'Go on.'
'I sat up and switched on the light I felt sick and headachy but a good deal more sober. It was two o'clock by the bedside dock. The voice moaning—it was awful. I climbed out of bed and went over and opened the bathroom door.'
(Not a soul in that window embrasure moved, or even seemed to breathe.)
'Was the light on in the bathroom?'
'No, but I turned it on. The door to Margot's bedroom was wide open. Oh, yes! And while I'd been asleep, Margot’d taken a bath.'
'She'd taken a bath?'
'Yes. There was a towel across the edge of the tub, and the floor was wet. God, how it annoyed me: that wet floor, and me in my bare feet! I went back and got my slippers, and came in again. Everything seemed quiet I looked into Margot’s bedroom.'
Not a muscle or a fold of flesh moved in Dr. Fell's face or body. His propped elbow and pointing hand remained steady. Yet his eyes flashed round; moved with an unnerving furtive air, as though he were remembering and summing up. But the spell remained unbroken. Both their voices grew thicker, as Thorley walked back further and further into that night
'I looked into her bedroom. The light wasn't on, but I could tell she wasn't there.' 'Were the curtains drawn?'
'No; that's how I could tell she wasn't there. There was a little light from outside, stars or something. The bedspread was smooth and hadn't been touched. It was all quiet, and as cold as hell. Then the moaning and crying started again, so loud it nearly made me jump out of my skin. I saw the line of light under the door to her sitting room.'
'Go on!'
Thorley spoke loudly and quickly.
'I opened the door. It was warm in there, with a fire still burning in the grate. All the wall lamps were burning too. A little way back from the middle of the room, with a table beside it, there's one of those chaise- longue things with cushions.'
'Go on!'
'Margot was lying on it on her back, only a bit sideways. Her mouth sort of jabbered. I said, 'Margot!' but she just moaned and twisted; her eyes didn't open. I hoisted up her shoulders against the back of the chaise longue—she wasn't any lightweight—and her head fell forward. I shook her, but that wasn't any good either. Then I was really scared. I rushed back into the bathroom.'
'Was the poison bottle in the medicine cabinet at that time?'
'No, it was gone. Margot must have . ..' Dead silence.
Thorley realized what he had said. His voice stopped in midflight, faltered, slowly repeated, 'must—have,' and then trailed away. He stood there, shocked awake but petrified, his dark eyes glazed.
Dr. Fell let his arm fall on the table.
'So we perceive,' Dr. Fell remarked, without satisfaction or even without any inflection at all, 'that there had been in that cabinet a small brown bottle labeled poison. Just as Miss Devereux said.'
Still nobody moved. On that group around the table, one of whom at least had been holding his breath until he felt suffocated, remained a strange and terrifying numbness. They seemed in a void, among the portraits of the Long Gallery.
'That was a trick,' Thorley said. His voice rose. 'A dirty, filthy trick!'
'No,' returned Dr. Fell.
He laid down his crutch-handled stick across the glass top of the table.
'Sir,' continued Dr. Fell, 'I had reasons of my own for looking on you with an eye of extreme suspicion. If you had known of that brown bottle in the medicine cabinet, your first impulse at finding your wife in a dying condition would have been to rush back and look for the bottle. I—harrumph —merely led you to it You follow me?'
Danvers Locke, elegant and aloof, rose to his feet
'It's getting rather late,' he observed. 'I think, Doris, we had better go.'
Celia was standing up, her eyes glistening with tears.
'I'm not going to crow over you, Thorley,' she said. 'But don't you ever, ever, ever, as long as you live, go about telling people I'm insane.' Celia's whole manner changed. She ooked at Holden, trying to keep her face straight against the tears, and held out her hands to him.
'Darling!' Celia said. Then he was beside her, gripping her hands tightly enough to hurt, looking down at her eyes as he had looked last night, under the trees beside the park.
There was so much pleading urgency in it that they swung round in spite of themselves.
'I want to answer that,' gritted Thorley. 'I've got a right to answer it.' He swallowed. 'It's true I did lie about that one little point, yes! But I thought it was for a good reason. I .. .'
' 'That one little point?'' echoed Holden. He could not even hate Thorley now; he could only regard the man with awe. 'You know, Thorley, you're a beauty! You really are a beauty! You told the truth about everything else, I suppose?'
'Yes, I did!'
'It won't do, Thorley. You've been maintaining it was a delusion of Celia's that Margot changed her gown in the middle of the night, and put on a black velvet dress instead of the silver one. Whereas there's a witness to prove that's exactly what Margot did.'
'Oh?' inquired Thorley coolly. 'You think you're getting smart, like all the rest of them. And who's the perjurer who says that?'
'Your strongest supporter. Doris Locke.'
Doris let out a cry. Her father immediately and blandly stepped in front of her chair, as though to shield Doris even from their sight
'I think, Doris, we had really better be going.'
Along the gallery had creaked the footsteps of Obey, Obey in a hurry, yet so deftly did she move, leaning over and whispering earnestly to Dr. Fell, that they were not conscious of her presence until Dr. Fell uttered an exclamation and surged to his feet, thrusting the long envelope into his pocket.
'O Lord! Oh Bacchus!' muttered Dr. Fell. 'The appointment! I had completely forgotten. I sincerely trust the sexton is drunk. Er—my dear Holden!'
'Yes?'
Dr. Fell, completely scatterbrained now that he was not concentrating on anything, blinked round him in distress.
'My corporeal shape, while perhaps majestic,' he said, 'is not altogether suitable for bending and touching the floor. In some mysterious manner,' he rumbled at his eyeglasses, 'my hat and my other cane seem to have fallen off the table. If you wouldn't mind? ... Ah! Thank 'ee. Yes. That's better! Let me remind you that we have an urgent appointment'
And he lumbered out of the embrasure, supporting himself on two canes. It was so unexpected, it left them so much in mid-air, that even Locke spoke in protest
'Dr. Fell!'
'Hey?'
'May I ask,' inquired Locke in a voice brittle with anger, 'whether this inquiry is ended?'
'Ended. H'mf. Well. Not precisely ended.' Dr. Fell shook his head. 'But I think, you know, the situation is fairly dear.'
'Clear!' said Locke. 'In some respects, yes. You said you could solve our problem, and to a great extent I think you have. What do you propose to do?'
'Do?'
'Our friend Marsh here,' stated Locke, 'has been caught in at least one flat lie of utterly damning quality. Must I repeat the rest of the tag about falsus in uno? What do you propose to do?'
'Do?' again repeated Dr. Fell, with sudden ferocity. 'God bless the police, what can I do? The man's quite innocent'
