was an old flame of Marina’s whom she had not seen for years. Lola Brewster was once married to Marina Gregg’s third husband, who got a divorce from her in order to marry Marina. It was not, I gather, a very amicable¹¹ divorce.” 癐’d put her down as Suspect Number One,” said Cornish. 癢ould you, Frank? After a lapse¹² of about fifteen years or so, and hav- ing remarried twice herself since then?” Cornish said that you never knew with women. Dermot accepted that as a general dictum, but remarked that it seemed odd to him to say the least of it. 癇ut you agree that it lies between them?” 癙ossibly. But I don’t like it very much. What about the hired help who were serving the drinks?” 癉iscounting the ‘frozen look’ we’ve heard so much about? Well, we’ve checked up in a general way. Local catering¹³ firm from Market Basing had the job—for the fête, I mean. Actually in the house, there was the butler, Giuseppe, in charge; and two local girls from the studios canteen. I know both of them. Not over bright, but harmless.” 癙ushing it back at me, are you? I’ll go and have a word with the re- porter chap. He might have seen something helpful. Then to London. Ard- wyck Fenn, Lola Brewster—and the photographer girl—what’s her name? 狹argot Bence. She also might have seen something.” Cornish nodded. “Lola Brewster is my best bet,” he said. He looked curi- ously at Craddock. “You don’t seem as sold on her as I am.” 癐’m thinking of the difficulties,” said Dermot slowly. 癉ifficulties?” 癘f putting poison into Marina’s glass without anybody seeing her.” 癢ell, that’s the same for everybody, isn’t it? It was a mad thing to do.” 癆greed it was a mad thing to do, but it would be a madder thing for someone like Lola Brewster than for anybody else.” 癢hy?” asked Cornish. 癇ecause she was a guest of importance. She’s a somebody, a big name. Everyone would be looking at her.” 癟rue enough,” Cornish admitted. 癟he locals would nudge each other and whisper and stare, and after Marina Gregg and Jason Rudd greeted her she’d have been passed on for the secretaries to look after. It wouldn’t be easy, Frank. However adroit¹⁴ you were, you couldn’t be sure someone wouldn’t see you. That’s the snag there, and it’s a big snag.” 癆s I say, isn’t that snag the same for everybody?” 癗o,” said Craddock. “Oh no. Far from it. Take the butler now, Giuseppe. He’s busy with the drinks and glasses, with pouring things out, with hand- ing them. He could put a pinch or a tablet or two of Calmo in a glass easily enough.” 癎iuseppe?” Frank Cornish reflected. “Do you think he did?” 癗o reason to believe so,” said Craddock, “but we might find a reason. A nice solid bit of motive¹⁵, that is to say. Yes, he could have done it. Or one of the catering staff could have done it—unfortunately they weren’t on the spot—a pity.” 癝omeone might have managed to get himself or herself deliberately¹⁶ planted in the firm for the purpose.” 癥ou mean it might have been as premeditated as all that?” 癢e don’t know anything about it yet,” said Craddock, vexedly. “We ab- solutely don’t know the first thing about it. Not until we can prise what we want to know out of Marina Gregg, or out of her husband. They must know or suspect — but they’re not telling. And we don’t know yet why they’re not telling. We’ve a long way to go.” He paused and then resumed: “Discounting the ‘frozen look’ which may have been pure coincidence, there are other people who could have done it fairly easily. The secretary woman, Ella Zielinsky. She was also busy with glasses, with handing things to people. Nobody would be watching her with any particular interest. The same applies to that willow¹⁷ wand of a young man—I’ve forgotten his name. Hailey—Hailey Preston? That’s right. There would have been a good opportunity for either of them. In fact if either of them had wanted to do away with Marina Gregg it would have been far safer to do so on a public occasion.” 癆nyone else?” 癢ell, there’s always the husband,” said Craddock. 癇ack to the husbands again,” said Cornish, with a faint smile. “We thought it was that poor devil, Badcock, before we realised that Marina was the intended victim. Now we’ve transferred our suspicions to Jason Rudd. He seems devoted¹⁸ enough though, I must say.” 癏e has the reputation of being so,” said Craddock, “but one never knows.” 癐f he wanted to get rid of her, wouldn’t divorce be much easier?” 癐t would be far more usual,” agreed Dermot, “but there may be a lot of ins and outs to this business that we don’t know yet.” The telephone rang. Cornish took up the receiver. 癢hat? Yes? Put them through. Yes, he’s here.” He listened for a mo- ment then put his hand over the receiver and looked at Dermot. “Miss Marina Gregg,” he said, “is feeling very much better. She is quite ready to be interviewed.” 癐’d better hurry along,” said Dermot Craddock, “before she changes her mind.”