Джорджетт Хейер - Death in the Stocks

Antonia betrayed neither surprise nor dismay at the Superintendent's arrival, but the other two girls looked a trifle startled. Leslie threw a swift, anxious look at Kenneth, and seemed to stiffen herself.

Kenneth continued to sketch, “Come in and make yourselves at home,” he invited. “I won't say I'm pleased to see you, because that wouldn't be true.”

“You don't always stick so rigidly to the truth, I think, Mr Vereker,” said Hannasyde, closing the door behind him.

Kenneth smiled. “Nearly always. Sometimes I get led astray, I admit. Tell me the worst.”

“Three members of your party last night state that for about half an hour you were missing from the ballroom,” said Hannasyde, without beating about the bush.

Kenneth looked up from his sketch. His eyes were narrowed and keen, but they were focused not on Hannasyde, but on Leslie Rivers.

“You've rather a nice-shaped head, Leslie,” he remarked. “Don't move! Sorry, my friend-the-Superintendent. Anything else?”

“To be missing from the ballroom at a dance for half an hour is not unusual,” said Leslie. “One sits out occasionally, Superintendent.”

“In a box, Miss Rivers. There is not, I believe, very much accommodation for sitting out anywhere else at the Albert Hall.”

“Except outside in one's car,” she replied.

“Hush, misguided child!” said Kenneth. “The most elementary methods will discover that my car went to Hornet's Garage to be de-coked yesterday. Am I not right, Superintendent?”

“Quite,” said Hannasyde. “And am I not right, Mr Vereker, in saying that you left the Albert Hall by the main entrance at twenty minutes past ten, and returned just before eleven?”

“Pausing on both occasions to exchange a few words with the commissionaire,” added Kenneth, still at work on his sketch. “Thus doing what I could to stamp myself on his memory. The question which is worrying you at the moment is, of course, Am I diabolically cunning, or incredibly stupid?”

“Don't pay any attention to him!” Leslie said quickly. “This is all nonsense - every word of it! He didn't leave the Albert Hall until we came away after four o'clock, together.”

Kenneth tossed the sketch aside. “My dear girl, do, do dry up! I'm sick of this involved story, anyway, but don't you realise that at any moment now my friend-the Superintendent is going to produce that commissionaire out of his hat to identify me?” He glanced at Hannasyde. “Well, my friend, produce him! Let it be admitted that I did leave the Albert Hall during the course of the evening. It does not follow that I went to my halfbrother's flat, and you know it. You have - as they say in American films - nothing on me.”

“Oh, yes, I have, Mr Vereker,” replied Hannasyde quietly.

Kenneth looked contemptuous. “One pipe, which I may have left in Roger's flat four nights ago.”

“Not only your pipe. An automatic pistol also.”

“I shouldn't build on it,” said Kenneth. “At a rough estimate, half a dozen other people could have laid their hands on that pistol.”

“Had half a dozen other people any motives for killing your half-brother, Mr Vereker?”

“Not having been in Roger's confidence, I can give you no information on that point,” replied Kenneth.

The Superintendent looked at him under his brows. “What sort of hat were you wearing last night, Mr Vereker?”

Kenneth smiled. “Unworthy of you, my friend. Didn't your commissionaire tell you?”

“I asked you.”

“Don't answer!” Leslie said, gripping her fingers together in her lap.

Violet's cool, well-modulated voice interrupted: “Really, Leslie, you are making yourself positively ridiculous. You had much better keep quiet, if you don't mind my saying so. You seem to me to have done quite enough harm already.”

Leslie flushed, and answered rather unsteadily: “It's easy for you to be superior. You weren't at the ball, you aren't involved! What do you care?”

“You forget, I think, that I am engaged to be married to Kenneth.”

Leslie was silent. Kenneth said: “Leave the kid alone, Violet. If she's misguided, at least it's with the best intentions.”

“Oh, certainly, my dear!” Violet said silkily. “But her anxiety to make us believe that you were with her all the evening would almost lead one to suppose that she would like to prove an alibi for herself.”

Antonia removed the cigarette from her mouth. “Cat,” she remarked.

Hannasyde interposed. “I am still waiting to know what sort of hat you wore last night, Mr Vereker.”

“A black felt,” said Kenneth.

“Thank you. When you left the Albert Hall shortly before ten-thirty, where did you go?”

“That question,” said Kenneth, “I must regretfully decline to answer.”

There was a short pause. Violet looked towards Giles, who had strolled to the other end of the studio, and was standing by the window, one hand in his pocket, his shoulders propped against the wall.

“You realise, do you not, Mr Vereker, that your refusal to answer me may have extremely serious consequences?”

“Produce your handcuffs,” recommended Kenneth flippantly.

Giles's eyes rested thoughtfully on Hannasyde's face. It was quite impassive, nor was there much expression in Hannasyde's voice as he said: “Very well, Mr Vereker. If you are determined not to answer, I have no option but to detain you.”

Giles carefully tipped the ash off the end of his cigarette. He still said nothing.

Kenneth's brows rose. “Now, I thought you'd arrest me,” he remarked. “Why don't you?”

The Superintendent made no reply. Antonia got up rather suddenly, and said with a curtness which informed all those who knew her how much alarmed she was: “Giles! For God's sake, why don't you do something?”

He said in his calm way: “There is nothing I can do at the moment, Tony. Don't panic.”

“But it's impossible! You're making an absurd mistake, Superintendent!” Leslie cried. “He didn't do it! I know he didn't do it!”

Violet, who had turned very pale, fixed her eyes on Hannasyde's face and said slowly: “One sees, naturally, that the evidence is very strong, but surely you are being a little hasty? I mean, Kenneth isn't the only person who could have done it. And I must say - though I know perfectly well that it won't be appreciated - that I should like very much to know what Tony was doing last night.”

“Thanks, we'll cut out that bit,” said Kenneth. “Tony was out with Giles, as you very well know.”

“You needn't look at me like that,” said Violet. “I know she says she was with Mr Carrington until twelve, but personally I feel -”

“No one is interested in your feelings, personal or otherwise. Dry up!”

She rose, a spot of colour on each cheek. “It's no use talking to me in that rude way! I've a right to say what I think - more right than Leslie Rivers, let me tell you! Of course, I'm getting used to being snubbed in this household whenever I open my mouth, but I'll thank you to remember that I'm your fiancée, Kenneth!”

He looked at her in a detached way, as though he found her a curious but not uninteresting specimen. “Funny,” he remarked. “Tony always said you had a streak of vulgarity. I see what she means now.”

“How dare you insult me?” she flashed, her lips thin with anger.

“If you don't want me to insult you, lay off my sister!” he said, a hard light in his eyes.

“I shall do no such thing. You've behaved like a fool over the whole of this affair, but if you won't help yourself you needn't think I shall keep my mouth shut! If you weren't utterly selfish you'd try and understand my point of view. You don't suppose I'm going to enjoy seeing you arrested for murder, do you? You haven't even thought of what will happen to me if they convict you?”