Envious Casca Read online

  ‘Seems a funny way to enjoy yourself, miss.’

  ‘It would seem funny to you or to me, Inspector, but not, believe me, to a Herriard.’

  He shook his head dubiously, and asked, without much hope, where she had been between seven-thirty and dinner-time.

  ‘Changing in my room,’ she replied. ‘Joseph Herriard will bear me out. His dressing-room communicates with my bathroom, and we not only went upstairs together, but he chat – talked to me all the time I was changing. What’s more, we came downstairs together. That’s my alibi, Inspector.’

  He thanked her gravely, refusing to be drawn, and said that he would like to interview the servants.

  ‘Just ring the bell,’ said Mathilda, rising, and walking to the door. ‘You will then be able to start on the butler.’

  She rejoined her fellow-guests in the drawing-room. ‘Well?’ said Stephen.

  ‘I did what I could for you,’ she replied. ‘He’s now about to pump Sturry.’

  ‘That ought to finish us,’ he said grimly. ‘Sturry was listening outside the door when the storm broke.’

  Seven

  THE INSPECTOR, WHO HAD BEEN CONFRONTED WITH

  condescension in Roydon, hostility in Paula, now encountered, as Sturry majestically advanced into the morning-room, a lofty disdain which would have caused a more sensitive soul to shrink.

  ‘You rang, Inspector?’ said Sturry, conveying a suggestion of astonishment.

  The Inspector felt in a vague way that he had committed a solecism, but he was strong in the consciousness of his duty, and he replied firmly: ‘Yes, I rang. I want to ask you a few questions. Is your name Albert Sturry?’

  ‘My name, Inspector, is Albert Reginald Sturry.’

  The Inspector repressed an impulse to beg his pardon, and wrote the name in his notebook. ‘You are employed here as butler?’

  ‘I have served Mr Herriard in that capacity for four years and seven months,’ replied Sturry. ‘Previous to that, I was with the late Sir Barnabas Lancing, of Lancing Towers, and Upper Eaton Place.’

  The Inspector made a note of this, but wisely thrust Sir Barnabas into the background. He said: ‘Now, what do you know about this business?’

  The arctic light in Sturry’s eye plainly informed him that if he imagined he could address a respectable butler in this fashion he would find himself much mistaken. ‘I regret that I am unable to assist you,’ said Sturry. ‘It being no part of my duties to pry into the affairs of my employers.’

  The Inspector perceived that he had taken a false step. He said: ‘Naturally not, but a man in your position is bound to know the ins and outs of a house.’

  Sturry acknowledged this tribute by a slight bow, and waited.

  ‘By all accounts the deceased was a difficult man to get on with, eh?’

  ‘I experienced no difficulty, Inspector. Mr Herriard had his idiosyncrasies, no doubt. Latterly his temper became impaired by rheumatic complaints, as was understandable.’

  ‘Made him quarrelsome?’

  ‘I would not go so far as to ascribe the distressing quarrels which have taken place under this roof wholly to Mr Herriard’s lumbago,’ said Sturry.

  It became clear to the Inspector that the butler was big with news. It was equally clear that while he had a human desire to impart his news, he was mindful of what was due to his dignity, and must be handled with tact and respect. ‘Ah!’ the Inspector said, nodding. ‘And I daresay you knew him as well as anyone. Stands to reason, being in your position, and with him over four years.’

  ‘I believe Mr Herriard had no reason to be dissatisfied with me,’ conceded Sturry, unbending a little. ‘It has been my endeavour to fulfil my functions to the best of my ability, whatever the behaviour of certain of Mr Herriard’s guests.’

  ‘Must have been difficult for you, I daresay.’

  ‘Not so much difficult as distasteful,’ said Sturry, putting him in his place again. ‘Accustomed as I have been for thirty-five years to serving in the best families – for I commenced as under-footman to the late Earl of Belford, when I was hardly more than a Lad – there have been Incidents at Lexham Manor which I could only deplore.’

  The Inspector made a tut-tutting noise, and tried to look sympathetic.

  ‘I need scarcely say,’ added Sturry, ‘that I shall be giving notice at the earliest opportunity.’

  ‘You know your own business best, but the house is likely to be kept on, isn’t it? There’s bound to be an heir.’

  ‘I should not care,’ said Sturry, with a quiver of disgust, ‘to demean myself by remaining in any house where a murder had been committed. It is not what I am accustomed to. It is impossible to imagine such an occurrence taking place under the late Earl’s roof, or, indeed (though the baronetcy was of quite recent creation) under the roof of the late Sir Barnabas.’ He drew in his breath through his teeth. ‘Nor, I may add, would it suit me to take a post either in Mr Joseph Herriard’s household, or in Mr Stephen Herriard’s.’

  ‘Oh?’ said the Inspector, deeply interested, and trying not to show it. ‘Not your money, eh?’

  This vulgarity brought a look of pain to Sturry’s countenance, but being by this time launched on the cumulative tide of his disclosures, he decided to overlook it. ‘Mr Joseph Herriard is a very well-meaning gentleman,’ he said, ‘but the Peculiar Circumstances of his life have made him, I regret to say, forgetful of his dignity. He is Familiar with the Staff.’

  The Inspector nodded feelingly. ‘I know what you mean. What about the young one? Cross-grained-looking chap, I thought.’

  ‘Mr Stephen Herriard,’ said Sturry, ‘is not a gentleman with whom I could ever contemplate taking service. Mr Stephen’s temper is quite as violent as his late uncle’s, and although I would not wish to imply that he is not Quite the Gentleman, he is careless of appearances to a degree which I could not bring myself to overlook. He has, moreover, become engaged to a young lady who will not, in my opinion, Do for Lexham Manor.’ He paused, fixing the Inspector with a basilisk eye. ‘I could not, in any case, reconcile it with my conscience to serve any gentleman who had been on such inimical terms with the late Mr Herriard,’ he said.

  Here it comes at last! thought the Inspector. ‘I’d heard that they quarrelled a good bit,’ he said. ‘Bad, was it?’

  Sturry closed his eyes for an expressive moment. ‘At times, Inspector, it has been what I should call Shocking, both Mr Stephen and Mr Herriard raising their voices in a manner very unbecoming to their stations, and not caring who might be within hearing. Indeed, upon one occasion Mr Stephen had Words with his uncle in front of the Tweeny.’

  The enormity of this did not, perhaps, impress the Inspector as forcibly as it was meant to, but he looked shocked, and said he wondered why Stephen came to Lexham so often.

  ‘If you were to ask me, Inspector,’ said Sturry, ‘I should say that both Mr Stephen and Miss Paula came for what they could get out of the late Mr Herriard.’

  ‘Is Stephen Herriard the heir?’

  ‘That, Inspector, I could not take it upon myself to say, not being in the late Mr Herriard’s confidence. It is generally believed in the Hall that he is, Mr Herriard having had an unaccountable fondness for him. But there has been a good deal of unpleasantness lately over Mr Stephen’s Unfortunate Entanglement, Mr Herriard having taken exception to Miss Dean in a way one cannot wonder at. There was Quite a Scene between them after lunch.’

  ‘About Miss Dean?’

  ‘I could not say, I am sure,’ said Sturry primly. ‘But when I was about to enter the drawing-room this evening with the cocktail-tray, I heard Mr Herriard shout at Mr Stephen that he was quite as bad as his sister, and that it was the last time either of them should come to Lexham.’

  ‘Is that so?’ said the Inspector, very much on the alert. ‘He was quarrelling with Miss Herriard too, was he?’

  ‘Mr Herriard was in general very indulgent with Miss Paula,’ said Sturry. ‘Though I have reason to believe that he looked with di