Anthony Berkeley

“ Roger glanced at him curiously. It was a strange position, this sort of armed and forced friendliness between Jefferson and himself. If the former had heard much of that conversation by the lattice window, he must know Roger for his enemy; and in any case the disappearance of the footprint showed that he was thoroughly on his guard. Yet not the faintest trace of this appeared in his manner. He behaved towards both of them exactly as he always had done; no more and no less. Roger could not help admiring the man’s nerve. ”

“ Roger asked with enthusiasm.
“Oh, most,” said Mrs. Plant in a curiously flat voice.
Roger glanced at her shrewdly. “You don’t agree with me, Mrs. Plant?” he said suddenly.
Mrs. Plant started.
“I?” she said hurriedly. “Why, of course I do. I thought Mr. Stanworth a—a very nice man indeed. Charming! Of course I agree with you.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought for the moment that you didn’t seem very enthusiastic about him. No earthly reason why you should be, of course. Everybody has their likes and dislikes, don’t they?”
Mrs. Plant glanced quickly at Roger, and then looked out of the window. ”

“ Roger was roaming restlessly about the room. At Alec’s last words he paused in his stride and looked at his companion with some irritation.
“Oh, don’t be childish, Alec,” he said sharply. “Money and jewels aren’t the only things that can be robbed. The motive still holds perfectly good if we’ve got to have a motive. It was robbery of something else; that’s all. But why stick to robbery? Make it revenge, hatred, self-protection, anything you like, but take it from me that Stanworth was murdered. The evidence is not equally consistent with suicide. ”

“ No woman would have been strong enough for the struggle that must have taken place. Stanworth was no weakling, so that gives us the fact that the man must have been a strong, burly sort of person. From the footprint and the length of those strides across the bed he was evidently both tall and largely built; from the clever way in which everything was left he must have been possessed of a fund of cunning; from the manner in which he left that window fastened behind him it was clear that he was thoroughly accustomed to handling lattice windows. ”

“ Alec said slowly. “Do you think I ought to tell Barbara?”
“Good heavens above, no!” Roger shouted, staring at his companion in dismay. “What on earth would you want to tell her for? She’d only be overcome with shame that you knew anything about her mother’s shortcomings; and the fact that you’d killed a man more or less on account of her would simply make her wretchedly miserable. Of course you mustn’t dream of telling her, you goop!”
“I think you’re probably right,” Alec said, gazing out of the window. ”

“ Roger pleaded. “I think I’m being rather brilliant.”
“You always were a chap to let things run away with you,” Alec grunted. “Just because a couple of people act a little queerly and a couple more don’t look as mournful as you think they ought, you dash off and rake up a little murder all to yourself. Going to tell the inspector about this wonderful idea of yours?”
“No, I’m not,” said Roger with decision. “This is my little murder, as you’re good enough to call it, and I’m not going to be done out of it. When I’ve got as far as I can, then I’ll think about telling the police or not.” ”

“ Roger was intent on his own thoughts. “And why was Jefferson searching Mr. Stanworth’s pockets?” he demanded suddenly. “Oh, but of course, that’s obvious enough.”
“I’m dashed if it is. Why was he?”
“To find the keys of the safe, I suppose. What else could it be? For some reason or other Jefferson is all against having that safe opened. By the police, at any rate. And so is Mrs. Plant. Why?”
“I don’t know,” said Alec helplessly.
“Nor do I! That’s just the annoying part. I hate things I don’t understand. Always have done. It’s a sort of challenge to get to the bottom of them.” ”

“ Alec said grimly. “I can see fair play, at any rate. And trying to trick a woman who’s got nothing to do with the thing at all into a lot of silly admissions is not playing the game.”
Roger took the other’s arm and led him gently into the garden.
“All right, all right,” he said in the tones of one soothing a fractious child. “We’ll try other tactics, if you’re so set on it. In any case, there’s no need to get excited. The trouble is that you’ve mistaken your century, Alec. You ought to have lived four or five hundred years ago. ”

“ Roger had already forgotten William’s existence.
There are many who hold that eight o’clock in the morning is the most perfect time of a summer’s day. The air, they advance, is by that time only pleasantly warmed through, without being burned to a cinder as it is an hour or two later. And there is still quite enough dew sparkling upon leaf and flower to give the poets plenty to talk about without forcing them to rise at six o’clock for their inspiration. The theory is certainly one well worth examination.
At the moment when this story opens Mr. Roger Sheringham was engaged in examining it. ”

“ The Stanworth affair,” Roger replied innocently. “Did I do that bit well, Alec?” he asked with a sudden change of tone.
“What bit?”
“When I said, ‘What with?’ Did I say it with an air of bland innocence? The best detectives always do, you know. When they reach this stage of the proceedings they always pretend to have forgotten all about the case in hand. Why they do so, I’ve never been able to imagine; but it’s evidently the correct etiquette for the job. By the way, Alec,” he added kindly, “you did your part very well. The idiot friend always shouts in an irritated and peevish way like that. ”

“ It’s impossible to say with a man like Stanworth. After all, what do we know about him, beyond that he was a cheery old gentleman and kept an excellent cellar? Nothing! He might have been a lady-killer, and it may be a case of the jealous husband, with Lady Stanworth and Jefferson in the know after it had happened, and hushing it up for the sake of the name. ”

“ It’s only another instance of the murderer’s cunning. Mrs. Plant, and possibly, as you say, one or two others, might raise awkward questions at Stanworth’s sudden death; therefore their apprehensions must be allayed. All that it really does as far as we are concerned, is to confirm the idea that the murderer must have a very intimate knowledge of Stanworth’s private affairs. Of course it shows that the safe was opened that night, and it brings our old friends, the ashes in the hearth, into prominence once more as being in all probability the remains of the blackmailer’s evidence. ”

“ A man, you would say (and as Roger himself was saying in amazed perplexity less than an hour later) , without a single care in the world.
But it is already ten minutes since the breakfast gong sounded; and if we wish to see for ourselves what sort of people Mr. Stanworth had collected round him, it is quite time that we were making a move towards the dining room.
Alec and Barbara were there already: the former with a puzzled, hurt expression, that hinted plainly enough at the inexplicable disaster which had just overtaken his wooing; the latter so resolutely natural as to be quite unnatural. ”

“ The big clue to any murder must after all be supplied by the victim himself. People don’t get murdered for nothing—except by a chance burglar, of course, or a homicidal maniac; and I think we can dismiss both of those possibilities here. What I mean is, find out all you can about the victim and the information ought to give you a lead towards his murderer. You see? We’ve been neglecting that side of it altogether. What we ought to have been doing is to collect every possible scrap of information we can about old Stanworth. ”

“ In the ordinary course of events she breakfasted in her own room. A tall, stately woman, with hair just beginning to turn gray, she was never anything but cool and dignified; but this morning her face seemed even more serious than usual. For a moment she stood in the doorway, looking round the room as Major Jefferson had done a few minutes before.
Then, “Good-morning, everybody,” she said slowly. “Mr. Sheringham and Mr. Grierson, can I have a word with you for a moment?”
In deep silence Roger and Alec pushed back their chairs and rose. ”

“ I must have somebody to confide in.”
“You’ll make a rotten detective, Roger,” Alec grinned. “You gas too much. The best detectives are thin-lipped, hatchet-faced devils who creep about the place not saying a word to anybody.”
“In the story-books. You bet they don’t in real life. I expect they talk their heads off to their seconds-in-command. It’s so jolly helpful. Holmes must have missed an awful lot by not letting himself go to Watson. For one thing, the very act of talking helps one to clarify one’s own ideas and suggests further ones.” ”

“ If it comes to that, why don’t you tackle Jefferson, if you’re so jolly keen on tackling someone?”
“For the simple reason that the excellent Jefferson would certainly not give anything away, my dear Alec; whereas there’s always the chance that a woman will. But enough! We’ll confine ourselves to sticks and stones, and leave the human element out of account; or the feminine part of it, at any rate. But for all that,” Roger added wistfully, “I would like to know what’s going on amongst that trio!” ”

“ Alec frowned. “In fact, I hate it. It’s a beastly position. Look here, Roger,” he said with sudden earnestness, “let’s chuck the whole thing! Let’s assume, as the police are doing, that old Stanworth committed suicide and leave it at that. Shall we?”
“You bet we won’t!” Roger said grimly. “I’m not going to leave a thing half threshed out like that; especially not such an interesting thing as this. You can back out if you like; there’s no reason for you to be mixed up with it if you don’t want. ”

“ Roger smiled, quite unabashed. “Yes, I suppose it is, Mrs. Plant. The trouble is, you see, that I simply can’t help it. I’m the most curious person alive. Everything interests me, especially every human thing, and I’ve just got to get to the bottom of it. And you must admit that the relations between Lady Stanworth, of all people, and the—shall we say?—somewhat plebeian Mr. Stanworth, are uncommonly interesting to a novelist.” ”

“ Roger asked politely, and cursed himself for the banality of the words even as he spoke them.
With a tremendous effort Mrs. Plant appeared to pull herself together.
“My jewels,” she muttered jerkily. “I asked—Mr. Stanworth to—to lock them in his safe the other day. I—I was wondering—would the police take them? I thought it might be better if I——”
“That’s all right, Mrs. Plant,” said Roger soothingly, breaking in upon her painful utterances. “The police wouldn’t take them in any case, I expect; and you can easily identify what is yours. They’ll be safe enough, I assure you.” ”

“ Far worse! It appears that old Stanworth was never murdered at all! He did commit suicide, after all.”
Alec sat down heavily in the nearest chair. “Good Lord!” he exclaimed limply. “But what on earth makes you think that? I thought you were so convinced that it was murder.”
“So I was,” Roger said, leaning against the dressing table. “That’s what makes it all the more extraordinary, because I really am very seldom wrong. I say it in all modesty, but the fact is indisputable. By all the laws of average, Stanworth ought to have been murdered. It really is most inexplicable.” ”

“ Alec glanced ruefully at the bed, which was now embellished with several extra footprints.
“I’d better smooth mine out,” he said hastily. “They look a bit suspicious, all round that window, don’t they? Anyone can see that we’ve been mucking about here.”
“Yes, do,” Roger said approvingly. “But hurry up, and for goodness’ sake, don’t let anybody see you. That would be worse still.”
“And now, Sherlock Sheringham,” said Alec, when they had gained the security of the lawn, “what do you propose? Isn’t it time you disguised yourself, or something? ”

“ During the next quarter of an hour Roger himself might have presented a problem to an acute observer, had there been one about, which, though not very difficult of solution, was nevertheless not entirely without interest. To smoke furiously, with one’s pipe in full blast, betokens no small a degree of mental excitement; to sit like a stone image and allow that same pipe to go out in one’s mouth is evidence of still greater prepossession ”

“ Mrs. Plant glanced at him, as if rather questioning the good taste of this remark. “I don’t think Major Jefferson is the sort of man to show his real feelings before comparative strangers, do you, Mr. Sheringham?” she replied a little stiffly.
“Probably not,” Roger replied easily. “But he seems singularly unperturbed about it all.”
“He is a very imperturbable sort of person, I imagine.”
Roger tried another tack. “Had you known Mr. Stanworth long, Mrs. Plant?” he asked conversationally, leaning back in his chair and pulling his pipe out of his pocket. “You don’t mind if I smoke, do you?” ”

“ It was only just beginning to get dusk, and the light was still strong.
“I’ve found out who the handkerchief belongs to, Alec,” Roger said in a low voice.
“Have you? Who?”
“Mrs. Plant. I was almost certain before we sat down to dinner, but what she said clinched it. That scent is jasmine right enough.”
“And what are you going to do?”
Roger hesitated. “Well, you heard what she said,” he replied, almost apologetically. “She didn’t actually deny it, because I never asked her; but she wouldn’t admit to being in the library at all yesterday evening.” ”

“ They’re not easy to get at. But consider this. When you want to slip a thing into the lower pocket of a waistcoat that’s hanging on a chair, it’s the easiest thing in the world to put it in the upper pocket by mistake. Done it myself hundreds of times.”
Alec whistled softly. “I see what you’re getting at. You mean——”
“Absolutely! A waistcoat worn by somebody else is in the same category as a waistcoat hanging on a chair. If we’re to go by probabilities, then the most likely thing is that somebody else put those keys in that pocket. Not Stanworth himself at all.” ”

“ Yet what can one think now? Facts speak louder than opinions. And the facts are only too plain.”
“I don’t care,” said Alec obstinately. “If you’re trying to mix Mrs. Plant up in this affair, you’re making a hopeless mistake, Roger. That’s all I’ve got to say.”
“I hope you’re right, Alec,” Roger said dryly. “By the way, I think I want to have a word with the lady. Oh, I’m not going to tax her with the murder or anything,” he added with a smile, observing the look on Alec’s face. “But I think she said at lunch that she was expecting to leave here this afternoon. ”

“ He paused impressively.
“Well?” asked Alec impatiently. “You’ve got something up your sleeve, I know, and you’re aching to get it out. Let’s have it. What do these wonderful marks of yours show you?”
“Simply that the confession is a fake,” retorted Roger happily. “And now let’s go out in the garden.”
He turned on his heel and walked rapidly out on to the sun-drenched lawn. One must admit that Roger had his annoying moments.
The justly exasperated Alec trotted after him. “Talk about Sherlock Holmes!” he growled, as he caught him up. “You’re every bit as maddening yourself. ”

“ There isn’t a couple anywhere that I’d sooner see fixed up than you and Barbara. You’re quite the nicest two people I know.” Roger was in the habit of disregarding the convention that a man should never under any circumstances display emotion in the presence of another man, just as heartily as he violated all other conventions.
Alec flushed with pleasure. “Thanks awfully, old chap,” he said gruffly. “I knew I could rely on you. But really, there isn’t anything you could possibly do. And things will come out all right, I feel sure.” ”

“ Jefferson returned with gruff amiability. “Guessed you must have something up your sleeve. Bit awkward, though. Ladies, and all that, y’know,” he added vaguely.
“Beastly,” Roger said sympathetically. “As a matter of fact, that’s a development that had never occurred to me at all, you and Lady Stanworth being married. If anything, it makes things very much more complicated than before.”
“Bit of a mystery or something on hand, eh?” Jefferson asked with interest.
“Very much so,” Roger replied, gazing thoughtfully out of the window. ”

“ She was something more than pretty; for mere prettiness always implies a certain insipidity, and there was certainly no trace of that in Barbara Shannon’s face. On the contrary, the firm lines of her chin alone, to take only one of her small features, showed a strength of character unusual in a girl of her age; one hardly looks for that sort of thing at feminine nineteen or thereabouts.
Alec caught his breath as he hurried towards her. It was only yesterday that she had promised to marry him, and he had not quite got accustomed to it yet. ”

“ He is adamant. She hides her face against the arm of the couch and goes on weeping. Jefferson enters, sees at a glance what is happening and kills Stanworth in the madness of his passion with as little compunction as one would feel towards a rat. Mrs. Plant looks on in horror; tries to interfere, perhaps, but without effect. As soon as the thing is done she becomes as cool as ice and sets the stage for suicide.
Roger jumped to his feet and leaned out over the sill. ”

“ Roger exclaimed, in tones of the liveliest exasperation. “Really, you are a most maddening person! Here’s a chap murdered under your very nose, and you’re prepared to let the murderer walk away scot-free because you think it isn’t ‘done’ to look through the wretched victim’s private papers. How remarkably pleased Stanworth would be to hear you, wouldn’t he?”
“Of course if you put it like that,” Alec said doubtfully.
“But I do put it like that, you goop! It’s the only way there is of putting it. Come, Alec, do try and be sensible for once in your life.” ”

“ Alec was a big person, and he had met garden chairs before.
“Proceed,” he said, fishing for his pipe. “You interest me strangely.”
Nothing loth, Roger took up his tale.
“Well, then, in the first place let’s consider the human side of things. Hasn’t it struck you that there are four separate and distinct people here whose conduct during the last few hours has been, to say the least of it, remarkable?”
“No,” said Alec candidly, “it hasn’t. Two have, I know. Who are the other two?”
“Well, the butler is one. He didn’t seem particularly cut up over Stanworth’s death, did he? ”