Thomas Godfrey (Ed) (40 page)

“And did the radio begin
again then, do you think?”

“I don’t know. I’m very
vague about that. It started again sometime before I went to sleep.”

“Thank you very much
indeed. I won’t bother you any longer now.”

“All right.” said
Phillipa calmly, and went away.

Alleyn sent for Chase and
questioned him about the rest of the staff and about the discovery of the body.
Emily was summoned and dealt with. When she departed, awestruck but complacent,
Alleyn turned to the butler.

“Chase,” he said, “had
your master any peculiar habits?”

“Yes, sir.”

“In regard to the
wireless?”

“I beg pardon, sir. I
thought you meant generally speaking.”

“Well, then, generally
speaking.”

“If I may so, sir, he was
a mass of them.”

“How long have you been
with him?”

“Two months, sir, and due
to leave at the end of this week.”

“Oh. Why are you leaving?”

Chase produced the
classic remark of his kind.

“There are some things,” he
said, “that flesh and blood will not stand, sir. One of them’s being spoke to
like Mr. Tonks spoke to his staff.”

“Ah. His peculiar habits,
in fact?”

“It’s my opinion, sir, he
was mad. Stark, staring.”

“With regard to the
radio. Did he tinker with it?”

“I can’t say I’ve ever
noticed, sir. I believe he knew quite a lot about wireless.”

“When he tuned the thing,
had he any particular method? Any characteristic attitude or gesture?”

“I don’t think so, sir. I
never noticed, and yet I’ve often come into the room when he was at it. I can
seem to see him now, sir.”

“Yes, yes,” said Alleyn
swiftly. “That’s what we want. A clear mental picture. How was it now? Like
this?”

In a moment he was across
the room and seated in Septimus’s chair. He swung round to the cabinet and
raised his right hand to the tuning control.

“Like this?”

“No, sir,” said Chase
promptly, “that’s not him at all. Both hands it should be.”

“Ah.” Up went Alleyn’s
left hand to the volume control. “More like this?”

“Yes, sir,” said Chase slowly.
“But there’s something else and I can’t recollect what it was. Something he was
always doing. It’s in the back of my head. You know, sir. Just on the edge of
my memory, as you might say.”

“I know.”

“It’s a kind—something—to
do with irritation,” said Chase slowly.

“Irritation? His?”

“No. It’s no good, sir. I
can’t get it.”

“Perhaps later. Now look
here, Chase, what happened to all of you last night? All the servants, I mean.”

“We were all out, sir. It
being Christmas Eve. The mistress sent for me yesterday morning. She said we
could take the evening off as soon as I had taken in Mr. Tonks’s grog-tray at
nine o’clock. So we went,” ended Chase simply.

“When?”

“The rest of the staff
got away about nine. I left at ten past, sir, and returned about eleven-twenty.
The others were back then, and all in bed. I went straight to bed myself, sir.”

“You came in by a back
door, I suppose?”

“Yes, sir. We’ve been
talking it over. None of us noticed anything unusual.”

“Can you hear the
wireless in your part of the house?”

“No, sir.”

“Well,” said Alleyn,
looking up from his notes, “that’ll do, thank you.”

Before Chase reached the
door Fox came in.

“Beg pardon, sir,” said
Fox, “I just want to take a look at the
Radio Times
on the desk.

He bent over the paper,
wetted a gigantic thumb, and turned a page.

“That’s it, sir,” shouted
Chase suddenly. “That’s what I tried to think of. That’s what he was always
doing.”

“But what?”

“Licking his fingers,
sir. It was a habit,” said Chase. “That’s what he always did when he sat down
to the radio. I heard Mr. Hislop tell the doctor it nearly drove him demented,
the way the master couldn’t touch a thing without first licking his fingers.”

“Quite so,” said Alleyn. “In
about ten minutes, ask Mr. Hislop if he will be good enough to come in for a
moment. That will be all, thank you, Chase.”

“Well, sir,” remarked Fox
when Chase had gone, “if that’s the case and what I think’s right, it’d
certainly make matters worse.”

“Good heavens, Fox, what
an elaborate remark. What does it mean?”

“If metal knobs were
substituted for bakelite ones and fine wires brought through those holes to
make contact, then he’d get a bigger bump if he tuned in with
damp
fingers.”

“Yes. And he always used
both hands. Fox!”

“Sir.”

“Approach the Tonkses
again. You haven’t left them alone, of course?”

“Bailey’s in there making
out he’s interested in the light switches. He’s found the main switchboard
under the stairs. There’s signs of a blown fuse having been fixed recently. In
a cupboard underneath there are odd lengths of flex and so on. Same brand as
this on the wireless and the heater.”

“Ah, yes. Could the cord
from the adapter to the radiator be brought into play?”

“By gum,” said Fox, “you’re
right! That’s how it was done, Chief. The heavier flex was cut away from the
radiator and shoved through. There was a fire, so he wouldn’t want the radiator
and wouldn’t notice.”

“It might have been done
that way, certainly, but there’s little to prove it. Return to the bereaved
Tonkses, my Fox, and ask prettily if any of them remember Septimus’s
peculiarities when tuning his wireless.”

Fox met little Mr. Hislop
at the door and left him alone with Alleyn. Phillipa had been right, reflected
the Inspector, when she said Richard Hislop was not a noticeable man. He was
nondescript. Grey eyes, drab hair; rather pale, rather short, rather
insignificant; and yet last night there had flashed up between those two the
realization of love. Romantic but rum, thought Alleyn.

“Do sit down,” he said. “I
want you, if you will, to tell me what happened between you and Mr. Tonks last
evening.

“What happened?”

“Yes. You all dined at
eight, I understand. Then you and Mr. Tonks came in here?”

“Yes.”

“What did you do?”

“He dictated several
letters.”

“Anything unusual take
place?”

“Oh, no.”

“Why did you quarrel ?”

“Quarrel!” The quiet
voice jumped a tone. “We did not quarrel, Mr. Alleyn.”

“Perhaps that was the
wrong word. What upset you?”

“Phillipa has told you?”

“Yes. She was wise to do
so. What was the matter, Mr. Hislop?”

“Apart from the... what
she told you... Mr. Tonks was a difficult man to please. I often irritated him.
I did so last night.”

“In what way?”

“In almost every way. He
shouted at me. I was startled and nervous, clumsy with papers, and making
mistakes. I wasn’t well. I blundered and then...
I...
I broke down. I have always
irritated him. My very mannerisms—”

“Had he no irritating
mannerisms, himself?”

“He! My God!”

“
What were they ?”

“I can’t think of
anything in particular. It doesn’t matter does it?”

“Anything to do with the
wireless, for instance?”

There was a short
silence.

“No,” said Hislop.

“Was the radio on in here
last night, after dinner?”

“For a little while. Not
after—after the incident in the hall. At least, I don’t think so. I don’t
remember.”

“What did you do after
Miss Phillipa and her father had gone upstairs?”

“I followed and listened
outside the door for a moment.” He had gone very white and had backed away from
the desk.

“And then?”

“I heard someone coming.
I remembered Dr. Meadows had told me to ring him up if there was one of the
scenes. I returned here and rang him up. He told me to go to my room and
listen. If things got any worse I was to telephone again. Otherwise I was to
stay in my room. It is next to hers.”

“And you did this?” He
nodded. “Could you hear what Mr. Tonks said to her?”

“A—a good deal of it.”

“What did you hear ?”

“He insulted her. Mrs.
Tonks was there. I was just thinking of ringing Dr. Meadows up again when she
and Mr. Tonks came out and went along the passage. I stayed in my room.”

“You did not try to speak
to Miss Phillipa?”

“We spoke through the
wall. She asked me not to ring Dr. Meadows, but to stay in my room. In a little
while, perhaps it was as much as twenty minutes—I really don’t know— I heard
him come back and go downstairs. I again spoke to Phillipa. She implored me not
to do anything and said that she herself would speak to Dr. Meadows in the
morning. So I waited a little longer and then went to bed.”

“And to sleep?”

“My God, no!”

“Did you hear the
wireless again?”

“Yes. At least I heard static.”

“Are you an expert on
wireless?”

“No. I know the ordinary
things. Nothing much.”

“How did you come to take
this job, Mr. Hislop?”

“I answered an
advertisement.”

“You are sure you don’t
remember any particular mannerism of Mr. Tonks’s in connection with the radio?”

“No.”

“And you can tell me no
more about your interview in the study that led to the scene in the hall?”

“No.”

“Will you please ask Mrs.
Tonks if she will be kind enough to speak to me for a moment?”

“Certainly,” said Hislop,
and went away.

Septimus’s wife came in
looking like death. Alleyn got her to sit down and asked her about her
movements on the preceding evening. She said she was feeling unwell and dined
in her room. She went to bed immediately afterwards. She heard Septimus yelling
at Phillipa and went to Phillipa’s room. Septimus accused Mr. Hislop and her
daughter of “terrible things.” She got as far as this and then broke down
quietly. Alleyn was very gentle with her. After a little while he learned that
Septimus had gone to her room with her and had continued to speak of “terrible
things.”

“What sort of things?”
asked Alleyn.

“He was not responsible,”
said Isabel. “He did not know what he was saying. I think he had been drinking.”

She thought he had
remained with her for perhaps a quarter of an hour. Possibly longer. He left
her abruptly and she heard him go along the passage, past Phillipa’s door, and
presumably downstairs. She had stayed awake for a long time. The wireless could
not be heard from her room. Alleyn showed her the curtain knobs, but she seemed
quite unable to take in their significance. He let her go, summoned Fox, and
went over the whole case.

“What’s your idea on the
show?” he asked when he had finished.

“Well, sir,” said Fox, in
his stolid way, “on the face of it the young gentlemen have got alibis. We’ll
have to check them up, of course, and I don’t see we can go much further until
we have done so.”

“For the moment,” said
Alleyn, “let us suppose Masters Guy and Arthur to be safely established behind
cast-iron alibis. What then?”