Duplicate Death Read online

  ‘Before we come to him,’ said Hemingway, ‘what’s Mrs Haddington’s evidence?’

  ‘Mrs Haddington states that after Miss Birtley had set off downstairs to fetch Seaton-Carew to the telephone, she was just going up to her room when she found that Mr Butterwick had come out of the drawing-room, and was standing behind her. He said he was going down to the dining-room to get himself a drink, play having finished at his table. She then went on up to her bedroom, and cannot state whether he went straight downstairs or not. She remained in her room for a few minutes only – uncorroborated, except that one or two people in the drawing-room say she wasn’t gone for long – and then returned to the drawing-room, which she did not again leave until after the murder had been discovered. Mr Butterwick tells the same story. He says he left Mrs Haddington going upstairs, and himself went running down to the dining-room. He did not meet either SeatonCarew or Miss Birtley and that, Chief Inspector, is where I think he’s lying. He also states that he didn’t hear any of the conversation between Mrs Haddington and Miss Birtley about this telephone-call, and that’s another lie, or I’m much mistaken. He stayed in the dining-room, and came back into the drawing-room just as Sir Roderick Vickerstown was leaving it to find out what was keeping Seaton-Carew. Corroborated by Sir Roderick. The butler doesn’t know when he left the dining-room, because he himself had gone down to his pantry while Mr Butterwick was still there.’

  ‘I see. And has this Butterwick any reason for killing Seaton-Carew?’

  ‘To my mind, he’s got more reason than anyone else,’ said Pershore. ‘By what I’ve gathered, and from the looks of him I don’t find it hard to believe, he used to be very thick with Seaton-Carew, and always flying into tantrums if ever Seaton-Carew paid too much attention to anyone else.’

  ‘Oh, a homosexual, is he? Of course, I would have to strike a case with one of them in it!’

  The Inspector looked down his nose. ‘That is how he seems to me, and it’s what I’ve been given to understand. But the butler, and Mrs Haddington’s personal maid, both state that Seaton-Carew was after Miss Cynthia Haddington, which was not at all what Mrs Haddington wished, for he was as old as she was, and, what’s more, he was very intimate with her. But that,’ he added austerely, ‘is uncorroborated gossip.’

  ‘Nice goings-on!’ commented Hemingway. ‘Where are we getting to? Did Mrs Haddington strangle Seaton-Carew because he was making up to her daughter, or did Butterwick do it for the same reason?’

  ‘Well,’ said Pershore, ‘it’s only fair to state that both the butler and the parlourmaid say that after dinner tonight Mrs Haddington and Seaton-Carew were alone together in the library, and it sounded as if they were having some kind of a dispute – to put it no higher. And Miss Haddington says that when Butterwick arrived he found her talking to Seaton-Carew in the back drawing-room, and created a scene. She says he flew into a rage, and she was afraid he was going to do something silly, he was so upset. Lady Nest Poulton more or less agrees with that, though she didn’t hear the actual words that passed between him and Seaton-Carew. She just says he seemed to be upset, but it wasn’t anything out of the way with him. A Miss Cheadle, who was his partner, says that she thought he had something on his mind, but she knew nothing about the quarrel with Seaton-Carew.’

  ‘Oh!’ said Hemingway. ‘Did Miss Birtley have a row with this Seaton-Carew as well?’

  ‘According to the servants, Miss Birtley has always disliked him, and made no bones about showing it. He and she arrived at the house together tonight, and when the butler opened the door to them it was plain Miss Birtley was very angry with Seaton-Carew. He was laughing, and taunting her, by what the butler could make out, and she said something of a threatening nature about being determined as well as cruel, and he’d better not be too sure of something.’

  ‘Yes, that’s the sort of evidence that makes me wish I’d gone in for lorry-driving, or something easy. Any more people who had a silly quarrel with this popular number?’

  ‘No, not exactly,’ replied Pershore. ‘But it seems that Lord Guisborough couldn’t stand him – in fact, he as good as told me so. He’s in love with Miss Haddington too, but he’s accounted for: he was playing Bridge at one of the tables in the library, and he never left the room till the murder had been discovered. None of them did, at his table.’

  ‘What a shame!’ said Hemingway. ‘Quite my fancy, he was. I’ve never arrested a lord yet, and he seems to have got just as much motive as anyone else I’ve heard of so far. What about the rest of the gang in the library?’

  ‘Two only left the room while Seaton-Carew was absent. Mr Poulton, who was playing at his table, went out to get a breather – they all agree it was a bit stuffy in the room by that time. He states that he strolled along the hall to the front-door, and stood for a moment or two at the top of the steps. Then he went back to the library, visiting the cloakroom on the way. No corroboration.’

  ‘Any motive either?’

  ‘Not,’ said the Inspector, ‘that I have been able to discover.’

  ‘That’s fine: we’d better fasten on him,’ said Hemingway.

  ‘Fasten on him?’ repeated the Inspector, staring.

  ‘Well, I’d rather have no motive at all than the lot I’ve been listening to. Who else left the library?’

  ‘Mr Harte. He was playing with Miss Haddington, against Mr and Mrs Kenelm Guisborough, who are by way of being Lord Guisborough’s cousins. Some minutes after Mr Poulton had gone out, Mr Harte became dummy, and he too left the room. He met Mr Poulton coming out of the cloakroom.’

  ‘And what did he do?’

  ‘According to his story, he too went into the cloak room. Mr Harte has no apparent motive – so perhaps you’d prefer to fasten on him, Chief Inspector!’ said Pershore, with heavy sarcasm.

  ‘You know, every time you say that name it rings a bell with me,’ said Hemingway, frowning. ‘But for the life of me I can’t place it. Harte – Harte – I know I’ve met it before!’

  ‘He is a nice-looking young gentleman,’ offered Pershore. ‘In the late twenties, I should say. He’s a barrister, so perhaps that’s how you come to know of him.’

  Hemingway shook his head. ‘No, that’s not it. Oh, well! Perhaps I’ll remember when I see him.’

  ‘He is being detained in the drawing-room, along with Miss Birtley, Mr Butterwick, Mr Poulton, and Dr Westruther. Dr. Westruther, being a scorer, was in the library when SeatonCarew left it, and went up to the drawing-room to inform them there of the cause of the delay in the game before the discovery of the murder. Dr Westruther states that he had not met Seaton-Carew previous to this evening.’

  ‘Well, what do you want to go detaining him for?’ demanded Hemingway. ‘A nice temper he’ll be in by this time!’

  ‘Properly speaking, I did not detain him. He remained of his own choice, or perhaps Mrs Haddington asked him to, Miss Haddington being a good deal upset – quite hysterical, she was, at first, but he got her calmed down.’

  ‘Thank God for that, at all events! What I’d better do is to see these people, and get rid of those who don’t belong here, or we shall have them pitching complaints in about the way they were kept up all night for no reason. What about the servants? Are they sitting up too?’

  ‘Only the butler and the parlourmaid. None of the others was unaccounted for at the time, being in the servants’ hall, and the kitchen.’

  ‘Sandy, go and talk to them, and pack them off to bed! One last thing before I give your suspects the once-over, Pershore! Anyone know where that bit of picture-wire that was used for the job came from?’

  ‘The wire, Chief Inspector, is part of a coil bought this morning – that is to say, yesterday morning – by Miss Birtley, at Mrs Haddington’s instigation. Some of it she used to make what I understand to be a kind of flower-holder; and the rest she left on a shelf in the cloakroom.’

  ‘In full view of any of the gentlemen who went into the cloakroom, I suppose?’

  ‘Yes,�€