Footsteps in the Dark Read online

  Celia laid her hand on Charles’ arm. ‘Charles, you don’t think anything can have happened to them, do you?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘I hope not, but I don’t quite like the sound of it. Can you think of any reason for them wanting to go out at ten o’clock?’

  ‘No, I can’t. Unless Aunt Lilian’s solution is the right one. After all, we never did go up to the chapel by moonlight, and Margaret more than once said she’d like to.’

  ‘I’d better go up and take a look,’ Charles decided. ‘You others might search the house – though why they should conceal themselves I can’t imagine.’

  ‘Charles, take your revolver!’ Celia called after him, as he left the room.

  ‘I’m going to,’ he said over his shoulder.

  It was quite a little walk to the chapel from the house, and he did not come back for nearly twenty minutes. They had heard his voice occasionally, shouting the names of the missing couple, but no answering call had come to their ears. Both Celia and Mrs Bosanquet were feeling very anxious by the time he returned, and when he shook his head in answer to their eager inquiries they began to look rather scared.

  ‘But it is quite ridiculous!’ Mrs Bosanquet said. ‘They must be somewhere!’

  ‘Undoubtedly,’ said Charles. ‘But where? You’ve been all over the house?’

  ‘Yes, there’s no sign of them,’ Celia replied. ‘You – don’t think they can have gone up to the ruin, and – and found the Monk, and he – did something to them?’

  ‘I should hope it would take more than that dratted Monk to tackle the pair of them!’ snorted Mrs Bowers.

  But the idea was taking hold of Celia. ‘Supposing he had a gun?’

  ‘If Peter had any sense he wouldn’t take Margaret up to the chapel at night without his revolver,’ Charles said. ‘I’ll go and look in his room, and see if it’s in his dressing-table. That’s where he keeps it.’ He went out, but this time he was soon back again, and in his hand he carried Peter’s revolver. Looking distinctly grim he laid it down on the table.

  Celia’s fingers gripped the arms of the chair she had sunk into. ‘Then they were unarmed! Charles, it’s the Monk! I know it’s the Monk! Oh, fool, fool that I was to suggest they should stay here alone this evening.’

  ‘Steady!’ Charles said. ‘Don’t leap to conclusions, Celia. For all we know they had a perfectly good reason for going out, and they’ll walk in any moment. They may even have walked down the road to meet us, as Bowers suggested, and we missed them.’

  ‘How could we miss them?’

  ‘Easily. We were all talking, and I for one never scrutinise pedestrians.’

  ‘But they’d have stopped us!’ Celia pointed out.

  ‘Not necessarily. You must remember that our headlights were on, and the glare would prevent them recognising the car till it was abreast of them. And I was driving pretty fast, too. They may have called to us, and failed to make us hear.’

  Celia looked at the time. ‘But, darling, it’s a quarter to twelve, and we’ve been in three-quarters of an hour! They must have got back by now. Why, if they set out at ten they’ve had time to get as far as the Vicarage and back again by now!’

  ‘No, not quite,’ Charles said. ‘Not that I see either of them walking all that distance just to meet us. I’ll tell you what: I think I’d better get the car out of the garage again, and run back as far as the Vicarage, just in case they were cracked enough to walk as far as that, and have met with some accident. Sprained ankle, or something of that sort. Then if I don’t find them I’ll go in to Ackerley’s place, and ring up the police-station from there, and bring Ackerley himself along to help me search.’ He picked up Peter’s revolver. ‘Bowers, you know how to handle this, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Bowers answered, taking it.

  ‘I want you to stay in this room with Mrs Malcolm and Mrs Bosanquet, and on no account to leave them. Quite understand?’

  ‘Don’t you worry, sir!’ Mrs Bowers said, picking up the poker. ‘I just wish that Monk would come in, that’s all! I’d Monk him!’

  Celia nodded bravely. ‘Yes, that will be best. Don’t waste any time, Charles: we shall be all right. There’s nothing we can do while you’re gone, is there? It’s so awful to have to sit here so helplessly.’

  Charles was buttoning up his overcoat again. ‘I’d rather you stayed all together in this room,’ he said. ‘I daresay there’s no reason for me to be alarmed about you, but I’m not taking any more risks. I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can.’ He bent and kissed Celia’s pale lips. ‘Keep your pecker up, old lady. I shall probably meet them in the avenue.’ He hurried away as he spoke, and the next instant they heard the front door bang behind him.

  Charles went quickly round to the garage, and got the car out. He laid his revolver on the seat beside him, and after backing and turning the car, drove off down the avenue to the gates.

  The Vicarage lay on the other side of the village, and Charles drove through the narrow, deserted street at a pace that made a solitary pedestrian leap out of harm’s way. There was no sign of Peter and Margaret anywhere along the road, and since they had pleaded a previous engagement as their excuse for not joining the dinner -party that evening, they would certainly not have gone into the Vicarage. Moreover the house was in darkness, and seeing this, Charles turned the car, and started to drive back the way he had come.

  In the village street he overtook a bicyclist, and his powerful headlights showed this late plodder to be Constable Flinders. Charles drew up beside him. ‘I’ve got your case for you, Flinders,’ he said. ‘Can you leave that bicycle, and come up to the Priory?’

  Mr Flinders stared at him. ‘Lor’, sir, what’s happened?’

  ‘Mr and Miss Fortescue have disappeared, and I’d like you to go up and stand guard over my wife and aunt. Leave – no, shove it on the back seat. Can you?’

  ‘Me bike, sir? It’ll dirty your cushions, won’t it?’ the constable said dubiously.

  ‘What the hell does that matter? Lift it in.’

  ‘Well, if you say so, sir, I will,’ the constable said, and hoisted his bicycle into the back of the car. He then got in beside Charles, and instinctively grasped the seat with both hands as the car shot forward. ‘Sir,’ he said solemnly, ‘if I was on dooty and saw you driving like this I should have to run you in. I should really, sir.’

  ‘No doubt, but I happen to be in a hurry. Now look here, this is what has happened.’ Briefly he told Flinders of his brother’s and sister-in-law’s unaccountable disappearance.

  The constable listened in open-mouthed astonishment, and at the end of it collected his wits sufficiently to say: ‘Well, one thing I can tell you, sir. It ain’t Mr Titmarsh, for he’s not been out of his house the whole evening.’

  ‘I didn’t suppose it was,’ said Charles impatiently.

  ‘No, sir,’ said the constable, rather hurt, ‘but it narrows it down, so to speak, don’t it, when we know for certain it wasn’t him?’

  ‘When we get to the Priory,’ Charles said, paying no heed to this, ‘I’ll put you down, and you can cycle up to the house and wait for me there. I’m going on to Colonel Ackerley’s house to telephone to Manfield, and I hope to bring the Colonel back with me to help search the grounds.’

  ‘Do I understand you to mean, sir, that you mean to call in them chaps at the police-station?’

  ‘You do.’

  The constable coughed. ‘In a manner of speaking, sir, that should have been left for me to do, if I see fit.’

  ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to overlook the irregularity for once,’ Charles replied, pulling up at the Priory gates.

  The constable got out, and extricated his bicycle from the back of the car. ‘Very irregular, sir, that’s what it is,’ he said. ‘I don’t hardly know what to say about it.’

  ‘Think it out on your way up to the house,’ Charles advised him, and drove on while this retort was slowly filtering through to the constable’s brain.