‘Did she give you any hint that she might run away with one of them?’
‘No, that would seem to imply love and I doubt if Juliet is capable of love-if, indeed, it exists at all. She is quite simply a nymphomaniac, Inspector, of a rather plebeian sort One man is pretty much the same as another from her point of view. Besides, her life here is very comfortable. She is living a life of luxury with ten pounds a week pocket money. It would have to be a very attractive offer to lure her away from that’
‘You know of no reason, then, why she should run off at this stage?’
‘No, rather the reverse. She had been trying for some time to get me to marry her. She rather fancied herself as the second Lady Counter.’
Dover exchanged glances with Sergeant MacGregor, whose unobtrusive note-taking had been going on all through the interview.
‘Did you intend to marry her?’ asked Dover.
Sir John placed his finger-tips judiciously together. ‘I was thinking about it,’ he said. ‘It was a suggestion which merited thinking about. Juliet’s a common little tart, of course, but since I have virtually ceased going out in society nowadays, that wouldn’t matter all that much. My daughter,’ he glanced slyly at the chief inspector, ‘my daughter, however, didn’t like the idea at all. To be fair, Juliet as a stepmother would be hard for anybody to swallow. And, at the present moment, Eve is my sole heir, but if I married again and if I fathered another child – which is not beyond the realms of possibility – then her position would be very different.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Dover and sighed. He decided to try another line of questioning.
‘According to our investigations, Sir John,’ he said, ‘Juliet Rugg was last seen at about five to eleven on Tuesday night. She was walking up the drive in the direction of this house. According to Miss Counter’s statement, she doesn’t appear to have got here. I take it, you didn’t see her that night?’
‘No, the last time I saw her was at lunch before she went off.’
‘Where were you at eleven o’clock, Sir John?’
‘I was in bed watching television. I have a second set in my bedroom. When the programme ended I switched off my light and went to sleep.’
‘Would you have heard her if she had come into the house?’ Sir John thought for a minute. ‘I doubt it,’ he said. ‘My room is quite a distance from the front door and, of course, my hearing is not so acute as it was. By the way, who saw Juliet at that time?’
‘It was Colonel Bing.’
‘Ah, the Irlam Amazon! Well, the woman’s a fool, but I’ve no doubt she can see straight enough.’
‘Had Miss Rugg any friends or contacts among the people who live up here? Was she perhaps – er – friendly with any of the men?’
‘Not as far as I know, Inspector, though if she were having an affair with any man up here I think she’d be shrewd enough not to tell me about it.’
‘Why not?’
‘I should not’ – Sir John paused to pop another toffee in his mouth’-I should not be quite so complaisant at finding her carrying on with somebody in my own social set as I was about her amorous adventures with farm labourers and shop assistants. It is illogical, I admit, but I wouldn’t tolerate her sleeping with one of my neighbours. However, I am sure my daughter would have been very quick to tell me if something of that sort had been going on. As far as the women up here are concerned’ – he shook his head – ‘I doubt if any of them ever passed more than the time of day with her. She is a servant, you know, and not an oversavoury one at that. In fact, I can’t see her popping in to pay a social call at eleven o’clock at night with anybody in Irlam Old Hall – if that’s what you’re getting at.’
‘Are there any single men in the houses or flats?’
‘Two, I believe – that’s not counting Freel who lives with his sister. There’s Bondy, a retired soldier, who does the caretaking in the Old Hall itself. He’s about sixty, I suppose, and I don’t think he’d touch Juliet with gloves on, if you see what I mean. Then there’s this foreigner chap, Bogolepov. Now, he’s a different kettle of fish. He’s one of these gaunt, hungry-looking young men – the sort that women are supposed to want to mother. Jew he is, and they’re an oversexed lot, if you like. I’ve caught him looking at Juliet once or twice with those big dark eyes. Looked as though he could eat her – you know, practically slavering at the lips.
‘Yes, if anything has happened to Juliet, he’s your man ! Might be well worth your while to go and give him a bit of third degree – it’s all these damned foreigners understand. If I were ten years younger, he’d have had the toe of my boot up his backside, I can tell you! I don’t hold any brief for Hitler, Inspector, obviously he went much too far, but he was on the right lines where the Jews were concerned, I can never understand why Kitty Chubb-Smith ever let him have that house in the first place. I told her she was lowering the tone of the whole set-up. Lazy young whelp wanders about half the day in his pyjamas, shaves about once a week and doesn’t look as if he’d had a wash since he came here.’
‘Well, sir,’ said Dover, who’d had enough of Sir John but who was loath to leave the comfort of his armchair, ‘I think that’s about all for the moment.
