Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 4: A Surfeit of Lampreys, Death and the Dancing Footman, Colour Scheme. Ngaio Marsh

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СКАЧАТЬ he said amiably, ‘a difference of opinion! Or did you both go down in the lift.’

      ‘I went down, sir,’ said the twins. Lord Charles, very white in the face, put his eyeglass away.

      ‘My dear Alleyn,’ he said, ‘I must warn you that these two idiots have got some ridiculous idea of stonewalling us over this point. I have told them that it is extremely foolish and very wrong. I hope you will convince them of this.’

      ‘I hope so, too,’ said Alleyn. Out of the tail of his eye he saw Lady Charles’s thin hands close on each other. He turned to her. ‘Perhaps, Lady Charles, you will be able to clear this point up for us,’ he said. ‘Can you tell us who took Lord and Lady Wutherwood down in the lift?’

      ‘No. I’m sorry. I didn’t notice. One of the twins came out to the landing as soon as I asked for someone to work the lift.’ She looked at the twins with a painful nakedness of devotion, made as if to speak to them, and was silent.

      Alleyn waited. Fox returned and went silently to his chair. Nanny cleared her throat.

      ‘Did anyone else,’ asked Alleyn, ‘notice which twin remained here and which went down in the lift?’

      The twins looked at the fire. Frid made a sudden impatient movement. Henry lit a cigarette.

      ‘No?’ said Alleyn. ‘Then we’ll go on.’

      There was a sort of stealthy shifting of positions. For the first time they all looked directly at him and he knew that they had expected him to pounce on this queer behaviour of the twins and were profoundly disconcerted by his refusal to do so. He went on steadily.

      ‘When Lady Charles came and asked for someone to work the lift, Lady Frid and Lady Patricia were in their mother’s bedroom, and their brothers were here in the drawing-room?’

      ‘Yes,’ said Henry.

      ‘Where had you been before that?’

      ‘In the dining-room.’

      ‘All of you?’

      ‘Yes. All of us. All the children and Roberta. Miss Grey.’

      ‘While your father and Lord Wutherwood were talking in here?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘When did you leave the dining-room?’

      ‘When the girls went out. The twins and I came in here.’

      ‘And you, Miss Grey?’

      ‘I stayed in the dining-room with Mike – with Michael.’

      ‘And Michael,’ said Alleyn, ‘is of course now in bed?’

      ‘He is,’ said Nanny.

      ‘Were you all in the dining-room when Lord Wutherwood called out?’

      ‘Yes,’ said Henry. ‘He shouted “Violet!” twice. We were in the dining-room.’

      ‘At what stage did Michael appear in the dining-room?’

      Henry leant forward and pulled an ash-tray towards him. ‘Not long before Uncle Gabriel called out. He’d been messing about with his trains in 26.’

      ‘Right. That’s perfectly clear. We’ve got to the moment when Lady Wutherwood and her escort went into the lift. Did you go out on the landing, Lady Charles?’

      ‘I stood in the hall door and called out goodbye.’

      ‘Yes? And then?’

      ‘I turned back to come in here. I’d just gone to that table over there to get myself a cigarette when I heard –’ She only stopped for a second, ‘when I heard my sister-in-law screaming. We all went out on the landing.’

      ‘I’ll go on,’ said Henry. ‘We went out to the landing. The lift came up. Aunt Violet was still screaming. Then whichever twin it was opened the lift doors and she sort of half fell out. Then we saw him.’

      ‘Yes. Now, to go back a little way. This call Lord Wutherwood gave. Did it strike none of you as at all odd that he should sit in the lift and shout for Lady Wutherwood?’

      ‘Not in the least,’ said Frid. ‘It was entirely in character. I can’t tell you –’

      ‘My brother,’ interrupted Lord Charles hurriedly, ‘was like that. I mean he did rather sit still and shout for people.’

      ‘I see. You wouldn’t say, on thinking it over, that there was any particular urgency in his voice?’

      ‘I see what you mean, sir,’ said Henry. ‘I’m sure there was nothing wrong when he shouted. I’ll swear nothing happened until after that.’

      ‘But wait a moment.’ Lady Charles leant forward and the light from a table lamp caught her face at an exacting angle. Shadows appeared beneath her eyes, her cheek-bones, shadows prolonged the small folds at the corners of her mouth and traced out the muscles of her neck. By that trick of lighting a prefiguration of age fell across her. Her voice sharpened. ‘Wait a moment, all of you. Is it certain that he wasn’t calling out in alarm? How do we know? How do we know that he hadn’t seen something – someone?’

      Alleyn saw Lord Charles look sharply at her.

      ‘We don’t know, of course,’ he said slowly.

      ‘Would any of you say there was an unusual quality in his voice?’ asked Alleyn. For a moment nobody answered and then Henry said impatiently: ‘He only sounded irritable.’

      Frid said: ‘Aunt V. had kept him waiting.’

      Alleyn looked at Roberta. ‘Lord Wutherwood was a comparative stranger to you, Miss Grey?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Would you say that there was any particular ring of urgency or alarm in his voice?’

      ‘I only thought that he sounded impatient,’ said Roberta.

      Alleyn waited for a moment and then with a freshening of his voice he said: ‘Well now, to sum up. Each time Lord Wutherwood shouted, the younger members of the party were in the dining-room, Lady Charles was in her bedroom and Lord Charles was in here. Lady Wutherwood and Lady Katherine Lobe were with Lady Charles at the time of the first call. At the time of the second call they had gone severally to the bathroom and the other room at the far end of flat 26.’

      ‘Neat as a new pin,’ said Frid, and lit a cigarette.

      ‘It doesn’t take us very far, however,’ said Alleyn. ‘It merely leaves us with the presumption that at these times Lord Wutherwood was still uninjured.’ He turned sharply in his chair, re-crossed his long legs and looked thoughtfully at the twins. The twins continued to stare at the fire while, under their clear skins, their faces rapidly turned a dull red. ‘Yes,’ said Alleyn. ‘We arrive at a difficulty. The next step, as you will understand, СКАЧАТЬ