Till Death Do Us Part

Hadley's face wore a suspicious frown.

'Hold on!' the superintendent muttered. 'Was that why you asked me, a while ago, to -'

He checked himself as Dr Fell gave him a warning glance of portentous entreaty. To Dick Markham it seemed that this was a little too obvious a warning glance, a litde too portentous; and Dick had an uncomfortable sense of a battle of wits being fought, somehow, under the surface.

' I mean,' amplified Dr Fell, ' that we shall get a communication from A Friend or a Well-Wisher that will hint at, if not ruddy well indicate in detail, how the locked-room trick was worked. The police were supposed to have been duffers once. It won't do to risk their being duffers again.'

'A communication - how ?' asked Dick.

' Why not by telephone ? ‘

After a pause during which Dr Fell again addressed his ghostly parliament, the doctor scowled at Dick.

'You had a telephone-call early this morning,' he said, 'which interests me very much. The local policeman gave me a summary of your evidence. But I should like to question you rather closely about it, because ... Archons of Athens! Wow, wow, wow!'

The latter dog-like noises, made by a scholar of international reputation, caused Lord Ashe to survey him in perplexity.

Lesley bit at her under-lip.

'I don't understand any of this,' she burst out. 'But I don't believe it, because it's more hateful than anything else yet. You don't mean, you can't possibly mean' - all Lesley's appeal went into her voice -' that anybody on earth would do a thing like this just to throw the blame on me ?'

' It does take a bit of believing, doesn't it?' asked Dr Fell, with his eye on vacancy. 'Yes, it does take a bit of believing.'

' Then, please, what are you getting at?'

'Exactly,' snapped an exasperated Hadley, 'what I want to know myself.'

' I must confess,' said Lord Ashe, ' that this kind of thing is a little beyond me too.' He looked at his wrist- watch and added hopefully: You'll all stay to lunch, of course ?'

Lesley jumped to her feet.

'Thanks, but I won't,' she said. 'Considering my new status in the community, as the daughter of Lily Jewell -'

'My dear girl,' said Lord Ashe gently, 'don't be a fool.'

Setting the four glittering trinkets together in the middle of the dark-velvet cloth, he folded it together like a bag and held it out to her.

' Take them,' he said.

'I won't take them I' retorted Lesley, as though she were about to stamp her foot. The tears rose to her eyes again. 'I never want to see them again I They're yours, aren't they? Or, at least, your family always said so. Then take them, take all of them, and please for heaven's sake let me have a little peace!'

' My dear Miss Grant,' said Lord Ashe, insistently shaking the bag at her,' we mustn't stay here arguing over who will or won't take anything as valuable as this. You might tempt me too much. Or, if you'd rather my wife didn't see them until after lunch-'

' Do you think I could ever face Lady Ashe again ?'

'Frankly,' replied the husband of the lady in question, 'I do.'

'Or anyone else here in the village, for that matter? I'm glad it's all over. I'm free, and relieved, and a human being again. But, as for facing people again...!'

Dick went over and took her by the arm.

'You're coming with me,' he said, 'for a walk in the Dutch Garden before lunch.'

'An excellent idea,' approved Lord Ashe. Opening the table-drawer, he dropped the velvet cloth with its contents inside. As an afterthought, he selected a small key off a much-crowded key-ring and locked the drawer. 'We can settle afterwards the vexed question of - er - taking your own property. In the meantime, if country air is to do you any good at all, you must get rid of these morbid ideas.'

Lesley whirled round.

'Are they morbid ideas, Dick ? Are they ?'

' They're morbid nonsense, my dear.'

' Does it matter to you who I am ?'

Dick laughed so uproariously that he saw her self-distrust shaken.

'What did Cynthia say to you?' Lesley persisted. 'And how is she? And how did it happen she was with you early in the morning?'

'Will you please prove it, Lesley?'

'Exactly,' said Lord Ashe. 'But one thing does seem to be evident, Mr Markham.' His face hardened a little, with an expression about the eyes Dick could not read. 'Miss Grant has more than one very spiteful friend.'

' How do you mean ?' cried Lesley.

'One of them,' Lord Ashe pointed out, 'sends you here to live at Six Ashes. Another, if we can credit what we've just heard, is trying to get you hanged for murder.'

'Don't you see,' urged Lesley, holding tightly to Dick's arm, 'that's just what I can't face? And won't face? The idea that somebody, anybody, could hate you as much as that is the most terrifying thing of all. I don't even want to hear about it!' ' Lord Ashe reflected.

'Of course, if Dr Fell has by any chance some notion of how and why this extraordinary locked-room crime was committed-?'

'Oh, yes,' said Dr Fell apologetically. 'I think I might manage that, if I hear one or two answers I expect.'

A sense of new danger, hidden danger, darted along Dick Markham's nerves.

Turning round half a second before, he surprised between Dr Fell and Superintendent Hadley a kind of pantomime communication. It was only a raising of eyebrows, a sketched motion of lips; yet it vanished instantly, and he had no idea of its meaning. Hitherto he had regarded both Dr Fell and Hadley as allies, as helpers, here to tear away phantom dangers. No doubt they still were allies. At the same time...

Dr Fell frowned.

'You understand, don't you,' he asked, 'the most important consideration in this case?'

CHAPTER 15

IT was late in the afternoon, outside the evil-looking cottage in Gallows Lane, when Dr Fell asked that same question again.

After lunch at Ashe Hall, Dr Fell and Hadley and Dick Markham made a little tour of the village. Dick had wanted to go home with Lesley, but Dr Fell would not hear of this. He seemed interested in meeting as many persons as possible.

No word had as yet slipped out that the dead man was not Sir Harvey Gilman, or that the police had any reason to suspect anything but suicide. You could almost feel the lure of the trap, the invitation of the deadfall, the whistling summons to a murderer. Faces of bursting curiosity were directed towards them, though only the averted eye asked a question. Dick had never felt more uncomfortable in his life.

And they met many people.

An attempt to interview Cynthia Drew was frustrated by Cynthia's mother, a sad little woman who pointedly refrained from speaking to Dick Markham. Cynthia, she explained, had sustained a bad fall on some stone steps, bruising her temple. She was in no condition to see anyone; nor should anyone expect - raising of eyebrows here - to see her.

But they encountered Major Price coming out of his office. They were introduced to Earnshaw making some purchases at the post office. Dr Fell bought chocolate cigars as well as real ones at the sweet-and-tobacconist's; he exchanged views on church architecture with the Rev. Mr Goodflower; he visited the saloon-bar of the 'Griffin and Ash-Tree' in order to lower several pints before closing-time.

The low, yellow-blazing sun lay behind the village before they turned back again towards Gallows Lane. Passing Lesley's house, Dick remembered her last words to him. 'You will come to dinner to-night, just as we planned?' and his agreement with some fervency. He looked for her face at a window, and