No Wind of Blame Read online

  The Inspector pulled it open, disclosing various gun accessories, and a broken box containing a handful of cartridges. ‘I’ll take these, if you please,’ he said.

  ‘Take what you like,’ said Ermyntrude. ‘Oh dear, whatever does this mean?’

  ‘It means, madam, that your husband was shot by someone who had access to these guns.’

  Ermyntrude flung out her hands in a wide gesture. ‘But that’s anyone!’

  ‘It can’t be quite anyone,’ said the Inspector. ‘It must have been someone who knew the house pretty well.’

  ‘Lots of people know it well enough to find their way to the gun-room. Any of Mr Carter’s friends, for instance. Oh dear, it seems to make it worse, somehow, knowing he was shot with one of my first husband’s guns! I don’t know what to think!’

  The Inspector followed her back to the drawing-room, where she sank on to the sofa, looking as though she were on the verge of bursting into tears. This danger was averted by her suddenly becoming aware of his presence. It seemed to annoy her; she said sharply: ‘Well, what more do you want? I should have thought you’d done enough for one morning!’

  ‘Not quite,’ replied the Inspector. ‘I want to ask you a few questions about Mr Carter’s dealing with Percy Baker.’

  Ermyntrude’s sagging shoulders straightened. ‘I’m not going to discuss it! It’s painful enough for me without you dragging it all up and insulting me with it.’

  ‘You informed me, madam, that Baker demanded five hundred pounds from Mr Carter.’

  ‘Yes, and if you ask me it was nothing but a try-on! Blackmail, that’s my name for it!’

  ‘I think I’d better tell you, madam, to save misunderstanding, that Baker denies that he ever asked for such a sum.’

  Ermyntrude was quite unimpressed. ‘You don’t say so! I suppose you expected him to admit he’d been blackmailing my husband?’

  ‘I’ve reason to believe he may have been speaking the truth,’ said the Inspector slowly.

  Ermyntrude’s eyes began to kindle wrathfully. ‘Oh, you have, have you?’

  ‘Are you quite sure that five hundred was the sum your husband told you?’

  ‘Yes, I am quite sure. Do you suppose I’d made a mistake about a thing like that?’ She got up, and went to the window. ‘Mary! Mary! Oh, there you are! Come in here, will you, dearie?’

  Mary, who was sitting under the elm-tree with Hugh and Vicky, came at once. Ermyntrude drew her into the drawing-room, and pointed to the Inspector. ‘That man has given me the lie!’ she declared. ‘It’s not enough for me to have my husband murdered, I’ve got to be bullied and brow-beaten by the police!’

  ‘That’s not fair, madam. All I’m doing is to ask you if you’re sure the evidence you’ve given is correct. There’s no need—’

  ‘Silence!’ said Ermyntrude, rather magnificently. ‘Mary tell that creature how much money Wally wanted to pay off the Bakers!’

  ‘Five hundred pounds,’ said Mary.

  ‘Thank you, dearie. Now perhaps you’ll be satisfied, Inspector Cook?’

  Mary glanced quickly towards the Inspector. ‘Is there some doubt about that? Five hundred was certainly the sum my cousin told me. I can’t have been mistaken, for I thought it was out of all reason, and I said so.’

  ‘Very well, miss,’ said the Inspector. ‘I won’t need to trouble you further at present. Good day, madam!’

  After he had gone, Ermyntrude continued to fume until she was struck by the thoughtful expression on Mary’s face. She demanded to know its cause.

  Mary said worriedly: ‘Aunt Ermy, why did he put that question?’

  ‘Don’t ask me, love! Well, I never did like policemen, and it just shows you, doesn’t it? As though I’d make up a thing like that! Why, whatever would I do it for, when the one thing I dread is everyone finding out about Wally’s goings-on with that girl?’

  ‘Not you,’ Mary said. ‘There’s no doubt Wally did say five hundred. He said it to you, and he said it to me. But was it true?’

  ‘But heavens alive, ducky, even Wally wouldn’t ask me for five hundred for his mistress, unless he couldn’t get out of it! I mean to say!’

  ‘You knew already about Gladys Baker. It wasn’t like making a confession to you. Supposing he wanted five hundred?’

  ‘Mary, what’s come over you? I never grudged Wally a penny! He could have had five hundred any day!’

  ‘Not for something you disapproved of.’

  Ermyntrude blinked at her uncomprehendingly. ‘I don’t get what you’re after, dear. I don’t know what I could have disapproved of more than his getting that Baker girl into trouble, I’m sure!’

  ‘Aunt Ermy, do you mind if we have Hugh in? I’ve got an idea in my head, and I don’t know whether I ought to tell the police, or – or whether it’s all too vague. But if they’re suspicious of Baker, because of this five hundred pound business, and all the time he didn’t ask Wally for it, surely I ought to – Hugh would know!’

  ‘Well, I don’t mind his hearing about it. But what about Lady Dering? We can’t leave her all alone out there, can we?’

  ‘She’s gone.’ Mary went to the window and called to Hugh.

  He came, but not unaccompanied. Vicky stepped into the room ahead of him, and inquired what the Inspector had wanted.

  ‘Oh, Vicky, you could have knocked me down with a feather! They’ve found one of your poor father’s rifles in the shrubbery! It’s quite true; it isn’t in the case.’

  ‘Good Lord!’ said Hugh. ‘Then – who could have got hold of it, Mrs Carter?’

  ‘Anybody!’ said Ermyntrude.

  ‘Not Baker,’ said Mary. ‘Surely not Baker! How could he have known about it? That makes me feel more than ever that he didn’t ask Wally for that money!’

  Hugh said frowningly: ‘What’s all this?’

  ‘Mary darling, you aren’t coming unstuck or anything, are you?’ asked Vicky.

  ‘No. But I – I rather think I know something the rest of you don’t. And I can’t help feeling it may have something to do with Wally’s going to the Dower House yesterday, though what it has to do with his being shot, I can’t quite see.’

  ‘Do you mind being a little more explicit?’ said Hugh. ‘What is it you think you know?’

  ‘I believe Wally and Harold White had some scheme on hand for making money. He said something to me – oh, more than once! – about making his fortune, all through White. As a matter of fact, it was when I rather went for him about lending money to White. He had lent him money, you know, Aunt Ermy, and I told him he’d no right to. And then he said that about making his fortune, and White putting him on to a good thing. I didn’t pay much heed at the time, but now I can’t help wondering. It would be so like him!’

  ‘I’m afraid I haven’t grasped the gist of this, Mary,’ said Hugh. ‘What’s the connection between this, and Baker?’

  ‘Wally knew Aunty Ermy wouldn’t give him money to invest in any scheme of Harold White’s making. Then Aunt Ermy found out about Gladys Baker. Do you think – do you think he could possibly have made up that story of being blackmailed for five hundred, to get money for whatever scheme it was White had put up to him?’

  Hugh, who had listened in blank amazement, said: ‘Frankly, no, I don’t. Good Lord, Mary, think it over for yourself ! It’s preposterous! Dash it, it’s indecent!’

  ‘She’s very likely right!’ said Ermyntrude, in tones of swelling indignation. ‘That would just be Wally all over! Oh, I see it now! The idea of it! Getting money out of me to save a scandal, as he knew very well he would, and then blueing the lot on some rubbishy plan of White’s!’

  ‘Do you mean to tell me you seriously believe that to get money for an investment, he would have told you he was being blackmailed by the brother of a girl he’d seduced?’ s