The Ivory Dagger

CHAPTER XXII

Detective Inspector Frank Abbott and Inspector Newbury drove up to the house together at just after five o’clock. It had turned cold and was beginning to be wet. The house felt agreeably warm when they came into it.

As Marsham stood back from the front door, which he had closed behind them, he received a shock of surprise. The Inspector from Scotland Yard looked a great deal more like a guest than accorded with his sense of the fitness of things. He had been in very good houses, and he knew. Even if he had still been in service with the Earl of Drumble he would without a qualm have admitted this tall fair young man on any social occasion. Very good clothes too. Savile Row if he was a judge, and he thought he was. Not too new, and worn the way a gentleman ought to wear his clothes-as if they were the right and proper thing for him to wear and he didn’t have to give them a thought.

Lady Dryden, who was coming down the stairs, received the same impression, though she would not have put it in quite the same way. She had a moment of wonder as to who this distinguished-looking young man could be, and one of angry surprise when he was presented as Detective Inspector Abbott from Scotland Yard.

‘The new Police College product, I suppose,’ was her comment to Adrian Grey, who had followed her.

Adrian supposed so too. He had had only a fleeting glimpse of the two Inspectors as they turned into the passage leading to the study.

‘What did you say his name was?’ He had an idea that he had seen the tall, slim figure and the fair slicked-back hair before.

‘Abbott,’ said Lady Dryden rather as if the name were an offence to her. ‘Detective Inspector Abbott.’

Adrian felt a tinge of amusement. Even at a time like this Sybil Dryden appealed to his sense of humour. He proceeded to gratify it.

‘Then it’s Frank Abbott. He’s related to everybody all over England, and I’ve met him. I thought I knew that back. He looks as if he had been kept on ice ever since the family came out of the Ark, but I believe it’s mostly manner. His grandmother was old Lady Evelyn Abbott, and a noted dragon in her day. She quarrelled with his father and cut Frank out of her will when he went into the police. The money all went to a granddaughter.’

‘Oh, there was money?’

‘One of those shipping fortunes.’

Miss Silver, coming downstairs about half an hour later, encountered a short, alert little man who was giving very perfunctory attention to Lady Dryden’s remarks about her niece’s health. She caught the words ‘extremely delicate from a child’, and had no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that the gentleman to whom they were addressed was Dr. Everett, the Police Surgeon. As she passed him he set a determined foot upon the bottom step.

‘Well then, I’ll just go up and see for myself. There’ll be someone with her, I take it, so I needn’t trouble you.’

‘But, Dr. Everett-’

‘Now, Lady Dryden, it’s no manner of use, and you’re not helping her or yourself. If she’s fit to be seen, they must see her, and if she isn’t, I’ll say so. You mustn’t expect me to take my opinion from you or from anyone else. And you may take it from me, if she’s any way fit it’ll be best for her to get it over, so I’ll just be going up.’ He suited the action to the word, and at a very brisk pace.

Lady Dryden stood where she was with an angry flush on her face. Miss Silver gave a slight admonitory cough.

‘These inquiries are painful, but they must take their course. Believe me, it is not wise to oppose them. I gather from what he said that the Inspector is here.’

‘Two of them,’ said Lady Dryden. ‘There is a man from Scotland Yard with Inspector Newbury.’

Miss Silver looked brightly interested.

‘Indeed? May I ask his name?’

‘I believe it is Abbott.’

Miss Silver said in a pleased sort of way.

‘Really? How very pleasant! Such an able officer. And an old friend of mine.’

Dr. Everett made his appearance on the landing and began rapidly to descend the stairs.

‘A remarkable improvement. That’s a very sensible girl you’ve got with her. Nice girl-level-headed. Best thing possible for Miss Dryden. And she’s perfectly fit to make a statement. Of course she needn’t. I’ve told her that. Always play fair. She’s got a perfect right to refuse, or to hold her tongue until she can see her solicitor. But she’ll have to see the Inspectors and tell them so herself. I’ll be there.’ He went briskly off in the direction of the study.

Miss Silver considered her course of action. She had no wish to be intrusive, or to put herself in Frank Abbott’s way. It would not be very long before someone or other would mention her presence at Vineyards. Meanwhile she had spent quite an informative half-hour with Lila Dryden and Adrian Grey, to say nothing of the afternoon’s conversations with Lady Dryden and Mr. Haile. She felt that she had plenty of food for thought, and that it would be pleasant to finish little Josephine’s vest. She proceeded in the direction of the drawing-room.

It was, however, no more than a few minutes later that Lady Dryden followed her in a formidable cold rage. She had been refused permission to be present while Lila was questioned, and she strongly suspected that it was Dr. Everett who had instigated the refusal. She relieved herself by some very caustic remarks, and subsided finally into a state of icy resentment. For the first time in her life she was up against circumstances which she could not control and people whom she could not manipulate. The whole structure of the law, taken, as we all take it, for granted, emerged as a factor not to be diverted or compelled. Instead of a safeguard it had become a threat. She knew what it was to be afraid. She sat staring into the fire, and had no more words.

Upstairs Lila was supporting the ordeal of being questioned with perfect calm. Since Adrian was sure that she hadn’t killed Herbert, everything was quite all right. The immense relief of knowing that nobody could make her marry him now really left no room for anything else. Inspector Newbury and Inspector Abbott sat side by side and asked her a great many questions. Some of them she could answer, and some she couldn’t. When she didn’t know the answer she said so. It really wasn’t frightening at all.

‘Why did you go downstairs, Miss Dryden?’

‘I don’t know. Adrian says I was walking in my sleep.’

‘ïs that what he told you to say?’

Lila’s blue eyes opened quite wide. They were very beautiful eyes.

‘Oh, no-he saw me.’

That was Inspector Newbury. Then the London Inspector.

‘Did you go down to meet Mr. Waring?’

‘Oh, no. I was going to wait and see him in the morning.’

‘He wrote and asked you.to meet him?’

She gazed at him earnestly.

‘Oh, yes. And I didn’t know what to do. I thought, and thought, and I didn’t feel as if I could go down. Everything was so empty, and everyone in bed-except perhaps, I thought, Herbert might still be there, and if I went down-’ Her colour went. She said in a whisper, ‘I couldn’t.’

‘You were afraid of him?’

‘Oh, yes’-a shudder shook her-‘dreadfully.’

‘Then why did you go down?’

Ray stood behind the couch. The young man with the mirror smooth hair and the cold blue eyes was trying to catch Lila out. She had to bite her lip to keep back angry words. But there was no need to be angry. Lila wouldn’t be caught, because she was speaking the truth. She just looked at him and said,

‘But I didn’t-at least I didn’t mean to. It was cold, so I sat down on this couch and pulled the eiderdown over me. I had to think whether I would have to go down or not, and I thought I wouldn’t. I thought if I didn’t go down. Bill would come back in the morning, and that would be a great deal better. And then I must have gone to sleep. I didn’t mean to go down-I didn’t really.’

‘You know you did go down?’

‘I didn’t know I was doing it.’

‘You know you went down to the study?’

Her eyes widened.

‘I woke up there.’

‘Go on, Miss Dryden.’

‘Herbert was dead-’

‘How did you know he was dead?’

‘I thought he was-’

‘What made you think so?’

She said, ‘Blood’-in a whispering voice. ‘On my hand-and on my dress-’

‘And that made you think Sir Herbert was dead? Did you think you had killed him?’

She shook her head.

‘I didn’t think-it was all too dreadful. Adrian was there. He says I didn’t. He says he was just behind me.’

‘Did you dream when you were walking in your sleep?’

‘Oh, no-I don’t. At least I don’t remember it if I do.’

‘Do you often walk in your sleep?’

‘I used to when I was at school.’

‘And lately?’

‘Aunt Sybil said I came out on the landing one night last week. I didn’t know I did.’

‘And you don’t remember dreaming last night?’

She shook her head.

‘No-I just woke up. And Adrian was there.’