'No,' said Roger and went off to the study alone.
He had been debating during the lunch how exactly to convey his warning to David without appearing to know everything and yet without minimizing the danger. The compromise on which he had decided had the weakness of all compromises, but it was the best one he could find.
'Look here, Stratton,' he said, without beating about the bush, 'you know what this means, of course, taking your wife's body off to the mortuary, and messing about on the roof, as the police have been doing. It means that they're not satisfied that your wife's death was quite so uncomplicated as it looked at first. I'm not in their confidence, so I don't know what their trouble is; but at a guess, it might be that there was last night some special motive, some particular incident or scene, such as a quarrel, which led to her taking her life and which has not yet been disclosed. Now whether there was anything of the sort I don't know and I don't want to know, any more than I want to know the exact details of her last moments. But if there was, and it comes to light, there's bound to be a great deal of mud - slinging over the case; and that I do want to prevent for all our sakes.
'So I'd like to impress on you that it's essential for you, of all of us, to have a perfectly simple story for the police, which can easily be supported elsewhere, so that they can understand that you didn't follow your wife up onto the roof when she ran out of the ballroom and quarrel with her there, or anything like that. You understand that, don't you?'
'Well, that's perfectly simple,' David said shortly. 'I . . .'
'Wait a minute. Let me tell you. I know you didn't go up there, because I was with you myself for at least ten minutes, at the bar. You remember? We were talking about the test matches and the absurd fuss the Australians made because Haye bowled at their leg stumps instead of their off stumps. I'm your alibi for that time. Then Colin Nicolson joined us, and I strolled up onto the roof for a minute or two myself - where, I may say, I saw no sign of your wife, who must have been in the sun parlour.'
'Why?' asked David curtly.
'Why?' Roger repeated.
'Yes. Why must she have been in the sun parlour? It was ten minutes, or more. That was plenty of time for her to have done it.'
'Of course,' said Roger hurriedly. He had completely forgotten that his very first theory had exonerated David because of those ten minutes. Of course that was David's best defence. The doctors' report as to the time of death must be firmly taken for granted. It had been clever of David to see that.
'Of course,' he repeated. 'I don't know why I said that she was probably in the sun parlour. Most likely she had done it already. Still, there's no harm in your having a margin of safety, so we'll just get it exact. I left you, and you stayed with Nicolson another three or four minutes. And then,' said Roger with meaning, 'you followed him straight into the ballroom, didn't you, where your brother no doubt and other people saw you?'
'Not at once,' said David obtusely. 'I went down to the bathroom first.'
'No, you didn't,' Roger retorted, with some exasperation. 'You never went near the bathroom. You followed Nicolson straight into the ballroom. In fact, you both went together. He remembers you did.'
A very faint smile appeared on David's pale face. 'Yes, that's right. I remember now, too. And if you want to know, I went straight up to Agatha and asked her to dance, because I hadn't been able to dance with her before. My wife,' said David in an expressionless voice, 'didn't like her. God knows why.'
'Exactly. She'll remember that too. And you stayed with her some time, of course, and after that you were never alone until Ronald actually saw you off the premises.'
'Ronald didn't. I ...'
'Yes, he did.'
'Oh, all right. It, all seems very unnecessary,' said David wearily, 'but I suppose you're right.' Roger snorted.
Leaving the study, Roger hurried off in search of Mrs. Lefroy. He ran her to earth in the drawing room, detached her from a group, and led her outside the door. Time was short, and he could not mince matters. 'You remember when I took David off to have a drink, after his wife had flung herself out of the ballroom? Well, I didn't come back with him. Colin Nicolson did. You remember seeing them come in, don't you?'
'No,' said Mrs. Lefroy doubtfully. 'I remember David coming and sitting by me, but I think that was some time later, wasn't it?'
'It was exactly thirteen minutes after I took him out, but you don't know that. What you do know is that you saw him and Colin come into the ballroom together, and David came straight across and joined you.'
Mrs. Lefroy was a rare woman. 'Yes,' she said at once. 'I remember perfectly.'
'Bless you,' said Roger. 'Where's Ronald?'
Ronald was discovered in the study, with David. They were not talking.
'Go home, David,' said Roger. 'You mustn't be here too much. We don't want to look like a conspiracy, whether we are one or not. Go home and stick to your story, and you'll be all right.' David went.
'The police have gone,' Ronald said. 'Shall we . . .'
'Damn the police,' said Roger. 'They'll be back soon enough.'
'Yes, I'm afraid so. By the way, they've altered the place of the inquest. It's to be in Westerford now, not here.'
Roger nodded. 'I expected that. Now listen to me, Ronald, because I'm going to speak very carefully - 'He repeated the gambit which he had already used on David.
'Yes,' said Ronald. 'I understand perfectly. But I don't think you do.'
'I don't want to, any more than that,' Roger said quickly. 'All I want you to do is to look after your own alibi, because I haven't the time, and be ready to swear that you went down to the front door with your brother and saw him out of the house.'
'Oh, my alibi's all right,' Ronald said carelessly. 'I never left the ballroom at all from the time Ena went out of it till just before David went, when I was at the bar with you.'
'You didn't?' said Roger. So it had been David after all.
'No. Heaps of people can swear to that. But, look here, Roger,' said Ronald anxiously, 'are you quite sure David's is all right? Is it really cast iron?'
'Absolutely. No, not cast iron. Not so brittle. Wrought iron. I've just,' said Roger with a smile, 'been forging it.'
'Ah! Well, listen, Roger,' Ronald said slowly, 'I want to speak carefully to you, too. I haven't said a word to David, and he hasn't said a word to me. I quite agree with you that it's much better not to know anything. I can see that's your line, and it's the right one. But I do just want to say this, Roger. That woman utterly deserved - well, anything she got.'
'I know she did,' Roger said, not without emotion. 'And that's just why I'm not knowing anything at all. But I'll say this, Ronald: Everything will be all right.'
'Sure?'
'Sure. You see, after all, there's no evidence at all. Not to say, evidence.'
Fleeing any more emotion, Roger hurried off in search of Colin. The police might be back at any moment, and Roger wanted everything nice and simple for them when they came.
Colin was smoking his pipe with Williamson on the lawn in front of the house. Roger called him aside and began once more. 'Colin, after I'd gone up on the roof last night and left you with David, you didn't go back to the ballroom alone. David went with you.'
'But I've told you already I ...'
'Colin, I haven't got much time. Listen. David went with you. Mrs. Lefroy remembers seeing you both come in together. And,' said Roger with emphasis, 'David himself remembers that he went in with you. David himself remembers it, Colin.'
'Oh!' said Colin slowly.
'Yes, you were wrong, I'm afraid. But the lad's perfectly safe, so long as you remember just that thing.'
'Of course I remember we went in together, said Colin firmly. 'Haven't I told you so all along?'
'Then thank goodness that's settled.' Roger mopped his brow and took a breath of relief.
'But, Roger, man, what are the police up to? Do you mean to tell me they smell a rat? What were they doing, taking photographs on the roof?'
'I don't know,' Roger admitted. 'But that appears to be my next job, to find out. Little did I think that the
