Absoultely Elsewhere

Absolutely Elsewhere

 

A LORD PETER WIMSEY STORY

 

LORD PETER WIMSEY SAT with Chief-Inspector Parker, of the C.I.D., and

Inspector Henley, of the Baldock police, in the library at ‘The Lilacs’.

‘So you see,’ said Parker, ‘that all the obvious suspects were elsewhere

at the time.’

‘What do you mean by “elsewhere”?’ demanded Wimsey, peevishly.

Parker had hauled him down to Wapley, on the Great North Road, without

his breakfast, and his temper had suffered. ‘Do you mean that they couldn’t

have reached the scene of the murder without travelling at over 186,000

miles a second? Because, if you don’t mean that, they weren’t absolutely

elsewhere. They were only relatively and apparently elsewhere.’

‘For heaven’s sake, don’t go all Eddington. Humanly speaking, they

were elsewhere, and if we’re going to nail one of them we shall have to do

it without going into their Fitzgerald contractions and coefficients of

spherical curvature. I think, Inspector, we had better have them in one by

one, so that I can hear all their stories again. You can check them up if they

depart from their original statements at any point. Let’s take the butler first.’

The Inspector put his head out into the hall and said: ‘Hamworthy.’

The butler was a man of middle age, whose spherical curvature was

certainly worthy of consideration. His large face was pale and puffy, and he

looked unwell. However, he embarked on his story without hesitation.

‘I have been in the late Mr Grimbold’s service for twenty years,

gentlemen, and I have always found him a good master. He was a strict

gentleman, but very just. I know he was considered very hard in business matters, but I suppose he had to be that. He was a bachelor, but he brought

up his two nephews, Mr Harcourt and Mr Neville, and was very good to

them. In his private life I should call him a kind and considerate man. His

profession? Yes, I suppose you would call him a moneylender.

‘About the events of last night, sir, yes. I shut up the house at 7.30 as

usual. Everything was done exactly to time, sir – Mr Grimbold was very

regular in his habits. I locked all the windows on the ground floor, as was

customary during the winter months. I am quite sure I didn’t miss anything

out. They all have burglar-proof bolts and I should have noticed if they had

been out of order. I also locked and bolted the front door and put up the

chain.’

‘How about the conservatory door?’

‘That, sir, is a Yale lock. I tried it, and saw that it was shut. No, I didn’t

fasten the catch. It was always left that way, sir, in case Mr Grimbold had

business which kept him in Town late, so that he could get in without

disturbing the household.’

‘But he had no business in Town last night?’

‘No, sir, but it was always left that way. Nobody could get in without

the key, and Mr Grimbold had that on his ring.’

‘Is there no other key in existence?’

‘I believe’ – the butler coughed – ‘I believe, sir, though I do not know,

that there is one, sir – in the possession of – of a lady, sir, who is at present

in Paris.’

‘I see. Mr Grimbold was about sixty years old, I believe. Just so. What

is the name of this lady?’

‘Mrs Winter, sir. She lives at Wapley, but since her husband died last

month, sir, I understand she has been residing abroad.’

‘I see. Better make a note of that, Inspector. Now, how about the upper

rooms and the back door?’

‘The upper-room windows were all fastened in the same way, sir, except

Mr Grimbold’s bedroom and the cook’s room and mine, sir; but that

couldn’t be reached without a ladder, and the ladder is locked up in the tool-

shed.’

‘That’s all right,’ put in Inspector Henley. ‘We went into that last night.

The shed was locked and, what’s more, there were unbroken cobwebs

between the ladder and the wall.’

‘I went through all the rooms at half-past seven, sir, and there was

nothing out of order.’

‘You may take it from me,’ said the Inspector, again, ‘that there was no

interference with any of the locks. Carry on, Hamworthy.’

‘Yes, sir. While I was seeing to the house, Mr Grimbold came down into

the library for his glass of sherry. At 7.45 the soup was served and I called

Mr Grimbold to dinner. He sat at the end of the table as usual, facing the

serving-hatch.’

‘With his back to the library door,’ said Parker, making a mark on a

rough plan of the room, which lay before him. ‘Was that door shut?’

‘Oh, yes, sir. All the doors and windows were shut.’

‘It looks a dashed draughty room,’ said Wimsey. ‘Two doors and a

serving-hatch and two french windows.’

‘Yes, my lord; but they are all very well-fitting, and the curtains were

drawn.’

His lordship moved across to the connecting door and opened it.

‘Yes,’ he said; ‘good and heavy and moves in sinister silence. I like

these thick carpets, but the pattern’s a bit fierce.’ He shut the door

noiselessly, and returned to his seat.

‘Mr Grimbold would take about five minutes over his soup, sir. When

he had done, I removed it and put on the fish. I did not have to leave the

room; everything comes through the serving-hatch. The wine – that is, the

Chablis – was already on the table. That course was only a small portion of

turbot, and would take Mr Grimbold about five minutes again. I removed

that, and put on the roast pheasant. I was just about to serve Mr Grimbold

with the vegetables, when the telephone-bell rang. Mr Grimbold said:

“You’d better see who it is. I’ll help myself.” It was not the cook’s business,

of course, to answer the telephone.’

‘Are there no other servants?’

‘Only the woman who comes in to clean during the day, sir. I went out

to the instrument, shutting the door behind me.’

‘Was that this telephone or the one in the hall?’

‘The one in the hall, sir. I always used that one, unless I happened to be

actually in the library at the time. The call was from Mr Neville Grimbold

in Town, sir. He and Mr Harcourt have a flat in Jermyn Street. Mr Neville

spoke, and I recognised his voice. He said: “Is that you, Hamworthy? Wait a

moment. Mr Harcourt wants you.” He put the receiver down and then Mr

Harcourt came on. He said: “Hamworthy, I want to run down tonight to see

my uncle, if he’s at home.” I said: “Yes, sir, I’ll tell him.” The young

gentlemen often come down for a night or two, sir. We keep their bedrooms

ready for them. Mr Harcourt said he would be starting at once and expected

to get down by about half-past nine. While he was speaking I heard the big

grandfather-clock up in their flat chime the quarters and strike eight, and

immediately after, our own hall-clock struck, and then I heard the Exchange

say “Three minutes.” So the call must have come through at three minutes

to eight, sir.’

‘Then there’s no doubt about the time. That’s a comfort. What next,

Hamworthy?’

‘Mr Harcourt asked for another call and said: “Mr Neville has got

something to say,” and then Mr Neville came back to the phone. He said he

was going up to Scotland shortly, and he wanted me to send up a country

suit and some stockings and shirts that he had left down here. He wanted

the suit sent to the cleaner’s first, and there were various other instructions,

so that he asked for another three minutes. That would be at 8.3, sir, yes.

And about a minute after that, while he was still speaking, the front-door

bell rang. I couldn’t very well leave the phone, so the caller had to wait, and

at five past eight he rang the bell again. I was just going to ask Mr Neville

to excuse me, when I saw Cook come out of the kitchen and go through the

hall to the front door. Mr Neville asked me to repeat his instructions, and

then the Exchange interrupted us again, so he rang off, and when I turned

round I saw Cook just closing the library door. I went to meet her, and she

said: “Here’s that Mr Payne again, wanting Mr Grimbold. I’ve put him in

the library, but I don’t like the looks of him.” So I said: “All right; I’ll fix

him,” and Cook went back to the kitchen.’

‘One moment,’ said Parker. ‘Who’s Mr Payne?’

‘He’s one of Mr Grimbold’s clients, sir. He lives about five minutes

away, across the fields, and he’s been here before, making trouble. I think

he owes Mr Grimbold money, sir, and wanted more time to pay.’

‘He’s here, waiting in the hall,’ added Henley.

‘Oh?’ said Wimsey. ‘The unshaven party with the scowl and the ash-

plant, and the blood-stained coat?’

‘That’s him, my lord,’ said the butler. ‘Well, sir’ – he turned to Parker

again, ‘I started to go along to the library, when it come over me sudden-

like that I’d never taken in the claret – Mr Grimbold would be getting very annoyed. So I went back to my pantry – you see where that is, sir – and

fetched it from where it was warming before the fire. I had a little hunt then

for the salver, sir, till I found I had put down my evening paper on top of it,

but I wasn’t more than a minute, sir, before I got back into the dining-room.

And then, sir – the butler’s voice faltered – ‘then I saw Mr Grimbold fallen

forward on the table, sir, all across his plate, like. I thought he must have

been took ill and I hurried up to him and found – I found he was dead, sir,

with a dreadful wound in his back.’

‘No weapon anywhere?’

‘Not that I could see, sir. There was a terrible lot of blood. It made me

feel shockingly faint, sir, and for a minute I didn’t hardly know what to do.

As soon as I could think of anything, I rushed over to the serving-hatch and

called Cook. She came hurrying in and let out an awful scream when she

saw the master. Then I remembered Mr Payne and opened the library door.

He was standing there, and he began at once, asking how long he’d have to

wait. So I said: “Here’s an awful thing! Mr Grimbold has been murdered!”

and he pushed past me into the dining-room, and the first thing he said was:

“How about those windows?” He pulled back the curtain of the one nearest

the library, and there was the window standing open. “This is the way he

went,” he said, and started to rush out. I said, “no, you don’t” – thinking he

meant to get away, and I hung on to him. He called me a lot of names, and

then he said: “Look here, my man, be reasonable. The fellow’s getting away

all this time. We must have a look for him.” So I said, “Not without I go

with you.” And he said, “All right.” So I told Cook not to touch anything

but to ring up the police, and Mr Payne and I went out after I’d fetched my

torch from the pantry.’

‘Did Payne go with you to fetch it?’

‘Yes, sir. Well, him and me went out and we searched about in the

garden, but we couldn’t see any footprints or anything, because it’s an

asphalt path all round the house and down to the gate. And we couldn’t see

any weapon, either. So then he said: “We’d better go back and get the car

and search the roads,” but I said: “No, he’ll be away by then,” because it’s

only a quarter of a mile from our gate to the Great North Road, and it would

take us five or ten minutes before we could start. So Mr Payne said:

“Perhaps you’re right,” and came back to the house with me. Well, then, sir,

the constable came from Wapley, and after a bit, the Inspector here and Dr

Crofts from Baldock, and they made a search and asked a lot of questions,

which I answered to the best of my ability, and I can’t tell you no more sir.’

‘Did you notice,’ asked Parker, ‘whether Mr Payne had any stains of

blood about him?’

‘No sir – I can’t say that he had. When I first saw him, he was standing

in here, right under the light, and I think I should have seen it if there was

anything, sir. I can’t say fairer than that.’

‘Of course you’ve searched this room, Inspector, for bloodstains or a

weapon or for anything such as gloves or a cloth, or anything that might

have been used to protect the murderer from bloodstains?’

‘Yes, Mr Parker. We searched very carefully.’

‘Could anybody have come downstairs while you were in the dining-

room with Mr Grimbold?’

‘Well, sir, I suppose they might. But they’d have to have got into the

house before half-past seven, sir, and hidden themselves somewhere. Still,

there’s no doubt it might have happened that way. They couldn’t come

down by the back stairs, of course, because they’d have had to pass the

kitchen and Cook would have heard them, the passage being flagged, sir,

but the front stairs – well, I don’t know hardly what to say about that.’

‘That’s how the man got in, depend upon it,’ said Parker. ‘Don’t look so

distressed, Hamworthy. You can’t be expected to search all the cupboards in

the house every evening for concealed criminals. Now I think I had better

see the two nephews. I suppose they and their uncle got on together all

right?’

‘Oh, yes, sir. Never had a word of any sort. It’s been a great blow to

them, sir. They were terribly upset when Mr Grimbold was ill in the

summer –’

‘He was ill, was he?’

‘Yes sir, with his heart, last July. He took a very bad turn, sir, and we

had to send for Mr Neville. But he pulled round wonderfully, sir – only he

never seemed to be quite such a cheerful gentleman afterwards. I think it

made him feel he wasn’t getting younger, sir. But I’m sure nobody ever

thought he’d be cut off like this.’

‘How is his money left?’ asked Parker.

Well, sir, that I don’t know. I believe it would be divided between the

two gentlemen, sir – not but what they have plenty of their own. But Mr

Harcourt would be able to tell you, sir. He’s the executor.’

‘Very well, we’ll ask him. Are the brothers on good terms?’

‘Oh, yes, indeed, sir. Most devoted. Mr Neville would do anything for

Mr Harcourt – and Mr Harcourt for him, I’m sure. A very pleasant pair of

gentlemen, sir. You couldn’t have nicer.’

‘Thanks, Hamworthy. That will do for the moment, unless anybody else

has anything to ask?’

‘How much of the pheasant was eaten, Hamworthy?’

‘Well, my lord, not a great deal of it – I mean, nothing like all of what

Mr Grimbold had on his plate. But he’d ate some of it. It might have taken three or four minutes or so to eat what he had done, my lord, judging by

what I helped him to.’

‘There was nothing to suggest that he had been interrupted, for example,

by somebody coming to the windows, or of his having got up to let the

person in?’

‘Nothing at all, my lord, that I could see.’

‘The chair was pushed in close to the table when I saw him,’ put in the

Inspector, ‘and his napkin was on his knees and the knife and fork lying just

under his hands, as though, he had dropped them when the blow came. I

understand that the body was not disturbed.’

‘No sir, I never moved it – except, of course, to make sure that he was

dead. But I never felt any doubt of that, sir, when I saw that dreadful wound

in his back. I just lifted his head and let it fall forward again, same as

before.’

‘All right, then, Hamworthy. Ask Mr Harcourt to come in.’ Mr Harcourt

Grimbold was a brisk-looking man of about thirty-five. He explained that

he was a stockbroker and his brother Neville an official in the Ministry of

Public Health, and that they had been brought up by their uncle from the

ages of eleven and ten respectively. He was aware that his uncle had had

many business enemies, but for his own part he had received nothing from

him but kindness.

‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you much about this terrible business, as I didn’t

get here till 9.45 last night, when, of course, it was all over.’

‘That was a little later than you hoped to be here?’

‘Just a little. My tail-lamp went out between Welwyn Garden City and

Welwyn, and I was stopped by a bobby. I went to a garage in Welwyn,

where they found that the lead had come loose. They put it right, and that

delayed me for a few minutes more.’

‘It’s about forty miles from here to London?’

‘Just over. In the ordinary way, at that time of night, I should reckon an

hour and a quarter from door to door. I’m not a speed merchant.’

‘Did you drive yourself?’

‘Yes. I have a chauffeur, but I don’t always bring him down here with

me.’

‘When did you leave London?’

‘About 8.20, I should think. Neville went round to the garage and

fetched the car as soon as he’d finished telephoning, while I put my

toothbrush and so on in my bag.’

‘You didn’t hear about the death of your uncle before you left?’

‘No. They didn’t think of ringing me up, I gather, till after I had started.

The police tried to get Neville later on, but he’d gone round to the club, or

something. I phoned him myself after I got here, and he came down this

morning.’

‘Well, now, Mr Grimbold, can you tell us anything about your late

uncle’s affairs?’

‘You mean his will? Who profits, and that kind of thing? Well, I do, for

one, and Neville, for another. And Mrs – Have you heard of a Mrs Winter?’

‘Something, yes.’

‘Well, she does, for a third. And then, of course, old Hamworthy gets a

nice little nest-egg, and the cook gets something, and there is a legacy of

£500 to the clerk at my uncle’s London office. But the bulk of it goes to us

and to Mrs Winter. I know what you’re going to ask – how much is it? I

haven’t the faintest idea, but I know it must be something pretty

considerable. The old man never let on to a soul how much he really was

worth, and we never bothered about it. I’m turning over a good bit, and Neville’s salary is a heavy burden on a long-suffering public, so we only

had a mild, academic kind of interest in the question.’

‘Do you suppose Hamworthy knew he was down for a legacy?’

‘Oh, yes – there was no secret about that. He was to get £100 and a life-

interest in £200 a year, provided, of course, he was still in my uncle’s

service when he – my uncle, I mean – died.’

‘And he wasn’t under notice, or anything?’

‘N-no. No. Not more than usual. My uncle gave everybody notice about

once a month, to keep them up to the mark. But it never came to anything.

He was like the Queen of Hearts in Alice – he never executed nobody, you

know.’

‘I see. We’d better ask Hamworthy about that, though. Now, this Mrs

Winter. Do you know anything about her?’

Oh, yes. She’s a nice woman. Of course, she was Uncle William’s

mistress for donkey’s years, but her husband was practically potty with

drink, and you could scarcely blame her. I wired her this morning and here’s

her reply, just come.’

He handed Parker a telegram, despatched from Paris, which read:

‘Terribly shocked and grieved. Returning immediately. Love and sympathy.

Lucy.’

‘You are on friendly terms with her, then?’

‘Good Lord, yes. Why not? We were always damned sorry for her.

Uncle William would have taken her away with him somewhere, only she

wouldn’t leave Winter. In fact, I think they had practically settled that they

were to get married now that Winter has had the grace to peg out. She’s

only about thirty-eight, and it’s time she had some sort of show in life, poor

thing.’

‘So, in spite of the money, she hadn’t really very much to gain by your

uncle’s death?’

‘Not a thing. Unless, of course, she wanted to marry somebody younger,

and was afraid of losing the cash. But I believe she was honestly fond of the

old boy. Anyhow, she couldn’t have done the murder, because she’s in

Paris.’

‘H’m! said Parker. ‘I suppose she is. We’d better make sure, though. I’ll

ring through to the Yard and have her looked out for at the ports. Is this

phone through to the Exhange?’

‘Yes,’ said the Inspector. ‘It doesn’t have to go through the hall phone;

they’re connected in parallel.’

‘All right. Well, I don’t think we need trouble you further, at the

moment, Mr Grimbold. I’ll put my call through, and after that we’ll send

for the next witness … Give me Whitehall 1212, please … I suppose the

time of Mr Harcourt’s call from town has been checked, Inspector?’

‘Yes, Mr Parker. It was put in at 7.57 and renewed at 8 o’clock and 8.3.

Quite an expensive little item. And we’ve also checked up on the constable

who spoke to him about his lights and the garage that put them right for

him. He got into Welwyn at 9.5 and left again about 9.15. The number of

the car is right, too.’

‘Well, he’s out of it in any case, but it’s just as well to check all we can

… Hullo, is that Scotland Yard? Put me through to Chief-Inspector Hardy.

Chief-Inspector Parker speaking.’

As soon as he had finished with his call, Parker sent for Neville

Grimbold. He was rather like his brother, only a little slimmer and a little

more suave in speech, as befitted a Civil Servant. He had nothing to add,

except to confirm his brother’s story and to explain that he had gone to a cinema from 8.20 to about 10 o’clock, and then on to his club, so that he

had heard nothing about the tragedy till later in the evening.

The cook was the next witness. She had a great deal to say, but nothing

very convincing to tell. She had not happened to see Hamworthy go to the

pantry for the claret, otherwise she confirmed his story. She scouted the

idea that somebody had been concealed in one of the upper rooms, because

the daily woman, Mrs Crabbe, had been in the house till nearly dinnertime,

putting camphor-bags in all the wardrobes; and, anyhow, she had no doubt

but what ‘that Payne’ had stabbed Mr Grimbold – ‘a nasty, murdering beast.

After which, it only remained to interview the murderous Mr Payne.

Mr Payne was almost aggressively frank. He had been treated very

harshly by Mr Grimbold. What with exorbitant usury and accumulated

interest added to the principal, he had already paid back about five times the

original loan, and now Mr Grimbold had refused him any more time to pay,

and had announced his intention of foreclosing on the security, namely, Mr

Payne’s house and land. It was all the more brutal because Mr Payne had

every prospect of being able to pay off the entire debt in six months’ time,

owing to some sort of interest or share in something or other which was

confidently expected to turn up trumps. In his opinion, old Grimbold had

refused to renew on purpose, so as to prevent him from paying – what he

wanted was the property. Grimbold’s death was the saving of the situation,

because it would postpone settlement till after the confidently-expected

trumps had turned up. Mr Payne would have murdered old Grimbold with

pleasure, but he hadn’t done so, and in any case he wasn’t the sort of man to

stab anybody in the back, though, if the money-lender had been a younger

man, he, Payne, would have been happy to break all his bones for him.

There it was, and they could take it or leave it. If that old fool, Hamworthy,

hadn’t got in his way, he’d have laid hands on the murderer all right – if Hamworthy was a fool, which he doubted. Blood? yes, there was blood on

his coat. He had got that in struggling with Hamworthy at the window.

Hamworth’s hands had been all over blood when he made his appearance in

the library. No doubt he had got it from the corpse. He, Payne, had taken

care not to change his clothes, because, if he had done so, somebody would

have tried to make out that he was hiding something. Actually, he had not

been home, or asked to go home, since the murder. Mr Payne added that he

objected strongly to the attitude taken up by the local police, who had

treated him with undisguised hostility. To which Inspector Henley replied

that Mr Payne was quite mistaken.

‘Mr Payne,’ said Lord Peter, ‘will you tell me one thing? When you

heard the commotion in the dining-room, and the cook screaming, and so

on, why didn’t you go in at once to find out what was the matter?’

‘Why?’ retorted Mr Payne. ‘Because I never heard anything of the sort,

that’s why. The first thing I knew about it was seeing the butler-fellow

standing there in the doorway, waving his bloody hands about and

gibbering.’

‘Ah!’ said Wimsey. ‘I thought it was a good, solid door. Shall we ask

the lady to go in and scream for us now, with the dining-room window

open?’

The Inspector departed on this errand, while the rest of the company

waited anxiously to count the screams. Nothing happened, however, till

Henley put his head in and asked, what about it?

‘Nothing,’ said Parker.

‘It’s a well-built house,’ said Wimsey. ‘I suppose any sound coming

through the window would be muffled by the conservatory. Well, Mr Payne,

if you didn’t hear the screams it’s not surprising that you didn’t hear the

murderer. Are those all your witnesses, Charles? Because I’ve got to get back to London to see a man about a dog. But I’ll leave you with two

suggestions with my blessing. One is, that you should look for a car, which

was parked within a quarter of a mile of this house last night, between 7.30

and 8.15; the second is, that you should all come and sit in the dining-room

tonight, with the doors and windows shut, and watch the french windows.

I’ll give Mr Parker a ring about eight. Oh, and you might lend me the key of

the conservatory door. I’ve got a theory about it.’

The Chief Inspector handed over the key, and his lordship departed.

The party assembled in the dining-room was in no very companionable

mood. In fact, all the conversation was supplied by the police, who kept up

a chatty exchange of fishing reminiscences, while Mr Payne glowered, the

two Grimbolds smoked cigarette after cigarette, and the cook and the butler

balanced themselves nervously on the extreme edges of their chairs. It was

a relief when the telephone-bell rang.

Parker glanced at his watch as he got up to answer it. ‘Seven-fifty-

seven,’ he observed, and saw the butler pass his handkerchief over his

twitching lips. ‘Keep your eye on the windows.’ He went out into the hall.

‘Hullo!’ he said.

‘Is that Chief-Inspector Parker?’ asked a voice he knew well. ‘This is

Lord Peter Wimsey’s man speaking from his lordship’s rooms in London.

Would you hold the line a moment? His lordship wishes to speak to you.’

Parker heard the receiver set down and lifted again. Then Wimsey’s

voice came through: ‘Hullo, old man? Have you found that car yet?’

‘We’ve heard of a car,’ replied the Chief Inspector cautiously, ‘at a

Road-House on the Great North Road, about five minutes’ walk from the

house.’

‘Was the number ABJ 28?’

‘Yes. How did you know?’

‘I thought it might be. It was hired from a London garage at five o’clock

yesterday afternoon and brought back just before ten. Have you traced Mrs

Winter?’

‘Yes, I think so. She landed from the Calais boat this evening. So

apparently she’s O.K.’

‘I thought she might be. Now listen. Do you know that Harcourt

Grimbold’s affairs are in a bit of a mess? He nearly had a crisis last July, but

somebody came to his rescue – possibly his Uncle, don’t you think? All

rather fishy, my informant saith. And I’m told, very confidentially, that he’s

got badly caught over the Biggars-Whitlow crash. But of course he’ll have

no difficulty in raising money now, on the strength of Uncle’s will. But I

imagine the July business gave Uncle William a jolt. I expect –’

He was interrupted by a little burst of tinkling music, followed by the

eight silvery strokes of a bell.

‘Hear that? Recognise it? That’s the big French clock in my sitting-

room … What? All right, Exchange, give me another three minutes. Bunter

wants to speak to you again.’

The receiver rattled, and the servant’s suave voice took up the tale.

‘His lordship asks me to ask you, sir, to ring off at once and go straight

into the dining-room.’

Parker obeyed. As he entered the room, he got an instantaneous

impression of six people, sitting as he had left them, in an expectant semi-

circle, their eyes strained towards the french windows. Then the library

door opened noiselessly and Lord Peter Wimsey walked in.

‘Good God!’ exclaimed Parker, involuntarily. ‘How did you get here?’

The six heads jerked round suddenly.

‘On the back of the light waves,’ said Wimsey, smoothing back his hair.

‘I have travelled eighty miles to be with you, at 186,000 miles a second.’

‘It was rather obvious, really,’ said Wimsey, when they had secured

Harcourt Grimbold (who fought desperately) and his brother Neville (who

collapsed and had to be revived with brandy). It had to be those two; they

were so very much elsewhere – almost absolutely elsewhere. The murder

could only have been committed between 7.57 and 8.6, and there had to be

a reason for that prolonged phone-call about something that Harcourt could

very well have explained when he came. And the murderer had to be in the

library before 7.57, or he would have been seen in the hall – unless

Grimbold had let him in by the french window, which didn’t appear likely.

‘Here’s how it was worked. Harcourt set off from town in a hired car

about six o’clock, driving himself. He parked the car at the Road-House,

giving some explanation. I suppose he wasn’t known there?’

‘No; it’s quite a new place; only opened last month.’

‘Ah! Then he walked the last quarter-mile on foot, arriving here at 7.45.

It was dark, and he probably wore galoshes, so as not to make a noise

coming up the path. He let himself into the conservatory with a duplicate

key.’

‘How did he get that?’

‘Pinched Uncle William’s key off his ring last July, when the old boy

was ill. It was probably the shock of hearing that his dear nephew was in

trouble that caused the illness. Harcourt was here at the time – you

remember it was only Neville that had to be “sent for” – and I suppose

Uncle paid up then, on conditions. But I doubt if he’d have done as much

again – especially as he was thinking of getting married. And I expect, too,

Harcourt thought that Uncle might easily alter his will after marriage. He

might even have founded a family, and what would poor Harcourt do then,

poor thing? From every point of view, it was better that Uncle should depart

this life. So the duplicate key was cut and the plot thought out, and Brother Neville who would “do anything for Mr Harcourt,” was roped in to help.

I’m inclined to think that Harcourt must have done something rather worse

than merely lose money, and Neville may have troubles of his own. But

where was I?’

‘Coming in at the conservatory door.’

Oh, yes – that’s the way I came tonight. He’d take cover in the garden

and would know when Uncle William went into the dining-room, because

he’d see the library light go out. Remember, he knew the household. He

came in, in the dark, locking the outer door after him, and waited by the

telephone until Neville’s call came through from London. When the bell

stopped ringing, he lifted the receiver in the library. As soon as Neville had

spoken his little piece, Harcourt chipped in. Nobody could hear him through

these sound-proof doors, and Hamworthy couldn’t possibly tell that his

voice wasn’t coming from London. In fact, it was coming from London,

because, as the phones are connected in parallel, it could only come by way

of the Exchange. At eight o’clock, the grandfather clock in Jermyn Street

struck – further proof that the London line was open. The minute Harcourt

heard that, he called on Neville to speak again, and hung up under cover of

the rattle of Neville’s receiver. Then Neville detained Hamworthy with a lot

of rot about a suit, while Harcourt walked into the dining-room, stabbed his

uncle, and departed by the window. He had five good minutes in which to

hurry back to his car and drive off – and Hamworthy and Payne actually

gave him a few minutes more by suspecting and hampering one another.’

‘Why didn’t he go back through the library and conservatory?’

‘He hoped everybody would think that the murderer had come in by the

window. In the meantime, Neville left London at 8.20 in Harcourt’s car,

carefully drawing the attention of a policeman and a garage man to the

licence number as he passed through Welwyn. At an appointed place outside Welwyn he met Harcourt, primed him with his little story about tail-

lights, and changed cars with him. Neville returned to town with the hired

bus; Harcourt came back here with his own car. But I’m afraid you’ll have a

little difficulty in finding the weapon and the duplicate key and Harcourt’s

blood-stained gloves and coat. Neville probably took them back, and they

may be anywhere. There’s a good, big river in London.’