The Inspector passed into the room. Chester shut the door behind him, and looked across at Mary with the enigmatical expression in his eyes which always made her feel that he saw a great deal more than one wanted him to. ‘Tired, Mary?’
She smiled, but with an effort. ‘A little. Rather bothered. How do you find Aunt Ermy?’
‘She’ll be all right. Nothing for you to worry about.’
‘I thought last night she was going to have a thorough breakdown. It’s absurd, Maurice, but she’s worrying herself sick over Vicky.’
‘Yes. I’ve assured her that there’s no need. I’d like to have a word with that young lady.’
‘You can’t; she’s gone to the Inquest, with Hugh.’
Again he looked at her in that considering way of his. ‘Has she, indeed? Why?’
‘Oh, heaven knows! In search of a thrill, I dare say. She will have it that she’s closely concerned. She’ll probably treat us all to another act – Innocent girl suspected of Murder, or Mystery Woman, or something of that nature. I’m sorry to say Hugh rather encourages her. I suppose I must be lacking in a sense of humour, for I don’t find it amusing.’
‘No, nor I. Especially when she saddles me with Ermyntrude’s exalted foreign guests,’ said Chester dryly.
‘I feel terribly remorseful about that,’ confessed Mary. ‘Only you were so like the god in the car, that I jumped at your offer.’
He smiled. ‘It’s all right, my dear.’
‘Is he a frightful scourge to you?’
‘Oh no! I don’t see much of him. He had some idea of coming round to explain himself to Ermyntrude, but I headed him off. I trust that the police will soon arrive at some conclusion about him.’
She could not help laughing. ‘Maurice, you’ve no idea how cold-blooded that sounds! Between ourselves, do you think he did it?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ he replied shortly.
‘I can’t make up my mind about it. Somehow, it doesn’t seem possible that any one of the people suspected can have done such a thing.’
‘Nevertheless, it’s obvious that one of them must have.’
‘Couldn’t it have been someone quite different? Perhaps someone we don’t even know about?’
‘My dear, I’m not a detective. It doesn’t seem very likely to me.’
‘It sounds ridiculous, but I do rather wish you hadn’t been out on a case at the time. I feel you might have been more use than Dr Hinchcliffe.’
‘Rubbish! Your cousin was dead before Hinchcliffe got there.’
‘I didn’t mean that. Something might have struck you. You’re much cleverer than Dr Hinchcliffe. Everyone says so.’
‘Very gratifying, but if you’re imagining that I could have done anything more than he did, you’re quite wrong, Mary.’
They were interrupted at this moment by Ermyntrude, who bounced out of the morning-room, with Inspector Hemingway on her heels. ‘Oh, there you are, love!’ she exclaimed. ‘Look, Mary, isn’t it a fact that Harold White was in the gun-room on Saturday, all by himself ?’
‘Yes, I’ve already told the Inspector so.’
‘And what’s more hadn’t Wally lent him a hundred pounds, which he hadn’t paid back?’
‘I don’t know how much it was, but certainly Wally did—’
‘Well, I do know, because I’ve been through the counterfoils of Wally’s old cheque-books,’ said Ermyntrude. ‘It’s as plain as a pikestaff he walked off with that rifle. I always said he was at the bottom of it!’
‘Yes, I know,’ said Mary patiently, ‘but you’re forgetting that Mr White can’t possibly have had anything to do with it, Aunt Ermy.’
‘Oh, don’t talk to me!’ said Ermyntrude, brushing this trifling objection aside. ‘If he didn’t actually do it himself, I dare say he got Alan to. Yes, and now I come to think of it, what was Alan doing when Wally was shot? All we’ve been told is that he was out. Out where, that’s what I should like to know?’