‘And your addition sum? What did that amount to?’ asked Dame Beatrice.
‘That the More to Come was running short of skeletons and that the zodiac society might have been formed for a very unpleasing sort of purpose. It looks as though events have proved me right.’
‘A society of thugs? How perfectly horrible!’ said Fenella. ‘No wonder you didn’t want me to wander about alone on Mayering Eve.’
‘What did you propose to do about your suspicions,’ asked Dame Beatrice, ‘if they turned out to be well-founded?’
‘I don’t know. I suppose I had some idea that when the murders began to happen, as it seemed logical to suppose they would, I’d go to the police, but at the back of my mind I rather expected, I think, that the police, using their own methods, would come to my conclusions and that I’d be able to lie doggo. What completely threw me, of course, was that Sir Bathy himself was the first person who was murdered. That simply made nonsense of my theory until….’
‘Yes, until the bodies of three of the five tenants of the More to Come were found in the Bitton-Bittadon grave,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘That certainly gives your theory some validity.’
‘It doesn’t explain who killed, or would have wanted to kill, Sir Bathy, though, and, anyway, without a leader, I doubt very much whether the villagers, from what I know of them, would set to work to kill anybody, let alone the landlord of their local pub. Shurrock and his missus hadn’t been there all that long, but they were very well liked and thought of, and I can’t see the villagers, zodiac society members or not, setting about murdering them, you know.’
‘It is interesting that you should say that. I am of the same opinion.’
‘You don’t think the zodiacs murdered the people at the pub? Then who did?’ demanded Fenella.
‘We seem to have led ourselves to the conclusion that it must have been the person or persons who murdered Sir Bathy,’ said Dame Beatrice.
‘Well, yes, that makes sense, I suppose, if the zodiacs are in the clear,’ said Nicholas.
‘They are grave-robbers, of course, but I do not think they are grave-fillers, except that they did restore three bodies and two dummies to the Bitton-Bittadon tomb.’
‘Then who?’
‘Yes, indeed – who? Perhaps I should tell you my own story and then we can compare notes and sum up. Before we do so, however, I think Fenella might have something to say. She looks as though she had.’
‘It’s about just before that time I met you and George on the hill near the manor house,’ said Fenella. ‘You know – when Sir Jeremy dropped out of the tree and nearly frightened me to death. Well, I don’t know whether I told you, but, before that happened, I met a man at the seven springs, to which I’d paid another visit. He was one of the village people by his appearance and speech, and when he said, “Good evening” I suddenly told him I was wondering where the Shurrocks had gone. At that he turned most unfriendly and more or less told me to mind my own business. Well, I thought I recognised his voice, and something about the baleful look he gave me made me certain I’d met him before. Suddenly I realised who he was. He was Leo of the zodiac people. That’s another reason why I’m glad I’ve left Seven Wells. I’m scared of that man. Besides, it did mean that I was in a position to recognise two of the zodiac circle, this man and that horrible boy who, I’m sure, was Aries.’
‘It might or might not be a help to know that you would recognise them again,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘We shall see. For the moment, however, I would like to concentrate on Sir Jeremy.’
‘Yes, what on earth was he doing falling out of trees?’ asked Nicholas.
‘He didn’t fall. He dropped,’ said Fenella.
‘Like a ripe apple. Yes, but why choose you for Sir Isaac Newton?’
‘I think he wanted to frighten me.’
‘But I thought you told me he asked you not to say you had seen him?’
‘He did say that. I thought at the time that he must be a madman and that the manor house was a private nursing-home for the insane.’
‘He was climbing trees because he was either looking for something or spying, I think,’ said Dame Beatrice.
‘Spying? But on whom?’
‘I could not say, unless it was upon his step-mother, Lady Bitton-Bittadon.’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘It is not thinking, but only wishful thinking, and that, as we ought to know, is not true thinking at all.’
‘And by that time you had already become a guest at the manor house?’ asked Fenella.
‘More of an encumbrance than a guest, by that time, I fear. In other words, although she was very charming to me outwardly, I sometimes think she must have toyed with a little wishful thinking herself.’
‘Such as arsenic in your soup?’ said Nicholas.
‘Well, I have always wondered about the identity of a night visitor I had, but who could not get into my room,’ Dame Beatrice conceded. ‘As I have pointed out, it was entirely at Lady Bitton-Bittadon’s invitation that I stayed at the manor house, but I often found myself in a somewhat embarrassing position there, for my hostess and her stepson appeared to live in a state of armed neutrality which at times erupted into a war of nerves, and which did not deceive me. Far from being inimical to one another, I think it
