'I'm afraid this hasn't helped you much, Superintendent,' said Leo.
'You never know, Mr. Argyle. You realise, I suppose, one of the oddest things about the whole business?'
'I? I'm not quite sure that I follow you.'
'The money,' said Huish. 'The money Mrs. Argyle drew from the bank including that fiver with Mrs. Bottleberry, 17 Bangor Road written on the back of it. A strong part of the case was that that fiver and others were found on Jack Argyle when he was arrested. He swore he got the money from Mrs. Argyle, but Mrs. Argyle definitely told you and Miss Vaughan that she didn't give Jacko any money — so how did he get that fifty pounds? He couldn't have come back here –Dr. Calgary's evidence makes that quite clear. So he must have had it with him when he left here. Who gave it to him? Did you?'
He turned squarely on Kirsten Lindstrom, who flushed indignantly.
'Me? No, of course not. How could I?'
'Where was the money kept that Mrs. Argyle had drawn from the bank?'
'She usually kept it in a drawer of her bureau,' said Kirsten.
'Locked?'
Kirsten considered.
'She would probably lock the drawer before she went up to bed.'
Huish looked at Hester.
'Did you take the money from the drawer and give it to your brother?'
'I didn't even know he was there. And how could I take it without Mother knowing?'
'You could have taken it quite easily when your mother went up to the library
to consult your father,' Huish suggested.
He wondered whether she would see and avoid the trap. She fell straight into it.
'But Jacko had already left by then. I –' She stopped, dismayed. 'I see you do know when your brother left,' said Huish. Hester said quickly and vehemently.
'I –1 — know now –1 didn't then. I was up in my room, I tell you. I didn't hear anything at all. And anyway I wouldn't have wanted to give Jacko any money.'
'And I tell you this,' said Kirsten. Her face was red and indignant. 'If I had given Jacko money — it would have been my own money! I would not have stolen it!'
'I'm sure you wouldn't,' said Huish. 'But you see where that leads us. Mrs. Argyle, in spite of what she told you,' he looked at Leo, 'must have given him that money herself.'
'I can't believe it. Why not tell me if she had done so?'
'She wouldn't be the first mother to be softer about her son than she wanted to admit'
'You're wrong, Huish. My wife never indulged in evasion.'
'I think she did this time,' said Gwenda Vaughan. 'In fact she must have done as the superintendent says, it's the only answer.'
'After all,' said Huish softly. 'We've got to look at the whole thing from a different point of view now. At the time of the arrest we thought Jack Argyle was lying. But now we find he spoke the truth about the hitch-hike he had from Calgary , so presumably he was speaking the truth about the money too. He said that his mother gave it to him. Therefore presumably she did.'
There was silence — an uncomfortable silence.
Huish got up. 'Well, thank you. I'm afraid the trail is pretty cold by now, but you never know.'
Leo escorted him to the door. When he came back he said with a sigh, 'Well, that's over. For the present.'
'For always,' said Kirsten. 'They will never know.' 'What's the good of that to us?' cried Hester.
'My dear.' Her father went over to her. 'Calm down, child. Don't be so strung up. Time heals everything.'
'Not some things. What shall we do? Oh, what shall we do?' 'Hester, come with me.' Kirsten put a hand on her shoulder.
'I don't want anybody.' Hester ran out of the room. A moment later they heard the front door bang.
Kirsten said: 'All this! It is not good for her.'
'I don't think it's really true, either,' said Philip Durrant thoughtfully.
'What isn't true?' asked Gwenda.
'That we shall never know the truth. I feel a kind of pricking in my thumbs.'
His face, faun-like and almost mischievous, lit up with a queer smile.
'Please, Philip, be careful,' said Tina.
He looked at her in surprise.
'Little Tina. And what do you know about it all?'
'I hope,' said Tina very clearly and distinctly, 'that I do not know anything.'
Chapter 14
'Don't suppose you got anything?' said the Chief Constable.
'Nothing definite, sir,' said Huish. 'And yet — the time wasn't altogether wasted.'
'Let's hear about it all.'
'Well, our main times and premises are the same. Mrs. Argyle was alive just before seven, talked with her husband and Gwenda Vaughan, was seen afterwards downstairs by Hester Argyle. Three people can't be in cahoots. Jacko Argyle is now accounted for, so it means that she could have been killed by her husband, any time between five past seven and half past, by Gwenda Vaughan at five minutes past seven on her way out, by Hester just before that, by Kirsten Lindstrom when she came in later — just before half past seven, say. Durrant's paralysis gives him an alibi, but his wife's alibi depends on his word. She could have gone down and killed her mother if she wanted to between seven and half past if her husband was prepared to back her up. Don't see why she should, though. In fact, as far as I can see, only two people have got a real motive for the crime. Leo Argyle and Gwenda Vaughan.'
'You think it's one of them — or both of them together?'
'I don't think they were in it together. As I see it, it was an impulsive crime — not a premeditated one. Mrs. Argyle comes into the library, tells them both about Jacko's threats and demands for money. Put it that, later, Leo Argyle goes down to speak to her about Jacko, or about something else. The house is quiet, nobody about. He goes into her sitting-room. There she is, her back to him, sitting at the desk. And there's the poker, still perhaps where Jacko threw it down after threatening her with it. Those quiet, repressed men do break out sometimes. A handkerchief over his hand so as not to leave prints, up with the poker, down with it on her head and it's done. Pull out a drawer or two to suggest a search for money. Then upstairs again till someone finds her. Or put it that Gwenda Vaughan on her way out looks into the room, and the urge comes over her. Jacko will be the perfect scapegoat, and the way to marriage with Leo Argyle is open.'
Major Finney nodded thoughtfully.
'Yes. Could be. And of course they were careful not to announce an engagement too soon. Not till that poor little devil Jacko was safely convicted of murder. Yes, that seems fair enough. Crimes are very monotonous. Husband and third party, or wife and third party — always the same old pattern. But what can we do about it, Huish, eh? What can we do about it?'
'I don't see, sir,' said Huish slowly, 'what we can do about it. We may be sure but where's the evidence? Nothing to stand up in court.'
'No — no. But you are sure, Huish? Sure in your own mind?'
'Not as sure as I'd like to be,' said Superintendent Huish, sadly.
'Ah! Why not?'
'The kind of man he is — Mr. Argyle, I mean.'
'Not the kind to do murder?'
'It's not that so much — not the murder part of it. It's the boy. I don't see him deliberately framing the boy.'
