Noonday and Night

‘All the same, he must know that we went to Saighdearan and have been told of a mysterious foreigner who spoke to the boy at the hotel.’

‘You will report to the police, though, won’t you? He may not stop at one attempt and the role of guard-dog to a hunted fawn has never appealed to me. I would much rather the police took over.’

‘Oh, yes, I shall report to the police, but I shall not inform them that I believe I recognised the man. For one thing, that would not suit my plans and, for another, they might not believe me. We must not be too precipitate at this juncture. I shall simply tell them that a man broke in and made his escape in a car.’

‘After trying to murder you.’

‘Since I was never in danger, that fact need not emerge.’

‘But suppose he tries again?’

‘Like Antonio, I am armed and well prepared.’

‘Are you going to tell me who you think it was?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine, and, in that semi-darkness, both of us may have guessed wrongly.’

‘Neither of us has ever seen Knight,’ said Laura thoughtfully.

CHAPTER 12

No Coaches on the Roads

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There was a long pause. Dame Beatrice looked enquiringly at her secretary, but realised that the pause was a pause for thought. At last Laura raised her eyes and spread out her hands in a gesture of helplessness.

‘Ah!’ said Dame Beatrice, with satisfaction. ‘I wondered when you were going to ask me that.’

Laura, accustomed as she was to having her mind read, gaped at her employer and then grinned.

‘Oh, no,’ she said. ‘You don’t catch me out like that. Just what do you think I’m going to ask you?’

‘If this Commando dagger, with its blade which must measure, midway down the length, at least seven-tenths of an inch across, was used to assassinate Noone and Daigh.’

‘So what’s the answer?’

‘I do not know, and I am not prepared to guess.’ Her tone was so final that Laura said,

‘I don’t think I’ll bother to go back to bed. How early can we telephone the police about this break-in?’

‘There is no hurry. Contact them after breakfast, if you will.’

‘There’s another point which is bothering me a bit, you know.’

‘Oh, dear! You mean our intruder’s acumen.’

‘Yes, that’s it. From the moment I heard the first sounds downstairs, right up to the moment I came in here, into your room, not more than a minute or two could have passed.’

‘Indeed? Yes, I expect you are right.’

‘Well, now, how did this man, with five bedrooms and your upstairs consulting-room to choose from, come straightway to where you were sleeping?’

‘That is, presuming I was the person he intended to murder. What did you think of the wig I had spread so artistically over the pillow? One learns a great deal from the Sherlock Holmes stories, does one not? The dog which did nothing in the night? The life-like bust which appeared to throw a perfect silhouette of Holmes’ profile against the window-blind?’

‘When are you going to see Honfleur again?’ asked Laura, dismissing these questions as persiflage.

‘When our night visitor has had time to realise that I am not proposing to give his name to the police. I might, however, ask you to go and see Mr Honfleur.’

‘But you are going to report the break-in?’

‘It is my duty as a citizen to do so,’ replied Dame Beatrice solemnly. ‘Well, off to your bath, or whatever you intend to do before breakfast. I am for bed.’ She removed the black wig which was attached to the smashed mask, excavated a kind of Guy Fawkes figure encased in hessian from beneath the coverlet, placed the lot in a vast oak chest at the foot of the bed, retired to rest and resumed her light slumbers. Laura went down the garden to the well-screened swimming pool, discarded her pyjamas and dived in.

‘ “I am sent,” ’ quoted Laura to a worried Basil Honfleur, ‘ “with broom before, to sweep the dust behind the door.” Or, of course, under the carpet, just as Dame B’s policy may dictate.’

‘Her policy? She told me on the telephone that an attempt had been made on her life. Can that possibly be true?’

‘I was an eye-witness. Goggle-eyed and petrified, too, I don’t mind telling you. Look here, what is going on around this coach-station of yours?’

‘I wish I knew. Three drivers gone and no knowing when there might have been a fourth, except…’

‘Except?’