Josephine Tey - To Love and Be Wise

'Yes.

'On Monday there would have been nothing to pick up, but on Tuesday and Wednesday you presumably picked up what there was. Did Searle have any letters on either of those two days, can you remember?

'There's no difficulty in remembering. Inspector, Searle never had any mail.

'Never? You mean Searle had no letters at all while he was at Trimmings?

'None that I ever knew about. But Liz would tell you. She deals with the post when it comes in.

How had he missed this small item of information, he wondered.

'Not even forwarded from his hotel or bank?

'Not that I know of. He may have been letting it mount up. Some people are constitutionally indifferent to letters.

That was true; and Grant left it there.

'Then about this daily telephoning, he said. 'You telephoned from Tunstall on Sunday night, from Capel on Monday night, from Friday Street on Tuesday, and from where on Wednesday?

'There's a call-box at Pett's Hatch. We had meant to camp actually at Pett's Hatch, but that ruined mill looked dreary somehow, and I remembered the sheltered bit farther on where the river turns south, so we went on to there.

'And you told Trimmings about this proposed camp.

'Yes, I told you already that we did.

'I know you did. I don't mean to badger you. What I want to know now is who talked to whom during that call from Pett's Hatch?

Walter thought for a moment. 'Well, I talked to Miss Fitch first because she was always waiting for the call, then Searle talked to her. Then Aunt Em came-Mrs Garrowby-and talked to Searle for a little and then I finished up by talking to Mrs Garrowby myself. Liz hadn't come in from an errand in the village, so neither of us talked to her on Wednesday.

'I see. Thank you. Grant waited, and then said: 'I suppose you don't feel able yet to tell me what the subject of your-disagreement was on Wednesday night? And as Walter hesitated: 'Is it because it was about Miss Garrowby that you are reluctant to discuss it?

'I don't want her dragged into this, Walter said, and Grant could not help feeling that this cliche was less the result of emotion than of a conviction that it was thus an Englishman behaved in the circumstances.

'I ask, as I said before, more as a way of obtaining enlightenment on the subject of Leslie Searle than of pinning you down to anything. Was there anything in that conversation, apart from Miss Garrowby's entry into it, that you would rather I didn't know?

'No, of course not. It was just about Liz-about Miss Garrowby. It was an extremely silly conversation.

Grant smiled heartlessly. 'Mr Whitmore, a policeman has experienced the absolute in silliness before he has finished his third year in the force. If you are merely reluctant to put silliness on record, take heart. To me it will probably sound like something near wisdom.

'There was no wisdom about it. Searle had been in a very odd mood all the evening.

'Odd? Depressed? Surely, thought Grant, we aren't going to have to consider suicide at this late stage.

'No. He seemed to be invaded by an unwonted levity. And on the way from the river he began to twit me about-well, about my not being good enough for Liz. For my fiancee. I tried to change the subject, but he kept at it. Until I grew annoyed. He began enumerating all the things he knew about her that I didn't. He would trot out something and say: "I bet you didn't know that about her."

'Nice things?

'Oh, yes, Walter said instantly. 'Yes, of course. Charming things. But it was all so needless and so provocative.

'Did he suggest that he would be more appreciative in your place?

'He did more. He said quite frankly that if he put his mind to it he could cut me out. He could cut me out in a fortnight, he said.

'He didn't offer to bet on it, I suppose? Grant couldn't help asking.

'No, Walter said, looking a little surprised.

Grant thought that some day he must tell Marta that she had slipped up in one particular.

'It was when he said that, Walter said, 'about cutting me out, that I felt I couldn't stand him any more that night. It wasn't the suggestion of my not being his equal that I resented, I hope you understand, Inspector; it was the implied reflection on Liz. On Miss Garrowby. The implication that she would succumb to anyone who used his charms on her.

'I understand, said Grant gravely. 'Thank you very much for telling me. Do you think, then, that Searle was deliberately provoking a quarrel?

'I hadn't thought of it. I just thought he was in a provocative mood. That he was a little above himself.

'I see. Thank you. Could I speak to Miss Fitch for just one moment. I won't keep her.

Walter took him to the morning-room where Miss Fitch, with a yellow and a red pencil stuck in her ginger bird's-nest and another in her mouth, was prowling up and down like an enraged kitten. She relaxed when she saw Grant, and looked tired and a little sad.

'Have you come with news, Inspector? she asked, and Grant, looking past her, saw the fright in Liz's eyes.

'No, I've come to ask you one question, Miss Fitch, and then I shan't bother you again. I apologise for bothering you as it is. On Wednesday night you were waiting for the evening call from your nephew with an account of their progress.

'Yes.

'So that you talked to him first. I mean first of the people at Trimmings. Will you go on from there?

'Tell you what we talked about, you mean?

'No; who talked to whom.

'Oh. Well, they were at Pett's Hatch-I suppose you know-and I talked to Walter and then to Leslie. They were both very happy.

Her voice wavered. 'Then I called Emma-my sister-and she spoke to them both.

'Did you wait while she spoke to them?

'No, I went up to my room to see Susie Sclanders's imitations. She does ten minutes on a Wednesday once a month, and she is wonderful, and of course I couldn't listen to her properly with Em talking.

'I see. And Miss Garrowby?

'Liz arrived back from the village just too late to talk to them.

'What time was this, do you remember?

'I don't remember the exact time, but it must have been about twenty minutes before dinner. We had dinner early that night because my sister was going out to a W.R.I. meeting. Dinner at Trimmings is always being put either back or forwards because someone is either going somewhere or coming from some place.

'Thank you very much, Miss Fitch. And now, if I might see Searle's room once more I won't bother you again.

'Yes, of course.

'I'll take the Inspector up, Liz said, ignoring the fact that Walter, who was still hovering, was the normal person to escort him.

She got up from the typewriter before Miss Fitch could intervene with any alternative proposal, and led the Inspector out.

'Are you going away because you have come to a conclusion, Inspector, or because you haven't; or shouldn't I ask that? she said as they went upstairs.

'I am going as a matter of routine. To do what every officer is expected to do; to present his report to his seniors and let them decide what the facts add up to.

'But you do some adding first, surely.

'A lot of subtraction, too, he said, dryly.

The dryness was not lost on her. 'Nothing makes sense in this case, does it, she agreed. 'Walter says he couldn't have fallen into the river accidentally. And yet he did fall in. Somehow.

She paused on the landing outside the tower room. There was a roof-light there and her face was clear in every detail as she turned to him and said: 'The one certain thing in this mess is that Walter had nothing to do with Leslie's death. Please believe that, Inspector. I'm not defending Walter because he is Walter and I am going to marry him. I've known him all my life, and I know what he is capable of and what he is not capable of. And he is not capable of using physical violence to anyone. Do please believe me. He-he just hasn't the guts .