Death at Hallows End (25 page)

“My finding of Humby's body was lucky, but it wasn't all luck. Hickmansworth's car had done about forty miles—that gave me a radius of less than twenty from Hallows End in which to search. Hickmansworth's telling me that he had been brought up at Haysdown and that the Neasts had stayed with him there suggested that Holroyd or Cyril might have chosen familiar ground, and I thought it worth at least a try. The landlord of the Duke of Clarence with his Dane-hole was certainly lucky, but when I found him I was only following my invariable practice of starting all enquiries in the local pub.

“The state of the body seemed at first to indicate a brutal murder, but it was consistent with that body having been flung in an open grave, then buried for three days under a few tons of soil.

“I calculated that the Neasts would know by that evening that the body had been found and that even the dull-witted Cyril would see that his only chance lay in doing what Darkin had intended to do—giving Queen's Evidence. It was probably Holroyd who had actually administered the poison in the cases of both Grossiter and Darkin, so that Cyril believed his offer of Queen's Evidence would be accepted. At all events, I saw the extreme danger of Cyril being eliminated by Holroyd before he could give it, and I believed that with his death would disappear our only chance of convicting Holroyd. That is why I persuaded Snow to arrest him that night on any charge. I have no
doubt that he will get his solicitor to offer Queen's Evidence and that it will be accepted. If it is not, Holroyd will go free with a few hundred thousand pounds to enjoy.”

“It's all very interesting, Mr. Deene,” said Snow, “but it leaves a number of questions unanswered.”

“But if I know our Deene,” broke in Mr. Gorringer, “that will not be for long. He will dispose of our minutest doubts. I myself have a query to put to him. You say that you distrust coincidence, Deene. Was it not, though, a remarkable coincidence that the two men, Grossiter and Humby, were both suffering from some cardiac affliction?”

“I don't think so. Most men of sixty-five have heart trouble of some kind, after all. I imagine that Grossiter's was more obvious and more cared-for while Humby's was more serious but deliberately ignored.”

“I should like to know at what point you decided that Humby's body had been used to obtain a death certificate for Grossiter?” Snow asked.

“At no point. I suppose it cannot be called certain even now, though when Cyril gives Queen's Evidence against his brother it will be, I think. I have told you what suggested it to me and I worked on that hypothesis throughout.”

“What weight did you give to the man Stonegate's evidence?”

“Stonegate was either an ass and something of a buffoon, or else an extremely clever man who was in the Neast conspiracy. It was simply a matter of deciding which. If he was the first, his evidence was in the main to be trusted. If the second, it was doctored by Holroyd. I had no difficulty deciding that Stonegate was silly enough to be trusted. Spaull passed by Stonegate after coming into Church Lane from the footpath. That he was in fact the ‘man walking away' about whom Stonegate was so annoyingly noncommital was neatly confirmed by Spaull's own statement.”

Zelia said: “There's something Humphrey wants to know. Why had Grossiter been shaved when he saw his dead body?”

“Humby was clean-shaven. I suppose Holroyd, trying to think of everything, feared that Jayboard might compare notes with the undertaker or someone. I can see no other reason for it.

“One of the clumsier things those three did,” Carolus went on, “would seem to be using Hickmansworths' station wagon to carry the corpse to Haysdown. And yet I don't know. How were they to know that the Hickmansworths kept an exact record of its mileage? Cyril was probably warned by his brother to leave no fingerprints, and only took his gloves off when he had to tinker with the engine. In closing the bonnet afterwards, before putting on his gloves, he made one of those small but all-important blunders that are so valuable to the investigator. And using that car was not their only attempt to throw suspicion on Hickmansworth. Darkin's body was carefully placed near the boundary at the point where a track had once run from one farm to the other. And Holroyd's deliberate avoidance of reference to Hickmansworth in his long conversation with me was a clever double-bluff, for Holroyd's method was to be very open about things that he knew were already known.”

“A clever villain,” said Mr. Gorringer, wisely shaking his head.

“Madly clever,” said Carolus.

“But let us end this occasion on a happier note,” the Headmaster went on relentlessly. “I have my mite to contribute to the vast amount of information Deene has gathered, for I can tell you what took Lionel Thripp and Mrs. Caplan to Hallows End at a time and in a way which must have aroused suspicion. It was no less than their wish that Thripp's old friend Mr. Whiskins should consecrate their marriage. Before the end of the year they will be man and wife.”

“So help them God!” said Mrs. Gorringer, confused between a
mot
and a benediction. It was the last word on Hallows End.