The Layton Court Mystery Page 4

  The inspector looked up. ‘H’m!’ he observed non-committally, laying the paper on the table again. ‘To the point, at any rate. Was Mr Stanworth in the habit of using a typewriter instead of pen and ink?’

  ‘Just the point I mentioned, Inspector,’ Roger broke in.

  ‘Indeed, sir?’ said the inspector politely. He turned to Jefferson. ‘Do you happen to know, Major Jefferson?’

  ‘Yes, I think he was,’ Jefferson said thoughtfully. ‘He certainly always wrote his letters on it. I fancy he used it a good deal.’

  ‘But to sit down and type a thing like that!’ Roger exclaimed. ‘It seems so unnecessary somehow.’

  ‘And what do you make of it then, Mr Sheringham?’ the inspector asked with tolerant interest.

  ‘I should say it showed a cold-blooded deliberation that proves Mr Stanworth to have been a very exceptional man,’ Roger replied quickly.

  The inspector smiled faintly. ‘I see you’re more used to considering characters than actions,’ he said. ‘Now I should have said that a more ordinary explanation might be that Mr Stanworth, having already something else to type on the machine, slipped in a piece of paper and did that at the same time.’

  ‘Oh!’ Roger remarked, somewhat nonplussed. ‘Yes, I never thought of that.’

  ‘It’s extraordinary what simple things one doesn’t think of at times,’ said the inspector wisely.

  ‘But in that case,’ Roger observed thoughtfully, ‘wouldn’t you expect to find the other thing he had been typing? It can hardly have left the room, can it?’

  ‘That’s impossible to say,’ said the inspector, with the air of one closing the subject. ‘We don’t in the least know what Mr Stanworth did last night. He might have gone out and posted a letter or two before he shot himself; and unless anyone happened to see him we could never know whether he did or not. Now I take it, sir,’ he added, turning to Major Jefferson, ‘that Mr Stanworth was a rather brusque, decisive sort of man?’

  Jefferson considered. ‘Decisive, certainly. But I don’t know whether you would call him brusque exactly. Why?’

  ‘The wording of this statement. It’s a bit – well, out of the ordinary, isn’t it?’

  ‘It’s quite typical,’ said Jefferson shortly.

  ‘It is? That’s what I’m getting at. Now have you any idea at all as to the reasons he hints at?’

  ‘Not in the least. I’m absolutely in the dark.’

  ‘Ah! Well, perhaps Lady Stanworth will be able to throw some light on that point later.’ He strolled over to the door and began to examine the lock.

  Roger drew Alec aside. ‘You know, this is jolly interesting, this business,’ he murmured. ‘I’ve never seen the police at work before. But the story books are all wrong. This man isn’t a fool by any means; very far from it. He caught me out properly over that typing; and twice at that. Perfectly obvious points when they’re mentioned, of course; and I can’t think why they didn’t occur to me. That’s the trouble with an idée fixe; you can’t see beyond it, or even round it. Hullo; he’s trying the windows now.’

  The inspector had crossed the room and was testing the fastenings of the French windows. ‘You said all these were fastened when you got in as well as the door, sir?’ he remarked to Jefferson.

  ‘Yes. But Mr Sheringham can answer for that better than I. He opened them.’

  The inspector flashed a quick glance at Roger. ‘And they were all securely fastened?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Roger with conviction. ‘I remember commenting on it at the time.’

  ‘Why did you open them, sir?’

  ‘To let some air into the place. It smelt of death, if you know what I mean.’

  The inspector nodded as if the explanation satisfied him, and at the same moment the front door bell rang.

  ‘I expect that’s the doctor,’ Jefferson remarked, moving towards the door. ‘I’ll go and see.’

  ‘That man’s badly on the jump,’ Roger commented to himself. Aloud he took the opportunity of remarking, ‘I dare say you’ll find some private papers in that safe which may throw some light on the business.’ Roger badly wanted to know what was inside that safe. And what wasn’t!

  ‘Safe, sir?’ said the inspector sharply. ‘What safe?’

  Roger pointed out where the safe stood. ‘I understand that Mr Stanworth always carried it about with him,’ he remarked casually. ‘That seems to point to the fact of there being something helpful inside, I should say.’

  The inspector glanced round. ‘You never know with these suicides, sir,’ he said in confidential tones. ‘Sometimes the reason’s plain enough; but often there doesn’t seem any reason for it at all. Either they’ve kept it to themselves, or else they’ve gone suddenly dotty. “Temporary Insanity” is more often true than you’d say. Melancholia and such-like. The doctor may be able to help us there.’

  ‘And here he comes, if I’m not very much mistaken,’ Roger observed, as the sound of approaching voices reached their ears.

  The next moment Jefferson reappeared, showing a tall, thin man with a small bag in his hand into the room.

  ‘This is Doctor Matthewson,’ he said.

  The doctor and the inspector exchanged nods of acquaintance. ‘There’s the body, Doctor,’ remarked the latter, waving his hand towards the chair. ‘Nothing very remarkable about the case; but of course you know the coroner will want a detailed report.’

  Dr Matthewson nodded again and, setting his bag upon the table, bent over the still figure in the chair and proceeded to make his examination.

  It did not take him many minutes.

  ‘Been dead about eight hours,’ he remarked briefly to the inspector, as he straightened up again. ‘Let’s see. It’s just past ten now, isn’t it? I should say he died at somewhere round two o’clock this morning. The revolver must have been within a couple of inches of his forehead when he fired. The bullet may be – ’ He felt carefully at the back of the dead man’s head, and, whipping a lancet out of his pocket, made an incision in the skull. ‘Here it is,’ he added, extracting a small object of shining metal from the skin. ‘Lodged just under the scalp.’

  The inspector made a few brief notes in his pocketbook.

  ‘Obviously self-inflicted, of course?’ he observed.

  The doctor raised the dangling hand and scrutinised the fingers that held the revolver. ‘Obviously. The grip is properly adjusted and must have been applied during life.’ With an effort he loosened the clasp of the dead fingers and handed the weapon across the table to the inspector.

  The latter twirled the chamber thoughtfully before opening it. ‘Not fully loaded, but only one chamber fired,’ he announced, and made another note.

  ‘Edges of wound blackened and traces of powder on surrounding skin,’ supplied the doctor. The inspector extracted the empty shell and fitted the bullet carefully into it, comparing the latter with the bullets of the unfired cartridges.

  ‘Why do you do that?’ Roger asked with interest. ‘You know the bullet must have been fired from that revolver.’

  ‘It’s not my job to know anything, sir,’ returned the inspector, a little huffily. ‘My job is to collect evidence.’

  ‘Oh, I wasn’t meaning that you weren’t acting perfectly correctly,’ Roger said hastily. ‘But I’ve never seen anything of this sort before, and I was wondering why you were taking such pains to collect evidence when the cause of death is so obvious.’

  ‘Well, sir, it isn’t my business to determine the cause of death,’ the inspector explained, unbending slightly before the other’s obvious interest. ‘That’s the coroner’s job. All I have to do is to assemble all the available evidence that I can find, however trivial it may seem. Then I lay it before him, and he directs the jury accordingly. That is the correct procedure.’

  Roger retired into the background. ‘I said there weren’t any flies on this bird,’ he muttered to Alec, who had been a silent but none the less interested spectator of the proceedings. ‘That’s the
third time he’s wiped the floor with me.’

  ‘By the way, sir,’ the inspector was saying to Doctor Matthewson, ‘I take it that as Lady Stanworth sent for you, you have been called in here before since they arrived?’

  ‘That’s right, Inspector,’ nodded the doctor. ‘Mr Stanworth called me in himself. He had a slight attack of hay fever.’

  ‘Ah!’ remarked the inspector with interest. ‘And I suppose you examined him more or less.’

  The doctor smiled faintly. He was remembering a somewhat strenuous half hour he had spent with his patient in this very room. ‘As a matter of fact, I examined him very thoroughly indeed. At his own request, of course. He said that it was the first time he had seen a doctor for fifteen years, and he’d like to be properly overhauled while he was about it.’

  ‘And how did you find him?’ the inspector asked with interest. ‘Anything much wrong with him? Heart, or anything like that?’

  ‘See what he’s getting at?’ Roger whispered to Alec. ‘Wants to find out if he was suffering from any incurable disease that might have led to suicide.’

  ‘There was nothing wrong with him at all,’ the doctor said with finality. ‘He was as sound as the proverbial bell. In fact, for a man of his years he was in a really remarkably healthy condition.’

  ‘Oh!’ The inspector was clearly a little disappointed. ‘Well, what about this safe, then?’

  ‘The safe?’ Major Jefferson repeated in startled tones.

  ‘Yes, sir; I think I should like to have a look at the contents, if you please. They may throw some light on the affair.’

  ‘But – but – ’ Major Jefferson hesitated, and it seemed to the interested Roger that his usually impassive face showed traces of real alarm. ‘But is that necessary?’ he asked more calmly. ‘There may be private papers in there of a highly confidential nature. Not that I know anything about it,’ he added somewhat hastily; ‘but Mr Stanworth was always exceedingly reticent about the contents.’

  ‘All the more reason for us to have a look at them, sir,’ returned the inspector dryly. ‘As for anything confidential, that will of course go no farther. That is, unless there is some excellent reason to the contrary,’ he added darkly.

  Still Jefferson hesitated. ‘Of course, if you insist,’ he said slowly, ‘there is no more to be said. Still, it seems highly unnecessary to me, I must say.’

  ‘That, sir, is a matter for me to decide,’ replied the inspector shortly. ‘Now, can you tell me where the key would be and what the combination is?’

  ‘I believe that Mr Stanworth usually kept his key-ring in his right-hand waistcoat pocket,’ Jefferson said tonelessly, as if the subject had ceased to interest him. ‘As for the combination, I have not the least idea what it was. I was not in Mr Stanworth’s confidence to that extent,’ he added with the least possible shade of bitterness in his voice.

  The inspector was feeling in the pocket mentioned. ‘Well, they’re not here now,’ he said. With quick, deft movements he searched the other pockets. ‘Ah! Here they are. In the one above. He must have slipped them into the wrong pocket by mistake. But you say you don’t know the combination? Now I wonder how we can find that.’ He weighed the ring of keys thoughtfully in his hand, deliberating.

  Roger had strolled round the room with a careless air. If that safe was going to be opened, he wanted a good look at the contents. Now he paused by the fireplace.

  ‘Hullo!’ he remarked suddenly. ‘Somebody’s been burning something here.’ He bent and peered into the grate. ‘Paper! I shouldn’t be surprised if those ashes aren’t all that’s left of your evidence, Inspector.’

  The inspector crossed the room hastily and joined him. ‘I daresay you’re right, Mr Sheringham,’ he said disappointedly. ‘I ought to have noticed that myself. Thank you. Still, we must get that safe opened as soon as possible in any case.’

  Roger rejoined Alec. ‘One to me,’ he smiled. ‘Now, if he’d been one of the story-book inspectors, he’d have bitten my head off for discovering something that he’d missed. I like this man.’

  The inspector put his notebook away. ‘Well, Doctor,’ he said briskly, ‘I don’t think there’s anything more that you or I can do here, is there?’

  ‘There’s nothing more that I can do,’ Doctor Matthewson replied. ‘I’d like to get away, too, if you can spare me. I’m rather busy today. I’ll let you have that report at once.’

  ‘Thanks. No, I shan’t want you any more, sir. I’ll let you know when the inquest will be. Probably tomorrow.’ He turned to Jefferson. ‘And now, sir, if you’ll let me use the telephone, I’ll ring up the coroner and notify him. And after that, if there’s another room convenient, I’d like to interview these gentlemen and yourself, and the other members of the household also. We may be able to get a little closer to those reasons that Mr Stanworth mentions.’ He folded up the document in question and tucked it carefully away in his pocket.

  ‘Then you won’t be wanting this room any more?’ asked Jefferson.

  ‘Not for the present. But I’ll send in the constable I brought with me to take charge in the meantime.’

  ‘Oh!’

  Roger looked curiously at the last speaker. Then he turned to Alec.

  ‘Now am I getting a bee in my bonnet,’ he said in a low voice, as they followed the others out of the room, ‘or did Jefferson sound disappointed to you just then?’

  ‘Heaven only knows,’ Alec whispered back. ‘I can’t make out any of them, and you’re as bad as anybody else!’

  ‘Wait till I get you alone. I’m going to talk my head off,’ Roger promised.

  The inspector was giving his instructions to a large burly countryman, disguised as a policeman, who had been waiting patiently in the hall all this time. While Jefferson led the way to the morning room, the latter ambled portentously into the library. It was the first time he had been placed in charge, however temporary, of a case of this importance, and he respected himself tremendously for it.

  Arrived on the scene of the tragedy, he frowned heavily about him, gazed severely at the body for a moment and then very solemnly smelled at the ink-pot. He had once read a lurid story in which what had been thought at first to be a case of suicide had turned out eventually to be a murder carried out by means of a poisoned ink-pot; and he was taking no chances.

  chapter five

  Mr Sheringham Asks a Question

  ‘Now, gentlemen,’ said the inspector, when the four of them were seated in the morning room, ‘there is a certain amount of routine work for me to do, though it may strike you as unimportant.’ He smiled slightly towards Roger.

  ‘Not a bit,’ said that gentleman quickly. ‘I’m extraordinarily interested in all this. You’ve no idea how useful it will be if I ever want to write a detective novel.’

  ‘Well, the chief thing I want to know,’ the inspector resumed, ‘is who was the last person to see the deceased alive. Now when did you see him last, Major Jefferson?’

  ‘About an hour and a half after dinner. Say ten o’clock. He was smoking in the garden with Mr Sheringham, and I wanted to ask him something about the arrangements for today.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Roger nodded. ‘I remember. It was a few minutes past ten. The church clock in the village had just struck.’

  ‘And what did you want to ask him?’

  ‘Oh, nothing very important. Only what time he wanted the car in the morning, if at all. But I usually made a point of seeing him about that time every evening, in case he had any instructions to give me for the following day.’

  ‘I see. And what did he tell you?’

  ‘That he wouldn’t be wanting the car this morning at all.’

  ‘And did he seem quite normal? Not agitated or upset in any way? Perfectly ordinary?’

  ‘Perfectly.’

  ‘And had been all day? At dinner, for instance?’

  ‘Certainly. He was in a very good temper at dinner, as a matter of fact.’

  ‘What do you mean by tha
t?’ asked the inspector quickly. ‘Wasn’t he usually in a good temper?’

  ‘Oh, yes. Usually. But like most strong-minded, self-willed men he could be thoroughly unpleasant if he chose.’

  ‘Now in the course of your duties as his secretary, has it come to your notice whether he has had any bad news lately? Either financial or otherwise?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Would you have known if he had?’

  ‘I doubt it. If it had been financial, he might have told me, as I frequently had to write letters for him regarding his investments and so forth. But otherwise I am quite sure he would not. Mr Stanworth was very reticent indeed about his personal affairs.’

  ‘I see. He was comfortably off, wasn’t he?’

  ‘Very. You might call it more than that.’

  ‘Rich, in fact. And how were his investments laid out? Did he, for instance, put most of his money into one concern?’

  ‘You mean, was he in a position to be ruined by the failure of any single business? No, I’m sure he wasn’t. His money was spread over a large number of investments; and to my certain knowledge he still has a very large sum indeed in Government stock.’

  ‘Then we can take it as fairly sure that, whatever caused him to take his life, it was nothing to do with money matters?’

  ‘Yes, I’m quite convinced of that.’

  ‘Then we must look elsewhere. Now, had Mr Stanworth any relations besides his sister-in-law?’

  ‘Not to my knowledge, and I’ve been with him six years. He had a younger brother, of course, Lady Stanworth’s husband; but I’ve never heard of any others.’

  ‘I see. Well, Major Jefferson, am I to take it that you can’t throw any light at all on the reasons for Mr Stanworth’s suicide? Think carefully, if you please. Suicide is a pretty serious step, and the reasons must be correspondingly serious. The coroner is bound to do his best to bring them to light.’