Annie Haynes Premium Collection – 8 Murder Mysteries in One Volume. Annie Haynes

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ think that is improbable in the extreme. James would be at the door, and Jenkins and Charles, as well as myself, a good deal of the time in the hall. No, I think that idea must be dismissed at once.”

      “Then there is nothing to fall back upon but the other theory—a confidant—that I can see. Mr. Jenkins tells me he fastened all the doors and French windows himself that night at six o’clock. It is an early hour for closing, Sir Arthur.”

      “It is,” the young man assented, “and an inconvenient one. It is a fad of Lady Laura’s. You may have heard that some suspicious looking characters got in the house through one of the side entrances about six months ago, and the affair naturally alarmed my mother; this early closing”—with a laugh—“has been the result.”

      “Ah, yes, I think I heard of that affair!” Superintendent Stokes said thoughtfully. “I have made a few inquiries on my own account since you spoke to me, Sir Arthur, but so far I have not discovered anything calculated to elucidate matters. Take it altogether, it is one of the queerest cases I have ever been engaged upon. That disappearance of the tobacco pouch, now, what do you make of that? It might have given us a clue.”

      “Oh, I scarcely think so! It might have been there for days.”

      “Or it might not,” the superintendent remarked sapiently. “At any rate, I should have liked to have had a look at it. Worked with flowers, your butler tells me.”

      “Oh, yes. Just an ordinary-looking pouch, I have seen hundreds like it,” Sir Arthur replied carelessly. He was inclined to think Superintendent Stokes something of a Jack in office. “I threw it down on the table, and the next morning it could not be found. Still, its loss can scarcely be regarded as of any importance.”

      The superintendent made no further comment. He apparently waited for further information, and his eyes glanced indifferently round the room.

      Dr. Grieve leaned forward.

      “I must protest against that tobacco-pouch being regarded as having any bearing on the case whatever,” he remarked fussily. “Nurse Marston and her mother have been known to me for years—respectable, well-conducted women, both of them. The idea that is apparently gaining ground in some quarters that a clandestine love affair is at the bottom of the girl’s disappearance is, I am persuaded, entirely without foundation.”

      The superintendent slowly brought his eyes back from the survey of the room and fixed them on the doctor’s face.

      “I hope you may be right, sir, I am sure. You see, I have not been long at Lockford, and the opinions of a gentleman like yourself, who has known the folks all their lives, must be invaluable to a stranger such as I am. The young woman came here on your recommendation, I understand, sir?”

      “Certainly! I knew her to be a thoroughly capable and conscientious nurse, and when her name was mentioned to me by Mr. Garth Davenant I had no hesitation in agreeing with him that she was an eminently suitable person to undertake the case.”

      The superintendent stroked his chin once more thoughtfully for a moment.

      “Ah, Mr. Garth Davenant spoke of her!” he repeated. “I don’t know that gentleman very well, but I happened to be in Exeter some little time ago, and I think I saw him walking with this very young woman.”

      “In Exeter? Scarcely, I should imagine,” the doctor remarked.

      “I hardly think I was mistaken,” Superintendent Stokes went on deferentially. “Still, if you—”

      “Old Mrs. Marston was years in the employ of Lady Davenant; she nursed both of the sons, and I know that Lady Davenant has the highest opinion both of Mrs. Marston and her daughter,” Sir Arthur interposed haughtily. He was inclined to resent the present trend of the conversation. “I know that Sir John Davenant and Garth respect her very highly, and her daughter also.”

      “Naturally they would,” the superintendent acquiesced blandly. “Still, I think I should just like to ask Mr. Garth Davenant whether Nurse Marston said anything then that might cast a light on her subsequent disappearance.”

      “Had she done so Mr. Davenant would certainly have informed us.” Sir Arthur’s tone was distinctly one of displeasure now. “He knows the trouble and anxiety her absence is causing us.”

      “She might have let drop a word or two that he overlooked at the time, and yet if he came to think of them now they might bear another meaning,” the superintendent suggested.

      Arthur rose and pressed the bell.

      “At any rate the matter can soon be placed beyond doubt. Mr. Davenant is, I believe, in the house at the present moment. Jenkins”—as the butler made his appearance—“ask Mr. Garth to come here for a few moments.”

      There was an awkward pause as the old man departed on his errand. Sir Arthur sat drumming his fingers on the table, his brows contracted, his expression one of bored irritation. Dr. Grieve took off his spectacles, polished them deliberately with his handkerchief, and then replaced them, and sat watching the door, evidently on the qui vive for any fresh sensation. The placid, plump countenance of the police officer alone remained unmoved; his eyes were fixed absently on the pictures, and as he rose and bowed when Garth entered there was absolutely no change in his expression.

      Davenant looked distinctly surprised as he turned to his future brother-in-law.

      “I thought you were quite alone, Arthur. Jenkins said you wished to see me, but I have not much time to spare this morning; Mavis is waiting for me. I am going to drive her to Friar’s Key—”

      “We shall not delay you long,” Arthur said quickly. “We—that is to say, Superintendent Stokes, who is investigating the circumstance surrounding Nurse Marston’s disappearance, wanted to ask you a few questions.”

      Garth Davenant’s face cleared, and he turned briskly to the police officer.

      “I am sure that any information that I possess is heartily at your service. My only difficulty is that I am afraid I know nothing likely to be of any value. I did not even see Nurse Marston that night.”

      “No,” the superintendent agreed. “So I have heard before, sir; but you were talking to her in the avenue in the afternoon. May I ask if she alluded in any way to anything that might call her away—whether she hinted at any trouble?”

      “Nothing of the kind. Oh, I am sure she had no intention of leaving then. I cannot understand her departure at all,” the young man answered readily.

      “Or when you met with her in Exeter the Saturday before?” the superintendent went on blandly, his face looking merely mildly interested, though his sharp, fierce eyes took in every change of expression in Garth Davenant’s features, and not one note of the different intonation in the young man’s voice escaped his keen ears.

      There was a distinct pause before the answer.

      “Certainly not!”

      Sir Arthur turned to Garth and said:

      “That would be the day after you came down—the day you had promised to ride with Mavis?”

      “Yes, I had to go to Exeter on business instead.”

      “But what was Nurse Marston doing in Exeter?” СКАЧАТЬ