Ask a Policeman. Агата Кристи

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      Mills shook his head. “Nothing whatever,” he replied sullenly.

      At this Farrant, who had been listening attentively to the conversation, coughed decorously. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” he said. “But I think Mr. Mills has forgotten the telephone?”

      The Commissioner turned upon him. “What do you mean, Farrant? What telephone?”

      “The private telephone, sir. Mr. Mills was using it when I came back from the hall.”

      To Sir Philip, who had been a silent spectator of the scene, it had been apparent from the first that there was no love lost between the secretary and the butler. His pencil moved more deliberately than ever as he awaited developments.

      “Oh, so there is a private telephone,” said the Commissioner. “Where does it lead to?”

      It was Mills who answered him. “Fort Comstock. Naturally it was my duty to ring up the chief editor, and inform him of Lord Comstock’s death. That was hardly touching anything in the study, in the sense you mean.”

      “Did you speak to anybody at Fort Comstock besides the chief editor?”

      Mills hesitated. “Well, yes,” he replied defiantly. “I spoke to the crime expert of the Daily Bugle, and gave him a short account of the events of this morning.

      This statement fell like a bomb among the Scotland Yard contingent. Audible mutters came from the corner where Shawford and Churchill were sitting together, and it was only by an obvious effort that the Commissioner restrained himself. He contented himself with a glance at Sir Philip, on whose lips something very like a smile was visible. Then he turned to Farrant. “You overheard this conversation? “he asked sharply.

      “A bit of it, sir. I wondered why Mr. Mills should take so much trouble to tell his Lordship’s people and nobody else.”

      “What do you mean by that?”

      “Well, sir, Mr. Mills had been given notice by his Lordship,” replied Farrant malevolently. “I heard his Lordship tell him so at lunch yesterday. Something about selling information to rival newspapers, it was, sir.”

      “Is this a fact, Mr. Mills?” the Commissioner asked.

      “It is certainly a fact that Lord Comstock threatened me with dismissal at lunch yesterday. He had just seen something in one of the rival papers which he believed to be known only to himself. He accused me of having sold this information for my own benefit. But I did not treat his outburst seriously. Similar incidents have occurred before.”

      The Commissioner shrugged his shoulders. He had a feeling that the inquiry was straying from its proper course. In order to bring it back to realities he turned to Easton. “You made certain investigations outside the house, I believe?” he asked curtly.

      “Yes, sir. I thought it possible that Lord Comstock might have been shot by somebody from outside the house, through the open windows of the study. As you can see by the plan, sir, there are no doors leading from the house directly on to the lawn. The back doors lead out of the house on the opposite side. Anyone wishing to reach the lawn would have to pass through two gates, one leading into the kitchen garden, the other from the kitchen garden to the lawn. Alternatively, he would have to climb the wall at the south-eastern corner of the house. That is, of course, sir, if he did not pass round the front of the house.”

      The Commissioner, who had been looking over Sir Philip’s shoulder at the plan on the desk, nodded. “Yes, I see; go ahead, Easton.”

      “Well, sir, there were no marks on the flower-beds below this wall, and no sign of anyone having climbed it. It is seven feet high, and would be difficult to climb in any case, without assistance. The gate between the kitchen garden and the lawn was locked. It is a heavy wrought-iron affair, and I was informed that only two keys to this exist. One was produced by the gardener to whom I spoke. The other I found upon Lord Comstock’s desk.”

      Sir Philip looked up. “It doesn’t look as if anybody had reached the lawn from that direction, does it, Easton?” he remarked pleasantly. “And yet we have heard of somebody “—there was a significant emphasis upon this word—” of somebody who appeared upon the lawn. He must have come round by the front of the house, I suppose?”

      “I think not, sir,” replied Easton, glancing at the Commissioner. “The gardener—”

      “Oh, the gardener has something to say, has he? Have you got him outside, Hampton? Bring him in, if so. We’ll hear his story from his own lips.”

      So the gardener, an incongruous figure in that solemn room, was introduced. But his evidence tended to make things still more obscure. He had been working all the morning at the flower-beds beside the drive. Two or three motors had passed him, but he hadn’t taken any heed of them. He hadn’t expected his Lordship down that week, and he was late with the bedding-out. His Lordship had given him a proper dressing-down because there wasn’t a good show of flowers. He was too busy to take much notice of motor cars and such.

      “But you would have noticed if anybody had walked on to the lawn, I suppose?” asked the Commissioner impatiently.

      “I couldn’t very well help noticing the lady when she stopped and watched what I was doing. She didn’t say nothing, though, and I couldn’t say who she was. I don’t mind that I ever saw her before.”

      Sir Philip looked up and caught the Commissioner’s eye. The fact that there was a lady in the case was a further complication. And it was very curious that neither Mills nor the butler had mentioned her presence. But the Commissioner was alert enough to display no surprise.

      “Oh yes, the lady, of course,” he said rather vaguely. “Do you remember what time it was when you saw her?”

      “Can’t say that I do, sir. I’d left my watch in my coat pocket in the potting-shed. But it was a fair time before Mr. Scotney came out just afore one to call me.”

      “Mr. Scotney?” the Commissioner asked. “Who’s he?”

      “Why, the chauffeur, to be sure, sir. He always gives me a call just afore one when I’m working round the front. And I saw the lady long before then.”

      The Commissioner curbed his impatience. “Can’t you give me some idea of how long before?” he asked.

      “Might have been one hour, might have been three. A man don’t take much heed o’ time when he’s bedding-out. ’Tis a dull job, that is, and precious little praise at the end of it from his Lordship.”

      “The lady walked on to the lawn, you say. Did you see where she came from?”

      “Why, where would she come from? Not out of the house, that’s sure. Must have come in through the drive gate, I suppose. In one of they motors, most like. I didn’t give it a thought. And she hadn’t been on the lawn many minutes before she comes back again, quicker than she went.”

      “How far on to the lawn did she go?”

      “Bless you, sir, I can’t tell you that. I had more to do than watch the visitors what come to the, house. Besides, his Lordship wouldn’t thank me to be too curious of any lady that might come to see him. Them as is shortsighted gets on best in some situations.”

      “Well, СКАЧАТЬ