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

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СКАЧАТЬ simply saw Giggle’s back as he made for the stairs. Anyone else?’

      ‘Master Michael was going into the other flat.’

      ‘Where was Lord Wutherwood when you reached the landing?’

      ‘In the lift.’

      ‘Sitting down?’

      ‘Yes, sir.’

      ‘Sure?’

      ‘Yes, sir.’

      ‘All right. Will you go on, please?’

      Tinkerton primmed her lips.

      ‘What did you do after that?’ asked Alleyn patiently.

      Tinkerton said huffily that she followed Giggle downstairs. She remembered hearing Lord Wutherwood yell a second time. When he did that she was already some way downstairs. She joined Giggle in the car and remained there with him until the young lady came to fetch them. This came out inch by reluctant inch.

      Alleyn made very careful notes, taking her over the stages of her movements several times. She seemed to be perfectly sure of her own accuracy and repeated monotonously that she had seen nobody but Giggle and Michael, as she went along the passage, through the hall, across the landing and downstairs.

      ‘Please think very carefully,’ Alleyn repeated. ‘You saw nobody else? You are absolutely positive?’

      ‘Yes, sir.’

      ‘All right,’ said Alleyn cheerfully. ‘And now, what did you talk about all the afternoon?’ At this sudden change of tone and of tactics, Tinkerton’s air of disapproval deepened. ‘I really couldn’t say, sir,’ she said thinly.

      ‘You mean you don’t remember?’

      ‘I don’t recollect.’

      ‘But you must remember something, Tinkerton. You had a long chat with Lady Charles Lamprey’s nurse didn’t you? It must have been a long chat, you know, because when you came out Giggle and Master Michael were playing trains and they didn’t do that until some time after your arrival. What did you and Nanny (Mrs Burnaby, isn’t she?) discuss together?’

      Tinkerton primmed her lips again and said several things were mentioned.

      ‘Well, let us hear some of them.’

      Tinkerton said: ‘The young ladies and gentlemen came up.’

      ‘Of course,’ said Alleyn amiably, ‘you would discuss the family. Naturally.’

      ‘They came up,’ Tinkerton repeated guardedly.

      ‘In what connection?’

      ‘Mrs Burnaby brought them up,’ said Tinkerton, as if Nanny had suffered from a surfeit of Lampreys and had taken an emetic for it. ‘Miss Friede’s theatricals. I should,’ added Tinkerton, ‘have said Lady Friede. Pardon.’

      ‘I suppose you are all very interested in her theatricals?’

      A slightly acid tinge crept over Tinkerton’s face as she agreed that they were.

      ‘And in all the family’s doings, I expect. Did Lord and Lady Wutherwood often pay visits to this flat?’

      Not very often, it seemed. Alleyn began to feel as if Tinkerton was a bad cork and himself an inefficient cork-screw, drawing out unimportant fragments, while large lumps of testimony fell into the wine and were lost.

      ‘So this visit was quite an event,’ he suggested. ‘Have you been in the London house for long?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘For how long?’

      ‘We have not been there.’

      ‘You mean you arrived in London today.’ She didn’t answer. ‘Is that what you mean? Where did you come from?’

      ‘From Deepacres.’

      ‘From Deepacres? That’s in Kent, isn’t it? Did you come straight to this flat?’

      ‘Yes, sir.’

      ‘Had his lordship ever done that before, do you know?’

      ‘I don’t recollect.’

      ‘When were you to return to Deepacres?’

      ‘Her ladyship remarked to his lordship on the way up, that she would like to stay in town for a few days.’

      ‘What did he say to that?’

      ‘His lordship did not wish to remain in town. His lordship wished to return tomorrow.’

      ‘What decision did they come to?’ asked Alleyn. Was it imagination, or had he got a slightly firm grip on the cork?

      ‘His lordship,’ said Tinkerton, ‘remarked that he had been dragged up to London and wouldn’t stay away longer than one night.’

      ‘Then,’ said Alleyn, ‘they had come to London solely on account of this visit to the flat?’

      ‘I believe so, sir.’

      ‘Where were you to spend the night?’

      ‘In his lordship’s town residence,’ said Tinkerton genteelly. ‘14 Brummell Street, Park Lane.’

      ‘At such short notice?’

      ‘A skeleton staff is kept there,’ said Tinkerton. ‘Of course,’ she added.

      ‘Do you know why this visit was undertaken?’

      ‘His lordship received a telegram yesterday.’

      ‘From Lord Charles Lamprey?’

      ‘I believe so.’

      ‘Have you any idea why Lord Charles wanted to see his brother?’

      Tinkerton’s expression of disapproval became still deeper. Alleyn thought he saw a glint of complacency behind it. Perhaps, after all, Miss Tinkerton was not altogether proof against the delights of gossip.

      ‘Her ladyship,’ she said, ‘mentioned that it was a business visit. H’m.’

      ‘And do you know the nature of the business?’

      ‘It came up,’ said Tinkerton, ‘on the drive during conversation between his lordship and her ladyship.’

      ‘Yes?’

      ‘I sat with Mr Giggle in front and did not catch the remarks, beyond a word here and there.’

      ‘Still, СКАЧАТЬ