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Do you intend to find that out?’ Laura went on.
‘There is no need. I know most of what I need to know. What I do
‘I remember you suggested that to the inspector, but where else could they have come from?’
‘His killer, as I also suggested. Please note that this time I do not say his murderer.’
‘You’re sticking to that idea about a fight and Vittorio getting the worst of it?’
‘It is a possibility which ought to be examined.’
‘A pretty long shot, surely?’
‘Granted.’
‘But I’ve always thought Vittorio was attacked as he lay in bed.’
‘In his surprisingly large pyjamas and his socks and shoes?’
Laura stared at her employer.
‘And the room turned upside-down,’ she said slowly, taking in a new idea. ‘Wrecked, you think, in a fight?’
Dame Beatrice did not answer the question. She said,
‘Once I can establish the identity of Vittorio’s killer, it will leave me free to conduct an awkward and embarrassing enquiry which I have known for some time I shall need to make.’
‘Sounds like another investigation into the doings of Basil Honfleur.’
‘Exactly, and this time without his cooperation and assistance.’
‘Dirty work at the cross-roads?’
‘I fear so. However, these unpalatable tasks have to be faced. My only respite will be the interval between now and the receipt of information from the forensic branch of the Scottish police.’
‘But what gave you the idea that the murderer (I’m still going to call him that) could also have been wounded? Do you think that accounts for the gash on Knight’s neck? How on earth did he manage to stab Vittorio in the back, then?’
‘He had probably learnt some tricks during his Commando training. But never mind that. Those pyjamas have always been a puzzle to me. Vittorio was what I believe you would describe as a dressy little man. Those pyjamas were at least three sizes too large for him.’
‘So what do you think really happened?’
‘I can only surmise. Let us suppose that Vittorio broke into the house, probably by the same means as you did. He knew Carstairs (Honfleur) was not there so he inspected the rooms. Unknown to him, somebody had followed him, somebody for whom he had already made enquiry at the hotel, only to be misinformed of the driver’s name and coach company by the suspicious stripling Wullie.’
‘So Knight killed Vittorio, and all that stuff about the two masked men was so much blah!’
‘Please remember that my reconstruction is hypothetical. I have suggested one more thing to the police, that they search for Vittorio’s own clothes. If I am right, there should be a tear in the shirt and jacket and both should be bloodstained. I think his killer undressed the body, put on to it the only pyjama trousers available…’
‘Those would have been Carstairs’ – or, rather, Honfleur’s – as the bungalow belonged to him.’
‘I imagine so. Knight did not put Vittorio into the pyjama jacket, possibly because he realised it had not a tear in it…’
‘Why didn’t he make one?’
‘He may have thought it might come in the wrong place in the fabric’
‘But if they had a fight when both were fully dressed, how did the bloodstains, whichever man they belonged to, get on to the bed?’
‘Presumably because part of the fight took place with both men rolling on it. The room was not a large one and the bed occupied more than half of it.’
Dame Beatrice, accompanied by her suite (as Laura put it), called at Basil Honfleur’s office without warning and asked to see him.
‘Oh,’ said his secretary, ‘I’m sorry, but he isn’t here. I haven’t heard from him since he left just after you called last time, so I suppose he’s still in Bristol. That’s where he said he was going.’
‘Oh, never mind,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘I expect you can help me. Is Driver Knight back on duty?’
‘No, he’s reported sick again. That knock on the head and a nasty gash in his neck have upset him, and no wonder.’
‘I suppose you have to keep a record of the drivers’ schedules.’
‘Oh, yes, they have to be logged and any comments written against them.’
‘Such as their getting murdered, perhaps.’
