Patricia Wentworth - The Clock Strikes Twelve

“How did he take your coming back?” said Colonel Bostock.

Frank Ambrose was silent for a moment. Then he said,

“We talked. I was with him for about twenty minutes. Then I went away.”

Vyner looked up and said,

“Did he tell you that Mr. Wray’s blue-prints were missing?”

There was again that moment of silence. Then Frank Ambrose said,

“Yes.”

“Did he tell you who had taken them?”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”

“You can, of course, refuse to answer any questions now, but you may be asked them in another place, when you will be on your oath.”

“Of course I realize that. I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything more at present.”

When the door had shut behind him Miss Silver said “Dear me!” Colonel Bostock blew his nose loudly.

“Well, what do you make of that? He knows something.”

Vyner was shutting his notebook.

“There isn’t much doubt about that.”

“Looks as if he hasn’t slept for a week. By the way,”-the Chief Constable turned to Miss Silver- “his wife’s out of it-that girl Irene. Glad about that. Nasty thing for a young woman, murder. Not at all the thing. Vyner’ll tell you.”

The Superintendent turned his pleasant blue eyes upon Miss Silver.

“I had some enquiries made at Dr. Horton’s house. The two maids share an attic room to the front. Well, one of them says she looked out somewhere after eleven and she saw Mrs. Ambrose walking up and down like she said she did. You will remember that it was bright moonlight until the rain came on at twelve. She is quite sure about its being Mrs. Ambrose. She made a joke of it to the other girl. It seems she was always ringing Dr. Horton up about the children, and this was the girl who would take the messages, so they made quite a joke of it, and looked out several times to see if she was still there. They were up late because the other girl was going to her sister’s wedding next day and she was finishing her dress. They say Mrs. Ambrose was still there at ten minutes to twelve. I think that’s good enough.”

Miss Silver nodded.

“Oh, yes.” Over the clicking needles she looked brightly at the two men. “I think we may say that most of the time between a quarter to ten and midnight is now accounted for. It might be helpful to have a time-table before us. Perhaps the Superintendent will be kind enough to take one down-

9:45-Departure of Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose, Miss Ambrose, and Miss Pennington.

9:50 or so-Departure of Mr. Mark Paradine and Mr. Richard.

9:52 or 53-Mr. Pearson to the study to say goodnight, followed immediately by Lane, who saw him both enter and leave.

A few minutes later-Mr. Wray to the study to say goodnight. His visit was very brief. Coming out, he found Mr. Pearson waiting for him. They proceeded to Mr. Wray’s room, which they reached before ten o’clock.

10:10-Mrs. Wray to the study to talk to her uncle.

10:30-Mr. Ambrose knocks on the study door and is admitted-Mrs. Wray having gone out by way of the unused bedroom next door.

10:50-Mr. Ambrose leaves.

11:00-Mr. Mark Paradine to the study.

11:30-Mr. Mark Paradine leaves. Mr. Wray and Mr. Pearson come down to the dining-room to have a drink. Mr. Wray hears the front door close. He also hears a door shut upstairs on the corridor occupied by Miss Paradine and Mrs. Wray.

11:53-Mr. Wray and Mr. Pearson return upstairs. They separate immediately. Mr. Wray goes to have a bath.

Superintendent Vyner stopped writing and looked up with an extremely startled expression on his face.

“Did you say 11:53, Miss Silver?”

Little Roger’s dark grey leggings revolved beneath the busy needles.

“That is what I said, Superintendent.”

Vyner’s eyes remained fixed upon her face.

“Mr. Wray and Mr. Pearson have both stated that it was eight minutes past twelve by the clock in Mr. Wray’s room when they came upstairs.”

Miss Silver coughed,

“The clock had been tampered with.”

“God bless my soul!” said Colonel Bostock.

Miss Silver continued to knit.

“Mr. Pearson’s alibi naturally attracted my attention. It was, if I may put it in that way, so very determined. On the other hand, he made no secret of the fact that it had been carefully arranged. If you will refer to his statement you will see that he says quite plainly, ‘After the accusation made by Mr. Paradine against a member of his family whom he did not name, I could not afford to have it supposed by anyone that it might be aimed at me. I therefore waited for Mr. Wray and took care to remain in his company until well after midnight-Mr. Paradine having stated that he would sit up in the study until twelve o’clock. It was just on ten past when Mr. Wray and I separated at the door of his room.’ ”

Vyner had been flicking over pages. He nodded.

“Word-perfect, Miss Silver.”

She inclined her head.

“You see he is quite frank, and that what he says is reasonable. He is not liked by the rest of the family. The cousinship is a distant one, and as far as any familiarity is concerned is more or less in abeyance. It is only the younger members of the family whom he addresses by their Christian names. It is Miss Paradine-Mr. Ambrose-Miss Ambrose. Everyone would have been relieved if he had been the culprit. The desire for an alibi might therefore be natural and innocent. On the other hand it might not. If he had a motive for killing his employer, this innocent-seeming alibi might be very useful indeed. No motive has up to the present come to light, but if such a motive should be discovered, then the following points will be of interest.” She unrolled some more of the dark grey wool, turned her knitting, and continued. “The first point is this. If you will turn again to Mr. Pearson’s statement you will see he says that Lane was in the study when he went in to bid Mr. Paradine goodnight. In Lane’s statement there is what reads like a corroboration of this, but it is not quite accurate. Mr. Wray, Mrs. Wray, Mr. Ambrose, and Mr. Mark were all greeted by Mr. Paradine with the same half sarcastic, half jocular remark, ‘Have you come to confess?’ I wished to know whether Mr. Pearson had been greeted in the same way. If he had, and if there were anything serious on his conscience, the question might very well have convinced him that his fault was known, and he may then have planned Mr. Paradine’s death. All this, of course, depends on whether he had some serious dereliction to conceal. On questioning Lane I discovered that he was not actually in the study when Mr. Pearson entered it. He was coming through the swing door with a tray, when Mr. Pearson, who had approached from the other end of the passage, passed before him into the study. He heard Mr. Paradine say, ‘Hullo, Albert- have you come to confess?’ ”

“God bless my soul!”

Miss Silver’s needles clicked.

“It is not necessary to labour this point. We do not know whether Mr. Pearson had anything on his conscience or not. He had no time to answer Mr. Paradine, because Lane came into the room, and though he was called back for a moment as Lane was leaving again, he was out in the passage before the swing door had closed. I really do not wish to put too much stress on this small point, but I think it may have to be considered later on.”

Vyner said, “The point being, why did Mr. Pearson say that Lane was already in the room when he came in?”

“Yes.”

“It might be just part of his being nervous about his reputation.”

“That had not escaped me, Superintendent.” She coughed and continued. “We now come to the second point. If Mr. Pearson’s alibi was a false one, the clock in Mr. Wray’s room must have been tampered with. I tried to think when it might have been done. Not before dinner, because there was no indication then that the room would be occupied, or that Mr. Paradine would make the accusation which he did, in fact, make after dinner. Not between the time the accusation was made and a quarter to ten, because Mr. Pearson was in company with the rest of the party during that time. The first opportunity would occur between the time when Lane saw him leave the study after saying goodnight to Mr. Paradine and the time, a few minutes later, when Mr. Wray found him waiting in the passage. He would have had time in the interval to run up the back stairs and alter the clock in Mr. Wray’s room.”