The Longer Bodies (14 page)

‘Key?' said Anthony. ‘I haven't one, I'm afraid, that will fit the back shed. Sorry.'

The inspector scowled at him.

‘Think again,' he said briefly. Anthony shook his head.

‘Sorry,' he said again.

‘Well, if you haven't a key,' said Bloxham, ‘how did you get the bathchair out of the shed on Thursday night and Friday night of last week?'

Anthony shook his head again, and said sadly:

‘I haven't the least idea what you're talking about, you know.'

‘Oh!' said Bloxham.

There was a short pause.

‘No,' said Anthony. He gave a slight spring and continued his gymnastic exercises.

The inspector went back to Miss Caddick.

‘What would you say, Miss Caddick, if I told you that Mr Anthony gained admission to the shed and took the bathchair out?' he said.

Miss Caddick blinked nervously.

‘Well, since you
put
it to me, inspector,' she piped, ‘I should say I am not surprised. Not in the
least
surprised! A dreadfully unsatisfactory young man in every way. I have no doubt that his intention was for
dear
Mrs Puddequet to catch her death of cold, so that he could inherit her property, which, of course, according to her new will, he would certainly do if she died
before
one of the grandnephews becomes an international champion.'

The inspector gaped at her.

‘Say it again,' he begged feebly. Miss Caddick said it again.

‘Of course, my own little legacy is
secure
,' she continued. ‘I have dear Mrs Puddequet's word for that. So I do hope, inspector, that you will make it quite
clear
to everyone that
I
have no motive for committing any crime.'

The inspector looked at her with new interest.

‘And now,' he said, ‘what
were
you doing between nine and eleven-thirty on the night of the murder?'

Miss Caddick gasped and turned pale.

‘Oh, but I was
reading
, inspector,' she cried. ‘I assure you that I was reading. And I went to bed at half-past ten—'

‘After the murder was committed,' said Bloxham brutally. Miss Caddick gave a little scream of terror, and covered her face.

‘Oh, please,
please
, inspector!' she said. ‘
So
unchivalrous to say a thing like that!'

At this interesting moment a knocking on the door as with a stick, or, in this case, Great-aunt Puddequet's beloved umbrella, heralded the approach of the bathchair. Richard Cowes was pushing it.

‘Now, now, now!' squealed Great-aunt Puddequet with her usual vigour. She rapped Miss Caddick playfully on the shoulder with the ferrule of the umbrella. ‘On Friday we entertain the trainer in the morning room at ten o'clock at night, and on Tuesday—'

She stopped. Miss Caddick had fallen fainting to the floor. The inspector and Richard Cowes rendered ineffectual, manlike assistance, and Great-aunt Puddequet improved the shining hour by ejaculating at five-second intervals, ‘Don't be a fool, Companion Caddick!' until the poor woman recovered. The inspector then left the scene of action, and, sending a maid in search of one of the girls, went to find Kost.

The trainer was reading a newspaper. He looked up when the inspector's shadow dropped across the page.

‘About that tale you told me,' said Bloxham. He spoke pleasantly, but there was an ill-tempered glint in his eye. ‘Why didn't you say you paid a visit to Miss Caddick in the morning room, after you left the public house? I know that part of your yarn's true, because I checked it up.'

Kost lowered the paper and shrugged his wide shoulders.

‘I will tell you, perhaps,' he said. ‘I am sorry you find me a liar, but, sure, I am. It was this way. I am going to tell you about this visit, but later I say to myself: “Ludwig, you are a fool, perhaps. It was too near the time of the murder, this visit of yours. You go innocently, and you stay the very short time—not fifteen minutes, no; but more than ten, perhaps. And while you are there, this Hobson, the police make out he is murdered, you see. There is no noise, except the gramophone next door, and they sing the tunes as well, perhaps. Pretty big noise there, but no Hobson. Will the police believe what you say, Ludwig? They will not, perhaps.”'

‘Didn't you see the corpse in the sunk garden, then,' asked the inspector, ‘when you left the house?'

‘Not me. I don't return through the sunk garden, perhaps. I return through the house, and back through the kitchen garden. That way out. I am afraid I shall be seen and someone will report me to the boss. Cannot risk that.'

‘And when did you push Hobson into the road?'

‘Then. Immediately. He is just arriving at the house, I think. He is in an objectionable condition. I am afraid he will with his shoutings frighten the ladies, perhaps, so I run him out of the gate and I think he falls into the ditch. Then I return to my hut.'

‘Oh?' said Bloxham stonily. ‘Let me take you through your tale once more, and see if I can find any flaws in it.'

Kost grinned.

‘I am a liar, perhaps,' he said cheerfully. ‘Who is not? And I am afraid of your English law, that is why I tell the lies. Now, I am still afraid of your English law, so I tell you the truth, this time.'

‘Quite,' said Bloxham drily. ‘Now, this is your yarn. You went first to the public house. You then returned to the house and went to call on Miss Caddick. Time—about a quarter to ten. At ten o'clock, or thereabouts, you left her, and came out by way of the kitchen regions into the grounds. You then encountered Hobson and ran him into the road. Later—which must have been almost immediately—he went into the sunk garden and got himself murdered, but by that time you had returned to your hut.'

‘So,' said Kost, with emphasis.

‘Ah!' said Bloxham, with more emphasis. ‘And when did you open the back shed with your key and take out the bathchair?'

Kost looked surprised.

‘What for should I require the bathchair, perhaps?' said he.

‘To carry Hobson's corpse to the lake,' said the inspector.

Kost chuckled gently.

‘You should tell that to the mare's nest, perhaps,' said he.

‘I will, when I've found the horse marines,' retorted Bloxham. He turned and walked off in the direction of the house.

Kost gazed after him. Then he gave a peculiar little giggle and picked up the newspaper again.

The inspector went back to the room in which he had left the overcome Miss Caddick. To his relief, her employer had gone, and no one was with her but Amaris Cowes.

‘Now, Miss Caddick,' said the police officer kindly, ‘I don't want you to become alarmed and nervous, but I simply must ask you a few more questions.'

Miss Caddick gasped, shut her eyes, and waved him feebly away.

‘Now, don't be irritating,' said Amaris Cowes firmly. ‘The inspector is quite a nice young man and very kindhearted. Besides, you know you have nothing to fear. You didn't kill the Hobson person, did you?'

Miss Caddick gave a little moan, but whether of fear or denial it was impossible to determine. Amaris patted her encouragingly on the shoulder.

‘Now, speak up,' she urged. ‘Tell the truth and hang the consequences!'

‘But—but I
can't
!' wailed old Mrs Puddequet's unfortunate prop-and-stay.

The inspector thought it time to assert himself.

‘If you wouldn't mind leaving things to me, Miss Cowes,' he said. ‘Stay within call, by all means, if you think Miss Caddick is likely to require any further assistance, but—er—yes,
outside
the door, if you would be so good.'

Miss Caddick gazed in anguish at the departing form of Miss Cowes. Then she turned to the inspector.

‘I would willingly tell
you
the truth, inspector,' she said, ‘but there is dear Mrs Puddequet to be considered. I did all for the best, inspector, but our dear Mrs Puddequet is apt to be a little
censorious
. Yes, just a
little
censorious. You see, she has not had the freedom that we modern people have acquired.'

‘Mrs Puddequet need know nothing of what you tell me, Miss Caddick,' said the inspector woodenly. ‘You mean Kost spent the night with you, I suppose?'

‘Oh, but inspector!' wailed Miss Caddick, clasping her hands. ‘Not
with
me! Oh, indeed, do not imagine anything so
dreadful
! I
never
imagined that the police read the Sunday papers to
that
extent! But he
did
spend the night in the house. I—I admit that!'

‘Ah!' said Bloxham. He glanced at her face and then down at the blank page of his notebook.

‘You see, it was like this.' Once launched, Miss Caddick seemed eager to get the tale told.

‘He had confided in me several times how very
spartan
were the arrangements made for the athletes by dear Mrs Puddequet. The beds, he said, were hard. The food was plentiful but plain. The hours were a disgrace. It was very suitable for the young men, he thought, but the trainer was entitled to more consideration. I sympathized with the man, but, of course, it was not for me to pass on his complaints to dear Mrs Puddequet. It would have brought on one of her attacks, and that—er—those—er—them I have learned to
dread
. So I said nothing but a few words of womanly consolation such as may be conceived and uttered in sisterly fashion by any true ornament of her sex, until at last, on the morning of Friday—you know the Friday I mean?—the
fatal
Friday—Kost said that he could stand it no longer, and should give notice at once unless a proper bed could be found for him. Poor fellow! He looked so noble, and he seemed so determined to carry out his dreadful threat, that I felt I must do something to help him.'

‘What dreadful threat was that?' asked Bloxham.

‘Why, to give in his notice, inspector. How awkward for me!'

‘Why for you?'

‘Well, I engaged him for the post, you see. By letter, of course. Mrs Puddequet left it all to me, and so just think how
angry
she would be if my choice gave in his notice after less than a fortnight's work!'

‘I see.'

‘So I said to him that I would see him in the morning room at about a quarter to ten that evening, and that he was to bring his—all the things he would require for the night. He came exactly to time, but unfortunately he had forgotten his—er —his apparel. I told him my plan, and then he returned, by way of the kitchen (with Mrs Macbrae's kind permission), and later came back to the morning room with his things.'

‘And where did he sleep?' asked the inspector.

‘Well,' began Miss Caddick, glancing nervously round the room, ‘there
was
only one bed that could be used, and the
job
I had to purloin sufficient
linen
for it without being discovered!'

‘And which bed was it?' enquired the inspector patiently.

‘Well,' said Miss Caddick, trembling with horror at the recollection of her own daring, ‘it was the bed in the little dressing room that opens out of dear Mrs Puddequet's big bedroom. After all, it is
never
used, and the bed, although small, is
exceedingly
comfortable, for I slept on it for a week once when dear Mrs Puddequet contracted the influenza. I warned him that he must be
very
quiet, and that he
must
not snore, and that he must be prepared to vacate the room at half-past five on the Saturday morning, all of which
instructions
I must say he carried out to the very letter.'

‘He had to pass through Mrs Puddequet's bedroom, of course, to get to this small dressing room?' said Bloxham.

‘Well, just across one
corner
of it,' Miss Caddick admitted. ‘But she is quite a
sound
sleeper.'

‘I see. Now, Miss Caddick, we come to the important point in all this. I want you to go on being quite frank with me, because it is only in this way that I can arrive at the whole truth, of which your narrative is just a small part. What about the time of the murder? It seems to me that you and Kost (on the
qui vive
and so on, as you must have been that night) would certainly have heard something of Hobson.'

‘Did Mr Kost tell you that he pushed a man out of the gate just before ten o'clock?' asked Miss Caddick.

‘He mentioned the fact, yes.'

‘Well, when we heard Hobson shouting below in that terrifying way, Mr Kost said to me, “Here is that fellow back again, I suppose. What a worthless young man. I shall go and give him a piece of my mind.”— But I prevented him from doing so, because I did not wish him to betray to
anyone
—not even to one of the villagers—his presence in the house that night. You understand my position in the matter, inspector, don't you?'

‘Oh, quite,' said Bloxham. ‘In fact, one more question and then you're through. At what time did his shouting stop?'

‘Oh, that I could not say, inspector. You see, there was such a
noise
in the next room, what with the gramophone and the singing and the laughing, and I was so anxious to get Mr Kost safely into bed that I scarcely know whether it stopped while we were still in the morning-room or whether it was still going on when we went upstairs.'

‘I see. Well, Miss Caddick, I think you have been very courageous to tell me all this, and I don't think you need fear the results of your frankness.'

He was about to go when another thought struck him.

‘By the way,' he said, ‘did Kost have any supper before going to bed?'

‘He had his usual meal, which corresponds roughly to our own dinner,' replied Miss Caddick, obviously surprised. ‘Why?'

‘I just wondered,' said Bloxham. ‘And now would you mind showing me your bedroom door, and then, if it isn't troubling you too much, I would like you to accompany me into the grounds and point out to me your bedroom window. I want to see which way it faces.'