"Sorry, Tony, I didn"t mean that. Tell me about the collar."
"Well, that"s all. There was no collar in the bag last night. Shirt, socks, tie-everything except a collar. Why?"
"Was that what you were looking for in the cupboard?" said Bill eagerly.
"Of course. "Why no collar?" I, said. For some reason Cayley considered it necessary to hide all Mark"s clothes; not just the suit, but everything which he was wearing, or supposed to be wearing, at the time of the murder. But he hadn"t hidden the collar. Why? Had he left it out by mistake? So I looked in the cupboard. It wasn"t there. Had he left it out on purpose? If so, why?-and where was it? Naturally I began to say to myself, "Where have I seen a collar lately? A collar all by itself?" And I remembered-what, Bill?"
Bill frowned heavily to himself, and shook his head.
"Don"t ask me, Tony. I can"t-By Jove!" He threw up his head, "In the basket in the office bedroom!"
"Exactly."
"But is that the one?"
"The one that goes with the rest of the clothes? I don"t know. Where else can it be? But if so, why send the collar quite casually to the wash in the ordinary way, and take immense trouble to hide everything else? Why, why, why?"
Bill bit hard at his pipe, but could think of nothing to say.
"Anyhow," said Antony, getting up restlessly, "I"m certain of one thing. Mark knew on the Monday that Robert was coming here."
CHAPTER XIX. The Inquest
The Coroner, having made a few commonplace remarks as to the terrible nature of the tragedy which they had come to investigate that afternoon, proceeded to outline the case to the jury. Witnesses would be called to identify the deceased as Robert Ablett, the brother of the owner of the Red House, Mark Ablett. It would be shown that he was something of a ne"er-do-well, who had spent most of his life in Australia, and that he had announced, in what might almost be called a threatening letter, his intention of visiting his brother that afternoon. There would be evidence of his arrival, of his being shown into the scene of the tragedy-a room in the Red House, commonly called "the office"-and of his brother"s entrance into that room. The jury would have to form their own opinion as to what happened there. But whatever happened, happened almost instantaneously. Within two minutes of Mark Ablett"s entrance, as would be shown in the evidence, a shot was heard, and when-perhaps five minutes later-the room was forced open, the dead body of Robert Ablett was found stretched upon the floor. As regards Mark Ablett, n.o.body had seen him from the moment of his going into the room, but evidence would be called to show that he had enough money on him at the time to take him to any other part of the country, and that a man answering to his description had been observed on the platform of Stanton station, apparently waiting to catch the 3.55 up train to London. As the jury would realize, such evidence of ident.i.ty was not always reliable. Missing men had a way of being seen in a dozen different places at once. In any case, there was no doubt that for the moment Mark Ablett had disappeared.
"Seems a sound man," whispered Antony to Bill. "Doesn"t talk too much."
Antony did not expect to learn much from the evidence-he knew the facts of the case so well by now-but he wondered if Inspector Birch had developed any new theories. If so, they would appear in the Coroner"s examination, for the Coroner would certainly have been coached by the police as to the important facts to be extracted from each witness. Bill was the first to be put through it.
"Now, about this letter, Mr. Beverley?" he was asked when his chief evidence was over. "Did you see it at all?"
"I didn"t see the actual writing. I saw the back of it. Mark was holding it up when he told us about his brother."
"You don"t know what was in it, then?"
Bill had a sudden shock. He had read the letter only that morning. He knew quite well what was in it. But it wouldn"t do to admit this. And then, just as he was about to perjure himself, he remembered: Antony had heard Cayley telling the Inspector.
"I knew afterwards. I was told. But Mark didn"t read it out at breakfast."
"You gathered, however, that it was an unwelcome letter?"
"Oh, yes!"
"Would you say that Mark was frightened by it?"
"Not frightened. Sort of bitter-and resigned. Sort of "Oh, Lord, here we are again!""
There was a t.i.tter here and there. The Coroner smiled, and tried to pretend that he hadn"t.
"Thank you, Mr. Beverley."
The next witness was summoned by the name of Andrew Amos, and Antony looked up with interest, wondering who he was.
"He lives at the inner lodge," whispered Bill to him.
All that Amos had to say was that a stranger had pa.s.sed by his lodge at a little before three that afternoon, and had spoken to him. He had seen the body and recognized it as the man.
"What did he say?"
""Is this right for the Red House?" or something like that, sir."
"What did you say?"
"I said, "This is the Red House. Who do you want to see?" He was a bit rough-looking, you know, sir, and I didn"t know what he was doing there."
"Well?"
"Well, sir, he said, "Is Mister Mark Ablett at home?" It doesn"t sound much put like that, sir, but I didn"t care about the way he said it. So I got in front of him like, and said, "What do you want, eh?" and he gave a sort of chuckle and said, "I want to see my dear brother Mark." Well, then I took a closer look at him, and I see that p"raps he might be his brother, so I said, "If you"ll follow the drive, sir, you"ll come to the house. Of course I can"t say if Mr. Ablett"s at home." And he gave a sort of nasty laugh again, and said, "Fine place Mister Mark Ablett"s got here. Plenty of money to spend, eh?" Well, then I had another look at him, sir, because gentlemen don"t talk like that, and if he was Mr. Ablett"s brother-but before I could make up my mind, he laughed and went on. That"s all I can tell you, sir."
Andrew Amos stepped down and moved away to the back of the room, nor did Antony take his eyes off him until he was a.s.sured that Amos intended to remain there until the inquest was over.
"Who"s Amos talking to now?" he whispered to Bill.
"Parsons. One of the gardeners. He"s at the outside lodge on the Stanton road. They"re all here to-day. Sort of holiday for "em.
"I wonder if he"s giving evidence too," thought Antony. He was. He followed Amos. He had been at work on the lawn in front of the house, and had seen Robert Ablett arrive. He didn"t hear the shot-not to notice. He was a little hard of hearing. He had seen a gentleman arrive about five minutes after Mr. Robert.
"Can you see him in court now?" asked the Coroner. Parsons looked round slowly. Antony caught his eye and smiled.
"That"s him," said Parsons, pointing.
Everybody looked at Antony.
"That was about five minutes afterwards?"
"About that, sir."
"Did anybody come out of the house before this gentleman"s arrival?"
"No, sir. That is to say I didn"t see "em."
Stevens followed. She gave her evidence much as she had given it to the Inspector. Nothing new was brought out by her examination. Then came Elsie. As the reporters scribbled down what she had overheard, they added in brackets "Sensation" for the first time that afternoon.
"How soon after you had heard this did the shot come?" asked the Coroner.