Thomas Godfrey (Ed) (41 page)

“Then we’ve got the young
lady, the old lady, the secretary, and the servants.”

“Let us parade them. But
first let us go over the wireless game. You’ll have to watch me here. I gather
that the only way in which the radio could be fixed to give Mr. Tonks his
quietus is like this: Control knobs removed. Holes bored in front panel with
fine drill. Metal knobs substituted and packed with blotting paper to insulate
them from metal shafts and make them stay put. Heavier flex from adapter to radiator
cut and the ends of the wires pushed through the drilled holes to make contact
with the new knobs. Thus we have a positive and negative pole. Mr. Tonks
bridges the gap, gets a mighty wallop as the current passes through him to the
earth. The switchboard fuse is blown almost immediately. All this is rigged by
murderer while Sep was upstairs bullying wife and daughter. Sep revisited study
some time after ten-twenty. Whole thing was made ready between ten, when Arthur
went out, and the time Sep returned—say, about ten-forty-five. The murderer
reappeared, connected radiator with flex, removed wires, changed back knobs,
and left the thing tuned in. Now I take it that the burst of static described
by Phillipa and Hislop would be caused by the short-circuit that killed our
Septimus?”

“That’s right.”

“It also affected all the
heaters in the house.
Vide
Miss Tonks’s radiator.”

“Yes. He put all that
right again. It would be a simple enough matter for anyone who knew how. He’d
just have to fix the fuse on the main switchboard. How long do you say it would
take to—what’s the horrible word?— to recondition the whole show?”

“M’m,” said Fox deeply. “At
a guess, sir, fifteen minutes. He’d have to be nippy.”

“Yes,” agreed Alleyn. “He
or she.”

“I don’t see a female
making a success of it,” grunted Fox. “Look here, Chief, you know what I’m
thinking. Why did Mr. Hislop lie about deceased’s habit of licking his thumbs?
You say Hislop told you he remembered nothing and Chase says he overheard him
saying the trick nearly drove him dippy.”

“Exactly,” said Alleyn.
He was silent for so long that Fox felt moved to utter a discreet cough.

“Eh?” said Alleyn. “Yes,
Fox, yes. It’ll have to be done.” He consulted the telephone directory and
dialed a number.

“May I speak to Dr.
Meadows? Oh, it’s you, is it? Do you remember Mr. Hislop telling you that
Septimus Tonks’s trick of wetting his fingers nearly drove Hislop demented. Are
you there? You don’t? Sure? All right. All right. Hislop rang up at ten-twenty,
you said? And you telephoned him? At eleven. Sure of the times? I see. I’d be
glad if you’d come round. Can you? Well, do if you can.”

He hung up the receiver.

“Get Chase again, will
you, Fox?”

Chase, recalled, was most
insistent that Mr. Hislop had spoken about it to Dr. Meadows.

“It was when Mr. Hislop
had flu, sir. I went up with the doctor. Mr. Hislop had a high temperature and
was talking very excited. He kept on and on, saying the master had guessed his
ways had driven him crazy and that the master kept on purposely to aggravate.
He said if it went on much longer he’d... he didn’t know what he was talking
about, sir, really.”

“What did he say he’d do?”

“Well, sir, he said he’d—he’d
do something desperate to the master. But it was only his rambling, sir. I
daresay he wouldn’t remember anything about it.”

“No,” said Alleyn, “I
daresay he wouldn’t.” When Chase had gone he said to Fox: “Go and find out
about those boys and their alibis. See if they can put you on to a quick means
of checking up. Get Master Guy to corroborate Miss Phillipa’s statement that
she was locked in her room.”

Fox had been gone for
some time and Alleyn was still busy with his notes when the study door burst
open and in came Dr. Meadows.

“Look here, my giddy
sleuth-hound,” he shouted, “what’s all this about Hislop? Who says he disliked
Sep’s abominable habits?”

“Chase does. And don’t
bawl at me like that. I’m worried.”

“So am I, blast you. What
are you driving at? You can’t imagine that ... that poor little broken-down
hack is capable of electrocuting anybody, let alone Sep?”

“I have no imagination,”
said Alleyn wearily.

“I wish to God I hadn’t
called you in. If the wireless killed Sep, it was because he’d monkeyed with it.”

“And put it right after
it had killed him?”

Dr. Meadows stared at
Alleyn in silence.

“Now,” said Alleyn, “you’ve
got to give me a straight answer, Meadows. Did Hislop, while he was
semi-delirious, say that this habit of Tonks’s made him feel like murdering
him?”

“I’d forgotten Chase was
there,” said Dr. Meadows.

“Yes, you’d forgotten
that.”

“But even if he did talk
wildly, Alleyn, what of it? Damn it, you can’t arrest a man on the strength of
a remark made in delirium.”

“I don’t propose to do
so. Another motive has come to light.”

“You mean—Phips—last
night?”

“
Did he tell you about that ?”

“She whispered something
to me this morning. I’m very fond of Phips. My God, are you sure of your
grounds?”

“Yes,” said Alleyn. “I’m
sorry. I think you’d better go, Meadows.”

“Are you going to arrest
him?”

“I have to do my job.”

There was a long silence.

“Yes,” said Dr. Meadows
at last. “You have to do your job. Goodbye, Alleyn.”

Fox returned to say that
Guy and Arthur had never left their parties. He had got hold of two of their
friends. Guy and Mrs. Tonks confirmed the story of the locked door.

“It’s a process of
elimination,” said Fox. “It must be the secretary. He fixed the radio while
deceased was upstairs. He must have dodged back to whisper through the door to
Miss Tonks. I suppose he waited somewhere down here until he heard deceased blow
himself to blazes and then put everything straight again, leaving the radio
turned on.”

Alleyn was silent.

“What do we do now, sir?”
asked Fox.

“I want to see the hook
inside the front-door where they hang their keys.”

Fox, looking dazed,
followed his superior to the little entrance hall.

“Yes, there they are,” said
Alleyn. He pointed to a hook with two latchkeys hanging from it. “You could
scarcely miss them. Come on, Fox.”

Back in the study they
found Hislop with Bailey in attendance.

Hislop looked from one
Yard man to another.

“I want to know if it’s
murder.”

“We think so,” said
Alleyn.

“I want you to realize
that Phillipa—Miss Tonks—was locked in her room all last night.”

“Until her brother came
home and unlocked the door,” said Alleyn.

“That was too late. He
was dead by then.”

“How do you know when he
died?”

“It must have been when
there was that crash of static.”

“Mr. Hislop,” said
Alleyn, “why would you not tell me how much that trick of licking his fingers
exasperated you?”

“But—how do you know! I
never told anyone.”

“You told Dr. Meadows
when you were ill.”

“I don’t remember.” He
stopped short. His lips trembled. Then, suddenly he began to speak.

“Very well. It’s true.
For two years he’s tortured me. You see, he knew something about me. Two years ago
when my wife was dying, I took money from the cash-box in that desk. I paid it
back and thought he hadn’t noticed. He knew all the time. From then on he had
me where he wanted me. He used to sit there like a spider. I’d hand him a
paper. He’d wet his thumbs with a clicking noise and a sort of complacent
grimace. Click, click. Then he’d thumb the papers. He knew it drove me crazy.
He’d look at me and then... click, click. And then he’d say something about the
cash. He’d never quite accused me, just hinted. And I was impotent. You think I’m
insane. I’m not. I could have murdered him. Often and often I’ve thought how I’d
do it. Now you think I’ve done it. I haven’t. There’s the joke of it. I hadn’t
the pluck. And last night when Phillipa showed me she cared, it was like
Heaven—unbelievable. For the first time since I’ve been here I
didn’t
feel like killing him. And last night someone else
did!”

He stood there trembling
and vehement. Fox and Bailey, who had watched him with bewildered concern,
turned to Alleyn. He was about to speak when Chase came in. “A note for you,
sir,” he said to Alleyn. “It came by hand.”

Alleyn opened it and
glanced at the first few words. He looked up. “You may go, Mr. Hislop. Now I’ve
got what I expected—what I fished for.”

When Hislop had gone they
read the letter.

Dear Alleyn,

Don’t arrest Hislop. I
did it. Let him go at once if you’ve arrested him and don’t tell Phips you ever
suspected him. I was in love with Isabel before she met Sep. I’ve tried to get
her to divorce him, but she wouldn’t because of the kids. Damned nonsense, but
there’s no time to discuss it now. I’ve got to be quick. He suspected us. He
reduced her to a nervous wreck. I was afraid she d go under altogether. I
thought it all out. Some weeks ago I took Phips’s key from the hood inside the
front door. I had the tools and the flex and wire all ready. I knew where the
main switchboard was and the cupboard. I meant to wait until they all went away
at the New Year, but last night when Hislop rang me I made up my mind at once.
He said the boys and servants were out and Phips locked in her room. I told him
to stay in his room and to ring me up in half an hour if things hadn’t quieted
down. He didn’t ring up. I did. No answer, so I knew Sep wasn’t in his study.

I came round, let myself
in, and listened. All quiet upstairs but the lamp still on in the study, so I
knew he would come down again. He’d said he wanted to get the midnight
broadcast from somewhere.

I locked myself in and
got to work. When Sep was away last year, Arthur did one of his modern
monstrosities of painting in the study. He talked about the knobs making good
pattern. I noticed then that they were very like the ones on the radio and
later on I tried one and saw that it would fit if I packed it up a bit. Well, I
did the job just as you worked it out, and it only took twelve minutes. Then I
went into the drawing-room and waited.

He came down from Isabel’s
room and evidently went straight to the radio. I hadn’t thought it would make
such a row, and half expected someone would come down. No one came. I went
back, switched off the wireless, mended the fuse in the main switchboard, using
my torch. Then I put everything right in the study.

There was no particular
hurry. No one would come in while he was there and I got the radio going as
soon as possible to suggest he was at it. I knew I’d be called in when they
found him. My idea was to tell them he had died of a stroke. I’d been warning
Isabel it might happen at any time. As soon as I saw the burned hand I knew
that cat wouldn’t jump. I’d have tried to get away with it if Chase hadn’t gone
round bleating about electrocution and burned fingers. Hislop saw the hand. I
daren’t do anything but report the case to the police, but I thought you’d
never twig the knobs. One up to you.

I might have bluffed
through if you hadn’t suspected Hislop. Can’t let you hang the blighter. I’m
enclosing a note to Isabel, who won’t forgive me, and an official one for you
to use. You’ll find me in my bedroom upstairs. I’m using cyanide. It’s quick.

I’m sorry, Alleyn. I
think you knew, didn’t you? I’ve bungled the whole game, but if you will be a
supersleuth. . . Good-bye.

Henry
Meadows