The wind whipped over the hatch-top, scuffing the smoke from Gently’s pipe. He moved up a little to make room for Somerhayes, and now the nobleman accepted the threadbare protection of the tiny structure.
‘You were in the hall that night, weren’t you?’
‘Yes. I was sure you must have guessed it.’
‘Would you like to say why you didn’t mention it?’
‘You may think, if you like, that it was because I didn’t know how much Janice would admit to.’
‘Suppose I don’t choose to think that?’
Somerhayes’s queer little smile was back. ‘You are the detective, Mr Gently; what you think must be entirely governed by your discoveries.’
Gently puffed sombrely for a few moments, his hands dug hopefully into the ulster’s pockets. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll buy it. Tell me just what you want to tell me. But before we go any further, can’t we get off this murdering roof?’
Somerhayes shook his head and edged away a little.
‘We’ll stay here, if you don’t mind… it is a place where I have always made decisions.’
Gently grunted and tried to get his back yet further into the comfortless door.
‘In the first place I knew of Earle’s assignation — that must certainly have occurred to you. I was very anxious about his pursuit of my cousin, and I took steps to overhear what passed when he went to the door with her that night… The rest is quite simple. I merely took my stand at the corner of the gallery, opposite to where Johnson emerged. I was witness to the meeting. I can vouch, like Johnson, that my cousin left Earle in the way she will have described to you. I can also vouch that Johnson retired a few moments after my cousin left. Oddly enough, Mr Gently, I suspected that you would have guessed these trifling points without any prompting.’
‘They may have run through my mind.’ Gently grimaced behind his pipe. ‘And after Johnson retired… when you and Earle were left in the hall?’
‘What else can I say? The interlude was over, and like Johnson, I went back to bed.’
‘Leaving Earle alone?’
‘Leaving Earle alone.’
‘And the hall, of course, quite empty?’
‘To the best of my observation, quite empty.’
Gently shook his head gravely. ‘Well… that certainly seems to clear Johnson, doesn’t it?’ he said.
Somerhayes said nothing, but gave the Central Office man a rueful, almost reproachful look. His shirt-front was still open, his customary neat bow-tie dragged apart and hanging loose at each side. How could he stand it, that crushing, warping cold? How could he remain there, apparently so alert, when his face was grey, his neck and bosom bloodless, his neat hands swollen and all the colours of the rainbow? He had to be crazed, this fey question mark of a man!
‘Just what was your attitude toward Earle?’ Gently could almost hear the perplexity of his own voice.
‘Why, surely I was jealous… You will not have forgotten that I am in love with my cousin?’
‘It doesn’t fit in. Jealousy won’t sit square on your record.’
‘I assure you that I was jealous, Mr Gently-’
‘I know, I know! But it wasn’t the right sort of jealousy… Couldn’t you have had it in for Earle because he was an American or something?’
Somerhayes looked gratified. ‘You are restoring my faith, Mr Gently. Yes, you are quite right. His being American had a great deal to do with it. It was nothing against him per se, you understand. I have the greatest admiration both for America and the Americans — they are magnificently young, intoxicatingly virile. Purely at a surface level, one would say that nothing could be more fitting than the mating of fresh American blood with a scion of English aristocracy. But that is leaving out the personal element, and I am afraid that in this instance it cannot be lightly dismissed. I know my cousin, Mr Gently. She is a Feverell, with all the family strengths and weaknesses. It is, unfortunately, a Feverell characteristic to be swept off one’s feet, and Janice, in spite of her constancy to her husband’s memory, was being swept off her feet by Earle.’
‘Wouldn’t that be her business?’ interrupted Gently.
‘Impersonally again — yes, it would. But how can one see with equanimity a beloved person rushing into unhappiness?’
‘How do you know it would have been unhappiness?’
‘Because, I repeat, Mr Gently — I know my cousin. In many ways she is spiritually delicate and easy to injure. It would have been the height of folly for her to have married Earle and consented to live with him in America — as he would, quite properly, have required her to do. She is completely unfit for any such transplantation. She is a creature of her environment, and if her roots were cut she would wither away. Yet her character is such that Earle might easily have hurried her into that error, and my anxiety at what was transpiring was correspondingly intense. She is the only tie of blood I have in the world, Mr Gently, and I feel for her as a kinsman as well as loving her as a woman.’
‘Hmn.’ Gently exhaled a long mouthful of smoke. ‘I like that better, but it still won’t focus any too sharply.’
Somerhayes flashed him a quick look. ‘Have you no daughter or kinswoman dear to you?’
‘No.’ Gently shook his head. ‘Like you, I am rather short on the ties of blood…’
‘Ah. I felt we had much in common. But you will still appreciate the powerful emotions involved.’
‘Oh yes, to a certain extent…’
‘To an overwhelming extent, rest assured.’
‘Very well, if you say so. Overwhelming — but not, perhaps, exclusive?’
Somerhayes pressed his thin lips together and stared out over the heavy-grey expanse of the roofs. Gently noticed the contraction of his multi-coloured hands till white spots appeared over the knuckles.
‘Then I will go a little further with you,’ he said slowly. ‘I want you to be quite satisfied, Mr Gently — I want your focus, as you call it, to be as sharp as you can possibly desire. There is another element that enters into this. My cousin, as perhaps you do not know, is an indispensible factor in the success of the tapestry workshop. I myself am no more than an organizer, and an indifferent one at that. Mr Brass is a great creative artist, and cannot be expected to expend his unique powers in matters of business, even supposing he has the ability, which he has not. The workshop, in effect, is entirely dependent on my cousin’s shrewd head for its business management, and my conviction is that it would quickly come to grief if it lacked this able hand at its helm. You are already aware of the importance to me of this venture. I could never willingly allow the work of Mr Brass to be interrupted or jeopardized. You will see, then, that I had here a strong additional reason to view with concern Lieutenant Earle’s overtures to my cousin. Have I now assisted you, Mr Gently, to get your picture into a definitive focus?’
He stopped to look at the huddled figure of his companion. There was a far-away expression in the Central Office man’s eyes, and he seemed to be listening to something not comprised by the blustering wind and Somerhayes’s smooth, level voice. Suddenly he whirled round, grabbed the handle of the hatch-door and tried to thrust it open, and, finding it bolted, launched his bulky shoulder at the obstacle with a resounding crash.
‘Mr Gently-’ exclaimed Somerhayes.
‘Quick!’ bawled Gently, grabbing his arm. ‘Which is the way we came up?’
‘The way…? It’s that hatch by the long court. But what in the world is the matter?’
‘We’ve been eavesdropped — for the second time — that’s what’s the matter. And I’m getting remarkably curious to know who is taking such a profound interest in our conversations.’
Lugging the protesting Somerhayes after him, he scrambled off in the direction of the long court. It was a slender chance, and such as it was it was being jeopardized by Somerhayes’s apparent inability to go straight to the hatch with the unbolted door. By the time they were down in the attics Gently realized with chagrin that the listener must have had sufficient interval to make good his retreat. The eternal silence of the great house was all that there was left to hear…
‘Mr Gently, I feel certain that you were mistaken,’ panted Somerhayes, catching up with the detective as he whisked along the narrow corridor. ‘I assure you I heard nothing… It is straining probability to suppose that anyone should be accidentally in the attics.’
Gently slackened his flying stride till the nobleman was abreast of him. ‘You didn’t hear it — and I shouldn’t have done, eh?’
‘I fail to understand you.’
