Ngaio Marsh - Clutch of Constables

“It’s worth noticing that whereas other big-shots in his world employ their staffs of salaried killers the Jampot believes in the do-it-yourself kit and is unique in this as in many other respects.

“Apart from routine field-work the immediate task, as I saw it, was to lay out the bits of information as provided by my wife and try to discover which fitted and which were extraneous. I suggest that you treat yourselves to the same exercise.”

The man in the second row could almost be seen to lay back his ears.

“We found nothing to help us on deck,” continued Alleyn. “Her mattress had been deflated and stowed away and so had her blankets and the deck had been hosed down in the normal course of routine.

“But the tow-path and adjacent terrain turned up a show of colour. At the Crossdyke end, and you’ll remember it was during the night at Crossdyke that the murdered woman disappeared, Mr Fox’s party found on the riverbank at the site of the Zodiac’s moorings, a number of indentations, made either by a woman’s cuban heel or those of the kind of ‘gear’ boots currently fashionable in Carnaby Street. They overlapped and their general type and characteristics suggested that the wearer had moved forwards with ease and then backwards under a heavy load. Here’s a blow-up of Detective-Sergeant Thompson’s photographs.

“There had either been some attempt to flatten these marks or else a heavy object had been dragged across them at right angles to the river-bank.

“The tow-path was too hard to offer anything useful, and the path from there up to the road was tar-sealed and provided nothing. Nor did a muddy track along the waterfront. If the heels had gone that way we would certainly have picked them up so the main road must have been the route. Mr Fox, who is probably the most meticulous clue-hound in the Force, had a long hard look at the road. Here are some blown-up shots of what he found. Footprints. A patch of oil on the verge under a hedgerow not far from the moorings. Accompanying tyre marks suggest that a motor-bike had been parked there for some time. He found identical tracks on the road above Ramsdyke. At Crossdyke on an overhanging hawthorn twig—look at this close-up—there was a scrap of a dark blue synthetic material corresponding in colour and type with deceased’s pyjamas.

“Right. Question now arose: if deceased came this way was she alive or dead at the time of transit? Yes, Carmichael?”

The man in the second row passed his paddle of a hand over the back of his sandy head.

“Sir,” he said. “It would appear from the character of the footprints, the marks on the bank, the evidence at the braeside and the wee wispies of cloth, that the leddy was at the least of it, unconscious and carried from the craft to the bike. Further than that, sir, I would not care to venture.”

The rest of the class stirred irritably.

“By and large,” Alleyn said, “you would be right. To continue—”

-1-

Alleyn and Troy returned together to the Zodiac . They found Dr Natouche reading on deck and the other passengers distantly visible in a seated group on the far hillside above the ford.

Natouche glanced up for a moment at Troy. She walked towards him and he stood up.

“Rory,” Troy said, “you’ve not heard how good Dr Natouche has been. He gave me a lovely lunch at Longminster and he was as kind as could be when I passed out this afternoon.”

Alleyn said: “We’re lucky, on all counts, to have you on board.”

“I have been privileged,” he replied with his little bow.

“I’ve told him,” Troy said, “how uneasy you were when she disappeared and how we talked it over.”

“It was not, of course, that I feared that any violence would be done to her. There was no reason to suppose that. It was because I thought her disturbed.”

“To the point,” Alleyn said, “where she might do violence upon herself?”

Dr Natouche folded his hands and looked at them. “No,” he said. “Not specifically. But she was, I thought, in a very unstable condition: a condition that is not incompatible with suicidal intention.”

“Yes,” Alleyn said. “I see. Oh dear.”

“You find something wrong, Mr Alleyn?”

“No, no. Not wrong. It’s just that I seem to hear you giving that opinion in the witness box.”

“For the defence?” he asked calmly.

“For the defence.”

“Well,” said Dr Natouche, “I daresay I should be obliged to qualify it under cross-examination. While I am about it, may I give you another opinion? I think your wife would be better away from the Zodiac . She has had a most unpleasant shock, she is subject to migraine and I think she is finding the prospect of staying in the ship a little hard to face.”

“No, no,” Troy said. “Not at all. Not now.”

“You mean not now your husband is here. Of course. But I think he will be very much occupied. You must forgive me for my persistence but—why not a room at the inn in Ramsdyke? Or even in Norminster? It is not far.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Alleyn said, “but there are difficulties. If my wife is given leave—”

“Some of us may also demand it? If you will allow me I’ll suggest that she should go immediately and I’ll say that as her medical adviser, I insisted.”

“Rory — would it be easier? It would, wouldn’t it? For you? For both of us?”

“Yes, darling, it would.”

“Well, then?”

She saw Alleyn give Natouche one utterly noncommittal look of which the doctor appeared to be perfectly unaware. “I think you are right,” Alleyn said. “I have been in two minds about it but I think you are right. How far is it by road to Norminster?”

“Six miles and three-eighths,” Natouche said.

“How very well-informed!”

“Dr Natouche is a map-maker,” Troy. said. “You must see what he’s doing.”

“Love to,” Alleyn agreed politely. “Where did you stay in Norminster, Troy? The Percy, was it?”

“Yes.”

“All right?”

“Perfectly.”

“I’ll ring it up from the lockhouse. If they’ve got a room I’ll send for a taxi. We’ll obey doctor’s orders.”

“All right. But—”

“What?”

“I’ll feel as if I’m ratting. So will they.”

“Let them.”

“All right.”

“Would you go down and pack, then?”

“Yes. All right.” They could say nothing to each other, Troy thought, but “all right”.

She went down to her cabin.

Natouche said: “I hope you didn’t mind my making this suggestion. Your wife commands an unusual degree of self-discipline, I think, but she really has had as much as she should be asked to take. I may say that some of the passengers would not be inclined to make matters any easier for her if she stayed.”

“No?”

“They are, I think, a little suspicious of the lost fur.”

“I can’t blame them,” Alleyn said dryly.

“Perhaps,” Natouche continued, “I should say this. If you find, as I think you will, that Miss Rickerby-Carrick was murdered I fully realise that I come into the field of suspects. Of course I do. I only mention this in case you should think that I try to put myself in an exclusive position by speaking as a doctor in respect of your wife.”

“Do you suppose,” Alleyn asked carefully, “that any of the others think it may be a case of homicide?”

“They do not confide in me, but I should undoubtedly think so. Yes.”

“And they suspect that they will come into the field of inquiry?”

“They would be extremely stupid if they did not expect to do so,” he said. “And by and large I don’t find they are stupid people. Although at least three of them will certainly begin to suspect me of killing Miss Rickerby-Carrick.”