‘Then there’s no doubt about the time. That’s a comfort. What next, Hamworthy?’
‘Mr Harcourt asked for another call and said: “Mr Neville has got something to say,” and then Mr Neville came back to the phone. He said he was going up to Scotland shortly, and he wanted me to send up a country suit and some stockings and shirts that he had left down here. He wanted the suit sent to the cleaner’s first, and there were various other instructions, so that he asked for another three minutes. That would be at 8.3, sir, yes. And about a minute after that, while he was still speaking, the front-door bell rang. I couldn’t very well leave the phone, so the caller had to wait, and at five past eight he rang the bell again. I was just going to ask Mr Neville to excuse me, when I saw Cook come out of the kitchen and go through the hall to the front door. Mr Neville asked me to repeat his instructions, and then the Exchange interrupted us again, so he rang off, and when I turned round I saw Cook just closing the library door. I went to meet her, and she said: “Here’s that Mr Payne again, wanting Mr Grimbold. I’ve put him in the library, but I don’t like the looks of him.” So I said: “All right; I’ll fix him,” and Cook went back to the kitchen.’
‘One moment,’ said Parker. ‘Who’s Mr Payne?’
‘He’s one of Mr Grimbold’s clients, sir. He lives about five minutes away, across the fields, and he’s been here before, making trouble. I think he owes Mr Grimbold money, sir, and wanted more time to pay.’
‘He’s here, waiting in the hall,’ added Henley.
‘Oh?’ said Wimsey. ‘The unshaven party with the scowl and the ash-plant, and the blood-stained coat?’
‘That’s him, my lord,’ said the butler. ‘Well, sir’ – he turned to Parker again, ‘I started to go along to the library, when it come over me sudden-like that I’d never taken in the claret – Mr Grimbold would be getting very annoyed. So I went back to my pantry – you see where that is, sir – and fetched it from where it was warming before the fire. I had a little hunt then for the salver, sir, till I found I had put down my evening paper on top of it, but I wasn’t more than a minute, sir, before I got back into the dining-room. And then, sir – the butler’s voice faltered – ‘then I saw Mr Grimbold fallen forward on the table, sir, all across his plate, like. I thought he must have been took ill and I hurried up to him and found – I found he was dead, sir, with a dreadful wound in his back.’
‘No weapon anywhere?’
‘Not that I could see, sir. There was a terrible lot of blood. It made me feel shockingly faint, sir, and for a minute I didn’t hardly know what to do. As soon as I could think of anything, I rushed over to the serving-hatch and called Cook. She came hurrying in and let out an awful scream when she saw the master. Then I remembered Mr Payne and opened the library door. He was standing there, and he began at once, asking how long he’d have to wait. So I said: “Here’s an awful thing! Mr Grimbold has been murdered!” and he pushed past me into the dining-room, and the first thing he said was: “How about those windows?” He pulled back the curtain of the one nearest the library, and there was the window standing open. “This is the way he went,” he said, and started to rush out. I said, “no, you don’t” – thinking he meant to get away, and I hung on to him. He called me a lot of names, and then he said: “Look here, my man, be reasonable. The fellow’s getting away all this time. We must have a look for him.” So I said, “Not without I go with you.” And he said, “All right.” So I told Cook not to touch anything but to ring up the police, and Mr Payne and I went out after I’d fetched my torch from the pantry.’
‘Did Payne go with you to fetch it?’
‘Yes, sir. Well, him and me went out and we searched about in the garden, but we couldn’t see any footprints or anything, because it’s an asphalt path all round the house and down to the gate. And we couldn’t see any weapon, either. So then he said: “We’d better go back and get the car and search the roads,” but I said: “No, he’ll be away by then,” because it’s only a quarter of a mile from our gate to the Great North Road, and it would take us five or ten minutes before we could start. So Mr Payne said: “Perhaps you’re right,” and came back to the house with me. Well, then, sir, the constable came from Wapley, and after a bit, the Inspector here and Dr Crofts from Baldock, and they made a search and asked a lot of questions, which I answered to the best of my ability, and I can’t tell you no more sir.’
‘Did you notice,’ asked Parker, ‘whether Mr Payne had any stains of blood about him?’
‘No sir – I can’t say that he had. When I first saw him, he was standing in here, right under the light, and I think I should have seen it if there was anything, sir. I can’t say fairer than that.’
‘Of course you’ve searched this room, Inspector, for bloodstains or a weapon or for anything such as gloves or a cloth, or anything that might have been used to protect the murderer from bloodstains?’
‘Yes, Mr Parker. We searched very carefully.’
‘Could anybody have come downstairs while you were in the dining-room with Mr Grimbold?’
‘Well, sir, I suppose they might. But they’d have to have got into the house before half-past seven, sir, and hidden themselves somewhere. Still, there’s no doubt it might have happened that way. They couldn’t come down by the back stairs, of course, because they’d have had to pass the kitchen and Cook would have heard them, the passage being flagged, sir, but the front stairs – well, I don’t know hardly what to say about that.’
‘That’s how the man got in, depend upon it,’ said Parker. ‘Don’t look so distressed, Hamworthy. You can’t be expected to search all the cupboards in the house every evening for concealed criminals. Now I think I had better see the two nephews. I suppose they and their uncle got on together all right?’
‘Oh, yes, sir. Never had a word of any sort. It’s been a great blow to them, sir. They were terribly upset when Mr Grimbold was ill in the summer –’
‘He was ill, was he?’
‘Yes sir, with his heart, last July. He took a very bad turn, sir, and we had to send for Mr Neville. But he pulled round wonderfully, sir – only he never seemed to be quite such a cheerful gentleman afterwards. I think it made him feel he wasn’t getting younger, sir. But I’m sure nobody ever thought he’d be cut off like this.’
‘How is his money left?’ asked Parker.
Well, sir, that I don’t know. I believe it would be divided between the two gentlemen, sir – not but what they have plenty of their own. But Mr Harcourt would be able to tell you, sir. He’s the executor.’
‘Very well, we’ll ask him. Are the brothers on good terms?’
‘Oh, yes, indeed, sir. Most devoted. Mr Neville would do anything for Mr Harcourt – and Mr Harcourt for him, I’m sure. A very pleasant pair of gentlemen, sir. You couldn’t have nicer.’
‘Thanks, Hamworthy. That will do for the moment, unless anybody else has anything to ask?’
‘How much of the pheasant was eaten, Hamworthy?’
‘Well, my lord, not a great deal of it – I mean, nothing like all of what Mr Grimbold had on his plate. But he’d ate some of it. It might have taken three or four minutes or so to eat what he had done, my lord, judging by what I helped him to.’
‘There was nothing to suggest that he had been interrupted, for example, by somebody coming to the windows, or of his having got up to let the person in?’
‘Nothing at all, my lord, that I could see.’
‘The chair was pushed in close to the table when I saw him,’ put in the Inspector, ‘and his napkin was on his knees and the knife and fork lying just under his hands, as though, he had dropped them when the blow came. I understand that the body was not disturbed.’
‘No sir, I never moved it – except, of course, to make sure that he was dead. But I never felt any doubt of that, sir, when I saw that dreadful wound in his back. I just lifted his head and let it fall forward again, same as before.’
‘All right, then, Hamworthy. Ask Mr Harcourt to come
in.’ Mr Harcourt Grimbold was a brisk-looking man of about thirty-five. He explained that he was a stockbroker and his brother Neville an official in the Ministry of Public Health, and that they had been brought up by their uncle from the ages of eleven and ten respectively. He was aware that his uncle had had many business enemies, but for his own part he had received nothing from him but kindness.
‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you much about this terrible business, as I didn’t get here till 9.45 last night, when, of course, it was all over.’
‘That was a little later than you hoped to be here?’
‘Just a little. My tail-lamp went out between Welwyn Garden City and Welwyn, and I was stopped by a bobby. I went to a garage in Welwyn, where they found that the lead had come loose. They put it right, and that delayed me for a few minutes more.’
‘It’s about forty miles from here to London?’
‘Just over. In the ordinary way, at that time of night, I should reckon an hour and a quarter from door to door. I’m not a speed merchant.’
‘Did you drive yourself?’
‘Yes. I have a chauffeur, but I don’t always bring him down here with me.’
‘When did you leave London?’
‘About 8.20, I should think. Neville went round to the garage and fetched the car as soon as he’d finished telephoning, while I put my toothbrush and so on in my bag.’
‘You didn’t hear about the death of your uncle before you left?’
‘No. They didn’t think of ringing me up, I gather, till after I had started. The police tried to get Neville later on, but he’d gone round to the club, or something. I phoned him myself after I got here, and he came down this morning.’
‘Well, now, Mr Grimbold, can you tell us anything about your late uncle’s affairs?’
‘You mean his will? Who profits, and that kind of thing? Well, I do, for one, and Neville, for another. And Mrs – Have you heard of a Mrs Winter?’
‘Something, yes.’
‘Well, she does, for a third. And then, of course, old Hamworthy gets a nice little nest-egg, and the cook gets something, and there is a legacy of £500 to the clerk at my uncle’s London office. But the bulk of it goes to us and to Mrs Winter. I know what you’re going to ask – how much is it? I haven’t the faintest idea, but I know it must be something pretty considerable. The old man never let on to a soul how much he really was worth, and we never bothered about it. I’m turning over a good bit, and Neville’s salary is a heavy burden on a long-suffering public, so we only had a mild, academic kind of interest in the question.’
‘Do you suppose Hamworthy knew he was down for a legacy?’
‘Oh, yes – there was no secret about that. He was to get £100 and a life-interest in £200 a year, provided, of course, he was still in my uncle’s service when he – my uncle, I mean – died.’
‘And he wasn’t under notice, or anything?’
‘N-no. No. Not more than usual. My uncle gave everybody notice about once a month, to keep them up to the mark. But it never came to anything. He was like the Queen of Hearts in Alice – he never executed nobody, you know.’
‘I see. We’d better ask Hamworthy about that, though. Now, this Mrs Winter. Do you know anything about her?’
Oh, yes. She’s a nice woman. Of course, she was Uncle William’s mistress for donkey’s years, but her husband was practically potty with drink, and you could scarcely blame her. I wired her this morning and here’s her reply, just come.’
He handed Parker a telegram, despatched from Paris, which read: ‘Terribly shocked and grieved. Returning immediately. Love and sympathy. Lucy.’
‘You are on friendly terms with her, then?’
‘Good Lord, yes. Why not? We were always damned sorry for her. Uncle William would have taken her away with him somewhere, only she wouldn’t leave Winter. In fact, I think they had practically settled that they were to get married now that Winter has had the grace to peg out. She’s only about thirty-eight, and it’s time she had some sort of show in life, poor thing.’
‘So, in spite of the money, she hadn’t really very much to gain by your uncle’s death?’
‘Not a thing. Unless, of course, she wanted to marry somebody younger, and was afraid of losing the cash. But I believe she was honestly fond of the old boy. Anyhow, she couldn’t have done the murder, because she’s in Paris.’
‘H’m! said Parker. ‘I suppose she is. We’d better make sure, though. I’ll ring through to the Yard and have her looked out for at the ports. Is this phone through to the Exhange?’
‘Yes,’ said the Inspector. ‘It doesn’t have to go through the hall phone; they’re connected in parallel.’
‘All right. Well, I don’t think we need trouble you further, at the moment, Mr Grimbold. I’ll put my call through, and after that we’ll send for the next witness … Give me Whitehall 1212, please … I suppose the time of Mr Harcourt’s call from town has been checked, Inspector?’
‘Yes, Mr Parker. It was put in at 7.57 and renewed at 8 o’clock and 8.3. Quite an expensive little item. And we’ve also checked up on the constable who spoke to him about his lights and the garage that put them right for him. He got into Welwyn at 9.5 and left again about 9.15. The number of the car is right, too.’
‘Well, he’s out of it in any case, but it’s just as well to check all we can … Hullo, is that Scotland Yard? Put me through to Chief-Inspector Hardy. Chief-Inspector Parker speaking.’
As soon as he had finished with his call, Parker sent for Neville Grimbold. He was rather like his brother, only a little slimmer and a little more suave in speech, as befitted a Civil Servant. He had nothing to add, except to confirm his brother’s story and to explain that he had gone to a cinema from 8.20 to about 10 o’clock, and then on to his club, so that he had heard nothing about the tragedy till later in the evening.
The cook was the next witness. She had a great deal to say, but nothing very convincing to tell. She had not happened to see Hamworthy go to the pantry for the claret, otherwise she confirmed his story. She scouted the idea that somebody had been concealed in one of the upper rooms, because the daily woman, Mrs Crabbe, had been in the house till nearly dinnertime, putting camphor-bags in all the wardrobes; and, anyhow, she had no doubt but what ‘that Payne’ had stabbed Mr Grimbold – ‘a nasty, murdering beast. After which, it only remained to interview the murderous Mr Payne.
Mr Payne was almost aggressively frank. He had been treated very harshly by Mr Grimbold. What with exorbitant usury and accumulated interest added to the principal, he had already paid back about five times the original loan, and now Mr Grimbold had refused him any more time to pay, and had announced his intention of foreclosing on the security, namely, Mr Payne’s house and land. It was all the more brutal because Mr Payne had every prospect of being able to pay off the entire debt in six months’ time, owing to some sort of interest or share in something or other which was confidently expected to turn up trumps. In his opinion, old Grimbold had refused to renew on purpose, so as to prevent him from paying – what he wanted was the property. Grimbold’s death was the saving of the situation, because it would postpone settlement till after the confidently-expected trumps had turned up. Mr Payne would have murdered old Grimbold with pleasure, but he hadn’t done so, and in any case he wasn’t the sort of man to stab anybody in the back, though, if the money-lender had been a younger man, he, Payne, would have been happy to break all his bones for him. There it was, and they could take it or leave it. If that old fool, Hamworthy, hadn’t got in his way, he’d have laid hands on the murderer all right – if Hamworthy was a fool, which he doubted. Blood? yes, there was blood on his coat. He had got that in struggling with Hamworthy at the window. Hamworth’s hands had been all over blood when he made his appearance in the library. No doubt he had got it from the corpse. He, Payne, had taken care not to change his clothes, because, if he had done so, somebody would have tried to make out that he was hiding something. Actually, he had not been home
, or asked to go home, since the murder. Mr Payne added that he objected strongly to the attitude taken up by the local police, who had treated him with undisguised hostility. To which Inspector Henley replied that Mr Payne was quite mistaken.
‘Mr Payne,’ said Lord Peter, ‘will you tell me one thing? When you heard the commotion in the dining-room, and the cook screaming, and so on, why didn’t you go in at once to find out what was the matter?’
‘Why?’ retorted Mr Payne. ‘Because I never heard anything of the sort, that’s why. The first thing I knew about it was seeing the butler-fellow standing there in the doorway, waving his bloody hands about and gibbering.’
‘Ah!’ said Wimsey. ‘I thought it was a good, solid door. Shall we ask the lady to go in and scream for us now, with the dining-room window open?’
The Inspector departed on this errand, while the rest of the company waited anxiously to count the screams. Nothing happened, however, till Henley put his head in and asked, what about it?
‘Nothing,’ said Parker.
‘It’s a well-built house,’ said Wimsey. ‘I suppose any sound coming through the window would be muffled by the conservatory. Well, Mr Payne, if you didn’t hear the screams it’s not surprising that you didn’t hear the murderer. Are those all your witnesses, Charles? Because I’ve got to get back to London to see a man about a dog. But I’ll leave you with two suggestions with my blessing. One is, that you should look for a car, which was parked within a quarter of a mile of this house last night, between 7.30 and 8.15; the second is, that you should all come and sit in the dining-room tonight, with the doors and windows shut, and watch the french windows. I’ll give Mr Parker a ring about eight. Oh, and you might lend me the key of the conservatory door. I’ve got a theory about it.’