‘I have enjoyed our little chat, Mrs Plack,’ said Dame Beatrice, observing that the cook was about to become loquacious, ‘and I am grateful for your co-operation.’ She wondered whether to suggest that ‘Dame Beatrice’ was, in the present instance, a preferable nominative of address to ‘Your ladyship’, but felt that this correction would damage Mrs Plack’s
‘Any luck?’ enquired Laura.
‘I forgot to tell you that while I was in London I checked Miss Aysgarth’s alibi. The cook at Headlands, although she is not aware of the fact, confirmed it.’
‘How come?’
‘Only one pot of horseradish sauce was made at a time, so a person who has an alibi for the Friday to the Sunday morning of the murder cannot be a suspect, since the switching of the jars would have had to be done between those times and, in Miss Aysgarth’s case, those times are accounted for by a number of unbiased London witnesses.’
‘Oh, well, I suppose it’s a help to get even one person removed from the list. It still leaves far too many on it, though, wouldn’t you say? I mean, if you take this music student out, you’re still left with Mrs Porthcawl, Miss Bute, the Lunns and the cook and the present kitchenmaid, apart from the families at Seawards and Campions. We’ve got to find a way of narrowing it down, it seems to me. You know, heretical though this may sound, I reckon the police may have got the right pig by the ear, after all.’
‘Stranger things have happened than that the police should have acted with acumen,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘but we have to remember the cross-currents in this affair. Neither Campions nor Seawards seem to have visited Headlands without a definite invitation, but our researches have established that there was a liaison between Miss Bute and Mr Bosse-Leyden, and another between Mr Garnet Porthcawl and Mrs Bosse-Leyden. As for Miss Aysgarth, I have no doubt that she was in the habit of visiting both houses. She had a horse at her disposal whenever she was at home. Gossip and an exchange of news and views are inevitable under such circumstances and little would go on at any of the three houses of which the inhabitants of the other two had no knowledge.’
‘Including that Margaret Denham had been sacked for insolence?’
‘Including that, yes.’
Chapter 15
A List of Suspects
« ^ »
‘Yes,’ Dame Beatrice went on, ‘neither Miss Aysgarth nor Miss Bute needed to ask for the use of Mrs Leyden’s car and chauffeur when either of them wanted to visit the other members of Mrs Leyden’s family. I think it is possible, as there is a third horse, that Mattie Lunn may have accompanied Miss Aysgarth occasionally, but I do not imagine that Miss Bute ever welcomed an escort of that kind.’
‘Class distinctions rearing their ugly head?’
‘Not altogether.’
‘Oh, of course Fiona Bute would have ridden over to see Rupert Bosse-Leyden when his wife wasn’t likely to be at home.’
‘Far more likely that she rode over to his office, I think, or met him by previous arrangement on his walks.’
‘What happened in bad weather, then? She’d have needed the car when it was wet.’
‘Or else she did not go.’
‘Don’t you think she ever went to visit the Porthcawl man and the Leeks, then?’
‘Oh, I am sure she would do that, too. The fact that Bluebell Leek was willing to take her in when she quarrelled with Mrs Leyden is proof that she was well in touch with the people at Seawards, I think.’
‘If I’m not out of line in putting the question, if the girl Denham isn’t guilty, which of them did it, I wonder?’
‘Poisoned Mrs Leyden? I have a list of possible candidates, and if it were not for Antonia Aysgarth’s unbreakable alibi—and it
‘Except a possible legacy and her independence.’
‘The legacy, as you point out, was problematical and she has gained her independence without it, since she has so contrived matters that she is to have a flat which certainly she could not have afforded on the money she thought might be her portion.’
‘All the same, she would have been your pick except for her alibi.’
‘Psychologically I think she would qualify. She is ambitious and, I would say, ruthless in gaining her ends. On the other hand, I sum her up as being intelligent enough to realise that, with her knowledge of Mrs Plack’s routine, she would be bound to come under suspicion, and I do not see her as a person who would take unnecessary risks.’
‘So who are your suspects?’
‘Those who had the most to gain and, of course, I do not lose sight of a fact we have mentioned before.’
‘That Margaret Denham may be guilty after all?’
‘Exactly. We cannot leave her out of our reckoning.’
‘What about Parsifal Leek and young Gamaliel? Both may have hoped for a cut. It seems to me that you can’t eliminate anybody except the Bosse-Leydens. It seems, from what we’ve found out, that Rupert wouldn’t have had
