Don Gutteridge - Unholy Alliance

“What if this door was open?” Cobb said. “Thecandle would shine into the hall here, an’ you might see it fromthat round hall at the other end.”

“Either that or the poisoner knew Chilton would be working here,” Marc said. “Garnet, I’ll need toknow everything about Chilton you can tell me, but first I want tohave a closer look in here.”

“Go right ahead, Marc. I wasn’t finished mychat with Mr. Macaulay anyway,” Withers said, drawing Macaulaydiscreetly back towards the library directly across the hall fromthe butler’s office.

Marc and Cobb went right up to the desk.

“You interested in the big book here?” Cobbsaid.

Marc nodded, then carefully pulled the ledgerfrom under Chilton’s stiffening arms. “Bring that candle closer,”Marc said, indicating one already alight on the shelf just abovethe desk.

“These other two are burned right down,” Cobbsaid. “I figure he fell asleep fer good with both of these stillblazin’. I lit this one fer the doc when we come in earlier.”

Marc was leafing through the pages of theledger. “This is a standard accounts book. There are entries goingback months, made by Alfred Harkness, the former butler. These lastfew pages show a different hand, Chilton’s, no doubt, since hisarrival just over a week ago. All of them are in ink.”

Cobb was fiddling with the quills. “These’refresh-cut an’ clean. I’d say they ain’t been used fer a while.”

“Now, this is interesting,” Marc said as heran his fingers along the inside edge of the opened book. “Threepages, the top three, have been torn out of here — rather neatly,but unmistakeably removed. It’s possible that Chilton had beenwriting something on these sheets with that pencil.”

“An’ now they’re missin’.”

“Indeed. We’ve got to consider thepossibility that Chilton was killed for something he had written onthose missing pages, something the killer did not want anyone toknow about.”

“So he ripped ‘em out an’ took them withhim?”

“If he did — and that seems a reasonableconclusion — then he must have waited until Chilton was too drunkor dazed to notice. Or care.”

“Takin’ an awful chance, wouldn’t you say,sittin’ in here feedin’ a bottle of poison to Macaulay’s butleruntil the poor bugger was too pissed to blink?”

“True, except that with this door closed theentire south section of Elmgrove would be in utter darkness. Evenvoices would not carry down the hall to the rotunda, and certainlynot into the sleeping quarters beyond it. If one were planning astealthy poisoning, this would be the ideal spot to carry itout.”

“Likewise, anybody sleepin’ back there couldsneak out an’ cross the round room an’ paddle down here withoutbein’ heard or seen.”

“Yes, and I’m certain he or she did. Thereare no fresh footprints outside the front door, and the Frenchdoors in the parlour are permanently locked during the wintermonths, I was told yesterday.”

“There’s a back door,” Cobb said. “We come inthat way. Brought us inta the round hall near the pink stairway.An’ there’s a rear door to the servants’ wing.”

“True, but don’t bother checking forbootprints back there. The servants will have been up and about atthe rear of the place since daybreak.”

“It’d been pretty much tramped about when wegot here after eight.”

“Still, I’d like you and Struthers to walkthe periphery of the grounds later, and look for signs of externalentry overnight. It’s not likely, but we must be thorough. By theway, who discovered the body?”

“Prissy Finch, the maid. She usually checkswith the butler before her tidyin’ duties on this floor. Chiltonwasn’t in his room when she knocked, an’ when he didn’t show up ferbreakfast, she figured he was workin’ here an’ lost track of thetime. The door was wide open, she says, so she seen the corpseright off. She says she didn’t touch anythin’, just screamed ferMr. Macaulay. All this was about seven o’clock. She got the squireoutta bed an’ give him the bad news. An’ he sent young Struthersskedadellin’ inta town fer the police. I guess he reckoned it was asuicide an’ the law oughta be brought along just in case. Turns outhe was almost right.”

“You’ve talked with Priscilla?”

“Yup. Her an’ Macaulay. I figured I’d waituntil I got the details from Doc Withers before takin’ things anyfarther. When he suggested murder, I sent fer you.”

“It is not inconceivable that this was asuicide,” Marc said slowly.

“Except there’s no sign of a bottle oflaudanum anywhere in here,” Cobb pointed out. “The desk drawer’sempty, an’ you can see fer yerself that there’s nothin’ much onthat shelf. I asked Macaulay to have a gander in the butler’s roomsup the hall there. He come back an’ said he didn’t see no medicinebottle.”

“You and I will have to do a thorough searchourselves. Either Chilton or his visitor doctored the sherry, andthat amount of laudanum had to come from a pretty conspicuous vialor bottle. And from what I’ve observed myself, Cobb, Chilton seemedto be settling into his job in a normal way. He did not appeardepressed. In fact, I’m pretty sure he was initiating an affairwith Priscilla Finch. None of this suggests a man ready to killhimself. It’s no wonder that Garnet suspected foul play immediatelyand sent for the police.”

“An’ you’d think if the butler was about todo himself in, he wouldn’t’ve poured his visitor a glass of thepolluted potion first.”

“True. And why leave two candles blazingthrough an open door, which might attract unwanted attention?”

“An’ that’s pretty fancy wine fer a butlerwho’s just started his job an’ ain’t had a penny in wages yet.”

“We’ll need to trace the source of thesherry. It may be that Chilton stole it from the cellars here. Hewould have keys. Also, we’ll need to find out who had a supply oflaudanum in this house.”

Cobb sighed. “We already got a pretty goodidea on that. As soon as the doc sniffed out laudanum, Macaulayturned white as the snow out there an’ raced off to his bigbathroom. When he come back, he was even whiter. He told us hiswife’s medicine, almost a full bottle of loud-an’-numb , wasmissin’ off the shelf.”

It was Marc’s turn to pale. “Oh, dear. That’stoo much of a coincidence. And everyone in the house knew it wasthere — including our illustrious guests.”

“The four gents from Quebec, ya mean?”

“And Hincks and Baldwin also. Where are thesepeople now?”

“I put our people in the parlour behind usan’ the French gents in the dining-room. Prissy went back to theservants quarters, but I told her only to tell the others therethat Chilton was dead an’ the police was investigatin’.”

“Well, so far, we’ve got the means and lotsof opportunity for someone in this house to have killed GravesChilton, but what on earth would the motive be? I don’t relishquestioning anyone here without some idea of why Chilton would be atarget for murder.”

“An’ he has to be the target, eh? It’s hisoffice an’ the killer sat across from him.”

“Yes. And I’m now wondering what could havebeen written in pencil on those three missing pages that would giverise to homicide?”

“It has to’ve been one of the servants, Ifigure. Macaulay tells me this Chilton just come from England lastweek to take over bein’ their boss. Old Alfred’s been dead over twomonths, so it’s possible one of the regulars had some kind offiddle goin’ on an’ the new broom was onto it.”

“Good point. I overheard Chilton tellingMacaulay that he wanted to leave his post for half an houryesterday afternoon to check on some discrepancy or other insupplies for the horses. He gave every indication of being a realstickler for detail and correct behaviour. Also, on Wednesday Iheard him dressing down Austin Bragg rather publicly — embarrassinghim needlessly, I thought.”