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Susan and Dr Mortlake were in the middle of tea, although the second cup had not been poured out, when the telephone rang. The receiver was in what had been Dr Rant’s surgery. Susan excused herself to her guest and went along to answer it. It was Harrow on the line. He announced himself.
‘We’ve been to see Dr Mortlake,’ he said, ‘but his receptionist told us he had gone to visit the Miss Rants at Crozier Lodge.’
‘They’re not here. Dr Mortlake is having his tea.’
‘Keep him there. We’ll be along in no time. Now the news about Dr Rant’s death is known, there are one or two points he can clear up for us. And, look, Miss Susan, don’t tell him who this call is from. We want answers straight off the cuff. This is a very serious matter and we don’t want a prepared statement.’
Susan returned to the sitting-room.
‘Only the girls saying they had been asked to stay for dinner, so would be later than they thought,’ she said. She went into the kitchen to her brother and said, ‘Get it down you and hop it before the police get here.’
‘Police? I haven’t done nothing!’
‘Get lost, I tell you!’
‘Oh, all right. Got nothing on
‘Who knows? Swallow — and off!’
Adams obeyed her. He disliked meeting the police. She returned to the sitting-room and unemotionally resumed her interrupted tea. Harrow and Callum turned up just as she was carrying the tray back to the kitchen. She put it down to answer the door to them. She noticed, as she did so, that, although they had parked their car on the drive, it completely blocked the front gates. Sekhmet, Isis and Nephthys were inspecting it, having already taken a sniff or two at the doctor’s car which was near the house.
‘Excuse me a minute,’ she said. ‘With the gates open, they could get out.’
‘Shut the dogs up, if you don’t mind, miss,’ said Harrow, ‘and leave the gates as they are. We shan’t be a minute. Where can we find Dr Mortlake?’
‘In there.’ She indicated the sitting-room door. ‘He won’t be expecting you.’ She went out on to the drive and soon had the two hounds and the Labrador safely penned. Harrow and Callum went to the sitting-room and entered it without knocking. Dr Mortlake rose as they came in.
‘You’ll have heard the news about Dr Rant,’ said Harrow.
‘Dear me, yes. So it was suicide, after all.’
‘We think you could help us as to that, doctor. By the way, can you tell us what this is?’ He produced the worked flint. Mortlake took it and turned it over in hands which, in spite of his professional training, were slightly unsteady.
‘Good Lord!’ he said. ‘I wondered where that had got to. It’s the gem of my collection. I was burgled a few weeks ago, so I suppose the thieves picked this up accidentally with the valuables they took.’
‘You have never reported a break-in, doctor.’
‘I didn’t think it was worthwhile. You chaps don’t seem all that clever at recovering stolen property.’
‘Reverting to the matter of Dr Rant, we would like you to accompany us to the station, where I can have a shorthand writer at my disposal. Your evidence may be of the greatest assistance to us in our enquiries.’
‘The police station? Oh, all right. I’ll get my hat.’
Five minutes went by before Harrow said, ‘Where the devil has he got to?’
‘In the bog, perhaps,’ said Callum. Susan appeared as they walked into the hall. They questioned her.
‘He’s nowhere about,’ she said, ‘unless he went upstairs, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t. One of the treads makes a loud cracking noise. I should have heard it. Besides, I believe I heard the front door shut about five minutes ago. I shouldn’t wonder if he’s scarpered. Not everybody enjoys being questioned by the police.’ Remembering their search of her cottage, she looked at them with little enjoyment herself.
Callum dashed up the stairs, but soon came down again.
‘Well, he can’t have got far,’ said Harrow. ‘His hat is still on the hall stand and his car is in the drive. He couldn’t get it past ours. We’ll soon catch up with him.’
‘Not if he’s made for the top of the cliff railway and has gone by the cliff path. You can’t get your car along there and, once he’s in the valley, he could hide for days among those rocks. You’d better let me loose the hounds,’ said Susan.
Without waiting for any comments, she dashed out at the front door and bounded down the steps. The two policemen followed, passed by Mortlake’s car and got into their own without waiting to see what Susan would do.
They drove to the top of the cliff railway, left the locked car safely parked and made for the cliff path. Before they were halfway along it, the panting hounds, all six of them, followed a good way behind by Susan, streamed up to them and passed them. Susan dropped into an easy jog-trot and said, ‘He left his hat, so I let them smell it. They know he is somewhere ahead of us along here. They’ll find him.’
‘I hope they won’t pull him down and savage him,’ said Harrow.
‘Of course not. Gentle as lambs. They will hold him until we get there, that’s all.’ She dropped into a walk. Realising that, so far as the hounds were concerned, there was nothing to be done without her, the policemen followed suit. They came to the end of the cliff path and to the steep incline which led down to Rocky Valley. Seated on the cricket ground below was Dr Mortlake. The six hounds were in an alert circle around him regarding him with
