Noonday and Night

‘Very valuable ones. The pair I saw at the Tower were valued at ninety thousand pounds.’

‘Losh! Ye dinna tell me that!’

‘It is true. However, I doubt whether our burglar knew of the existence of these treasures. The devastation he has left behind him seems to indicate that he was certainly looking for something, but – tell me, Inspector, have you had any burglaries of objets d’art in this neighbourhood recently?’

‘Aye, and no lang syne. Some Americans have Castle Bratach this summer and they reported thefts of valuable china, but, so far as I know, nobody has reported losing a pair of pistols.’

‘I may be able to trace them in England. Well, if you don’t need us any longer we will accept your permission to leave. I should be pleased to know the full identity of this dead man Vittorio.’

‘If MacDonald or White can identify him, you shall be told, ma’am. Otherwise we may need to call upon Mr Honfleur.’

The manager of the hotel could not identify the dead man.

‘And the Whites?’ asked Dame Beatrice of the manager, for whose return to the hotel she had waited up.

‘They could not put a name on him,’ said MacDonald, ‘any more than I can. All they could tell the police is that he is not the man they know as Carstairs.’

‘He wore surprisingly large pyjamas,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘and apparently went to bed in his shoes.’

On the following morning Laura drove Dame Beatrice southward to Oban and across the Border to Carlisle, where they were to spend the night. The next day they went south again as far as Cheltenham and on the afternoon following a night there they reached Dame Beatrice’s New Forest home.

‘Well, I suppose it’s all over, so far as we are concerned,’ said Laura, after they had enjoyed one of Henri’s superb dinners. She twirled the brandy in her glass and looked across at her employer. ‘Aren’t you feeling rather sorry?’ she asked.

‘No,’ Dame Beatrice replied. ‘For one thing, it is not all over so far as we are concerned. We have not found Knight, which is what we went to Saighdearan to do. However, I am glad to be back in England and shall enjoy a chat with Basil Honfleur. Then I shall resume the search for Knight. As for Basil himself, the evening is still young, so perhaps you will engage him on the telephone and suggest that he come to see us as soon as he can. We ourselves have done enough travelling for the time being and we know that he is not particularly busy at this time in the season.’

‘He’ll be out to dinner most likely, but I’ll try.’

‘Leave it until ten. He should be at home by then.’

This was so. Laura made contact and Honfleur was bidden to come to lunch at the Stone House on the following day.

‘What is the news?’ he asked, as soon as he arrived.

‘We came back from Scotland yesterday and have left the whole matter in the hands of the police,’ replied Dame Beatrice.

‘You mean you are backing out?’

‘Yes, if you care to put it like that. There is nothing more for us to do until a man who calls himself Carstairs is found. But let us relax over lunch and then we shall tell you all.’

‘You had some success, then, at Fort William?’

‘I would not put it so positively.’

When lunch was over and coffee had been served, Honfleur refused to contain himself any longer.

‘Come on, now, Dame Beatrice, please!’ he said. ‘What happened up there, and what did you find out?’

‘But little,’ Dame Beatrice replied. This was greatly to Laura’s surprise, for she had expected that Honfleur would at least be told that Vittorio had been found murdered. She knew better, however, than to mention this herself, and Dame Beatrice proceeded to give Honfleur a detailed description of the rest of their activities on the shores of Loch Linnhe. Laura added her quota whenever her employer turned the narrative over to her and, as the recital proceeded, Honfleur looked more and more sceptical, but he waited until it was finished before he put in a word.

‘I still can’t follow why you identified Carstairs with Knight,’ he said.

‘What makes you think that I did?’ Dame Beatrice enquired. ‘The descriptions of the two men do not tally. All the same, there are factors which make me highly suspicious of Knight. The times fit all too well.’

‘How do you mean? What times? ’ asked Honfleur.

‘Knight has been on sick leave.’

‘We had a medical certificate, you know.’

‘One only?’

‘Well, yes, but we allow the chaps a lot of leeway. They get stomach ulcers, you see, so, if we get a medical certificate to say so, we trust the driver to come back when he feels fit enough, and of course we pay him while he’s away from work. Luckily, although I told you we are a subsidiary of the bus company, we’re independent of them so far as our treatment of our workers is concerned and so we can make our own rules.’

‘I see. Well, how long was Knight away before he took the coach up to Scotland?’

‘Three weeks altogether.’

‘During those three weeks a coach was “borrowed” and two of your drivers were killed.’