Battle said nothing — but he waited — waited like an elderly, fatherly cat — for a mouse to come out of the hole he was watching.
His silence did what questions might not have accomplished. Kay burst out impetuously: 'Oh, I suppose you've got to have it all! That old doddering Hurstall must have heard us before tea and he'll tell you if I don't. He's probably told you already. Nevile and I had had a row — a flaming row! I was furious with him! I went up to bed and locked the door, because I was still in a flaming rage with him!'
'I see — I see,' said Battle , at his most sympathetic. 'And what was the trouble all about?'
'Does it matter? Oh, I don't mind telling you. Nevile has been behaving like a perfect idiot. It's all that woman's fault, though.'
'What woman?'
'His first wife. She got him to come here in the first place.'
'You mean — to meet you?'
'Yes. Nevile thinks it was all his own idea — poor innocent! But it wasn't. He never thought of such a thing until he met her in the Park one day and she got the idea into his head and made him believe he'd thought of it himself. He quite honestly thinks it was his idea, but I've seen Audrey's fine Italian hand behind it from the first.'
'Why should she do such a thing?' asked Battle .
'Because she wanted to get hold of him again,' said Kay. She spoke quickly and her breath came fast. 'She's never forgiven him for going off with me. This is her revenge. She got him to fix up that we'd all be here together and then she got to work on him. She's been doing it ever since we arrived. She's clever, you know. Knows just how to look pathetic and elusive — yes, and how to play up another man, too. She got Thomas Royde, a faithful old dog who's always adored her, to be here at the same time, and she drove Nevile mad by pretending she was going to marry him.'
She stopped, breathing angrily.
Battle said mildly: 'I should have thought he'd be glad for her to — er — find happiness with an old friend.'
'Glad? He's as jealous as Hell!'
'Then he must be very fond of her.'
'Oh, he is,' said Kay bitterly. 'She's seen to that!'
Battle 's finger still ran dubiously over his jaw.
'You might have objected to this arrangement on coming here?' he suggested.
'How could I? It would have looked as though I were jealous!'
'Well,' said Battle , 'after all, you were, weren't you?'
Kay flushed.
'Always! I've always been jealous of Audrey. Right from the beginning — or nearly the beginning. I used to feel her there in the house. It was as though it were her house, not mine. I changed the colour scheme and did it all up, but it was no good! I'd feel her there like a grey ghost creeping about. I knew Nevile worried because he thought he'd treated her badly. He couldn't quite forget about her — she was always there — a reproachful feeling at the back of his mind. There are people, you know, who are like that. They seem rather colourless and not very interesting — but they make themselves felt.'
Battle nodded thoughtfully. He said: 'Well, thank you, Mrs. Strange. That's all at present. We have to ask — er — a good many questions — especially with your husband inheriting so much money from Lady Tressilian — fifty thousand pounds —
'Is it as much as that? We get it from old Sir Matthew's will, don't we?'
'You know all about it?'
'Oh, yes. He left it to be divided between Nevile and Nevile's wife after Lady Tressilian's death. Not that I'm glad the old thing is dead. I'm not. I didn't like her very much — probably because she didn't like me — but it's too horrible to think of some burglar coming along and cracking her head open.'
She went out on that. Battle looked at Leach.
'What do you think of her? Good-looking bit of goods, I will say. A man could lose his head over her easy enough.'
Leach agreed. 'Doesn't seem to me quite a lady, though,' he said, dubiously.
'They aren't nowadays,' said Battle . 'Shall we see No. 1? No, I think we'll have Miss Aldin next, and get an outside angle on this matrimonial business.'
Mary Aldin came in composedly and sat down. Beneath her outward calmness her eyes looked worried.
She answered Leach's questions clearly enough, confirming Nevile's account of the evening. She had come up to bed about ten o'clock.
'Mr. Strange was then with Lady Tressilian?'
'Yes, I could hear them talking.'
'Talking, Miss Aldin, or quarrelling?'
She flushed, but answered quietly: 'Lady Tressilian, you know, was fond of discussion. She often sounded acrimonious when she was really nothing of the kind. Also, she was inclined to be autocratic and to domineer over people — and a man doesn't take that kind of thing as easily as a woman does.'
'As you do, perhaps,' thought Battle .
He looked at her intelligent face. It was she who broke the silence.
'I don't want to be stupid — but it really seems to me incredible, quite incredible, that you should suspect one of the people in this house. Why shouldn't it be an outsider?'
'For several reasons, Miss Aldin. For one thing, nothing was taken and no entry was forced. I needn't remind you of the geography of your own house and grounds, but just bear this in mind. On the west is a sheer cliff down to the sea; to the south are a couple of terraces with a wall and a drop to the sea, on the east the garden slopes down almost to the shore, but it is surrounded by a high wall. The only ways out are a small door leading through on to the road, which was found bolted inside as usual this morning, and the main door to the house, which is set on the road. I'm not saying no one could climb that wall, nor that they could not have got in by using a spare key to the front door or even a skeleton key — but I'm saying that as far as I can see no one did anything of the sort. Whoever committed this crime knew that Barrett took senna pod decoction every night, and doped it — that means someone in the house. The niblick was taken from the cupboard under the stairs. It wasn't an outsider, Miss Aldin.'
'It wasn't Nevile! I'm sure it wasn't Nevile!'
'Why are you so sure?'
She raised her hands hopelessly.
'It just isn't like him — that's why! He wouldn't kill a defenceless old woman in bed — Nevile!'
'It doesn't seem very likely,' said Battle reasonably, 'but you'd be surprised at the things people do when they've got a good enough reason. Mr. Strange may have wanted money very badly.'
'I'm sure he didn't. He's not an extravagant person — he never has been.'
'No, but his wife is.'
'Kay? Yes, perhaps — but, oh, it's too ridiculous. I'm sure the last thing Nevile has been thinking of lately is money.'
Superintendent Battle coughed.
'Kay told you, I suppose? Yes, it really has been rather difficult. Still, it's nothing to do with this dreadful business.'
'Probably not, but all the same, I'd like to hear your version of the affair, Miss Aldin.'
Mary said slowly: 'Well, as I say, it has created a difficult — situation. Whosoever's idea it was to begin with — '
He interrupted her deftly.
'I understood it was Mr. Nevile Strange's idea?'
'He said it was.'
'But you yourself didn't think so?'
'I — no — it isn't like Nevile somehow. I've had a feeling all along that somebody else put the idea into his head.'
