"No idea," Starkwedder replied. "He vanished into the mist like a conjuring trick." He turned away, while Jan, kneeling in the armchair and looking expectantly at Farrar, said, "You told Richard someone would shoot him one day, didn"t you, Julian?"
There was a pause. Everyone in the room looked at Julian Farrar.
Farrar thought for a moment. Then, "Did I? I don"t remember," he said brusquely.
"Oh, yes, you did," Jan insisted. "At dinner one night. You know, you and Richard were having a sort of argument, and you said, "One of these days, Richard, somebody"ll put a bullet through your head.""
"A remarkable prophecy," the inspector commented.
Julian Farrar moved to sit on one end of the footstool. "Oh well," he said, "Richard and his guns were pretty fair nuisance value, you know. People didn"t like it. Why, there was that fellow - you remember, Laura? Your gardener, Griffiths. You know - the one Richard sacked. Griffiths certainly said to me - and on more than one occasion - "One of these days, look you, I shall come with my gun and I shall shoot Mr Warwick.""
"Oh, Griffiths wouldn"t do a thing like that," Laura exclaimed quickly.
Farrar looked contrite. "No, no, of course not," he admitted. "I - I didn"t mean that. I mean that it was the sort of thing that - er - people said about Richard."
To cover his embarra.s.sment, he took out his cigarette-case and extracted a cigarette.
The inspector sat in the desk chair, looking thoughtful. Starkwedder stood in a corner near the alcove, close to Jan who gazed at him with interest.
"I wish I"d come over here last night," Julian Farrar announced, addressing no one in particular. "I meant to."
"But that awful fog," Laura said quietly. "You couldn"t come out in that."
"No," Farrar replied. "I had my committee members over to dine with me. When they found the fog coming on, they went home rather early. I thought then of coming along to see you, but I decided against it." Searching in his pockets, he asked, "Has anyone got a match? I seem to have mislaid my lighter."
He looked around, and suddenly noticed the lighter on the table where Laura had left it the night before. Rising, he went across to pick it up, observed by Starkwedder. "Oh, here it is," said Farrar. "Couldn"t imagine where I"d left it."
"Julian -" Laura began.
"Yes?" Farrar offered her a cigarette, and she took one. "I"m most awfully sorry about all this, Laura," he said. "If there"s anything I can do -" His voice trailed off indecisively.
"Yes. Yes, I know," Laura replied, as Farrar lit their cigarettes.
Jan suddenly spoke, addressing Starkwedder. "Can you shoot, Mr Starkwedder?" he asked. "I can, you know. Richard used to let me try, sometimes. Of course, I wasn"t as good as he was."
"Did he, indeed?" said Starkwedder, turning to Jan. "What sort of gun did he let you use?"
As Jan engaged Starkwedder"s attention, Laura took the opportunity of speaking quickly to Julian Farrar.
"Julian, I must talk to you. I must," she murmured softly.
Farrar"s voice was equally low. "Careful," he warned her.
"It was a .22," Jan was telling Starkwedder. "I"m quite good at shooting, aren"t I, Julian?" He went across to Julian Farrar. "Do you remember the time you took me to the fair? I knocked two of the bottles down, didn"t I?"
"You did indeed, my lad," Farrar a.s.sured him. "You"ve got a good eye, that"s what counts. Good eye for a cricket ball, too. That was quite a sensational game, that match we had last summer," he added.
Jan smiled at him happily, and then sat on the footstool, looking across at the inspector who was now examining doc.u.ments on the desk. There was a pause. Then Starkwedder, as he took out a cigarette, asked Laura, "Do you mind if I smoke?"
"Of course not," replied Laura.
Starkwedder turned to Julian Farrar. "May I borrow your lighter?"
"Of course," said Farrar. "Here it is."
"Ah, a nice lighter, this," Starkwedder commented, lighting his cigarette.
Laura made a sudden movement, and then stopped herself. "Yes," Farrar said carelessly. "It works better than most."
"Rather - distinctive," Starkwedder observed. He gave a quick glance at Laura, and then returned the lighter to Julian Farrar with a murmured word of thanks.
Jan left his footstool, and stood behind the inspector"s chair. "Richard has lots of guns," he confided. "Air-guns, too. And he"s got one gun that he used to use in Africa to shoot elephants. Would you like to see them? They"re in Richard"s bedroom through there." He pointed the way.
"All right," said the inspector, rising. "You show them to us." He smiled at Jan, adding genially, "You know, you"re being very helpful to us. Helping us quite a lot. We ought to take you into the police force."
Putting a hand on the boy"s shoulder, he steered him towards the door, which the sergeant opened for them. "We don"t need to keep you, Mr Starkwedder," the inspector called from the door. "You can go about your business now. Just keep in touch with us, that"s all."
"All right," replied Starkwedder, as Jan, the inspector and the sergeant left the room, the sergeant closing the door behind them.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
There was an awkward pause after the police officers had left the room with Jan. Then Starkwedder remarked, "Well, I suppose I"d better go and see whether they"ve managed to get my car out of the ditch yet. We didn"t seem to pa.s.s it on the way here."
"No," Laura explained. "The drive comes up from the other road."
"Yes, I see," Starkwedder answered, as he walked across to the french windows. He turned. "How different things look in the daylight," he observed as he stepped out onto the terrace.
As soon as he had gone, Laura and Julian Farrar turned to each other. "Julian!" Laura exclaimed. "That lighter! I said it was mine.""
"You said it was yours? To the inspector?" Farrar asked.
"No. To him."
"To - to this fellow -" Farrar began, and then stopped as they both noticed Starkwedder walking along the terrace outside the windows. "Laura -" he began again.
"Be careful," said Laura, going across to the little window in the alcove and looking out. "He may be listening to us."
"Who is he?" asked Farrar. "Do you know him?"
Laura came back to the centre of the room. "No. No, I don"t know him," she told Farrar. "He - he had an accident with his car, and he came here last night. Just after -"
Julian Farrar touched her hand which rested on the back of the sofa. "It"s all right, Laura. You know that I"ll do everything I can."
"Julian - fingerprints," Laura gasped.
"What fingerprints?"
"On that table. On that table there, and on the pane of gla.s.s. Are they - yours?"
Farrar removed his hand from hers, indicating that Starkwedder was again walking along the terrace outside. Without turning to the window, Laura moved away from him, saying loudly, "It"s very kind of you, Julian, and I"m sure there will be a lot of business things you can help us with."
Starkwedder was pacing about, outside on the terrace. When he had moved out of sight, Laura turned to face Julian Farrar again. "Are those fingerprints yours, Julian? Think."
Farrar considered for a moment. Then, "On the table - yes - they might have been."
"Oh G.o.d!" Laura cried. "What shall we do?"
Starkwedder could now be glimpsed again, walking back and forth along the terrace just outside the windows. Laura puffed at her cigarette, "The police think it"s a man called MacGregor - " she told Julian. She gave him a desperate look, pausing to allow him an opportunity to make some comment.
"Well, that"s all right, then," he replied. "They"ll probably go on thinking so."
"But suppose -" Laura began.
Farrar interrupted her. "I must go," he said. I"ve got an appointment." He rose. "It"s all right, Laura," he said, patting her shoulder. "Don"t worry. I"ll see that you"re all right."
The look on Laura"s face was one of an incomprehension verging on desperation. Apparently oblivious of it, Farrar walked across to the french windows. As he pushed a window open, Starkwedder was approaching with the obvious intention of entering the room. Farrar politely moved aside, to avoid colliding with him.
"Oh, are you off now?" Starkwedder asked him.
"Yes," said Farrar. "Things are rather busy these days. Election coming on, you know, in a week"s time."
"Oh, I see," Starkwedder replied. "Excuse my ignorance, but what are you? Tory?"
"I"m a Liberal," said Farrar. He sounded slightly indignant.
"Oh, are they still at it?" Starkwedder asked, brightly.
Julian Farrar drew a sharp breath, and left the room without another word. When he had gone, not quite slamming the door behind him, Starkwedder looked at Laura almost fiercely. Then, "I see," he said, his anger rising. "Or at least I"m beginning to see."
"What do you mean?" Laura asked him.
"That"s the boyfriend, isn"t it?" He came closer to her. "Well, come on now, is it?"
"Since you ask," Laura replied, defiantly, "yes, it is!"
Starkwedder looked at her for a moment without speaking. Then, "There are quite a few things you didn"t tell me last night, aren"t there?" he said angrily. "That"s why you s.n.a.t.c.hed up his lighter in such a hurry and said it was yours." He walked away a few paces and then turned to face her again. "And how long has this been going on between you and him?"
"For quite some time now," Laura said quietly.
"But you didn"t ever decide to leave Warwick and go away together?"
"No," Laura answered. "There"s Julian"s career, for one thing. It might ruin him politically."
Starkwedder sat himself down ill-temperedly at one end of the sofa. "Oh, surely not, these days," he snapped. "Don"t they all take adultery in their stride?"
"These would have been special circ.u.mstances," Laura tried to explain. "He was a friend of Richard"s, and with Richard being a cripple -"
"Oh yes, I see. It certainly wouldn"t have been good publicity!" Starkwedder retorted.
Laura came over to the sofa and stood looking down at him. "I suppose you think I ought to have told you this last night?" she observed, icily.
Starkwedder looked away from her. "You were under no obligation," he muttered.
Laura seemed to relent. "I didn"t think it mattered -" she began. "I mean - all I could think of was my having shot Richard."
Starkwedder seemed to warm to her again, as he murmured, "Yes, yes, I see." After a pause, he added, "I couldn"t think of anything else, either." He paused again, and then looked up at her. "Do you want to try a little experiment?" he asked. "Where were you standing when you shot Richard?"
"Where was I standing?" Laura echoed. She sounded perplexed.
"That"s what I said."
After a moment"s thought, Laura replied, "Oh -over there." She nodded vaguely towards the french windows.
"Go and stand where you were standing," Starkwedder instructed her.
Laura rose and began to move nervously about the room. "I - I can"t remember," she told him. "Don"t ask me to remember." She sounded scared now. "I - I was upset. I -"
Starkwedder interrupted her. "Your husband said something to you," he reminded her. "Something that made you s.n.a.t.c.h up the gun."
Rising from the sofa, he went to the table by the armchair and put his cigarette out. "Well, come on, let"s act it out," he continued. "There"s the table, there"s the gun." He took Laura"s cigarette from her, and put it in the ashtray. "Now then, you were quarrelling. You picked up the gun - pick it up -"
"I don"t want to!" Laura cried.
"Don"t be a little fool," Starkwedder growled. "It"s not loaded. Come on, pick it up. Pick it up."
Laura picked up the gun, hesitantly.
"You s.n.a.t.c.hed it up," he reminded her. "You didn"t pick it up gingerly like that. You s.n.a.t.c.hed it up, and you shot him. Show me how you did it."
Holding the gun awkwardly, Laura backed away from him. "I - I -" she began.
"Go on. Show me," Starkwedder shouted at her.
Laura tried to aim the gun. "Go on, shoot!" he repeated, still shouting. "It isn"t loaded."
When she still hesitated, he s.n.a.t.c.hed the gun from her in triumph. "I thought so," he exclaimed. "You"ve never fired a revolver in your life. You don"t know how to do it." Looking at the gun, he continued, "You don"t even know enough to release the safety catch."
He dropped the gun on the footstool* then walked to the back of the sofa, and turned to face her. After a pause, he said quietly, "You didn"t shoot your husband."
"I did," Laura insisted.