Why not? He had nothing to be ashamed of, even if he had been cheated and startled into feeling shame when Tossa kissed him by way of apologising for reservations she should, instead, have respected and re-examined. He had had a job to do, and he knew he was good at it. Dominic, a policeman’s son, gave him the ghost of a smile; they were all giving him their fixed and painful attention.
“I was detailed to pick up your party at the frontier, escort you as far as I could, and continue to keep an eye on your movements and your welfare afterwards.”
Toddy, hackles erected, demanded: “Why?”
“Why? Naturally Miss Barber, like other visitors, was obliged to apply for a visa. With the recent events in mind, and certain dimplomatic complications always possible, our police in Bratislava were hardly likely to have left Mr. Terrell’s background and circumstances unexamined. They knew that he had married a widow named Barber, with one daughter, now a student at Oxford. The connection was not beyond their ability. They therefore felt that it would be well to keep a protective eye on Miss Barber as long as she remained in this country, for her own good as well as ours. We do not want trouble. There seemed reason to suppose that Miss Barber and her friends were making for the Tatras. I was born here, I used to serve under Lieutenant Ondrejov before I transferred to the plain-clothes branch. As a local man, with good English, and as you see, quite well able to look like a student, I was seconded to this duty.”
“Then I suppose this means you’ve been spying on us ever since you pretended to leave us,” said Toddy bitterly.
“I have been carrying out my assignment. Without, I hope, interfering with your enjoyment. This evening I was in cover on the hillside above the chapel, near the crest. There is a place there from which you can cover, with glasses, almost the whole length of the valley. I have often used it. You were within view for perhaps half of your walk, and hidden from me only when among the trees. I saw you come to the chapel.”
“And were they together?” murmured Ondrejov innocently.
Into the momentary well of silence, while the four of them held their breath, Mirek dropped his: “No,” very gently, but it fell like a stone.
“Did they enter the chapel together?”
“No. Miss Barber came first. It was clear from her manner that she thought she was alone, but I had already seen Mr. Felse carefully following her. She climbed to the rock shelf, and walked straight to the door of the chapel. I had her within sight until the last few yards. The doorway itself was out of my sight. Mr. Felse remained in the shadow of the trees, and did not attempt at first to follow her.”
“And then?”
“Then there was a shot. It came perhaps five or six seconds after Miss Barber passed out of my sight and into the chapel. I could not determine from which direction the sound came, it is very difficult in such an enclosed and complex place. It
Tossa’s hands, linked in her lap, tightened convulsively, but she made no sound. It was Toddy who flared in alarm and anger: “That’s a lie! You’re trying to frighten her! You know it isn’t true!”
“Please, Mr. Mather! Go on, Mirek, what next?”
“Mr. Felse dropped to the ground and scrambled across to the doorway. They were in there for several minutes together. I was raking the valley for any signs of movement, but I found nothing. I therefore began to work my way down the slope towards the chapel, but as you know, it is rather a risky field of scree there, one must go cautiously. While I was still well above, I saw Miss Barber dart away from the doorway and run down the path among the trees. After perhaps five more minutes Mr. Felse followed her. It was then beginning to be dusk. He had a fall on the rocks as he ran across the open ground. It was then I saw that Miss Barber had waited for him, just within the trees.”
“And by the time you got down there?”
“They were both well away. And when I entered the chapel I found Mr. Welland’s body there.”
“Mr. Felse stayed behind, perhaps, just long enough to go through the dead man’s pockets?” suggested Ondrejov placidly.
Involuntarily Dominic let out an audible gasp of disgust, remembering that the idea had never even occurred to him. And Miroslav smiled.
“I don’t suggest he did do so, but the time would have been sufficient, yes.”
“And did you hear a second shot, as Mr. Felse says? When he fell?”
“I did not hear one, no. Admittedly I was coming rather quickly down the scree, and I was concentrating on my foot-work, as well as making a considerable noise of my own.”
Tossa raised her heavy eyelids just long enough to flash a glance at Dominic, and intercept his startled glance at her. They had heard the scree shifting, and never dreamed of looking up there for a witness.
“One more point,” said Ondrejov comfortably, stretching his broad shoulders back until the chair creaked. “The encounter at Zilina. Did it appear to you that Miss Barber was acquainted with Mr. Welland?”
“Yes, quite certainly she was.”
“And did she, then, behave naturally when meeting him there?”
“No, she affected not to know him. As I think her friends really did not. But she took occasion to pass a message to him, and he almost certainly passed one back to her.”
“Such as this folded scrap of paper, perhaps?”
Ondrejov produced it gently from his pocket, unfolded it with deliberation, and read aloud in his amiable rolling bass: “I shall be at the Riavka hut. Please contact me!” He looked up over Tossa’s note with twinkling blue eyes narrowed in an indulgent smile. “If our young and chivalrous friend did go through the victim’s pockets, he didn’t make a very good job of it, it seems. Zachar has had more practice, of course,” he added by way of consolation to Dominic, and folded the paper carefully away again.
“So it seems we have a somewhat changed picture now. You are sure there is nothing you wish to add or
