‘By this time I was so much engrossed in my studies as to feel that this was very sensible advice, so I settled down to what we both realised would be a long engagement and my life became peaceful and satisfying until this dreadful thing happened to Karen.’
‘Now,’ said Maisry, ‘you must have done a lot of thinking about that. Have you any idea in your mind as to the identity of the murderer?’
‘The only idea to come into my mind won’t bear thinking about, and that is all I am going to say, particularly as I haven’t a shred of proof. Besides, the other four murders make nonsense of my idea, anyway.’
‘Yes, the other four murders,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘You must have met one of those unfortunate girls.’
‘Yes,’ said James, eyeing her steadily, ‘I did. Twice, at Karla’s cottage, I met the Spanish young lady.’
‘Who was of a very lively and forthcoming disposition.’
‘Yes.’
‘Will you not go a little further?’
‘The second time I met her at Karla’s she turned very playful and sat on my knee. Oh, not by invitation, I assure you! She also kissed me and suggested returning with me to my flat. That, I fancy, was because she had been turned out of her own. At least, so Karla told me when I said good night and she saw me off in my hired car.’
‘I see. Was Mrs Schumann a witness of what one might term the goings-on?’ asked Maisry.
‘Oh, yes. The young woman was quite shameless. Karla took it extremely well. She merely said, “One day, Maria, you will go too far”, to which the hussy replied, “But already I go too far. I am to have a niño. Did you not know? One cannot go farther than that.” Upon this Karla said, quite good-naturedly, “Oh, go and get the supper. You will have to spend the night here, I suppose,” and added, when the girl had gone into the kitchen, “I have to put up with her. She got the baby by Otto.” Then the next thing I heard about Maria was that she was dead.’
‘In fact, that she had gone too far,’ said Maisry.
(2)
‘Well, we can be pretty sure of ourselves, I think,’ he went on, when James had gone off in the car which seemed to be on perpetual hire to him. ‘Motive, means and opportunity seem to be established in the first two cases, and I think we should aim now at the fifth, for I am extremely doubtful whether we shall ever satisfy ourselves, except by inference, about numbers three and four. Five is a different matter, and may prove to be our strongest card. Once we can prove a connection between Mrs Schumann and this Irish girl who lived in Swansea, I think our case is complete, unless she’s got a very good explanation indeed. I wonder whether there’s any way of getting her fingerprints verified? The letter which I asked the Swansea newspaper to let me have must be finger-printed all right – it’s on that glossy note-paper which takes prints very well, although we haven’t tested it yet.’
‘And their duplicate ought to be on a note beneath this very Stone House roof, but I doubt whether it has been retained,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘Mrs Schumann wrote this note to my French maid and it was delivered by hand by being pushed underneath the kitchen door.’
‘Why should she write—? Oh, to your French maid!’
‘Exactly.’
‘Well, let’s hope she did keep it, although I agree it’s rather unlikely. What was the note about?’
‘It was an invitation to take tea at the cottage.’
‘Good Lord! Of course your maid did not go, otherwise I don’t think you would still have her with you. But what a risk for Mrs Schumann to take! If your maid was known to have gone to the cottage and later turned out to have been strangled, we should have had an open and shut case!’
‘I am sorry to disappoint you, but I confess that I would rather have Celestine than any number of open and shut cases. But let us find out whether she has indeed kept the letter. Of course, it will be smothered in finger-prints by this time. Not only Celestine herself, but her husband Henri and my chauffeur George are certain to have handled it.’
‘The same holds good about the letter asking for the advertisement to be inserted in the Swansea newspaper, but that won’t fox the boys at the Yard. If Mrs Schumann’s prints are there, they’ll find them, and if they’re on both letters I should say we’ve got her, and when we’ve got her I’ll have the husband’s body exhumed and we’ll find out exactly what he died of. If he had these internal pains and vomited and so forth, it sounds quite a bit like arsenic, administered over a long period of time – several months, according to James, wasn’t it?’
‘Of course, even if you find the same prints on both letters, you will still have to prove that they were made by Mrs Schumann.’
‘We’ll find some way of getting round that one, Dame Beatrice, never you fear. May we have your maid in now?’
Celestine, who usually received visits to Dame Beatrice by the police with a metaphorically arched back and claws at the ready, succumbed at once to Maisry’s gentleness and charm. No, she was desolated, but what did one do with old letters except throw them away? She had not dreamed that the note was important, although she deprecated the lack of taste in the writer to invite her, the servant of madame, to take tea with one of madame’s friends.
‘Acquaintances,’ amended Dame Beatrice. Celestine accepted the correction with a toss of the head and replied that perhaps ‘guest at the table’ would be an accurate description. Dame Beatrice accepted this, said it was a
