seems — and so got dragged into giving evidence.’
‘There was no suggestion that it was anything but suicide, I suppose? But how should you know, since you had such a brief, undetailed account of it?’
‘Are you wondering whether Gloria murdered the bloke?’ I asked flatly.
‘Well,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘I do not rule out the possibility, since there seems a strong likelihood that she murdered that woman found in the old house at Beeches Lawn.’
‘Well, if the police are of that opinion, it won’t be long before they catch up with her.’
‘London is a good place in which to hide.’
‘She skipped from Trends pretty quickly when she realised that McMaster had recognised her.’
‘That is dependent upon whether she
‘I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure not. He’s the kind of bloke who would always let the hen partridges fly.’
‘Shades of Peachum, Mr Stratford?’
‘I’ve just thought of something,’ I went on. ‘I’ve got myself a fiancee through this business and that fiancee may have been for a time on the staff of Trends while Gloria was there. Would you care to have a word with her? She herself was called Gloria, strangely enough, and the real Gloria would have been called by anything but her real name, it seems, but I have no idea what her shop name was. It could have been Violetta.’
‘Is there any chance that your fiancee would have known Miss Mundy’s address?’
‘I should hardly think so. She was only at Trends to gather material for a book. I don’t think she would have been in the least interested in the other assistants’ private lives. I’ll tell you who might be able to help, though. There is a silver-haired, pleasant young miss on the staff who knew more or less where my Imogen hung out during her stay at Trends, so she might be the best chance of our locating Gloria.’
‘Well, we must not ignore any opening. Are you
‘I don’t know. I told her I was a policeman.’
‘Enterprising of you, but perhaps, under the circumstances, not too helpful. People dislike what they call “getting mixed up with the police”. I think perhaps it would be best if I myself made the next enquiries at the shop, but let us consider a few points before I do so. It is certain that Miss Mundy presented herself at Beeches Lawn on a Sunday, a day on which Trends would have been closed, but the evidence at our disposal suggests that she was also in the neighbourhood of Mr Wotton’s residence on the Tuesday.’
‘If McMaster is right in thinking that he saw her still working at Trends some time after that, she probably sent in a doctor’s certificate to cover her absence, don’t you think?’
‘It seems a reasonable theory. On the other hand, if she had a car it would be quite possible for her to drive to Beeches Lawn directly she had finished work, do whatever she had decided to do there, and still get back to London and to the shop on the following morning.’
‘A car? I don’t know why, but I never thought of her having a car.’
‘It is an ubiquitous possession nowadays.’
‘Yes, of course. You don’t mean she stole that car the police found outside the convent building, do you? — and burnt a body in it? Oh, no, that’s far too fantastic’
‘That was a stolen car, according to the police theory, but, even if it had been her own, she still had to get back to London. Of course, there is always the train, but there is something more important than the fact that Miss Mundy does not appear to have given up her position at Trends until after Mr McMaster’s visit.’
‘I still think there is just a chance he may have been mistaken. He saw a girl with black hair and a dead-white make-up. I believed I was convinced that he saw Gloria in this girl, but I find a lingering doubt,’ I said. ‘Would she have dared to go back to Trends, where she might be recognised?’
‘We will shelve the point and go to another matter. Has it struck you that somebody, Miss Mundy or another, must have had that red and black wig in readiness and that the murder was premeditated and carefully planned?’
‘I hadn’t thought about it along those lines. That means all the murderer had to do was to find the right time to commit the crime.’
‘And to select the right victim, of course.’
‘The right victim? How do you mean?’
‘She had to find a woman sufficiently of her own build, (although not necessarily of her own age), somebody who would be unsuspecting, and somebody who would not be missed for some time. Is there a picture forming in your mind?’
‘Going on the assumption that Gloria Mundy knifed this so-far-unknown woman, burnt the body in that car and somehow — heaven knows how! — got the body back to the old house — well, if I can swallow all that, I can see various possibilities,’ I said. This was not strictly true. What came into my mind were not possibilities, but wild flights of imagination into which, fortunately, perhaps, Dame Beatrice did not enquire.
She said, ‘Let us pick up the threads again. Now then, we know that Miss Mundy was at Beeches Lawn on the Sunday. The host, the hostess and all the guests (yourself included) say so. Now what evidence have we that she did not leave the neighbourhood as soon as she had left Beeches Lawn after the soup incident?’
‘Are you serious in asking that?’
‘Please answer me.’
‘Well, there is the evidence of Roland and Kay, who saw her standing at the window of the old house.’
‘In pouring rain and gathering darkness, remember, and themselves, I imagine, intent only on reaching the
