Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 1: A Man Lay Dead, Enter a Murderer, The Nursing Home Murder. Ngaio Marsh
my bedroom. We both used it—I first.’
‘And you merely crossed the passage to this bathroom and back to your own room?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you go anywhere else while you were upstairs?’
‘No. I came down after the alarm.’
‘You, Miss North? What were your movements?’
‘I came up with Rosamund. While she bathed I read in my own room. On my return from the bathroom I went in to her, and after that to my uncle’s room for the aspirin. I had just got back to Rosamund’s door when the lights went out.’
‘Where is Mr Rankin’s room?’
‘Next to mine and immediately opposite the entrance of the top passage into the corridor. May I complete the sketch there?’ Alleyn pushed the sheet of paper along to her, and she traced in the remaining rooms.
‘Thank you very much,’ said Alleyn. ‘That completes the position of the characters. It also brings to a close the opening phase of the reconstruction of the game. Before we go I should like to speak to Florence your maid, Miss North. I am sure you will all see that it is most important to establish the positions of Mr and Mrs Wilde and Mr Bathgate.’
Angela got up and crossed to a bell-push by the mantelpiece. The others moved back their chairs, and Wilde began a low-voiced conversation with Handesley.
The bell was answered, not by Vassily, but by a small, agitated maid. She looked as if she belonged to the back stairs and had got into the drawing-room by mistake.
‘Will you ask Florence to come in for a moment, Mary?’ said Angela.
‘Yes, miss.’
‘Oh, just a second, Mary,’ said Alleyn, with a glance at Angela. ‘Were you in the hall last night when Mr Wilde went upstairs and Mr Rankin was left alone?’
‘Oh—yes, yes, sir, I was. Mr Roberts don’t usually send me to the front of the ‘ouse, sir, but last night—’
‘Did Mr Wilde speak to you?’
‘He arst me the time, and I says, “Ten to”, and he says, “Hell, I’m late”, and skedaddles upstairs.’
‘What was Mr Rankin doing?’
‘Smoking a cigarette, sir, quite happy like. I says, “Shall I take away the cocktail tray?” and he says, “Don’t do that,” he says, “I’ll have a quick one”, he says, “and spoil the schoolboy complexion”. So I goes away, sir, and then only a few seconds later, sir, the lights went out and—oh, isn’t it awful?’
‘Terrible. Thank you, Mary.’
After a hesitating glance at Handesley, the maid went out.
‘Doesn’t the butler usually answer that bell?’ asked Alleyn after a pause.
‘Yes,’ said Angela vaguely—‘yes, of course. Mary’s the between-maid. She never answers the bell. I don’t know why he didn’t come—everyone is so upset, I suppose Vassily—’
She was interrupted by the entrance of Florence, a darkish wooden-faced individual of about thirty-five.
‘Florence,’ said Angela, ‘Mr Alleyn wants to ask you something about last night.’
‘Yes, miss.’
‘Will you tell me, please,’ began Alleyn, ‘which of the rooms you went into last night when the guests were upstairs dressing?’
‘Very good, sir. I went first to Miss Angela’s room.’
‘How long were you there?’
‘Only a few minutes. Miss Angela wished to ask Mrs Wilde if I could assist her.’
‘So you went to Mrs Wilde’s room?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘What happened there?’
‘Madam asked me to fasten her dress. I fastened it,’ said Florence sparsely.
‘Did Mrs Wilde speak to you?’
‘Madam was speaking to Mr Wilde, who was in the bathroom next door to the dressing-room.’
‘Did Mr Wilde answer?’
‘Yes, sir. He was speaking to Mrs Wilde and also to Mr Bathgate, who was in his own room beyond.’
‘When you left Mrs Wilde, where did you go?’
‘To Miss Grant’s room.’
‘How long were you there?’
‘I waited a moment, sir. Miss Grant was not there. She came in a few minutes later and said she did not require me. I left. Miss Angela was coming along the passage. Then the lights went out.’
‘Did Miss Grant come from the bathroom?’
Florence hesitated. ‘I think not, sir. Miss Grant bathed earlier—before Miss Angela.’
‘Thank you very much. I think that’s all I wanted to ask you.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
The door shut behind Florence. No one had looked at Rosamund Grant. No one had spoken.
Alleyn turned a page of his note-book.
‘By the way, Miss Grant,’ he said, ‘did you not say that apart from your visit to the bathroom you did not leave your room until the gong sounded?’
‘Wait a moment!’ ejaculated Doctor Young.
‘Rosamund—it’s all right,’ cried Angela, running across to her friend. But Rosamund Grant had slid from her chair to the floor in a dead faint.
In the sort of horribly false confusion that followed, Nigel was aware only of one thing, and that was the pounding at the bell-push in answer to some confused order of Sir Hubert’s.
‘Brandy—that’s what she wants,’ Handesley was shouting.
‘Better some sal volatile,’ said Doctor Young. ‘Just open those windows, one of ye.’
‘I’ll fetch some,’ Angela said and hurried away.
The flustered Mary had reappeared.
‘Tell Vassily to bring some brandy,’ said Handesley.
‘Please, sir, I can’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘Oh, sir, he’s gone—he’s disappeared, sir, and none of us liked to tell you!’
‘Hell’s teeth!’ ejaculated Alleyn.
CHAPTER 6 Alleyn Does His Stuff
Detective-Inspector Alleyn had been most particular about the state of the house. Nothing must be touched, he said, until he had finished what he called his nosey-parkering. Nothing had been touched. Little Doctor Young, in his capacity as police surgeon for the district, had stressed the point from the moment of his arrival, and Bunce, PC, in his brief and enjoyable supremacy, had scared the life out of the servants, keeping them all confined to their own quarters. He had, however, set no watch at the gate, and Vassily apparently escaped by the simple method of walking out at the back door.
Alleyn recovered from his momentary rage at the disappearance of the butler, rang up the station and found that the old Russian had, with peculiar ingenuousness, caught the ten-fifteen for London. The inspector telephoned the Yard and gave orders that he should be traced and detained immediately.
By this time a detachment of plain-clothes men had appeared at Frantock. Alleyn had