Dame Beatrice waved a yellow claw. 'The better the colour the more worthy of the priceless glass?' she asked. 'Or does the priceless glass make a most innocuous and healthful beverage taste better?'
'The second, I think. You are hoping that I will disclose the names of those members of Satan's Circle whom I thought I recognised, but that I cannot do. We were all placed under an oath of secrecy and I am sufficiently superstitious to feel that I cannot break it.'
'It matters little. Your evidence would only be confirmation of what I already know. One thing I believe you can tell me without forswearing yourself. Was the girl on the table the same girl each time?'
'No, she was not, neither was there any masking of her features.'
'And you recognised both girls?'
'No, but I did recognise one of them.'
'Was she unusually tall, as women go?'
'So you know who she was! Dear me! But I have said nothing, mind!'
'No, you have kept your oath. Why did you never go to a third meeting?'
'We were given a date, but Miss Minnie's death caused it to be postponed, so I have never been to the place again.'
'Was any mention ever made of a threatening letter written to the instigator of the proceedings?'
'Not in my hearing. The writer would have been Miss Billie Kennett, no doubt.'
'Ah, so one of the virgins was Miss Elysée Barnes. Thank you for confirming that piece of information, which I already possessed.'
'I have told you nothing,' said Shard. 'Please remember that.' He had been sipping appreciatively. He now drained his glass and set it gently down on the Hepplewhite table at his elbow.
'Quite,' said Dame Beatrice thoughtfully. 'I understand that before Miss Minnie was murdered you believe she sometimes entertained a man in her bungalow.'
'As I told you, I am a dedicated spy.'
'Who was it?'
'As I also told you, I don't know.'
'When you attended the gatherings, did anything in the nature of a Satanic romp occur?'
'Oh, no, nothing of an orgiastic nature at all. The Grand Master gave us some promises, but I understand that we had to wait for the full moon before he could carry them out. The two young women were merely on show to whet our appetites.'
'And Miss Minnie was murdered before he could keep his word. She, I imagine, was his procuress of virgins. If one was sacrificed at each full moon, I should think she was kept busy.' said Dame Beatrice, with an eldritch cackle which made Shard glance at her in alarm. 'I appreciate that you are under oath not to reveal names,' she went on. 'I have seen the room in which the Satanist meetings took place. Apart from the girl herself, was anything else on the table? I may add that I have made some small study of witchcraft, both black and white, so nothing you say will surprise me.'
'Well,' said Shard, 'it didn't surprise me either. One has read the recognised authorities, of course - Ahmed's The Black Art, Cavendish's The Black Arts, Rhodes' The Satanic Mass, Peter Haining's Witchcraft and Black Magic and so on - so one knew pretty much what to expect. The meetings were held specifically to get converts, so everything was pitched in a low key not to frighten the neophytes away, but with veiled promises of all kinds of excitement to come. Anyway, in answer to your question, to which I see no harm in giving a truthful reply, there was a gold cup surmounted by a strange device also in gold and terminating in a crescent moon. The cup and this object were placed on the girl's lower abdomen and the Grand Master, bare to the waist and wearing goat-skin trousers reminiscent-' he gave a falsetto giggle - 'of Robinson Crusoe, sat enthroned behind the so-called altar. There were candles on either side of him and he wore a gold headdress embodying horns with the full moon caught between them.'
'So that, and the cup on the girl's body, were what the metal casket contained,' said Dame Beatrice.
'Did you get what you wanted?' asked Laura, when Dame Beatrice returned to the hotel.
'Yes, and a little more than I expected. Both Miss Kennett and Mr Shard were most enlightening.'
'As how?'
'Ah,' said Dame Beatrice, 'that reminds me! There is one more question which I ought to put to Mr Shard,' She rang through to the hotel reception desk and gave the telephone number of Weston Pipers.
'Bradley speaking,' she said. 'Can you connect me with Mr Mandrake Shard, please?'
A man's voice replied: 'Ah, good afternoon, Dame Beatrice! Piper speaking. How are you? Yes, I'll call him to the phone at once.'
'There is something I have just thought of,' she said, as soon as she and Shard were connected.
'Oh, yes, dear lady?' His high little voice sounded apprehensive, she thought.
'It is merely this: at the meetings which you attended, was there an admission fee?'
'I must admit that there was. Visitors were asked to hand over a fiver each time and we were told that, if we became members, a monthly subscription would be called for. I gathered that the society was anything but prosperous.'
'Thank you for telling me so. I am so sorry to have interrupted your work again.'
'Think nothing of it, dear lady.' The little falsetto voice sounded relieved and cheerful this time.
'Oh, and - shall we say to settle a bet?' - I suppose it was you who wrote some of those anonymous letters?'
'Not all, dear lady, not all. Those I did write were great fun, though.'
'I believe,' said Dame Beatrice, when she had put down the receiver, 'that our tiny friend's gift of insatiable curiosity is going to prove a most useful feature of our enquiry. He goes from strength to strength.'
'Dirty little snooper,' said Laura.
'Well, after all, what are we but dirty little snoopers, if it comes to that?' said Dame Beatrice equably.
'At least we only snoop so that justice may be done.'
'Justice? She
