Patricia Wentworth - Pilgrim’s Rest

“I don’t know-it might be-”

“As to his getting upstairs whilst we were in Jerome’s room, he was trying to go up, but Miss Columba caught him and had him into the morning-room to do a job on the window-catches there. Jerome was in there with Lesley Freyne. I should think it was then between twenty and a quarter to four. Lesley went away, Jerome went up to his room where we had just finished, and Robbins did his job in the morning-room. He then went upstairs and knocked on Jerome’s door. Lona Day opened it and asked him what he wanted. He said to speak to Mr. Jerome. She said he couldn’t-he must wait- Jerome was resting. In fact, nurse in defence of patient, and the only-over-my-dead-body touch. I don’t know what he wanted to say to Jerome, but it didn’t get said. Robbins then went upstairs, locked us in, and chucked himself out of the window next door.”

March said, “Pity Jerome didn’t see him.”

“Yes. Soothing music was being diffused by the wireless, and she wanted him to rest. He heard the knock of course, but I don’t think he took much notice of it. She went to the door, and then she went to her room. I gather she was backwards and forwards for a bit getting him his tea. She wanted him to have it at four, and then rest till supper-time.”

The door opened and Judy came in. She had taken off her overall and was wearing a dark blue skirt and jumper. Her hands were scrubbed and clean. There were dark smudges under her eyes. She avoided looking at Frank, but he looked at her with a long, cold stare. She may have felt it-it was that sort of look. She couldn’t very well lose colour, because she had none. She kept her head up.

March was very nice to her. He made her sit down, and said, “I’m afraid this is all very trying. I won’t keep you long. I believe you heard Robbins scream and fall?”

Judy said, “Yes.”

“Where were you, Miss Elliot?”

“In Major Pilgrim’s room.” She coloured a little. “The one he was using. The police told me I could clear up there, so I was getting it straight.”

“Well, you heard the scream. Was it just a cry? No words?”

Judy said, “I don’t know.” She had turned very pale. “That sounds stupid, but-I really don’t. It was a-a shock.” She kept her eyes on his face as she spoke. “If you mean did I hear any words, I didn’t.”

He put her down as conscientious and intelligent.

“What did you do?”

“I ran to the window and opened it. I could see someone lying on the stones. I got a sort of giddy feeling. The next thing I knew I was half sitting, half kneeling on the floor by the window and Pell was running across the paved garden. And I called out to him, ‘Who is it?’ I don’t know why I said that, for of course I knew because of the linen jacket. Pell said, ‘It’s Robbins!’ And I asked if he was dead, and Pell said, ‘As any door-nail.’ ”

“What did you do then?”

“Sergeant Abbott and Sergeant Smith called out of the upstair window, and I ran down to the morning-room and told Miss Columba.”

“Was she alone?”

“Yes.”

“Where were the others?”

“Miss Janetta was in bed. As I got to the top of the stairs, Miss Day came out of Captain Jerome’s room. I suppose I looked upset, for she came along the passage and asked me if anything was the matter. I told her what had happened, and she said she thought she had heard a cry, but the wireless was on and she couldn’t be sure.”

“Thank you, Miss Elliot.”

He took Pell’s statement next.

The old man stumped in, thick grey hair standing up in a fuzz above the square weather-beaten face. The hair had been as red as Gloria’s, and it was still as thick and curly. He had wiped his dirty hands on his corduroys. His small greenish-hazel eyes had an obstinate twinkle for authority. “Law-abiding I be, and no call to fear the law” would have just about hit off his mood. He planted himself squarely before the writing-table and kept that twinkling gaze upon the Superintendent’s face. It did not change because March spoke him fair, any more than it would have changed under a browbeating. He was an honest man in his rights, and he knew what they were.

He was the other side of the garden tidying it up. He heard both cry and fall. By the time he turned round, there was Robbins a-laying on the stones. He ran over to him-“And first Miss Elliot she pokes her head out of Mr. Roger’s window and says, ‘Is he dead?’ and I says, ‘As any door-nail.’ And then the police puts their heads out of Robbins’ room and hollers to me not to touch anything, which I hadn’t, only to feel of him whether he was alive or dead.”

“You didn’t see anyone at any other window?”

“There wasn’t no one to see, nor I wouldn’t have seen ’em if there was. I was running, wasn’t I, and looking at the dead corpse? You don’t look at no windows with a corpse a-lying right in front of you on the stones.”

There was no more to it than that.

March said, “I suppose you don’t,” and let him go.

He saw Lona Day after that, grave and concerned, but not so much concerned as to impair her complexion or its delicate makeup. Where Judy had been unbecomingly colourless, Miss Day was discreetly tinted. She did not overdo her lipstick, but the colour had been freshly applied. A plain dark dress with a severe white collar gave the effect of uniform and was surprisingly becoming. Her manner identified her sympathetically with the family, and made it plain that she shared the anxiety which pressed upon its members. March remembered that in his previous examination he had found her intelligent and exact.

“Where were you at the time of the fall, Miss Day?”

“Well, Superintendent, I don’t know that I can say. You see, Captain Pilgrim had the wireless on, and I was going backwards and forwards between my room and his room and the bathroom, and I didn’t take any particular notice at the time. You know how it is, you don’t when you’re busy like that. But it must have been about a quarter to four when I came out of Captain Pilgrim’s room and saw Robbins.”

“When you say you saw him, what exactly do you mean?”

The greenish eyes rested upon his face. He found himself thinking their colour unusual-and attractive. She said at once,

“He knocked at the door, and I opened it.”

“What did he say?”

“He said, ‘I’d like to have a word with Mr. Jerome.’ ”

“And what did you say?”

“I told him he must wait until Captain Pilgrim was rested. He had already done a good deal more than I thought wise, and I didn’t mean him to see anyone else until he had had a good rest. As a matter of fact I was just hurrying to get his tea.”

“Do you usually do that?”

She shook her head.

“No, he very often comes down, or if he has it upstairs, Miss Elliot or Robbins would take it up, or I might do so myself. There hasn’t been any particular rule about it. But I often make an odd cup of tea-nurses get into the way of it, you know. I have a spirit lamp in the bathroom, and I always keep a supply of tea, and cocoa, and dried milk, and biscuits in the cupboard there. Miss Janetta likes a cup of cocoa the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning, and I make it for her.”

“Well, you were going to make tea for Captain Pilgrim. Did Robbins say anything more?”

“He said, ‘I want to see him very particularly,’ and I said, ‘Well, you’ll have to wait. No one’s going to see him till he’s had his rest.’ He went off, and I heard him going up the stairs. I supposed he was going to his room.”

“Did you go back into Captain Pilgrim’s room?”

“Just for a minute. I told him I was going to get him his tea. Then I went into the bathroom and put the kettle on.”