The Greatest Murder Mysteries - Dorothy Fielding Collection. Dorothy Fielding

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СКАЧАТЬ cover even non-existent tracks—had invented the lost money as a pretext for the stranger's visit?

      But the longer Pointer studied the man talking to the keenly interested Haviland, the more he decided that Tangye's emotion about the loss was genuine. That Tangye was trying to repress, not to force, the note on this point. He acted to the very keen, trained eye of the detective officer like a man much more concerned in the matter than he cared to show. On this came the reflection that possibly Tangye had wanted the whole £3,000 so badly that he had had a hand in his wife's death. A hand so carefully concealed that now, little by little, he could venture to direct the search towards it. Was it a case of a criminal having been "done" by his accomplice, and trying to get that accomplice caught? Tangye's frequent use of the word suggested this. So did his manner. By what he did not say, as much as by what he did. Pointer believed that for some reason he dared not be more explicit. Yet Tangye was emphatically not a man to be frightened of shadows. A stockbroker must have good nerves.

      Rising, Pointer asked Miss Saunders to come into the drawing-room. He closed the door with ostentatious care. It gave a confidential suggestion.

      "Miss Saunders," Pointer spoke very low, "there seems to me, quite frankly to be something rather—well—odd, about this claim of Mr. Tangye to that fifteen hundred pounds. What do you think yourself?"

      "Of course it isn't lost," she spoke shortly, and with a note of anger in her thin voice. "Mrs. Tangye's invested it somewhere that they haven't found yet. That's all."

      "It's very perplexing," he said a little dismally, "very perplexing, indeed. Did you make any arrangements on Monday as to where you intended to go from here?" he asked in the same breath.

      She had not expected that question. She all but jumped.

      "I don't understand. Going from here? Monday? It was only Mrs. Tangye's death yesterday that made me decide to go to my sister's."

      "You had your trunk brought down in the morning?"

      "I thought Mrs. Tangye's idea of sending some clothes to the poor an excellent one," she said sweetly. "I intended to do the same."

      "I see. Now, do you mind telling me where you were last Sunday? This lost money puts the case in our hands, and we've a regular routine to work through."

      "Where was I last Sunday?" She turned a watchful eye on him. "At church, part of the time."

      "It's the remaining part I want to hear about," he said lightly, "you left here, at what hour?"

      "In time for the eleven o'clock service. After that I stayed with a friend. And we took the children to one of the museums by way of a treat."

      "Could I have the name of the friend?"

      "I couldn't think of dragging her into this sad business."

      "And in the evening?"

      "I spent helping her. She put me up."

      "And Monday?"

      "We spent shopping."

      "For the children too, I suppose?" he said gravely.

      A light flickered in her eyes. It looked like amusement.

      "You might be a family man yourself," she murmured ironically. The door opened. But why had Tangye stopped outside to listen first? He glanced in airily.

      "Oh! Sorry to interrupt. I was afraid you had gone, Chief Inspector."

      "No, I was saying to Miss Saunders that with such a sum in the house why of course we have to ask a number of fresh questions."

      "But who would steal bank-notes?" Miss Saunders asked pertinently.

      "When did you last see Mrs. Tangye at her safe?"

      "Many months ago I saw her lay some books in it. She used it as a sort of cupboard at times. It was always unlocked."

      "Could it be locked?"

      "I don't know." She turned to Tangye, whose jaw shot forward.

      "Of course it could be," the master of the house said briefly.

      "And the key was on her key-ring, I suppose?" Pointer, continued.

      "Possibly."

      "Then the missing keys might be important, after all."

      Tangye said nothing. Miss Saunders brushed the top of the marble mantelpiece with her hand. She, too, said nothing.

      "Florence saw them at four on her mistress's desk," Pointer went on.

      "So she says." Miss Saunders' tone was contemptuous. "You seem to attach great weight to a maid-servant's word—almost as great as to a reporter's!"

      "As a rule, neither have anything to gain by mis-statements in a case of this kind," he said blandly. "You didn't happen to notice them in the room on your return from the library? I mean, before Florence came in?"

      Tangye started. He cast a quick, furtive, look at Pointer and then at the woman.

      "No," Miss Saunders said very composedly. "I do not think they were there then."

      Pointer was apparently bending over a table near him, but he saw the hard, suspicious stare that Tangye gave the speaker. She returned it with something of defiance. There was a silence which the detective officer did not break. Here was no love affair, he thought. Whatever had been in the past, these two did not like, did not trust, each other now.

      He wondered why Tangye seemed so unwilling to link the lost keys with the lost money. The stockbroker did not strike him as a clever man outside of his own walk of life. If there. Though Pointer had a feeling, had had it from the first, that Tangye's path was beset—at least to the man's own thinking—with pitfalls. That he was afraid of saying one unweighed word, one hasty conclusion.

      "She invested it, you may be sure," Regina Saunders said, turning towards the door, "but it's most distressing for every one until it's found. Olive's already given notice. Florence wants to leave when she does. Cook's looking out for a new post. I'm afraid, Mr. Tangye, that you won't be able to keep the house running many more days." She left them at that, with a cool nod apiece. Tangye looked after her without saying anything. There was a set to his full mouth which was not easy to read.

      "I should like to see the maids, please—alone."

      Olive came in first. She had told Pointer already that she had not seen the keys since just before lunch yesterday, and then in Mrs. Tangye's hands. Mrs. Tangye was in her bedroom at the time talking to Miss Saunders.

      He had not asked for further details then. Now, he did. Olive was quite sure that she had heard the door of the safe shut and locked as she went on down the stairs, dusting the banisters. No other lock in the house sounded like a safe lock, she maintained, and Pointer privately agreed with her. Miss Saunders and Mrs. Tangye had passed her a moment later, going in to their lunch.

      "Had they been quarrelling, do you think?"

      "Oh, no, sir. Mrs. Tangye was looking quite calm. She was saying something like 'I can't help that, Miss Saunders. By this evening, if you please.'"

      "And СКАЧАТЬ