Cover Her Face (13 page)

“She began to get cheeky.”

“That must have been trying for you. I wonder what caused Miss Jupp to get cheeky.”

“Girls are like that. They start quietly enough and then begin to act as if they are mistresses in the house.”

“Suppose Sally Jupp were beginning to think that she
might be mistress here one day?”

“Then she was out of her mind.”

“But Dr. Maxie did propose marriage to her on Saturday evening.”

“I know nothing of that. Dr. Maxie couldn’t have married Sally Jupp.”

“Someone seems to have made that certain, don’t they? Have you any idea who?”

Martha did not reply. There was, indeed, nothing to be said. If Sally Jupp really had been killed for that reason the circle of suspects was not large. Dalgliesh began to take her with tedious thoroughness over the events of Saturday afternoon and evening. There was little she could say about the fête. She had apparently taken no part in it except to walk once round the garden before giving Mr. Maxie his evening meal and making him comfortable for the night. When she returned to the kitchen Sally had evidently given Jimmy his tea and taken him up for his bath because the pram was in the scullery and the child’s plate and mug were in the sink. The girl did not appear and Martha had wasted no time in looking for her. The family had waited on themselves at dinner which was a cold meal and Mrs. Maxie had not rung for her. Afterwards Mrs. Riscoe and Mr. Hearne had come into the kitchen to help wash up. They hadn’t asked whether Sally was back. No one had mentioned her. They had talked mostly about the fête. Mr. Hearne had laughed and joked with Mrs. Riscoe while they washed up. He was a very amusing gentleman. They hadn’t helped to get the hot drinks ready. That was done later. The cocoa tin was in a cupboard with the other dry provisions and neither Mrs. Riscoe nor Mr. Hearne had been to the cupboard. She had stayed in the kitchen all the time that they were there.

After they left she turned on the television for half an hour. No, she hadn’t worried about Sally. The girl would come in when she felt like it. At about five minutes to ten Martha had put a saucepan of milk to heat slowly at the side of the stove. That was done most nights at Martingale so that she could get early to bed. She had put out the mugs on a tray. There were large cups and saucers put out for any guest who liked a hot drink at night. Sally knew very well that the blue beaker belonged to Mrs. Riscoe. Everyone at Martingale knew. After seeing to the hot milk Martha had gone to bed. She was in bed before half past ten and had heard nothing unusual all night. In the morning she had gone to wake up Sally and had found the door bolted. She had gone to tell Madam. The rest he knew.

It took over forty minutes to extract this unremarkable information but Dalgliesh showed no sign of impatience. Now they came to the actual finding of the body. It was important to discover how far Martha’s account agreed with that of Catherine Bowers. If it agreed, then at least one of his tentative theories might prove correct. The account did agree. Patiently he went on to inquire about the missing Sommeil. But here he was less successful. Martha Bultitaft did not believe Sally had found any tablets in her master’s bed.

“Sally liked to make out that she nursed the master. Maybe she took a turn at nights if Madam was extra tired. But he never liked anyone about him but me. I do all the heavy nursing. If there was anything hidden in the bed I should have found it.”

It was the longest speech she had made. Dalgliesh felt that it carried conviction. Finally he questioned her about the empty cocoa tin. Here, again, she spoke quietly but with unemphatic certainty. She had found the empty tin on the kitchen
table when she came down to make the early morning tea. She had burned the inside paper, rinsed the tin and put it in the dustbin. Why had she rinsed it first? Because Madam disliked sticky or greasy tins being put in the dustbin. The cocoa tin hadn’t been greasy, of course, but that didn’t signify. All used tins were rinsed at Martingale. And why had she burned the inside wrapper? Well, she couldn’t rinse the inside of the tin with the paper lining still there, could she? The tin was empty so she rinsed it out and threw it away. Her tone suggested that no reasonable person could have done otherwise.

For the life of him Dalgliesh couldn’t see how her story could be effectively countered. His heart sank at the thought of interrogating Mrs. Maxie on the usual method of disposal of the family’s used tins. But, once again he suspected that Martha had been coached. He was seeing the beginning of a pattern. The infinite patience of the last hour had been well worthwhile.

St. Mary’s Refuge was about a mile from the main part of the village, an ugly red-brick house with a multiplicity of gables and turrets which was set back from the main road behind a discreet shield of laurel bushes. The gravel drive led to a front door whose worn knocker gleamed with much polishing. The net curtains were snowy white at each of the windows. Shallow stone steps at the side of the house led down to a square lawn where several prams were clustered together. A maid in cap and apron admitted them, probably one of the mothers, Dalgliesh thought, and showed them into a small room at the left of the hall. She seemed uncertain what to do and could not catch Dalgliesh’s name although he repeated it twice. Large eyes stared at him uncomprehendingly through the steel-frame spectacles as she hovered miserably in the doorway. “Never mind,” said Dalgliesh kindly, “just let Miss Liddell know that there are two policemen to see her from Martingale. She’ll know all about us.”

“Please, I have to have the name. I’m being trained for a house parlourmaid.” She hovered in desperate persistence,
torn between fear of Miss Liddell’s censure and embarrassment at being in the same room as two strange men, and both of them policemen at that.

Dalgliesh handed her his card. “Just give her this then. That will be even more proper and correct. And don’t worry. You’ll make a very nice house parlourmaid. Nowadays they’re prized above rubies you know.”

“Not saddled with an illegitimate kid, they aren’t,” said Sergeant Martin as the slight figure disappeared through the door with what might have been a whispered “Thank you.”

“Funny to see a plain little thing like that here, sir. A bit missing by the way she acted. Someone took advantage of her I suppose.”

“She’s the kind of person who gets taken advantage of from the day she’s born.”

“Properly scared, too, wasn’t she? I suppose this Miss Liddell treats the girls all right, sir?”

“Very well, I imagine, according to her own lights. It’s easy to get sentimental over her job, but she has to deal with a pretty mixed bunch. What you want here is hope, faith and charity to an unlimited degree. In other words you want a saint and we can hardly expect Miss Liddell to measure up to that standard.”

“Yes, sir,” said Sergeant Martin. On second thoughts he felt that “No, sir” would have been more appropriate. Unconscious of having uttered any unorthodoxy Dalgliesh moved slowly about the room. It was uncomfortable but unostentatious and was furnished, he thought, with many of Miss Liddell’s personal possessions. All the wood glowed with polishing. The spinet and the rosewood table both looked as if they would have struck warm to the touch from the vigour and energy spent on them. The one large window which overlooked the
lawn was curtained with flower-patterned cretonne now drawn against the sun. The carpet, although showing signs of age, was not the kind provided by official bodies however voluntary and public-spirited.

The room was as much Miss Liddell’s in spirit as if she had owned the house. Along the walls were photographs of babies. Babies lying naked on rugs, their heads reared towards the camera in helpless absurdity. Babies smiling toothlessly from prams and cradles. Woollen-clad babies held in their mothers’ arms. There were even one or two lying lumpily in the arms of an embarrassed man. These presumably were the lucky ones, the ones who had achieved an official father at last. Above a small mahogany desk was the framed print of a woman at a spinning-wheel with a plaque attached to the base of the frame. “Presented by the Chadfleet and District Committee for Moral Welfare to Miss Alice Liddell in commemoration of twenty years’ devoted service as Warden of St. Mary’s Refuge.” Dalgliesh and Martin looked at it together. “I don’t know that I’d call this place a refuge exactly,” said the Sergeant. Dalgliesh looked again at the furniture, the carefully tended legacies from Miss Liddell’s childhood.

“It might well be to a single woman of Miss Liddell’s age. She’s made this place her home for over twenty years. She might do a great deal to prevent herself being driven out of it.”

Sergeant Martin was prevented from replying by the entrance of the lady. Miss Liddell was always most at ease on her own ground. She shook hands composedly and apologized for keeping them waiting. Looking at her Dalgliesh deduced she had spent the time in applying powder to her face and resolution to her mind. She was obviously determined to treat this as a social call as far as possible and she invited them to sit down with all the conscious charm of an inexperienced
hostess. Dalgliesh declined her offer of tea, carefully avoiding the reproachful eye of his sergeant. Martin was perspiring freely. His own view was that punctilio towards a possible suspect could be carried too far and that a nice cup of tea on a hot day had never yet obstructed justice.

“We shall try not to keep you too long, Miss Liddell. I’m sure you have realized, I am investigating the death of Sally Jupp. I understand that you dined at Martingale yesterday evening. You were also at the fête during the afternoon and you did, of course, know Miss Jupp while she was with you here at St. Mary’s. There are one or two matters which I am hoping you may be able to explain.” Miss Liddell started at the use of his last word. As Sergeant Martin drew out his notebook with something akin to resignation, Dalgliesh noted her quick moistening of her lips and the almost imperceptible tensing of her hands and knew that she was on her guard.

“Anything you care to ask, of course, Inspector. It is Inspector, isn’t it? Of course I knew Sally very well and the whole thing is a dreadful shock to me. It is to us all. But I’m afraid I’m not likely to be of much help. I’m not very clever at noticing and remembering things, you know. It’s rather a disadvantage sometimes, but we can’t all be detectives can we?” The nervous laugh was a little too high to be natural. “We’ve got her scared all right,” thought Sergeant Martin. “Might be something here after all.”

“Perhaps we could begin with Sally Jupp herself,” said Dalgliesh gently. “I understand that she lived here during the last five months of her pregnancy and came back to you when she left the hospital after the birth. She stayed here until she started the job at Martingale which she did when her baby was four months old. Until that time she helped here with the household duties. You must have got to know her very well during this time. Did you like her, Miss Liddell?”

“Like her?” The woman laughed nervously. “Isn’t that rather a funny question, Inspector?”

“Is it? In what way?” She made an effort to conceal her embarrassment and to give the question the compliment of careful thought.

“I hardly know what to say. If you had asked me that question a week ago I should have had no hesitation in saying that Sally was an excellent little worker and a most deserving girl who was doing her best to atone for her mistake. But now, of course, I can’t help wondering whether I was wrong about her, whether she was really genuine after all.” She spoke with the sorrow of a connoisseur whose previously infallible judgment has at last been proved at fault. “I suppose now that we shall never know whether she was genuine or not.”

“By genuine, I assume you mean whether she was sincere in her affection for Mr. Stephen Maxie.”

Miss Liddell shook her head sadly. “The appearances were against it. I was never more shocked in my life, Inspector, never. Of course she had no right to accept him whatever she felt for him. She looked positively triumphant when she stood in that window and told us. He was horribly embarrassed of course, and went as white as a sheet. It was a dreadful moment for poor Mrs. Maxie. I’m afraid I shall always blame myself for what happened. I recommended Sally to Martingale, you know. It seemed such a wonderful chance for her in every way. And now this.”

“You believe, then, that Sally Jupp’s death is the direct result of her engagement to Mr. Maxie?”

“Well, it does look like that, doesn’t it?”

“I agree that her death was highly convenient for any one who had a reason to dislike the proposed marriage. The Maxie family for instance.”

Miss Liddell’s face flamed. “But that’s ridiculous, Inspector. It’s a terrible thing to say. Terrible. Of course, you don’t know the family as we do, but you must take it from me that the whole suggestion is fantastic. You can’t have thought that I meant that! It’s perfectly plain to me what happened. Sally had been playing fast and loose with some man we don’t know about and when he heard of the engagement—well, he lost control of himself. He got through the window, didn’t he? That’s what Miss Bowers told me. Well, that proves it wasn’t the family.”

“The murderer probably got out of the room through the window. We have no knowledge as yet how he or she got in.”

“You surely can’t imagine Mrs. Maxie climbing down that wall. She couldn’t do it!”

“I imagine nothing. There was a ladder in the customary place for anyone who cared to use it. It could have been put in place ready even if the murderer got in through the door.”

“But Sally would have heard! Even if the ladder were placed there very gently. Or she might look out of her window and see it!”

“Perhaps. If she were awake.”

“I don’t understand you, Inspector. You seem determined to suspect the family. If only you knew what they’ve done for that girl.”

“I should like to be told. And you must not misunderstand me. I suspect everyone who knew Miss Jupp and who has no alibi for the time she was killed. That is why I am here now.”

“Well, you know about my movements presumably. I’ve no wish to make a secret of them. Dr. Epps brought me back here in his car. We left Martingale at about half past ten. I wrote in this room for a little while and then took a stroll in the garden. I went to bed at about eleven which is rather late
for me. I heard about this dreadful thing while I was finishing my breakfast. Miss Bowers ’phoned and asked if I could take Jimmy back for a while until they knew what was to happen to him. Naturally I left my deputy, Miss Pollack, in charge of the girls and went round at once. I telephoned George Hopgood and told him to bring round his taxi.”