Noonday and Night

their wives and children.’

‘Have they wives and children?’

‘Now that you ask me, I must confess that I’ve no idea.’

‘You suggested, I remember – or somebody did – that they might have domestic troubles.’

‘Oh, well, now! After all, their domestic complications are no business of mine.’

‘Oh, quite. No doubt the police have made that sort of enquiry their affair, if only to be sure of getting the bodies identified if my fears prove to be justified.’

‘Look here, you’re hinting at all sorts of horrible things. What do you think has happened? You’re holding out on me, aren’t you? You know something you haven’t told me.’

‘It is not knowledge. It is merely surmise. Moreover, it takes me back to a question which, so far, you have not answered.’

‘Where would I hide a murdered body? That is if I had been the murderer, I assume.’

‘The murderer or his accomplice.’

‘Are you serious?’

‘On this occasion, yes.’

‘You’re thinking of Derbyshire, I suppose. Well, there’s plenty of space on the moors.’

‘And in West Wales?’

‘Oh, I don’t know, but there must be plenty of places. I suppose it would depend upon how quickly one wanted to get rid of the body.’

‘Yes, no doubt a great deal would depend upon that.’

‘Look, what are you getting at?’

‘I hardly know.’

‘Well, I know this much: you wouldn’t be talking like thus unless you had something to go on. Why don’t you tell me what it is?’

‘Because I do not trust your walls.’

‘Good God, they’re not bugged!’

‘No, but they are said to have ears.’

‘You don’t trust my drivers?’

‘I am not sure that I have ever fully trusted anybody except Laura and my servants.’

‘But that’s a terrible philosophy!’

‘Not at all. Remember what Gilbert Keith Chesterton said.’

‘About what?’

‘ “Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall be gloriously surprised.” ’

‘Well, suppose you surprise me, and not necessarily gloriously. What are you getting at? Let’s go outside if you don’t want to talk here.’

‘We could talk in my car.’ They went out to it and took the back seat. ‘Drive us around a little, George,’ said Dame Beatrice to her chauffeur. Then, as they moved into a stream of traffic, she settled herself as though she had no more to say.

‘Well?’ said Honfleur at last. His query was answered by another.

‘I have it from you that Noone and Daigh were efficient drivers, but what kind of men were they?’

‘I’ve already told you that I know nothing of their private lives.’

‘I am not thinking of them as husbands and fathers, but as comrades and fellow-workers. You have indicated that your driver-couriers are closely knit. Were Noone and Daigh any different from the rest?’

‘No, not in that way. They got on well with everybody, so far as I know.’

‘Apart from the other drivers, who must be weary of police interrogations, have you any other employees who would know something about these two men?’

‘Oh, I expect a certain amount of chatting-up and chaff goes on between our drivers and the two women behind the counter in our main booking hall. Any cancellations, you see, come in by telephone (often at the last minute, unfortunately for us), and are taken by the counter clerks. It’s then their business to contact me or my secretary and then to inform the drivers.’

‘I should like to talk with one of these young ladies.’

‘Not so awfully young, actually. Mrs Wade has been with us ten years and Miss Morley for seven.’

‘That is splendid. If they have been subjected to chat and chaff for those lengths of time, they must have formed some definite opinions about your various men.’

‘Oh, I expect so. Anyway, talk to them by all means. At this time in the season they were unlikely to be very busy, as practically all the bookings will have been made, so there will be little except cancellations to be dealt with.’

Dame Beatrice interviewed Mrs Wade first, and across her counter, as though it was an enquiry about travel.