Postern of Fate (Tommy & Tuppence 5)

Tommy and the Inspector looked at each other. For about five minutes neither of them spoke. They were just looking.

'Well,' said Tommy, 'I - I see. Yes. Perhaps I see.'

'If I may say one thing,' said Inspector Norris.

'Yes?' said Tommy, looking rather doubtful.

'This garden of yours. You want a bit of help in it, I understand.'

'Our gardener was killed, as you probably know.'

'Yes, I know all about that. Old Isaac Bodlicott, wasn't it? Fine old chap. Told tall stories now and then about the wonderful things he'd done in his time. But he was a well-known character and a fellow you could trust, too.'

'I can't imagine why he was killed or who killed him,' said Tommy. 'Nobody seems to have had any idea or to have found out.'

'You mean we haven't found out. Well, these things take a little time, you know. It doesn't come out at the time the inquest's on, and the Coroner sums up and says "Murder by some person unknown." That's only the beginning sometimes. Well, what I was going to say was it's likely someone may come and ask you whether you'd like a chap to come and do a bit of jobbing gardening for you. He'll come along and say that he could come two or three days a week. Perhaps more. He'll tell you, for reference, that he worked for some years for Mr Solomon. You'll remember that name, will you?'

'Mr Solomon,' said Tommy.

There seemed to be something like a twinkle for a moment in Inspector Norris's eye.

'Yes, he's dead, of course. Mr Solomon, I mean. But he did live here and he did employ several different jobbing gardeners. I'm not quite sure what name this chap will give you. We'll say I don't quite remember it. It might be one of several - it's likely to be Crispin, I think. Between thirty and fifty or so, and he worked for Mr Solomon. If anyone comes along and says he can do some jobbing gardening for you and doesn't mention Mr Solomon, in that case, I wouldn't accept him. That's just a word of warning.'

'I see,' said Tommy. 'Yes. I see. At least, I hope I see the point.'

'That's the point,' said Inspector Norris. 'You're quick on the uptake, Mr Beresford. Well, I suppose you've had to be quite often in your activities. Nothing more you want to know that we could tell you?'

'I don't think so,' said Tommy. 'I wouldn't know what to ask.'

'We shall be making enquiries, not necessarily round here, you know. I may be in London or other parts looking round. We all help to look round. Well, you'd know that, wouldn't you?'

'I want to try and keep Tuppence - keep my wife from getting herself too mixed up in things because - but it's difficult.'

'Women are always difficult,' said Inspector Norris.

Tommy repeated that remark later as he sat by Tuppence's bedside and watched her eating grapes.

'Do you really eat all the pips of grapes?'

'Usually,' said Tuppence. 'It takes so much time getting them out, doesn't it? I don't think they hurt you.'

'Well, if they haven't hurt you by now, and you've been doing it all your life, I shouldn't think they would,' said Tommy.

'What did the police say?'

'Exactly what we thought they would say.'

'Do they know who it's likely to have been?'

'They say they don't think it's a local.'

'Who did you see? Inspector Watson his name is, isn't it?'

'No. This was an Inspector Norris.'

'Oh, that's one I don't know. What else did he say?'

'He said women were always very difficult to restrain.'

'Really!' said Tuppence. 'Did he know you were coming back to tell me that?'

'Possibly not,' said Tommy. He got up. 'I must put in a telephone call or two to London. I'm not going up for a day or two.'

'You can go up all right. I'm quite safe here! There's Albert looking after me and all the rest of it. Dr Crossfield has been terribly kind and rather like a sort of broody hen watching over me.'

'I'll have to go out to get things for Albert. Anything you want?'

'Yes,' said Tuppence, 'you might bring me back a melon. I'm feeling very inclined to fruit. Nothing but fruit.'

'All right,' said Tommy.

Tommy rang up a London number.

'Colonel Pikeaway?'

'Yes. Hullo. Ah, it's you, Thomas Beresford, is it?'

'Ah, you recognized my voice. I wanted to tell you that -'

'Something about Tuppence. I've heard it all,' said Colonel Pikeaway. 'No need to talk. Stay where you are for the next day or two or a week. Don't come up to London. Report anything that happens.'

'There may be some things which we ought to bring you.'

'Well, hang on to them for the moment. Tell Tuppence to invent a place to hide them until then.'

'She's good at that sort of thing. Like our dog. He hides bones in the garden.'

'I hear he chased the man who shot at you both, and saw him off the place -'

'You seem to know all about it.'

'We always know things here,' said Colonel Pikeaway.

'Our dog managed to get a snap at him and came back with a sample of his trousers in his mouth.'

Chapter 12

OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE AND LOHENGRIN

'Good man,' said Colonel Pikeaway, puffing out smoke. 'Sorry to send for you so urgently but I thought I'd better see you.'

'As I expect you know,' said Tommy, 'we've been having something a little unexpected lately.'

'Ah! Why should you think I know?'

'Because you always know everything here.'

Colonel Pikeaway laughed.

'Hah! Quoting me to myself, aren't you? Yes, that's what I say. We know everything. That's what we're here for. Did she have a very narrow escape? Your wife, I'm talking about, as you know.'

'She didn't have a narrow escape, but there might have been something serious. I expect you know most of the details, or do you want me to tell you?'

'You can run over it quickly if you like. There's a bit I didn't hear,' said Colonel Pikeaway, 'the bit about Lohengrin. Grin-hen-lo. She's sharp, you know, your wife is. She saw the point of that. It seems idiotic, but there it was.'

'I've brought you the results today,' said Tommy. 'We hid them in the flour-bin until I could get up to see you. I didn't like to send them by post.'

'No. Quite right -'

'In a kind of tin - not tin but a better metal than that box and hanging in Lohengrin. Pale blue Lohengrin. Cambridge, Victorian china outdoor garden stool.'

'Remember them myself in the old days. Had an aunt in the country who used to have a pair.'

'It was well preserved, sewn up in tarpaulin. Inside it are letters. They are somewhat perished and that, but I expect with expert treatment -'

'Yes, we can manage that sort of thing all right.'

'Here they are then,' said Tommy, 'and I've got a list for you of things that we've noted down, Tuppence and I. Things that have been mentioned or told us.'

'Names?'

'Yes. Three or four. The Oxford and Cambridge clue and the mention of Oxford and Cambridge graduates staying there - I don't think there was anything in that, because really it referred simply to the Lohengrin porcelain stools, I suppose.'

'Yes - yes - yes, there are one or two other things here that are quite interesting.'

'After we were fired at,' said Tommy, 'I reported it of course t

o the police.'

'Quite right.'

'Then I was asked to go down to the police station the next day and I saw Inspector Norris there. I haven't come in con- tact with him before. I think he must be rather a new officer.'