‘Very little; mostly letters from Miss Nutley herself, telling me about the repairs to the house and how the work was progressing.’
‘And none of her letters miscarried?’
‘Well, she always knew where to find me. I always gave her plenty of notice when I was going to change my address.’
‘But in that case, sir, why should Miss Dupont’s letter not have reached you? According to what you have just told me, Miss Nutley would have known where to send it. In fact, she would have known what it was, since you had given her instructions to deal with your correspondence and suppress what you refer to as begging letters. Apparently she did not regard Miss Dupont’s communication as coming under that heading. Moreover, she asserts that she enclosed it with a letter of her own to explain why she was sending it on.’
‘I never received either.’
I may tell you, Dame Beatrice, that at this juncture I asked the Chief Superintendent to send for Niobe, which he was willing to do. I tackled her, but she was absolutely certain that she had sent me Miss Minnie’s letter enclosed with one of her own. Pressed by me, she confessed that I had never replied to it, or had ever given any indication that I had received the letter. She then burst into tears and told the police that they must believe me. She repeated this two or three times, which, as you may imagine, did my case no good at all, but Niobe always does overdo things.
Well, they got rid of her with a few soothing words and then turned their attention to me again. A lot of it was a repetition of our earlier interview and referred to keys, window-fastenings and my dips in the sea. They were particularly pressing on the subject of my invasion of Miss Minnie’s bungalow, and repeated their question. Why, they asked again, had I taken two men with me and not a woman, if I suspected that Miss Dupont had been taken ill? I repeated my former answer, but they made no secret of the fact that it did not satisfy them.
‘You could have taken one of the ladies with you, broken the window and let the lady in at the front door, could you not, sir?’
‘I suppose so, if I’d thought of it, but I’m glad I didn’t. I wouldn’t have wanted a woman to see what was in the bedroom.’
‘So you
‘Of course I didn’t, but Miss Minnie was elderly, so the thought that she might have died was not so very unlikely.’
This of course, was all repetition, but I did not change my story. I had no need to, for it was the truth. They tried another tack.
‘When you rescued Mrs Dupont-Jacobson from the sea, had you any reason to think that she would reward you?’
‘Good Lord, no! Why should she? It was nothing.’
‘Your aquatic ability stood her in good stead, sir.’
‘Nonsense. There were a dozen fellows, as well as some girls, who could have done what I did. I happened to spot her more quickly, that’s all. It wasn’t my aquatic ability, as you call it, which mattered much; it was that my job had alerted me to notice swimmers who were in difficulty.’
‘When you knew you had inherited this house, sir, what were your ideas concerning it?’
‘To sell it. I looked on it as a white elephant.’
‘I see. You thought you would realise your assets and live abroad on the proceeds.’
‘I had no intention of living abroad permanently.’
‘What caused you to visit Miss Dupont’s bungalow that morning?’
‘What morning?’
‘Come, now, sir, don’t waste my time.’
‘Oh, I see. A parcel had come and the postman had tried several times to deliver it at The Lodge, so, in the end, he brought it to me.’
‘And then, sir?’
‘I took it across to the bungalow.’
‘Immediately?’
‘Well, no. I put it down by the hall table and forgot all about it until our cleaner reminded me it was there.’
‘So then you took it across, failed to get an answer, returned to get hold of two other gentlemen, Mr Evans and Mr Targe, and broke in. I still don’t quite understand why you thought it necessary to break in, sir. Could you not have taken the parcel back to the house and tried again later?’
‘Yes, I suppose so, but this wasn’t the first time I’d had difficulty in contacting Miss Minnie.’
‘Really, sir?’
‘Yes. I’ve remembered what made me so anxious. A few weeks – or it might have been longer than that – yes, I think it was – a registered letter came for her and the postman could get no answer at the Lodge. The thing needed a signature, of course, so he came up to the house and I obliged and promised to see that Miss Minnie got the letter. When I went over there with it – in pouring rain, I might add – I couldn’t make anybody hear, so I bunged the envelope through the letter-box and left Miss Minnie to find it.’
‘There was no registered envelope among her papers, sir, but that, of course, proves nothing.’
‘So when I took the parcel over and couldn’t get an answer I began to wonder what was wrong, and that’s why I got Evans and Targe to accompany me when I broke in.’
