'Now that I come to remember,' said Niobe reluctantly, 'I believe you have hit on the explanation. I found my gardener carrying buckets of sea water up to the bungalow door. He said they were for Miss Minnie's sea water baths.'
'Ah, that would explain everything,' said Dame Beatrice in a tone of deep satisfaction. 'But had you never thought of it before?'
'Never. I have been so confused and so upset that my normal faculties simply have not been functioning. Well, I am set on your leaving us, but I had no intention of deceiving you. I thought everybody knew about Chelion's arrest and the awful accusation against him, yet you say you did not know. Now you admit-'
'I did not say I did not know. I said you should have told me when you let me the rooms, and particularly when you let me the bungalow for my manservant.'
'That is not the way to do business, and, if you knew, you knew, so there is no need to reproach me. Had I realised that you were connected with the police-'
'With the Home Office.'
'What is the difference? If I had known what you were, I would never have let to you at all. I am the one who was deceived.'
'So I am rejected and ejected and, withal, not without a stain on my character,' said Dame Beatrice to Laura, giving her a ferocious grin.
'How come? Though I'm glad to have you back.'
Dame Beatrice gave the substance of her conversation with Niobe.
'Well, I should think you'd expect her to chuck you out after you had led her up the garden with all that rot about how she ought to have told you about the murder, and then let her know that you'd known about it all along.'
'True. If I were able to feel contrition I should feel it now. Incidentally, she had already turned me out before we reached the last stages.'
'But I suppose there was method in your madness, as usual. Did you want to get slung out?'
'Sometimes summary dismissal is preferable to a long-drawn-out departure accompanied by tears.'
'Oh, Lord! She is Niobe both by name and nature, eh? So what's the next job? Those two girls who, so your letters inform me, have fled the joint, I suppose.'
'How right you always are! Yes, indeed. They are now the only pebbles left on my beach.'
'Oh, well, you won't need to stub your toe on them, then. Do you know where to find them?'
'I traced Miss Kennett through the newspaper she works for. I sent a letter to her in care of the editor, he passed it on and I have had an answer from her with her new address. She has invited me to call on Sunday and where she is we shall also find Miss Barnes, no doubt.'
This did not turn out to be the case. Billie herself opened the front door to them.
'Oh, yes,' she said, 'Dame Beatrice, isn't it? And Mrs Gavin? Oh, yes, do come in. Sorry Elysée isn't here. I believe you wanted to see both of us.'
Chapter 9
Billie and the Witch
'I EXPECT you yourself can tell me anything I need to know,' said Dame Beatrice, when the three of them were seated in a tiny room which overlooked a scrap of green hardly large enough to be called a lawn, 'unless you would prefer to wait until Miss Barnes comes in.'
'She won't,' said Billie, her square face firmly set and her eyes full of misery. 'She's left me. She went off yesterday with a man.'
'Would you rather I came back another day, I wonder?'
'No, it wouldn't make any difference. It's about this business at The Vipers, I think you said. Don't know that I can tell you much about it. We got out before any of it happened.'
'So I understand.'
'Anonymous letters, you know. Why should anybody bother to throw filth about? We had no enemies. We did nobody any harm.'
'I am surprised that in these days you paid any attention to the letters.'
'I wouldn't have done. It was Elysée who couldn't take what they dished out. I know why, now, of course. She was afraid of losing this bloke she's gone off with. She must have thought he'd opt out if the facts of our - well, our friendship - came his way.'
'Did you know, while you were living at Weston Pipers, that this man existed?'
'Yes, and I've always been prepared. What's your connection with Weston Pipers, anyway? What's the Home Office got to do with Chelion Piper?'
'Well, nobody wants a miscarriage of justice, surely?'
'Personally, I couldn't care less. I don't suppose there's such a thing as justice in this world and, as I don't believe in the next one, it goes for that, too.'
'I was referring to the law. It has its own interpretation of the word. From what you saw of Mr Piper during your stay at the mansion, what opinion did you form concerning his character?'
'Ah,' said Billie, her sombre expression settling into easier lines, 'now that's a question I can answer. I've thought about him a lot since he was arrested, and I feel perfectly certain he didn't drown that old woman. My job is reporting crime, so I tag along to all the big trials. There's always a public for details of murder, rape, arson and so forth. Same public as screams its stupid head off at dirty little jokes and sexy innuendo, I dare say. How I loathe and despise it!'
'So you have attended several trials for murder,' said Dame Beatrice, stemming the flow before it could develop into what she suspected might become a torrent.
'That's what I'm saying. I've seen a number of murderers in the dock and this Piper ought not to be one of them.'
'Can you produce chapter and
