Cold, Lone and Still

They looked in the obvious places at the hall of residence, such as under a loose floorboard they found in Trickett’s study-bedroom when he pointed it out to them, and at the bottom of the lavatory cisterns and the big tank in the roof, and then one of the coppers noticed that the flowerbeds in the little garden which formed the centre of the London square in which the hall of residence was set had been freshly dug over, so they did a bit of digging on their own account and found what the pathologist agreed could be the knife which had administered to the choked and dying Carbridge his coup de grace.

It was not difficult to establish ownership. Called upon separately, Trickett, Freddie, Coral, Patsy, Perth, Tansy and Rhoda identified the dagger as the antique which had been given to Todd. Todd made no attempt at a denial, but said merely (and calmly) that he recognised the knife, that he had lost it soon after his return home and that he could offer no explanation of how it had got into the flowerbed. The police pointed out that it had also got into Carbridge’s body.

‘How did you get on with him?’ they asked. ‘Did you like him?’

‘Like the fellow?’ he said. ‘With everybody else I got heartily sick of him by the time that Scottish walk was over, but there was no harm in him. In fact, I had more to do with him than with anybody else on the tour and we finished at Fort William as a twosome, everybody else having chickened out and gone by bus. Any reason to murder the chap? Good Lord, if we were all murdered for our nuisance-value, who would be alive today? Not my Inspector of Taxes, to name but one!’

17: A Motive for Murder

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Hera and I had attended Carbridge’s funeral. So had the warden and his wife, the Scottish tour party and one or two of the students who had made up the orchestra, but of friends and relatives there was no sign. I remembered that none of his own kind had come forward to identify the body and, although I had never liked the chap, I found myself feeling very sorry for him. I began to understand his compulsive gregariousness. He was dependent on strangers for all his social contacts. In other words, nobody had ever really loved him. I stood back mentally and looked at myself. I did not like to think that we were two of a kind.

After all the revelations about Carbridge’s unpopularity, I said as much to Elsa. At the time I was feeling reasonably well pleased, for I had met and vanquished our Luella Granville Waterman. ‘She was clay in my hands,’ I said.

‘Well, you owe that to me,’ said Elsa. ‘When she turned up and asked whether you had recovered sufficiently to talk to her, I said that only your conscientious devotion to our authors had brought you back into harness and I warned her that, if you were excited or frustrated in any way, the chances were that you would drop dead at her feet. We need to keep the old stagers like her, Comrie. They may not be bestsellers, but they’re steady and, like Tennyson’s brook, they go on forever.’

I said I felt sorry for the old girl and would always do my best for her and it was then that I added my reflections concerning Carbridge and myself.

‘Don’t waste your sympathy on him,’ said Elsa. ‘People who have no friends don’t deserve to have any. You couldn’t stand the man, if you remember, and you don’t seem to have been the only one.’

‘Well, he irritated me, I allow, but I stopped short of murdering him, anyway.’

‘His will has finally been proved,’ she said. ‘He left quite a lot of money, and all of it to Todd.’

‘Good Lord! But that’s a motive for murder, if ever there was one! Money is nearly always at the bottom of these things.’

‘Todd may not have known the contents of the will until it was proved. He is entitled to the benefit of the doubt.’

‘What do you mean by “quite a lot of money”? Hundreds? Thousands?’

‘About twenty thousand. It seems a lot of money to a poor soul like me.’

‘It wouldn’t even buy half a house.’

‘Oh, don’t be silly, Comrie. Nobody buys a house outright. What are mortgages for?’

‘They equate with the millstones people hang round their own or other people’s necks. So Carbridge left his money to Todd. That much of what you say must be true because you know I can check on it. If he left Todd his money, it would be because he liked the chap, although I must say he used to rile him with his teasing. Young Jane Minch made that very clear.’

‘I expect he showed off in front of other people and hoped to raise a laugh at Todd’s expense, but, from what you’ve told Sandy and me from time to time, weren’t the two of them really very thick? Weren’t they walking on their own quite a bit when you were walking The Way?’

‘I wouldn’t say “quite a bit”, but I think they pushed on ahead of the students and the Minches when the students and Perth loitered to chip bits off the rocks and Jane’s feet got so sore. I carried her back to the hostel on one occasion, I remember.’

Elsa grinned.

‘The devil you did!’ she said. ‘What on earth did Hera say to that? And was it really necessary?’

‘To your first question the answer is self-evident. Hera was not very pleased. As to whether it was necessary to transport the girl in the manner indicated, let’s just say that I wanted the wench in my arms, but don’t ask me why.’

‘Was it satisfactory?’

‘Yes, it was.’

‘I had better begin pricing-up fish-slices, or would you rather have a tea-strainer?’