She opened the door into the boudoir. "Really, you are quite alarming me, Mr.. Poulton! Come into my room! We shall be quite undisturbed. Do you know, I have been feeling uneasy about Nest all day? So unlike her not to have given me a ring!"

He followed her into the room, and closed the door; Thrimby went back to the bas.e.m.e.nt, where, encountering Miss Mapperley, he disclosed that Something was undoubtedly Up.

"For it is not Mr.. Poulton's habit to drop in at this house," he said, "and from the look of him he hadn't come just to pa.s.s the time of day."

"It wouldn't surprise me," said Miss Mapperley, pleasurably thrilled, "if he'd come to tell Madam that he won't have her ladyship visiting here any more, not after what's happened! I saw him at the party, and he looked ever such a masterful man. A bit like Cary Grant, only older, of course, and not as handsome. I said so to Elsie, at the time. I'd give something to know what he's saying to the old hag!"

However, neither she nor Thrimby was destined to know what was said in the boudoir. The interview did not last long, the bell summoning Thrimby to show the visitor out after little more than twenty minutes.

He reached the hall to find G.o.dfrey Poulton descending the stairs in a leisurely way. That impa.s.sive countenance betrayed no emotion whatsoever. Poulton thanked him briefly for helping him on with his coat, received his gloves and hat from him, and went out to where his car awaited him. Thee chauffeur sprang out to open the door for him; he got in, and as Thrimby closed the front door, the car drove away.

Miss . Mapperley, eagerly awaiting Thrimby's report, was disappointed, but reflected that she would probably be able to gather from Mrs. Haddington's manner, when she went up to help her change for dinner, whether or not the visit had afforded her gratification. "You can always tell when anything's happened to annoy her," she observed. "I wouldn't mind betting I can't do right tonight!"

Mrs. Haddington's bedroom-bell was late in ringing. No summons had reached Miss Mapperley by the time Thrimby went up to the dining-room to lay the table. He was engaged in folding a napkin into the shape of a water-lily when a soft footfall in the hall took him to the door. Beulah Birtley was just about to let herself out of the house.

".I thought you had gone home, miss!" Thrimby said.

She was startled, and turned quickly, colouring. "Oh! I didn't know you were there! Yes, I had, but I left Mrs. Haddington's cheque behind, and had to come back for it. For heaven's sake, don't tell her!"

Thrimby was aware, of course, that Miss Birtley had been granted a latch-key, for this had been bestowed upon her to save him the trouble of answering the door to her every time her employer sent her forth on an errand, but he chose to a.s.sume an air of deep disapproval, and to say: "Madam wished to see you before you left, miss, so it is quite fortunate that you have returned. I fancy you will find her in the boudoir."

"I haven't any desire to find her, thank you!" said Beulah. "I went off duty at six, and I'm going home, and there's not the slightest need for you to tell her I ever came back!"

"If you will wait for a moment, miss," said Thrimby implacably, "I will just ascertain whether Madam has any message for you."

He observed, not without satisfaction, that his words had brought a scowl to Miss Birtley's brow, and went in his stately way up to the boudoir.

Chapter Fourteen.

It was shortly after half-past seven o'clock that the Chief Inspector arrived in Charles Street. The door was opened with unusual celerity by Thrimby, who stared at the two detectives as though he could scarcly believe the evidence of his eyes, and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed: "I didn't think you would have been here so soon!"

"So soon?" said Hemingway, his quick, frowning glance taking in certain signs of disorder in the butler's bearing. "I want to see your mistress!"

"Yes, sir. Of course!" Thrimby said, with a gulp. "If you'd come this way!" He waited for the two men to cast their overcoats on to a chair, and led them up to the boudoir. Without a word, he opened the door, and stood aside for the detectives to enter the room, carefully averting his gaze.

Seated in the chair beside the telephone-table, was Mrs. Haddington, her eyes and tongue protruding horribly, and behind her head two strands of picture-wire projecting.

The Chief Inspector stood, as though turned to stone, on the threshold. Behind him, he heard Grant gasp: "A Mhuire Mhathaid!" He swung round quickly to confront the butler. "When did this happen?"

Thrimby shook his head, moistened his lips. "I don't know. It isn't more than ten minutes since I found her. I rang up Scotland Yard. They said you'd be along in a few minutes."

"We must already have left the building," Hemingway muttered. "Any idea who could have done it?"

"Yes, sir! It can't have been anyone but Mr.. Poulton, or Miss Birtley: I'm sure of that! I'm holding Miss Birtley, in the library. Mr.. Poulton left the house nearly half an hour ago.

"All right!" Hemingway said curtly. "I'll have a word with you presently: you can clear off for the present!"

"Thank you, sir!" said Thrimby, with real grat.i.tude, and effaced himself.

Hemingway shut the door of the boudoir. He laid his fingers for a brief s.p.a.ce over Mrs. Haddington's wrist, and then said in a matter-of-fact voice: "Seem to have got on the wrong scent, don't I? A nice set-out, this is! I daresay the Department has sent the doctor off already, but you'd better ring through, Sandy, in case of accidents. I don't know how long she's been dead, but she's warm still. Tell 'em I've got a duplicate murder on my hands, and I want the usual bag of tricks sent round!"

The Inspector drew out his handkerchief, and, through its folds, picked up the telephone. While he spoke into the receiver, his superior was subjecting the body of Mrs. Haddington to a close scrutiny. The chair in which she sat had been slewed a little away from the telephone-table; her head was thrown back, the nape of her neck resting against the gilded wood framing the padded back of the chair, and both her legs stuck out before her. Her arms hung limply, outside the arms of the chair, and her dress was rucked up on one side. The Chief Inspector cast a keen look round the room.

Grant replaced the telephone on its rest. "The fingerprint and photographic units are on their way, sir," he announced. "Mo thruaighe, but this is a terrible thing!"

Hemingway nodded.

"Is the man a maniac, think you?" "Can't say, I'm sure."

"It is identical!" the Inspector said, staring at the body.

"Think so? Well, I don't! For one thing, unless I'm much mistaken, she wasn't sitting in that chair when she was murdered. Take a look at the position she's in! To have fallen back with her neck against the chair, she'd have had to have sat down on the very edge of it, and she'd have fallen forward, not backward. Take a look at those marks on the carpet too! If you ask me, she was sitting in front of the fire, and it was her heels that made those marks when she was dragged to where we see her now!"

The Inspector looked down at the carpet. The pile had been rubbed the wrong way in two diagonal lines. "But why?" he demanded incredulously.

"You can search me! Maybe you're right, and it is a maniac. Maybe he's just got a queer sense of humour. I wouldn't know."

"There is nothing mad about Poulton," Grant said. "I never saw a saner man than that one!"

"For the lord's sake, Sandy, don't go jumping to conclusions!" Hemingway said irritably. "That 'ud land us in a packet of trouble! Not but what we're in it now. I like this fellow's nerve, b.u.mping off a second victim while I'm still investigating the first murder! And don't tell me Poulton's got nerve enough, because I know that already!"

"Ch'an abair mi dada'

"If you're trying to send me haywire, my lad - ! What's that mean?"

The Inspector apologised. "It slipped out! It means I will say nothing."

"You stick to that and perhaps I can stilll pull this case out of the mud!" said Hemingway. He relented, and added: "Sorry, Sandy! You know, I had more than half an idea I was going to make an arrest this evening."

"I do know, of course," Grant agreed doubtfully.

"All right, it certainly looks like being one up to you. What I'm due for is one of the bigger official kicks. See who that is!"

The Inspector opened the door to admit the policesurgeon. Dr Yoxall came briskly in, cast a dispa.s.sionate glance at the body in the chair, and set down his bag. "Evening, Hemingway! What's all this?"

"Just another little job for you, sir. Getting monotonous, isn't it?"

The doctor bent over the body, deigning no response. After a few moments, he said: "I can't tell you anything you aren't capable of grasping for yourself. Been dead under an hour; strangulation; method identical with the first death in this room. What have you got, Chief Inspector? A homicidal maniac?"

"Looks like it, doesn't it, sir? Did she die where you see her?"

The doctor's sharp eyes studied the position of the body. "Hard to say. She may have slipped forward on the chair in her death-throes. I shouldn't have expected to have found her quite like that, but I'm not prepared to say she couldn't have got into that position. A ruthless man, this murderer: wish you luck, Hemingway! Have the body sent down to the mortuary when you've finished with it. Not that I shall be able to tell you anything more: I shan't. A dull case! Thought so at the start! "Night!"

"The only case that chap thinks is interesting," said Hemingway, when the doctor had gone, "is the kind of messy job where you get half the medical profession into the witness-box, swearing blind that black's white just to score off the other half!"

"Och, now, whisht!" said the Inspector reasonably. "Here is Bromley!"

Several persons came into the room. Hemingway nodded to their leader. "Case of Here we are again, Tom! Get busy, will you? Get me a composite, taking in the body, and those marks on the carpet. I don't have to tell you what to try for, Bromley: go over all the furniture - mantelpiece - anything a man might have put his hand on! You stay, Sandy: you can let the ambulance-men take the body away as soon as these chaps have finished. Lock the room!"

He left the room as he spoke, and went down the stairs to the hall. Here, Thrimby awaited him. He said: "Now then, let's hear what you've got to say! Come in here!"

He led the way into the dining-room. The table was laid for two persons, a circ.u.mstance which seemed to affect the butler poignantly. He shuddered, and said: "I'd only that minute finished laying for Madam, and Miss Cynthia!"

"What minute?"

"I don't know what the time was, not for certain. It must have been soon after seven. I heard a stealthy footstep in the hall, as if someone was walking on tip-toe, and I went to the door, like this, and there was Miss Birtley, just about to let herself out of the house."

The Chief Inspector was unimpressed. "Any reason why she shouldn't have been letting herself out? When is she due to knock off each day?"

"At six o'clock, unless Madam wished her to stay on. And so she did, Chief Inspector, for with my own eyes I saw her leave the house then!"

"Then how did she get in again?"

"Miss Birtley has a duplicate latch-key. I was considerably astonished to see her, and it seemed to me that she was taking care not to be heard. When I spoke to her, she gave a start, and seemed much discomposed."

"She did, did she? What had she come back for?"

"She informed me, Chief Inspector, that she had omitted to take away with her the cheque handed to her this morning by Mrs. Haddington, to pay the accounts with. I need hardly say that I should be reluctant - most reluctant I should be! - to get a fellow-creature into trouble, but at the time it struck me as being Odd. I won't say suspicious, but definitely Odd. Knowing that Mrs. Haddington had wished to speak with her before her departure, I requested her to wait while I ascertained whether Madam had any message for her." He paused, and added impressively: "Miss Birtley was very reluctant to do so. In fact, she did not wish me to go up to the boudoir. But I was Adamant! I went - and that was what I found! I do not know when anything has given me such a Turn, Chief Inspector!"

"And what were your own movements?" asked Hemingway.

Thrimby was not to be so easily baulked. He said: "As soon as I realised that Mrs. Haddington had been foully done to death, I commanded Miss Birtley to go into the library, and I sent immediately to request Mrs. Foston, the housekeeper, to remain there with her until your arrival."

"And what," repeated Hemingway, "were your own movements?"

"After the departure of Mr.. Poulton, which would have been at about a quarter-to-seven, as near as I can remember, I was in my pantry till I came up to lay the table."

"Yes, well, now suppose you were to tell me just who has been here this evening?" suggested Hemingway.

"I ought, perhaps, to tell you first, Chief Inspector, that I overheard a very unpleasant scene this morning between Mrs. Haddington and Miss Birtley. I'm sure I would prefer not to mention the matter, but I feel it to be my duty to inform you that Miss Birtley addressed Mrs. Haddington in what I should call threatening terms. She said that she wouldn't be interfered with, and there were no lengths she wouldn't go to, if she was goaded to it. Then she said, and, I must say, I was shocked, that if she couldn't have Mr.. Harte - Timothy, she called him - she didn't care what became of her. At which point, I thought it proper to intervene, which, Chief Inspector, I did. Quite murderous, Miss Birtley looked: I thought so at the time!"

Hemingway listened dispa.s.sionately to this story. He was interested, but he disappointed the butler by betraying no signs of excitement whatsoever. He felt none. It was possible, in his view, that Miss Birtley had strangled her employer, but he had interrogated too many witnesses not to recognise spite when he was confronted with it. By dint of some skilful questioning, he elicited from Thrimby a fairly coherent account of the day's happenings. "So, setting aside the doctor's visit, no one came to the house between the time he left, and the time Mr.. b.u.t.ter-wick arrived? Very well! You say that Lord Guisborough called before Mr.. b.u.t.ter-wick had left the house. Did you see Mr.. b.u.t.terwick out?"

"No, for I was engaged in showing his lordship up to the drawing-room. By the time I came downstairs again, Mr.. b.u.t.ter-wick had departed. I did not actually see Lord Guisborough out either, though I heard him go. His lordship, not waiting for me to show him out, slammed the door with considerable violence. Mrs. Haddington seemed quite put out: in fact she spoke to me as I am not at all accustomed to be spoken to, actually coming to the head of the stairs to know what had kept me, which nothing had, Chief Inspector, but it is not my custom to go dashing upstairs! She then instructed me to say in future, if his lordship called or rang up, that she was not at home. It is my belief that Mrs. Haddington did not, as one might say, fancy his lordship. Of course, it is not for me to venture an opinion, Chief Inspector, but one can't help putting two and two together. What with his lordship running after Miss Cynthia, till it is quite noticeable, and Mrs. Haddington asking him to come to see her this afternoon, and then his lordship rushing out of the house, and Mrs. Haddington saying what she did, one can't doubt that she had told him it was no use him thinking of Miss Cynthia, for she wouldn't consent. Miss Cynthia, I should mention, is under age. Strictly between ourselves, Chief Inspector, it's common knowledge, in the Hall, that it's Mr.. Harte Mrs. Haddington wanted for Miss Cynthia. Well, when he first visited here, I must say I thought there was something in it. But then he seemed to get sweet on Miss Birtley all at once - and there has been a certain amount of unpleasantness, Miss Birtley being a young woman with a temper, and I regret to say, not always as civil as she might be. Really, I was quite shocked at her this morning; and naturally I couldn't but recall the words she had with Mr.. Seaton-Carew, the night he was murdered. Almost the same they were, though I don't precisely remember them now. Threatening, is what I should call them."

"Never mind about Miss Birtley for the moment! After Lord Guisborough left the house, what happened?"

The butler reflected. "I went down to fetch the c.o.c.ktail-tray up to the drawing-room. I fancy Mrs. Haddington must have gone up to Miss Cynthia's room, for she asked me, when she came down, if I knew where Miss Cynthia was. Mapperley - that's Mrs. Haddington's personal maid - thinks she went off to a party, but not having seen her go, I couldn't say. She hasn't yet returned."

Just as well!" muttered Hemingway. "Then what happened?"

"Mrs. Haddington went to see if Miss Cynthia was in the boudoir. It was then that Mr.. Poulton arrived, about 6.25, as near as I remember."

"Did Mrs. Haddington seem pleased to see him, or not?"

"Well, sir, I thought Mrs. Haddington was better pleased to see him than he was to be here. I doubt if Mr.. Poulton has ever been in the house above twice or three times. I had the impression that he did not care for Mrs. Haddington. But he is not a gentleman as shows his feelings. He asked for a private word with Mrs. Haddington, and she took him into the boudoir, and that was the last time I saw her alive."

"I see. Tell me once again exactly what happened when the boudoir bell rang!"

"When the bell rang," said the butler carefully, "I had of course been expecting it. I mounted the stairs from the bas.e.m.e.nt, and when I reached the hall I saw Mr.. Poulton coming down the first flight."

"Was he in any way agitated? Did he seem quite as usual?"

"So far as I could judge, he did. But I don't know him well, and, as I say, he doesn't give anything away. He was coming quite slowly downstairs, nor he didn't hurry over putting on his coat. His car was waiting for him, and he drove off, as I told you."

"All right, that seems very clear," Hemingway said. "Did you say I would find Miss Birtley in the library?"

"Yes, sir. I could not take it upon myself to allow Miss Birtley to leave the house. Mrs. Foston is with her."

"All right, I know the way," Hemingway said.

He found Beulah and the housekeeper seated one on either side of the electric stove in the library. Beulah had thrown off her hat, but she still wore her tweed coat, into the pockets of which she had dug her hands. She looked white, and frightened. Mrs. Foston, who rose at the Chief Inspector's entrance, had been quietly knitting.. She folded up the work, and said: "If you please, sir, Miss Birtley and I have thought it best to send for Miss Cynthia's aunt, Miss Pickhill."

"Quite right," said Hemingway.

"I have also sent for Mr.. Harte!" Beulah said.

"Well, you've got a perfect right to send for anyone you like," replied Hemingway. "Anyone else you've rung up?"

"No."

"That's good. It wouldn't really help any of us to have half London here. Thanks, Mrs. Foston, I won't keep you any longer."

Mrs. Foston glanced at Beulah. "That's as may be, sir, but if Miss Birtley would like me to stay with her I'm very willing. Because no one's going to make me believe a young lady would go and do such a nasty, cruel thing, whatever Thrimby may say! A piece of my mind is what he's going to get, before he's much older!"

"You go and give it to him right now!" Hemingway advised her. "You won't do any good staying here, and whoever told you the police go around with thumbscrews in their pockets told you a lie: we aren't allowed to."

"It's all right!" Beulah said, forcing up a smile. "I shan't answer any questions until Mr.. Harte arrives."

"Well, if you're sure, miss!" Mrs. Foston said.

Hemingway opened the door, and pushed her gently over the threshold. Having shut her out of the room, he turned and looked Beulah over. "You do get yourself into some awkward situations, don't you?" he remarked genially.

He caught her off her guard. "This is the worst I've been in yet! You needn't think I don't know that! I suppose you've already been told that I had a row with Mrs. Haddington this morning?"