I studied him quietly without appearing to do so. He was clearly under the influence of some strong excitement. For a minute or two he paced up and down the room, then, as Parker entered with the coffee tray, he sank into an armchair in front of the fire.
The study was a comfortable apartment. Bookshelves lined one wall of it. The chairs were big and covered in dark blue leather. A large desk stood by the window and was covered with papers neatly docketed and filed. On a round table were various magazines and sporting papers.
“I’ve had a return of that pain after food lately,” remarked Ackroyd calmly, as he helped himself to coffee. “You must give me some more of those tablets of yours.”
It struck me that he was anxious to convey the impression that our conference was a medical one. I played up accordingly.
“I thought as much. I brought some up with me.”
“Good man. Hand them over now.”
“They’re in my bag in the hall. I’ll get them.”
Ackroyd arrested me. “Don’t you trouble. Parker will get them. Bring in the doctor’s bag, will you, Parker?”
“Very good, sir.”
Parker withdrew. As I was about to speak, Ackroyd threw up his hand.
“Not yet. Wait. Don’t you see I’m in such a state of nerves that I can hardly contain myself?”
I saw that plainly enough. And I was very uneasy. All sorts of forebodings assailed me.
Ackroyd spoke again almost immediately. “Make certain that window’s closed, will you,” he asked.
Somewhat surprised, I got up and went to it. It was not a French window, but one of the ordinary sash type. The heavy blue velvet curtains were drawn in front of it, but the window itself was open at the top.
Parker re-entered the room with my bag while I was still at the window.
“That’s all right,” I said, emerging again into the room.
“You’ve put the latch across?”
“Yes, yes. What’s the matter with you, Ackroyd?”
The door had just closed behind Parker, or I would not have put the question.
Ackroyd waited just a minute before replying.
“I’m in hell,” he said slowly, after a minute. “No, don’t bother with those damn tablets. I only said that for Parker. Servants are so curious. Come here and sit down. The door’s closed too, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Nobody can overhear; don’t be uneasy.”
“Sheppard, nobody knows what I’ve gone through in the last twenty-four hours. If a man’s house ever fell in ruin about him, mine has about me. This business of Ralph’s is the last straw. But we won’t talk about that now. It’s the other—the other—! I don’t know what to do about it. And I’ve got to make up my mind soon.”
“What’s the trouble?”
Ackroyd remained silent for a minute or two. He seemed curiously averse to begin. When he did speak, the question he asked came as a complete surprise. It was the last thing I expected.
“Sheppard, you attended Ashley Ferrars in his last illness, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did.”
He seemed to find even greater difficulty in framing his next question.
“Did you ever suspect—did it ever enter your head—that—well, that he might have been poisoned?”
I was silent for a minute or two. Then I made up my mind as to what to say. Roger Ackroyd was not Caroline.
“I’ll tell you the truth,” I said. “At the time I had no suspicion whatever, but since—well, it was mere idle talk on my sister’s part that first put the idea into my head. Since then I haven’t been able to get it out again. But mind you, I’ve no foundation whatever for that suspicion.”
“He was poisoned,” said Ackroyd. He spoke in a dull heavy voice.
“Who by?” I asked sharply.
“His wife.”
“How do you know that?”
“She told me so herself.”
“When?”
“Yesterday! My God! Yesterday! It seems ten years ago.”
I waited a minute, and then he went on.
“You understand, Sheppard, I’m telling you this in confidence. It’s to go no further. I want your advice—I can’t carry the whole weight by myself. As I said just now, I don’t know what to do.”
“Can you tell me the whole story?” I said. “I’m still in the dark. How did Mrs. Ferrars come to make this confession to you?”
“It’s like this. Three months ago I asked Mrs. Ferrars to marry me. She refused. I asked her again and she consented, but she refused to allow me to make the engagement public until her year of mourning was up. Yesterday I called upon her, pointed out that a year and three weeks had now elapsed since her husband’s death, and that there could be no further objection to making the engagement public property. I had noticed that she had been very strange in her manner for some days. Now, suddenly, without the least warning, she broke down completely. She—she told me everything. Her hatred of her brute of a husband, her growing love for me, and the—the dreadful means she had taken. Poison! My God! It was murder in cold blood.”
I saw the repulsion, the horror, in Ackroyd’s face. So Mrs. Ferrars must have seen it. Ackroyd’s is not the type of the great lover who can forgive all for love’s sake. He is fundamentally a good citizen. All that was sound and wholesome and law-abiding in him must have turned from her utterly in that moment of revelation.
“Yes,” he went on, in a low, monotonous voice, “she confessed everything. It seems that there is one person who has known all along—who has been blackmailing her for huge sums. It was the strain of that that drove her nearly mad.”
“Who was the man?”
Suddenly before my eyes there arose the picture of Ralph Paton and Mrs. Ferrars side by side. Their heads so close together. I felt a momentary throb of anxiety. Supposing—oh! but surely that was impossible. I remembered the frankness of Ralph’s greeting that very afternoon. Absurd!
“She wouldn’t tell me his name,” said Ackroyd slowly. “As a matter of fact, she didn’t
