‘We had our dinner at eight o’clock. Dinner was over and my wife and the other ladies had gone into the drawing-room.’ His voice faltered. His eyes began to stare again. ‘We were sitting there – at the table… Suddenly there was the most astounding noise overheard. Chairs overturning, furniture crashing, breaking glass and china, and then – Oh, God’ – he shuddered – ‘I can hear it still – my father screamed – a horrible, long-drawn scream – the scream of a man in mortal agony…’
He raised shaking hands to cover his face. Lydia stretched out her hand and touched his sleeve. Colonel Johnson said gently: ‘And then?’
Alfred said in a broken voice:
‘I think – just for a moment we were stunned. Then we sprang up and went out of the door and up the stairs to my father’s room. The door was locked. We couldn’t get in. It had to be broken open. Then, when we did get in, we saw–’
His voice died away.
Johnson said quickly:
‘There’s no need to go into that part of it, Mr Lee. To go back a little, to the time you were in the dining- room. Who was there with you when you heard the cry?’
‘Who was there? Why, we were all – No, let me see. My brother was there – my brother Harry.’
‘Nobody else?’
‘No one else.’
‘Where were the other gentlemen?’
Alfred sighed and frowned in an effort of remembrance.
‘Let me see – it seems so long ago – yes, like years – what did happen? Oh, of course, George had gone to telephone. Then we began to talk of family matters, and Stephen Farr said something about seeing we wanted to discuss things, and he took himself off. He did it very nicely and tactfully.’
‘And your brother David?’
Alfred frowned.
‘David? Wasn’t he there? No, of course, he wasn’t. I don’t quite know when he slipped away.’
Poirot said gently:
‘So you had the family matters to discuss?’
‘Er – yes.’
‘That is to say, you had matters to discuss with one member of your family?’
Lydia said:
‘What do you mean, M. Poirot?’
He turned quickly to her.
‘Madame, your husband says that Mr Farr left them because he saw they had affairs of the family to discuss. But it was not a conseil de famille, since M. David was not there and M. George was not there. It was, then, a discussion between two members of the family only.’
Lydia said:
‘My brother-in-law, Harry, had been abroad for a great number of years. It was natural that he and my husband should have things to talk over.’
‘Ah! I see. It was like that.’
She shot him a quick glance, then turned her eyes away.
Johnson said:
‘Well, that seems clear enough. Did you notice anyone else as you ran upstairs to your father’s room?’
‘I – really I don’t know. I think so. We all came from different directions. But I’m afraid I didn’t notice – I was so alarmed. That terrible cry…’
Colonel Johnson passed quickly to another subject.
‘Thank you, Mr Lee. Now, there is another point. I understand that your father had some valuable diamonds in his possession.’
Alfred looked rather surprised.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That is so.’
‘Where did he keep them?’
‘In the safe in his room.’
‘Can you describe them at all?’
‘They were rough diamonds – that is, uncut stones.’
‘Why did your father have them there?’
‘It was a whim of his. They were stones he had brought with him from South Africa. He never had them cut. He just liked keeping them in his possession. As I say, it was a whim of his.’
‘I see,’ said the chief constable.
From his tone it was plain that he did not see. He went on: ‘Were they of much value?’
‘My father estimated their value at about ten thousand pounds.’
‘In fact, they were very valuable stones?’
‘Yes.’
‘It seems a curious idea to keep such stones in a bedroom safe.’
Lydia interposed.
‘My father-in-law, Colonel Johnson, was a somewhat curious man. His ideas were not the conventional ones. It definitely gave him pleasure to handle those stones.’
‘They recalled, perhaps, the past to him,’ said Poirot.
She gave him a quick appreciative look.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I think they did.’
‘Were they insured?’ asked the chief constable.
‘I think not.’
Johnson leaned forward. He asked quietly:
‘Did you know, Mr Lee, that those stones had been stolen?’
‘What?’ Alfred Lee stared at him.
‘Your father said nothing to you of their disappearance?’
‘Not a word.’
‘You did not know that he had sent for Superintendent Sugden here and had reported the loss to him?’
‘I hadn’t the faintest idea of such a thing!’
The chief constable transferred his gaze.
‘What about you, Mrs Lee?’
Lydia shook her head.
‘I heard nothing about it.’
‘As far as you knew, the stones were still in the safe?’
‘Yes.’
She hesitated and then asked:
‘Is that why he was killed? For the sake of those stones?’
Colonel Johnson said:
‘That is what we are going to find out!’
He went on:
‘Have you any idea, Mrs Lee, who could have engineered such a theft?’
She shook her head.
‘No, indeed. I am sure the servants are all honest. In any case, it would be very difficult for them to get at the safe. My father-in-law was always in his room. He never came downstairs.’
‘Who attended to the room?’
‘Horbury. He made the bed and dusted. The second housemaid went in to do the grate and lay the fire every morning, otherwise Horbury did everything.’
Poirot said:
‘So Horbury would be the person with the best opportunity?’
‘Yes.’
