forget that, either,” said Leslie, smarting. He flushed at the petulant tone of his own voice, and to break off the unseemly argument went forward and plucked the panel from its place, his pleasure in it spoiled. He was ashamed of having displayed their differences before George, and probably so was she, for she said from the doorway, without turning her head: “Well, it’s no use worrying now, in any case, it’s done. We may be lucky yet.”
“Believe me, Mrs. Armiger,” said George firmly, “if Cranmer offered six hundred for it he was absolutely certain of clearing a good deal more than that. He isn’t in business for fun. You hang on to it until you get a really disinterested opinion.”
He moved to Leslie’s shoulder to take another look at it. There was a queer ornament pinned between the childish breasts, something that looked like an enormous oval brooch with some embossed pattern on it. It rested upright above the crossed hands, long, curved, inarticulate hands pallid under the crazed vanish. “You’ve got some definite idea of your own about this, haven’t you?” he asked curiously.
“Well, I have, but I don’t dare believe it. It’s too staggering, I’d rather not talk about it until somebody else has pronounced on it, somebody who knows a lot more about these things than I do.” He wrapped the panel in an old dust-sheet and stacked it carefully in a corner. “I’m sorry, I’ve been so Ml of her I can’t think of much else, but I’m sure you didn’t come here to talk about her. Is it something about Kitty?” His face was grave enough at the thought of her, the vexation and the pleasure of his own affairs both overshadowed.
“It is about her, as a matter of fact,” said George. “You paid her a visit yesterday morning, didn’t you?”
“Yes, as soon as I could get away from the shop. I didn’t even know she’d been arrested until I went to work. Why? It was all right, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, quite. I was simply wondering if she’d been any more forthcoming with you than she was with us. There’s an hour of her time, that night, from just after eleven until just after twelve, for which she refuses to account, and there’s a possibility that her reasons for keeping quiet are concerned with some other person. My impression is that the best thing that could happen for her is that everything to do with her movements that night should come out.”
“Guilty or innocent?”
“Guilty or innocent.”
“From you,” said Leslie after some thought, “I might accept that. But if you mean did she tell me anything yesterday morning that she wouldn’t tell you in the afternoon, no, she didn’t. Not a word about my father or that night. We didn’t talk about it. We didn’t talk a lot about anything. She just said she didn’t do it, and I said I never thought she did. Which I suppose is a perfectly good reason for co-operating with you, now that I come to think of it.”
“It is, if that’s what you honestly believe. You were with her, how long? Half an hour or so? If you weren’t talking, what were you doing all that time?”
“Most of that time,” said Leslie, angry colour suddenly mantling over his shapely cheek-bones, “Kitty was crying, and I was trying to comfort her.” He glared for a moment, but the flash of partisan indignation passed as quickly as it had flared up. “Oh, nothing shattering, just she needed to, and with me she could. She didn’t tell me anything about your missing hour. And I suppose you know you’re not the only one who’s been asking me about it? Your boy came to see me yesterday.”
“I didn’t know, but I’m not surprised.” Dominic had volunteered no information resulting from his inquiries in this direction, it seemed likely that he had acquired none. “We have a working arrangement,” said George with a hollow smile. “Did he ask you this one? If Kitty was in a desperate hole and needed someone quickly, someone who wouldn’t hesitate to come out to her late at night and get her out of trouble, to whom would she turn?”
“No, he didn’t ask that exactly, but maybe we covered much the same ground another way. There was a time when I’d have said she’d come to me. We’ve been good friends, she was like my little sister most of the time we were growing up, but that ghastly scheme of my father’s broke it all down. What could you expect? Kitty’s odd, sweet and funny and candid, but very much alone, too. I’m very fond of her, and I think she was of me until Dad spoiled everything. I did say to her yesterday, why on earth didn’t she call on me if she was in a spot, but all she said was something daffy about my not being on the telephone any more, as though that was any reason for locking me out of her life. Did you say something?”
George shook his head. “No, go on. If she wouldn’t turn to you, then who would it be?”
“Well, of course she has fellows round her as thick as bees wherever she goes, and all that, but I can’t imagine her going to any of them. I think it would be someone older, if she really needed something. It would have been her aunt, the one who brought her up, of course, only she died a year or so ago. There’s her manager, he’s a nice old boy, and she’s known him all her life, or Ray Shelley, he’s her unofficial uncle, she always got on well with him, especially after he tried to stick up for me when the row burst. Someone like that. I’m not being much help?”
“You might be,” said George.
“Don’t get me wrong. It’s Kitty I want to help, not you. No offence, you’re only doing your job, I know. But I’m not a policeman, I’m just a friend of Kitty’s.”
“All right,” said George, resigned to his exclusion from humankind, “that’s understood. I suppose, by the way, that Dom made it quite clear where he stands?” He saw by the fleeting gleam of a smile in Leslie’s eyes that indeed Dominic had, and that he had been welcomed accordingly.
He got as far as the door, and then turned back to say: “One more thing, you might like to know, we did find somebody who confirmed your timing that night. One of the colliers on late shift at the Warren happens to live at the bottom end of this road. He was coming off the miners’ bus at the corner just as you turned in on your way home. That fixes the time pretty accurately at around a quarter to eleven, give or take a couple of minutes. So that’s that. For what it’s worth now.”
“I see,” said Leslie slowly. “Well, thanks for telling me, anyhow. It would have been worth a lot a couple of days ago. As you say, it doesn’t seem to matter much now.”
“It was only last night we got round to the idea of checking the miners’ bus. If I’d known before I’d have told you. Well, good luck with your Joyful Woman this afternoon. How are you doing the trip? That’s an awkward thing to tote around by bus. I could offer you transport, if you’re in difficulties?”
“That’s awfully kind of you, but we’ve got the use of Barney Wilson’s van when he isn’t using it himself. He lets me keep his spare key, so that I can fetch it if I want it. He stables it at the Department’s depot just out on the main road, not having a garage at home, so it’s nice and handy.”
“Trusting chap,” said George from the top of the stairs. “Most people would rather loan you their wives.”
