She studied him for a moment in silence, Gently puffing away unconcernedly. ‘I do not know…’ she said.
‘You’ll have to take my word for it, of course. He admitted that he spent the afternoon with you, that he was there when you discovered the murder, and that it was at his suggestion that you went out and got yourself alibis. Is that correct?’
‘He said all… that?’ Gretchen stared at him incredulously.
‘That was the gist of it, though I’m not quite satisfied.’
She looked away from him, her hands beginning to clutch together. ‘I cannot understand… why should he tell you that?’
‘Oh, there’s no mystery about why he told me. He’s rather thick with Susan these days and she told him how I’d been questioning you this morning… I gather she was listening at the door. This seems to have worried Mr Fisher and he hastened to put his story on record.’
‘… Susan?’
‘She seems to be Fisher’s latest acquisition.’
‘It is not true — you must not speak about him like that!’
Gently shrugged. ‘I think you foster a somewhat idealistic opinion of Fisher, Miss Gretchen… however, that’s why he told his story. Perhaps he will verify it if you ask him.’
‘No!’ She shook her head vigorously. ‘I do not want to speak to him… not ever again. Later, I will get a new chauffeur.’
Gently regarded his pipe-smoke rising tenuously in the still, warm air. ‘Were you ever really in love with him, Miss Gretchen?’ he asked.
Gretchen turned her head away. ‘I think that I was, once upon a time.’
‘You knew what sort of character he had — I mean, with women?’
‘Oh yes… I must have known that. It is as you say, I had an idealistic opinion. In my situation such things happen easily… we can believe when we want to.’
‘And yet now, when the way is clear, you have turned completely against him.’
Gretchen hung her head and said nothing.
‘Did you ever think of marrying him?’ Gently asked.
‘Oh yes, I used to think of that. I thought perhaps, when my father died… but that is a very terrible thing to say.’
‘And did Fisher know that?’
‘We used to talk about it.’
‘He knew, then, that once your father was out of the way he could expect to be your husband?’
Gretchen wrenched her hands viciously, one from the other. ‘But we did not think of this — we did not think of this!’
‘Are you quite certain in your own mind that Fisher did not think of this?’
‘No — no! he did not!’ A shudder ran through her body, and she crouched away from Gently, over the arm of the seat.
‘Miss Gretchen, I am asking you again: why is it that you have now turned against Fisher?’
‘I don’t know… I don’t believe in him any longer.’
‘Then what has shaken your faith in him so suddenly… precisely at this juncture?’
Gretchen moaned but made no answer.
‘Let me ask you another question. Whose finger-prints did you suppose you wiped from the handle of the knife — your brother’s, or Fisher’s?’
‘I have told you… my brother’s!’
Gently leaned away, shaking his head. ‘Miss Gretchen, I have still to learn the truth of your and Fisher’s actions on Saturday afternoon.’
There was a long pause, broken by nothing but the distant calls from the tennis-courts and the dull murmur of traffic from behind trees. Above the low hedge at the bottom moved a white triangle. It was the sail of a model yacht on the second pond, further down. The triangle shuddered, stopped, wagged a moment, then slowly sank from sight as the model slid away on its new course. Gently watched the little performance impassively. ‘They’ve opened the refreshment bar…’ he said. ‘Let’s go and have a cup of tea.’
He sat Gretchen down at one of the little tile-topped tables by a french window and fetched tea from the counter in large, thick cups. Gretchen stirred her tea at some length. Just outside a foursome was being played, a young and a middle-aged couple: other tennis-players sat in groups round the larger tables, chattering and drinking soft drinks from bottles.
Gently sipped his tea and then leaned forward, chin in hand. Gretchen gave him a frightened glance. He said: ‘It will have to be told some time… why not tell me now?’
‘But… how can I?’
‘Is it so damning, what you know?’
‘To you it may seem so…’
Gently felt down for his tea-cup. ‘At least, you ought to warn Susan what sort of person she’s taking on.’
‘Susan!’ The waxen cheeks flushed.
‘She’s going out with him tonight.’
‘What do I care about that?’
‘Well, having done it once and got away with it…’ He took another sip of tea and appeared to be watching the foursome through the french window. Gretchen laid a trembling teaspoon in her saucer.
‘He told you so much… of his own accord?’
Gently shrugged imperceptibly. ‘Nobody forced him… he buttonholed me in the street.’
‘It was because he thinks I have spoken…?’
Gently said nothing, continued to watch the foursome fumble its way through another service. There was a burst of laughter from the party at the higher table: ‘Harry wouldn’t do a thing like that… no, no, we can’t believe it!’ ‘But he did, I tell you!’ ‘Johnny, you’re only saying that because Vera’s here…’ They clattered their bottles together and trooped out.
‘How about it?’ mused Gently.
‘Must it be… now?’
‘It will help me, and you’ll feel better to have done with it.’
‘Yes… I shall feel better.’ She gave a deep sigh and faced him. ‘Very well… it is as you say. I wiped the prints off the knife because I think he did it.’
‘And why did you think that?’
‘He was not with me then… at the time my father was killed.’
‘Where was he?’
She shook her head. ‘He went down as soon as my brother had gone to the study.’
‘Where — into the passage?’
‘That is so, but I remained on the landing. I heard the quarrel. After it is over, I expect him to come back up, but he did not come… and then there is the scream.’
‘About how long would it be between the time the quarrel ended and the time you heard the scream?’
‘Two, three minutes.’
‘And you went down immediately on hearing the scream?’
‘Oh no! It was frightening to hear that… I did not dare to go down then. It was another minute or two before I had courage to go. Then it was as I told you… I found him near the safe.’
‘And you saw nobody?’
‘Nobody… except my father.’
‘About how long were you in the room?’
‘It seemed a long time, but it was just a little while.’
‘And during that time you heard nothing?’
‘I should not have heard… once, everything went black and I thought I would fall. Then I came to myself again, and I knew I must do something… something to stop people thinking that it was him.’
‘You had no doubt in your mind then that Fisher was the murderer?’
‘… no, I had no doubt.’
