The Layton Court Mystery Page 16

  ‘Yes. I’m going to try and find out if I can when this settee was last tidied up; that seems to me the point on which everything depends. After that I’ve got to spot the owner of the handkerchief.’

  ‘By the scent? There are no initials on it.’

  ‘By the scent. This is the sort of occasion when being a dog must come in so useful,’ Roger added reflectively.

  chapter nineteen

  Mr Sheringham Loses and Wins the Same Bet

  At the top of the stairs the two parted, Alec going to his own room and Roger to his. Arrived there, the latter did not proceed immediately with his changing; for some moments he leaned, deep in thought, on the window-sill overlooking the garden. Then, as if he had come to a decision, he crossed the room briskly and rang the bell.

  A cheerful, plump young person answered it and smiled questioningly. Roger was always a favourite with servants; if not always with gardeners.

  ‘Oh, hullo, Alice. I say, I seem to have lost my fountain pen. You haven’t seen it about anywhere, have you?’

  The girl shook her head. ‘No, sir, that I haven’t. It wasn’t in here when I did the room this morning, I’m sure.’

  ‘H’m! That’s a nuisance. I’ve missed it since last night. The last time I remember having it was in the library a short time before dinner. I wonder if I can have left it in there. Do you do the library?’

  ‘Oh, no, sir. I only do the bedrooms. Mary does the downstairs rooms.’

  ‘I see. Well, do you think I could have a word with Mary, if she’s not too busy? Perhaps you could send her up here?’

  ‘Yes, sir. I’ll tell her at once.’

  ‘Thank you, Alice,’

  In due course Mary made her appearance.

  ‘I say, Mary,’ Roger remarked confidentially, ‘I’ve lost my fountain pen, and Alice tells me that she hasn’t come across it in here. Now the last time I had it was in the library yesterday, some time between tea and dinner; I’ve been looking round for it in there, but I can’t see it. I suppose you haven’t tidied up the library since then, or seen anything of it?’

  ‘Yes, sir, I tidied up the library last night while they were in at dinner. And little did I think when I was doing it that – ’

  ‘Yes, quite so,’ Roger put in soothingly. ‘Shocking business! But what did the tidying up consist of, Mary? I mean, if it was only cursory you might not have noticed the pen. What did you do exactly?’

  ‘Well, sir, I put the chairs straight and tidied up the cigarette ends in the hearth and emptied the ashtrays.’

  ‘What about the settee? I remember sitting on the settee with the pen in my hand.’

  ‘It wasn’t there then, sir,’ Mary said with decision. ‘I took up all the cushions and shook them, and there wasn’t anything there. I should have noticed it if there had been.’

  ‘I see. You did the settee quite thoroughly, in fact? Brushed it, and all that sort of thing?’

  ‘Yes, sir. I always run a brush over the settee and the armchairs of an evening. They get so terribly dusty with all those windows, and that black rep shows the dust up something awful.’

  ‘Well, thank you, Mary. I suppose I must have left it somewhere else, after all. By the way, you haven’t done the library at all today, have you?’

  ‘No, sir,’ Mary replied with a little shiver. ‘Nor wouldn’t like to; not alone, at all events. Creepy, I should call it, sir, with that poor gentleman sitting there all night like a – ’

  ‘Yes, yes,’ said Roger with mechanical haste. ‘Shocking! Well, I’m sorry to have brought you all this way for nothing, Mary; but if you ever come across it, you might let me know.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Mary said with a pleasant smile. ‘Thank you, sir.’

  ‘And that is that!’ Roger murmured confidentially to the closing door.

  He completed his changing as rapidly as possible and, hurrying along to Alec’s room, recounted the facts he had just learnt.

  ‘So you see,’ he concluded, ‘that woman must have been in the library some time after dinner. Now who was it? Barbara was with you in the garden, of course; so she’s out of the running. That leaves Mrs Shannon, Mrs Plant, and Lady Stanworth – if it was somebody in the house, by the way,’ he added thoughtfully. ‘I never thought of that.’

  Alec paused in the act of tying his black tie to look round interrogatively.

  ‘But what’s all this getting at?’ he asked. ‘Is there any particular reason why one of those three shouldn’t have been in the library yesterday evening?’

  ‘No, not exactly. But it rather depends on who it is. If it was Lady Stanworth, for instance, I shouldn’t say there was anything in it; unless she specifically denied that she went into the library at all. On the other hand, if it was someone from outside the household it might be decidedly important. Oh, it’s too vague to explain, but what I feel is that this is the emergence of a new fact – the presence of a woman in the library yesterday evening. And a woman sitting down at that, not just passing through. Therefore, like every other fact in the case, it has got to be investigated. It may turn out to be absolutely in order. On the other hand, it may not. That’s all.’

  ‘It’s certainly vague, as you say,’ Alec commented, fastening his waistcoat. ‘And when do you expect to spot the woman?’

  ‘Possibly the end of dinner. I shall sniff delicately and unobtrusively at Lady Stanworth and Mrs Plant, and if it isn’t either of them, it may be Mrs Shannon. If that’s the case, of course there’s no importance to be attached to it at all; but if it isn’t any of them, I don’t know what I shall do. I can’t go dashing all over the county, sniffing at strange women, can I? It might lead to all sorts of awkward complications. Hurry up, Alexander, the bell went at least five minutes ago.’

  ‘I’m ready,’ Alec said, glancing at his well flattened hair in the mirror with approval. ‘Lead on.’

  The others were already waiting for them when they arrived in the drawing room, and the party went in to dinner at once. Lady Stanworth was present, to all appearances unmoved, but even more silent than usual; and her presence laid an added constraint on the little gathering.

  Roger tried hard to keep the ball rolling, and both Mrs Plant and Jefferson did their best in their respective ways to second him, but Alec for some reason was almost as quiet as his hostess. Glancing now and again at his preoccupied face, Roger concluded that the role of amateur detective was proving highly uncongenial to that uncompromisingly straightforward young man. Probably the introduction of this new feminine question regarding the ownership of the handkerchief was upsetting him again.

  ‘Did you notice,’ Roger remarked casually, addressing himself to Jefferson, ‘when the inspector was questioning us this morning, how very difficult it is to remember the things that have occurred, even only twenty-four hours before, if they were not sufficiently important to impress one in any way?’

  ‘Yes, I know what you mean,’ Jefferson agreed. ‘Noticed it often myself.’

  Roger glanced at him curiously. It was a strange position, this sort of armed and forced friendliness between Jefferson and himself. If the former had heard much of that conversation by the lattice window, he must know Roger for his enemy; and in any case the disappearance of the footprint showed that he was thoroughly on his guard. Yet not the faintest trace of this appeared in his manner. He behaved towards both of them exactly as he always had done; no more and no less. Roger could not help admiring the man’s nerve.

  ‘Especially as regards movements,’ he resumed conversationally. ‘I often have the very greatest trouble in remembering exactly where I was at a certain time. Last night wasn’t so difficult, because I was in the garden from the end of dinner till I went up to bed. But take your case, for instance, Lady Stanworth. I’m prepared to bet quite a reasonable sum that you couldn’t say, without stopping to think, exactly what rooms you visited yesterday evening between the end of dinner and going up to bed.’

  Out of the tail of his eye Roger noticed a quic
k look flash between Lady Stanworth and Jefferson. It was as if the latter had warned her of the possibility of a trap.

  ‘Then I am afraid you would lose your bet, Mr Sheringham,’ she replied calmly, after a momentary pause. ‘I remember perfectly. From the dining room I went into the drawing room, where I sat for about half an hour. Then I went into the morning room to discuss certain of the accounts with Major Jefferson, and after that I went upstairs.’

  ‘Oh, that’s altogether too easy,’ Roger laughed. ‘It’s not playing fair. You ought to have visited far more rooms than that to make the game a success. What about you, then, Mrs Plant? Shall I transfer the bet to you?’

  ‘You’d lose again if you did,’ Mrs Plant smiled. ‘I was only in one room, worse still. I stayed in the drawing room the whole time till I met you in the hall on my way upstairs. There! What was the bet, by the way?’

  ‘I shall have to think of that. A handkerchief, I think, don’t you? Yes, I owe you a handkerchief.’

  ‘What a poor little bet!’ Mrs Plant laughed. ‘I wouldn’t have taken it if I’d known it was going to be so unremunerative.’

  ‘Well, I’ll throw in a bottle of scent to go with it, shall I?’

  ‘That would be better, certainly.’

  ‘Better stop there, Sheringham,’ Jefferson put in. ‘She’ll have got on to gloves before you know where you are.’

  ‘Oh, I’m drawing the line at scent. What’s your favourite brand, by the way, Mrs Plant?’

  ‘Amour des Fleurs,’ Mrs Plant replied promptly. ‘A guinea a bottle!’

  ‘Oh! Remember, I’m only a poor author.’

  ‘Well, you asked for my favourite, so I told you. But that isn’t the one I generally use.’

  ‘Ah, now we’re getting warmer. Something about elevenpence a bottle is more like my mark.’

  ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to pay just a little more than that. Parfum Jasmine; nine and sixpence. And it will serve you right.’

  ‘I shan’t bet with you again, Mrs Plant,’ Roger retorted with mock severity. ‘I hate people who win bets against me. It isn’t fair.’

  For the rest of dinner Roger seemed to be a little preoccupied.

  As soon as the ladies had left the room, he strolled over to the open French windows which, like those of the library on the other side, led out on to the lawn.

  ‘I think a smoke in the open air is indicated,’ he observed carelessly. ‘Coming, Alec? What about you, Jefferson?’

  ‘No rest for me, I’m afraid,’ Jefferson replied with a smile. ‘I’m up to the eyes in it.’

  ‘Straightening things up?’

  ‘Trying to; they’re in a dreadful muddle.’

  ‘Finances, you mean?’

  ‘Yes, that and everything. He always managed his own affairs and this is the first time I’ve seen his passbooks and the rest. As he appeared to have accounts at no less than five different banks, you can understand something of what I’ve got to wade through.’ Jefferson’s manner was perfectly friendly and open, almost frank.

  ‘That’s funny. I wonder why he did that. And have you found any reason for his killing himself?’

  ‘None,’ said Jefferson candidly. ‘In fact, the whole thing absolutely beats me. It’s the last thing you’d have expected of old Stanworth, if you’d known him as well as I did.’

  ‘You knew him pretty well, of course?’ Roger asked, applying a match to his cigarette.

  ‘I should say so. I was with him longer than I like to remember,’ Jefferson replied with a little laugh that sounded somewhat bitter to Roger’s suspicious ears.

  ‘What sort of a man was he really? I thought him quite a good sort; but then I’d probably only seen one side of him.’

  ‘Oh, everyone has their different sides, don’t they?’ Jefferson parried. ‘I don’t suppose Stanworth was very unlike anyone else.’

  ‘Why did he employ an ex-prize-fighter as a butler?’ Roger asked suddenly, looking the other straight in the face.

  But Jefferson was not to be caught off his guard.

  ‘Oh, a whim I should think,’ he said easily. ‘He had plenty of whims like that.’

  ‘It seems funny to meet with a butler called Graves in real life,’ Roger said with a little smile. ‘They’re always called Graves on the stage, aren’t they?’

  ‘Oh, that isn’t his real name. He’s really called Bill Higgins, I believe. Mr Stanworth couldn’t face the name of Higgins, so he called him Graves instead.’

  ‘It’s a pity. Higgins is an admirably original name for a butler. Besides, it harmonises much more with the gentleman’s general air of ruggedness, doesn’t it? Well, what about this breath of air we promised ourselves, Alec? See you later no doubt, Jefferson.’

  Jefferson nodded amicably, and the two strolled out on to the lawn. It was only just beginning to get dusk, and the light was still strong.

  ‘I’ve found out who the handkerchief belongs to, Alec,’ Roger said in a low voice.

  ‘Have you? Who?’

  ‘Mrs Plant. I was almost certain before we sat down to dinner, but what she said clinched it. That scent is jasmine right enough.’

  ‘And what are you going to do?’

  Roger hesitated. ‘Well, you heard what she said,’ he replied, almost apologetically. ‘She didn’t actually deny it, because I never asked her; but she wouldn’t admit to being in the library at all yesterday evening.’

  ‘But surely it’s a perfectly innocent thing to be in the library?’ Alec protested. ‘Why, Stanworth wasn’t even there.

  He was out in the garden with you. Why shouldn’t she have been in the library?’

  ‘And, equally, why shouldn’t she acknowledge it?’ Roger retorted quickly.

  ‘It may have slipped her memory. That’s nothing. You were saying yourself how difficult it is to remember exactly where one’s been.’

  ‘It’s no use, Alec,’ Roger said gently. ‘We’ve got to clear this up. It may be innocent enough; I only hope it is! On the other hand, it may be exceedingly important for us to find out just exactly why Mrs Plant was in that library, and what she was doing there. You must see that we can’t leave it as it is.’

  ‘But what do you propose to do? Tackle her about it?’

  ‘Yes. I’m going to ask her point-blank if she was in the library last night or not, and see what she says.’

  ‘And if she denies it?’

  Roger shrugged his shoulders. ‘That remains to be seen,’ he said shortly.

  ‘I don’t like it,’ Alec frowned. ‘In fact, I hate it. It’s a beastly position. Look here, Roger,’ he said with sudden earnestness, ‘let’s chuck the whole thing! Let’s assume, as the police are doing, that old Stanworth committed suicide and leave it at that. Shall we?’

  ‘You bet we won’t!’ Roger said grimly. ‘I’m not going to leave a thing half threshed out like that; especially not such an interesting thing as this. You can back out if you like; there’s no reason for you to be mixed up with it if you don’t want. But I’m most decidedly going on with it.’

  ‘Oh, if you do, I shall, too,’ Alec replied gloomily. ‘But I’d much rather we both chucked it.’

  ‘That’s out of the question,’ Roger said briskly. ‘Couldn’t dream of it. Well, if you’re going to stick to it with me, you’d better be present at my chat with Mrs Plant. Let’s stroll round to the drawing room and see if we can find an excuse to speak with her alone.’

  All right, then,’ Alec agreed unhappily. ‘If we must.’

  Luck was on their side. Mrs Plant was alone in the drawing room. Roger drew a chair up so as to face her squarely and commented casually on Lady Stanworth’s absence. Alec turned his back on them and gazed moodily out of the window, as if washing his hands of the whole affair.

  ‘Lady Stanworth?’ Mrs Plant repeated. ‘Oh, she’s gone in to help Major Jefferson, I think. In the morning room.’

  Roger looked at her steadily. ‘Mrs Plant,’ he said in a low voice, ‘you’re quite certain yo
u won that bet of ours at dinner, aren’t you?’

  ‘Certain?’ asked Mrs Plant uneasily. ‘Of course I am. Why?’

  ‘You didn’t forget any room that you went into yesterday evening by any chance?’ Roger pursued firmly. ‘The morning room, the storeroom, or – the library, for instance?’

  Mrs Plant stared at him with wide eyes. ‘What do you mean, Mr Sheringham?’ she asked in somewhat heightened tones. ‘Of course I didn’t forget.’

  ‘You went into none of those rooms, then?’

  ‘Certainly not!’

  ‘H’m! The bet was a bottle of scent and a handkerchief, wasn’t it?’ Roger remarked musingly, feeling in his pocket. ‘Well, here’s the handkerchief. I found it where you left it – on the couch in the library!’

  chapter twenty

  Mrs Plant Proves Disappointing

  For a moment Mrs Plant sat perfectly rigid. Then she put out her hand and mechanically took the handkerchief that Roger was still holding out to her. Her face had gone quite white and her eyes were wide with terror.

  ‘Please don’t be alarmed,’ said Roger gently, touching her hand reassuringly. ‘I don’t want to frighten you, or anything like that; but don’t you think it would be better if you told me the truth? You might get into very serious trouble with the police, you know, if it came out that you had been concealing any important fact. Really, I only want to help you, Mrs Plant.’

  The colour drained back into her face at that, though her breath still came in gasps and she continued to stare at him fearfully.

  ‘But – but it wasn’t anything – important,’ she said jerkily. ‘It was only – ’ She paused again.

  ‘Don’t tell me if you’d rather not, of course,’ Roger said quickly. ‘But I can’t help feeling that I might be able to advise you. It’s a serious matter to mislead the police, even in the most trivial details. Take your time and think it over.’ He rose to his feet and joined Alec at the window.

  When Mrs Plant spoke again, her composure was largely restored.

  ‘Really,’ she said, with a nervous little laugh, ‘it’s absurd for me to make such a fuss over a trifle, but I have got a horror of giving evidence – morbid, if you like, but none the less genuine. So I tried to minimise my last conversation with Mr Stanworth as much as possible, in the hope that the police would attach so little importance to it that they wouldn’t call on me to give evidence.’