Death in the Stocks: Merely Murder Read online

  ‘Yes,’ said Giles. ‘I can.’

  Kenneth’s lip curled. ‘I see. Murder. You’re wrong.’

  ‘Not murder. Jealousy.’

  A flush crept into Kenneth’s lean cheeks. ‘Again you’re wrong.’

  ‘Very well, what was the reason?’

  ‘You’ve already heard me say that I didn’t leave the Albert Hall until past four.’

  ‘Is that statement likely to be corroborated by the other members of your party? Miss Rivers gave that alibi, not you. I was watching you; you weren’t expecting it. I think you nearly denied it.’

  ‘Why don’t you join the police-force?’ inquired Kenneth. ‘You’ve missed your vocation.’

  Giles got up. ‘You young fool, can’t you see what a tight corner you’re in?’ he said. ‘Lie to Hannasyde if you must, but if you lie to me you can look for another lawyer. I won’t touch your case.’

  ‘As you wish,’ Kenneth said.

  ‘Don’t throw him over, Giles!’ Antonia begged, a catch in her voice. ‘Please, please don’t desert us!’

  His face softened; he said more gently: ‘I shan’t do that, Tony. But I can’t handle a case where I’m kept in the dark.’

  ‘All very moving,’ remarked Kenneth. ‘So far I haven’t asked you to handle my case. Supposing someone in my party did lose sight of me for half an hour? Have you ever danced at the Albert Hall? It’s a largish sort of place, you know.’

  ‘Yes, and we sat out a good bit,’ Leslie said.

  Antonia looked anxiously at Giles. ‘You think he’s in a mess, Giles?’

  ‘I know he’s in a mess.’

  ‘Any fool could see that,’ said Kenneth contemptuously. ‘First I kill Arnold, then Roger turns up, so naturally I have to kill him as well. All for filthy lucre too. Take that worried look off your face, Tony; there’s no evidence.’

  ‘There’s your pipe,’ she pointed out.

  ‘They won’t hang me on that,’ he answered.

  They could get no more out of him than that. He walked up and down the studio, his hands in his pockets and his pipe clenched between his teeth. ‘It’s possible they may arrest me,’ he said, frowning.

  Giles, who had moved to the desk, and was flicking over the pages of the telephone directory, glanced up. ‘More than that.’

  ‘Very well, more than that. You ought to know. But it isn’t enough if they prove I left the Albert Hall during the dance. They must prove I went to see Roger, and that they can’t do.’

  Giles, having apparently found what he was looking for, shut the directory and laid it down. ‘Think it over,’ he advised. ‘And don’t overlook the fact that no one has so strong a motive as you for murdering Arnold, and then Roger. I’m going now, but if you come to your senses, ring me up!’

  ‘What, with a full confession?’ jibed Kenneth.

  Giles did not answer. Antonia went out with him, and at the front door detained him for a few moments. ‘Giles, it’s getting worse. I’m dead sure he was with Roger last night. You can always tell when Kenneth’s lying. He does it so badly. What will happen if they find it out?’

  ‘Tony, my dear, I don’t know, because I’ve no idea when he went there, or what he did there. But things are going to look remarkably ugly if he’s caught out in a lie. Everything points to him already.’

  ‘Yes, I can see that, but I don’t believe he did it all the same,’ she replied. ‘I wish Leslie hadn’t nipped in with that alibi before he had time to speak. I think she’s queered his pitch.’ She paused, and then said in a troubled way: ‘There’s one rather horrid thing, Giles. I don’t know whether you’ve thought of it. If Kenneth didn’t do it – who could have? Nobody else had any reason to kill Roger.’

  ‘Yes, I have thought of it,’ he said curtly.

  ‘I expect a jury would too?’ she suggested, raising her eyes to his face.

  ‘Undoubtedly.’ He took her hands, and held them comfortingly. ‘Don’t worry, chicken. I don’t believe Kenneth did it any more than you do.’ He smiled down at her. ‘Here’s one cheering thought for you at least: Mesurier looks like being cleared of all suspicion.’

  ‘Oh, him!’ said Antonia. ‘I’d forgotten about him. He’s fed-up with me, by the way. Not that I blame him. I don’t think I’ll get engaged any more. It doesn’t seem to lead anywhere.’

  ‘It will next time,’ said Giles. ‘That I promise you.’ He gave her hands a quick squeeze, released them, and ran down the stairs to his car.

  Five minutes later he drew up outside a house in a street leading up from the Embankment. It had been converted into two maisonettes, the one on the ground and the first floor having Violet Williams’s name on a brass plate beside the door.

  He rang the bell, and was presently admitted by a middle-aged woman in a dirty overall. Her method of announcing him was to call out: ‘Oh, Miss Williams, here’s somebody to see you!’

  Violet came out of a room at the front of the house. She gave an exclamation of surprise at seeing Giles. ‘Why, Mr Carrington! I’d no idea! Do come in!’

  He followed her into a sitting-room furnished in bleached oak with jade-green curtains and cushions. A table in the bay window had a litter of sketches on it, and the chair, pushed back from it, seemed to indicate that Violet had been working there. Giles said: ‘I hope I’m not disturbing you. You look as though you were busy.’

  ‘Of course not. Won’t you sit down? I apologise for the creature who let you in, by the way! I don’t keep a proper maid. She’s just a char who comes to clean in the mornings.’ She picked up a cigarette-box from a low table by the fireplace, and offered it to him. ‘Don’t think me terribly rude,’ she said, smiling, ‘but what on earth do you want to see me about?’

  He struck a match, and held it to the cigarette she had taken from the box. ‘I’m hoping you will be able to induce Kenneth to behave sensibly,’ he answered.

  She laughed. ‘Oh, I’m afraid he’s impossible! What has he been up to?’

  ‘I wish I knew, Miss Williams. You see, something rather shocking has happened. Roger Vereker has been found shot in his flat.’

  She gave a start. ‘Mr Carrington! Oh no!’

  ‘I’m afraid it is quite true,’ he said gravely.

  She put a hand over her eyes. ‘How awful! Poor, poor Roger. I never dreamed he was feeling it all as badly as that. I knew he was on edge, of course, but that he would actually – oh, it doesn’t bear thinking about!’

  ‘Was he in a very nervous state?’ Giles asked. ‘I believe you saw more of him than anyone – you would probably know.’

  ‘Yes, he was,’ she answered. ‘He had it fixed in his mind that the police were hounding him down. I was saying so to Kenneth only the other day. He didn’t see it – or wouldn’t see it, but then Kenneth isn’t always very observant.’ She let her hand fall. ‘But that he should have actually take his own life! I can’t get over it!’

  ‘I don’t think he did take his own life, Miss Williams.’

  She turned very pale. ‘You mean – oh, impossible!’

  ‘It was meant to look like suicide,’ Giles said, ‘but there are one or two circumstances which point rather conclusively to murder.’

  She shuddered. ‘I can’t believe that. Please tell me what reason you have for saying such a thing!’

  ‘My chief reason is purely technical,’ he said.

  ‘But the police – do they think it was murder?’

  ‘They think it very probable,’ said Giles.

  She was silent for a moment, still very white, her eyes fixed on the glowing end of her cigarette. She raised them presently, and said: ‘You mentioned something about Kenneth. But, whatever happened no one can suspect him of having had anything to do with it. He was at the Albert Hall last night with Leslie Rivers.’

  ‘He was at the Albert Hall, I know,’ agreed Giles. ‘But the Albert Hall is not five minutes’ walk from Roger’s flat, Miss Williams. Nor are the police at all satisfied that he didn’t leave the dance for a tim