XVI

Colonel Johnson looked at his watch.

“Nothing much more that I can do here. You’ve got things well in hand, Sugden. Oh, just onething. We ought to see the butler fellow. I know you’ve questioned him, but we know a bit moreabout things now. It’s important to get confirmation¹ of just where everybody says he was at thetime of the murder.”

Tressilian came in slowly. The chief constable² told him to sit down.

“Thank you, sir. I will, if you don’t mind. I’ve been feeling very queer—very queer indeed.

My legs, sir, and my head.”

Poirot said gently: “You have had the shock, yes.”

The butler shuddered³. “Such — such a violent thing to happen. In this house! Whereeverything has always gone on so quietly.”

Poirot said:

“It was a well-ordered house, yes? But not a happy one?”

“I wouldn’t like to say that, sir.”

“In the old days when all the family was at home, it was happy then?”

Tressilian said slowly:

“It wasn’t perhaps what one would call very harmonious⁴, sir.”

“The late Mrs. Lee was somewhat of an invalid⁵, was she not?”

“Yes, sir, very poorly she was.”

“Were her children fond of her?”

“Mr. David, he was devoted⁶ to her. More like a daughter than a son. And after she died hebroke away, couldn’t face living here any longer.”

Poirot said: “And Mr. Harry⁷? What was he like?”

“Always rather a wild young gentleman, sir, but good-hearted. Oh, dear, gave me quite aturn, it did, when the bell rang—and then again, so impatient like, and I opened the door and therewas a strange man, and then Mr. Harry’s voice said, ‘Hallo, Tressilian. Still here, eh?’ Just thesame as ever.”

Poirot said sympathetically:

“It must have been the strange feeling, yes, indeed.”

Tressilian said, a little pink flush showing in his cheek:

“It seems sometimes, sir, as though the past isn’t the past! I believe there’s been a play on inLondon about something like that. There’s something in it, sir—there really is. There’s a feelingcomes over you—as though you’d done everything before. It just seems to me as though the bellrings and I go to answer it and there’s Mr. Harry—even if it should be Mr. Farr or some otherperson—I’m just saying to myself—but I’ve done this before. .?.?.”

Poirot said:

“That is very interesting—very interesting.”

Tressilian looked at him gratefully.

Johnson, somewhat impatient, cleared his throat and took charge of the conversation.

“Just want to get various times checked correctly,” he said. “Now, when the noise upstairsstarted, I understand that only Mr. Alfred Lee and Mr. Harry Lee were in the dining room. Is thatso?”

“I really couldn’t tell you, sir. All the gentlemen were there when I served coffee to them—but that would be about a quarter of an hour earlier.”

“Mr. George Lee was telephoning. Can you confirm that?”

“I think somebody did telephone, sir. The bell rings in my pantry, and when anybody takesoff the receiver to call a number, there’s just a faint noise on the bell. I do remember hearing that,but I didn’t pay attention to it.”

“You don’t know exactly when it was?”

“I couldn’t say, sir. It was after I had taken coffee to the gentlemen, that is all I can say.”

“Do you know where any of the ladies were at the time I mentioned?”

“Mrs. Alfred was in the drawing room, sir, when I went for the coffee tray. That was just aminute or two before I heard the cry upstairs.”

Poirot asked:

“What was she doing?”

“She was standing⁸ by the far window, sir. She was holding the curtain a little back andlooking out.”

“And none of the other ladies were in the room?”

“No, sir.”

“Do you know where they were?”

“I couldn’t say at all, sir.”

“You don’t know where anyone else was?”

“Mr. David, I think, was playing in the music room next door to the drawing room.”

“You heard him playing?”

“Yes, sir.” Again the old man shivered. “It was like a sign, sir, so I felt afterwards. It was the‘Dead March’ he was playing. Even at the time, I remember, it gave me the creeps.”

“It is curious, yes,” said Poirot.

“Now, about this fellow, Horbury, the valet,” said the chief constable. “Are you definitelyprepared to swear that he was out of the house by eight o’clock?”

“Oh yes, sir. It was just after Mr. Sugden here arrived. I remember particular because hebroke a coffee cup.”

Poirot said:

“Horbury broke a coffee cup?”

“Yes, sir—one of the old Worcester ones. Eleven years I’ve washed them up and never onebroken till this evening.”

Poirot said:

“What was Horbury doing with the coffee cups?”

“Well, of course, sir, he’d no business to have been handling them at all. He was just holdingone up, admiring it like, and I happened to mention that Mr. Sugden had called, and he droppedit.”

Poirot said:

“Did you say ‘Mr. Sugden’ or did you mention the word police?”

Tressilian looked a little startled.

“Now I come to think of it, sir, I mentioned that the police superintendent⁹ had called.”

“And Horbury dropped the coffee cup,” said Poirot.

“Seems suggestive, that,” said the chief constable. “Did Horbury ask any questions about thesuperintendent’s visit?”

“Yes, sir, asked what he wanted here. I said he’d come collecting for the Police Orphanageand had gone up to Mr. Lee.”

“Did Horbury seemed relieved when you said that?”

“Do you know, sir, now you mention it, he certainly did. His manner changed at once. SaidMr. Lee was a good old chap and free with his money—rather disrepectfully he spoke—and thenhe went off.”

“Which way?”

“Out through the door to the servants’ hall.”

Sugden interposed:

“All that’s O.K., sir. He passed through the kitchen, where the cook and the kitchenmaid sawhim, and out through the back door.”

“Now listen, Tressilian, and think carefully. Is there any means by which Horbury couldreturn to the house without anyone seeing him?”

The old man shook his head.

“I don’t see how he could have done so, sir. All the doors are locked on the inside.”

“Supposing he had had a key?”

“The doors are bolted as well.”

“How does he get in when he comes?”

“He has a key of the back door, sir. All the servants come in that way.”

“He could have returned that way, then?”

“Not without passing through the kitchen, sir. And the kitchen would be occupied till wellafter half past nine or a quarter to ten.”

Colonel Johnson said:

“That seems conclusive¹⁰. Thank you, Tressilian.”

The old man got up and with a bow left the room. He returned, however, a minute or twolater.

“Horbury has just returned, sir. Would you like to see him now?”

“Yes, please, send him in at once.”

 

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