The Gazebo

SEVENTEEN

MISS MAUD SILVER had finished her breakfast, but there was a second cup of tea on the table beside her and she was taking a little longer than usual over the more frivolous of the two newspapers for which she subscribed. She was reflecting on the rapidity with which news is transmitted, and wondering what prompted the selection of such items as ‘Film Star Weds Fifth Husband,’ and, ‘Mother Says I Love My Baby Son,’ when the telephone bell rang from the next room. She put down the paper and, neglecting her cup of tea, went through to answer the call. A voice which she did not recognize spoke her name. She did not recognize the voice, but she was immediately aware that its owner was quite desperately afraid. There is the fear that makes the voice tremble, and there is the fear which makes it rigid. The voice which said, ‘Miss Silver…’ was stiff with fear. When she said, ‘Who is speaking?’ there was a pause before it said,

‘Althea Graham. I saw you yesterday. Something dreadful has happened. My mother is dead.’

Miss Silver was aware of the force which controlled the words. She said,

‘If there is anything I can do to help you…’

Althea said in that unnatural voice,

‘They say she was murdered. Will you come?’ The line went dead.

Miss Silver did not attempt to recover the connexion. She congratulated herself on having taken Althea Graham’s address, and she went into her bedroom and packed a suit-case. She might be required to stay, or she might not. Certainly that poor girl must not be left alone. Having just completed a most exciting case, she had beent hoping for an interval in which to catch up with her correspondence, but this was not an appeal she could neglect. Within twenty minutes of the time when she had taken up the receiver she was seeing her suit-case into a taxi at the Marsham Street entrance to Montague Mansions and saying goodbye to Hannah Meadows who had come down to see her off.

The case already referred to having been of an extremely lucrative nature, she decided to drive the whole way to Grove Hill.

She arrived to find Dr Barrington gone and the police in possession. The local Detective Inspector informed her that a couple of officers would be coming down from Scotland Yard, beyond which he had nothing to say, except that Miss Graham would be wanted for questioning when they arrived, and that she ought not to leave the house. She was in the drawing-room, he added, and stood aside for Miss Silver to pass.

Althea turned round from the window, her face white and strained. It was hard to recognize her as the girl who had left Montague Mansions yesterday, her eyes bright with hope. She said,

‘You’ve come…’

‘Yes, my dear. I told you that I would come.’

Althea said in a dazed voice,

‘Nothing happens the way you think it is going to…’

Miss Silver looked at her very kindly indeed.

‘You have had a great shock. Let us sit down and see what can be done to help you. Do you feel able to tell me what has happened?’

Althea did not look at Miss Silver. She stared down at her straining hands.

‘I don’t know what did happen – nobody does. I’ll tell you as much as I can. She went to have her bath about nine. Then Nicky rang up. I think she must have gone across to her bedroom and listened in on the extension. He said he wanted to see me, and I said he couldn’t. There is one of those old-fashioned summerhouse places which they used to call gazebos at the top of the garden. We used to meet there – long ago…’ Her voice failed. After a little she went on again. ‘He said he would be there at half past ten, and if I didn’t come out he would come in. He is like that – you can’t stop him if there’s something he wants to do.’

A feeling of apprehension was growing in Miss Silver’s mind. The word murder had been used, and the police were in the house. Scotland Yard was taking over, and Nicholas Carey was a young man who would stick at nothing to get his own way. She said,

‘You went to meet him?’

The hands in Althea’s lap strained more tightly.

‘If I hadn’t gone he would have come in. If I had locked the door he would have broken a window. He is like that. It wouldn’t have been any use saying no, and I wanted to see him. My mother would be asleep by half past ten. I took up her Ovaltine before ten, and I waited until the half hour had struck, but I am afraid that she waited too. I met Nicky and we talked. I told him about your Miss Chapell, and I said we could be married today. And then – she came…’

‘Your mother?’

Althea made a very slight movement and said,

‘Yes. She was angry – very, very angry. I was afraid she would make herself ill. She said I wouldn’t care if I killed her – she said I only thought about myself. Nicky did his best, but it wasn’t any good. He didn’t lose his temper – he didn’t really. He said he was sorry he had to see me like that, but she wouldn’t let him come to the house. He said he would come round and see her in the morning, and she said he wanted to kill her and he wasn’t to come. So I made him go, and I got her back to the house and put her to bed. I wouldn’t talk about it. When I had settled her down I went to bed myself. I didn’t think I should sleep, but I slept like a log. And then when I woke up she wasn’t in her room. She wasn’t in the house.’

‘What time was it when you waked?’

‘It was half past six.’

‘What did you do?’

‘When I had looked everywhere in the house I went up the garden to the gazebo.’

‘Why did you do that?’

For the first time Althea looked at her. Her eyes had a puzzled expression.

‘I don’t know. I thought she might have gone back to see if Nicky had really gone. She liked – to make sure. I thought she might have gone back to make sure about Nicky and – and fainted. I thought she must have been in a hurry. She hadn’t put on her stockings or underclothes like she had the first time – only a skirt and a coat over her night things.’

‘Could she see the gazebo from her window?’

‘No, but she could see it from the bathroom. She must have seen something to make her go out like that. And she had locked the front door and the back door and taken the keys – they were in the pocket of the coat. I had to get out of the kitchen window.’

She looked away again. They had come to the part which had got to be told, and she didn’t know how to find words for the telling. It was like digging in the ground for something very hard and heavy and pushing it up a hill. It was the sort of thing you cannot do unless it has got to be done.

It had got to be done. She said,

‘She was in the gazebo. Lying on the floor. She was dead. I thought it was her heart, but Dr Barrington said she had been murdered. He said – someone had – strangled her.’

She had got the words out. Even the last and the worst of them. There was no more strength in her. No more strength at all. She lifted her eyes to Miss Silver’s face and said in an exhausted voice,

‘It couldn’t be Nicky. It couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t be Nicky.’

Miss Silver was very grave indeed. She said,

‘How much of this have you told to the police?’

‘I told them…’

‘Have they seen Mr Carey yet?’

‘No. I rang up. He had gone out. He was going to arrange – about – our getting married.’ A little more life came into her voice. ‘You won’t – you won’t let them think he did it. He was keeping his temper – he had promised me he would keep his temper. He couldn’t have done a thing like that! Oh, you will help us, won’t you?’

Miss Silver took the hand that was suddenly and impulsively held out to her.

‘My dear, I will do all that I can to help you. But there is no help in anything except the truth. I must say to you what I say to every client. I cannot take a case in order to prove this person innocent or that person guilty. I can only do my best to arrive at the truth. If Mr Carey is innocent, the truth will clear him. I cannot undertake to prove either innocence or guilt. I can only serve the ends of justice and say, what I most earnestly believe, that in the end mercy and justice are the same.’

Althea drew her hands away. They were so numb that she could not feel them. For a moment her startled glance remained fixed upon Miss Silver, then it turned towards the door. From beyond it the front door banged. There was a sound of voices raised and a rapid step in the hall. The drawing-room door was flung open and Nicholas Carey strode into the room. He did not trouble to shut the door. The local Inspector stood there watching him.

Althea got to her feet. They moved together. She put her head down on his shoulder and he held her close. Detective Inspector Sharp and the Detective Sergeant behind him both heard her say,

‘Oh, Nicky, tell them you didn’t do it – you didn’t!