Who Saw Him Die? (28 page)

‘And how would Miss Bell have got hold of a gun?'

‘No problem. Her grandfather's shotguns were kept in a cabinet at Tower House until last Thursday, when they were removed to be sold. I didn't notice the cabinet, when we went to see her after Clanger's death, but the DCI did. He thought there were four guns in it – but the auctioneer tells me there were only three. It's possible that Douglas was mistaken, of course. He didn't get a close look, and he could have been misled by the four-gun cabinet. But it's also possible that Eunice Bell retained the fourth gun.'

‘If she did – and if she used it on Goodrum – what do you think she'd have done with it afterwards?'

‘I can't imagine.' It was tomorrow already, and Hilary felt tiredness creeping up on her. ‘I don't think Miss Bell would have hidden it on her property because she's selling Tower House and there'd be too much risk of the new owner finding it.' She suppressed a yawn. ‘She's probably taken it miles away and thrown it into a river somewhere, or into the sea. Off the Orwell Bridge, perhaps? Or the end of Yarmouth pier?'

‘Now
you
're being frivolous,' said Tait severely. ‘And I don't agree with you. I think it's possible that Miss Bell might have got rid of the shotgun immediately after the murder, by dumping it locally. I'll have this stretch of the river, and the mere, searched as soon as it's light.

‘Alternatively,' he went on, rising to his feet and prowling about the room, thinking, ‘she may be keeping the shotgun concealed among her possessions, with the intention of disposing of it after she's left Breckham Market.' He turned abruptly to face Hilary. ‘Didn't you say that when you called on her this afternoon she'd just sent off a load of furniture?'

Sergeant Lloyd drew a sharp breath, then groaned, vexed with herself. She had spent the last few hours suspecting Eunice Bell, without considering the possible significance of the removal van she had seen outside Tower House.

‘Yes,' she admitted. ‘I even saw a large packing case being loaded … But if by any chance the gun
is
in store with her furniture, at least it'll keep,' she added more positively. ‘And for the record, I had no reason at the time to disbelieve Miss Bell's alibi.'

‘But you knew that she had shotguns in the house,' Tait pointed out. ‘And you knew she had a very strong motive for killing Goodrum. Eunice Bell should have been your number one suspect!'

‘Well, she wasn't. And I don't agree that she had a strong motive. Yes, she's a proud woman. She told us, after Goodrum had been exonerated from blame for her brother's death, that she felt a deep sense of injustice. But she didn't grieve for Cuthbert. She said she felt nothing but relief that he was dead. And I can't believe that just when she'd at last gained her freedom, she would have risked it by planning and carrying out a murder for his sake. It wasn't as if she felt any personal animosity towards Jack Goodrum. She didn't even know the man.'

‘Then why are you suspecting her?'

‘Simply because I discovered this evening that she
could
have done it. But unless we can disprove some aspect of her alibi, we've got nothing against her. We'd never get a search warrant on the basis of that motive.'

‘I wouldn't try,' said Tait. He put on his Burberry. ‘And I'm not going to argue with you about motive at this time of night! Let's get some sleep. Tomorrow, you can start finding out whether in fact there had been a fourth shotgun in the cabinet at Tower House.'

‘Shouldn't be difficult,' the sergeant said, half to herself. She flipped through her notebook. ‘Yes, Eunice Bell talked about someone who did the cleaning for her –'

‘
Not
tonight,' said the Chief Inspector, reaching across the desk and plucking the notebook from her hands. ‘You've done a good job today, Hilary, and I'm very glad to have you working with me again. Now
go home
, woman.'

He put his hat on his head, tipping it racily forward, and took her coat from its wire hanger on the side of a filing cabinet.

‘Yes, all right, I'm going,' she said, pushing back her chair. ‘But only because I intended to, anyway.' She slid her arms into the sleeves of the coat as he held it for her. ‘Thanks. I'll talk to the Operatic Society ticket sellers, too,' she went on, ‘and find out if they noticed where Eunice Bell was sitting for
My Fair Lady
…'

Tait sighed. He put an arm across her shoulders and steered her firmly towards the door. ‘Come on, my fair lady,' he said with affectionate exasperation.

‘Martin!'
Hilary stopped abruptly and whirled to face him, her tiredness gone. ‘That's it –
that's
how we can test Eunice Bell's alibi. It's so simple that we can do it right away, even before we know about the gun. All we have to ask her is
whether she enjoyed the show
.'

Sergeant Lloyd had guessed that Miss Bell would still be up, despite the fact that it was well after midnight. What she had not anticipated was that the lights outside Tower House would be on, the front door would be open, letting out more light from the hall, and Eunice Bell would be loading suitcases into her car.

Tait stopped his own car in the gateway, blocking it. Hilary followed him as he walked up the shadowed drive between the bare pollarded lime trees. Behind the limes rose the spiny monkey puzzle tree; above and beyond that loomed the dark outline of the Italianate tower from which the house derived its name.

The detectives had almost reached the house before Miss Bell noticed them. Dressed for travelling in a navy loden coat, she was about to lift a final suitcase into the boot of her staid elderly Rover. She glared at the intruders.

‘This is a private residence,' she said, her breath rising like a dragon's in the cold clear night air. ‘Is that your car in my gateway? Remove it at once, young man, or I shall call the police.'

Hilary stepped forward, apologised for the lateness of their coming, and introduced the Chief Inspector. Eunice Bell ignored him.

‘This is not a convenient time for a visit, Miss Lloyd. As you see, I've decided to leave Breckham Market immediately. I have a room reserved at the Angel at Saintsbury. You can get in touch with me there.'

‘Why the hurry to go?' asked Tait. But before she could reply, or disdain to reply, he sniffed the air. ‘I can smell petrol,' he said.

‘No doubt. I had my car filled this evening, and the careless youth let the tank overflow.'

‘May we come inside the house and talk to you, Miss Bell?' asked Hilary. ‘There's something we do urgently need to clear up before you leave.'

‘About my brother and Terry Gotts? The child has been dead for thirty-five years. Surely your questions can wait.'

‘It's not about Terry Gotts. It's about your grandfather's shotguns. May we come in?'

Eunice Bell made no comment. She led them as far as the lighted portico, but then closed the front door to prevent them going any further. ‘There's no point in going in,' she said. Her face looked unnaturally white, her eye-sockets darkly hollowed – but so did all their faces, under the harsh overhead light. ‘The furnishings have all been dismantled.'

Tait's long nose twitched again. ‘I can still smell petrol.'

Miss Bell raised her left hand, and sniffed the back of it fastidiously. ‘No, not petrol,' she told Hilary. ‘I decided that I couldn't leave my brother's room as it was, with people coming for the sale, so I've just been fumigating it. I seem to have sprayed some of the stuff on my hands.'

‘About the shotguns,' said the sergeant. ‘How many were there in the cabinet, Miss Bell?'

‘There were three.'

‘When I first came here with Chief Inspector Quantrill, he saw four.'

‘No. He saw a four-gun cabinet, and obviously came to the wrong conclusion. Why do you ask?'

‘We're looking for the weapon that was used last Saturday evening to kill Jack Goodrum,' said Tait.

‘Indeed?' said Eunice Bell frostily. ‘Then you're wasting your time by looking here. There were only three shotguns in my house, and Mr Glaze the auctioneer will confirm that he removed them for sale last Thursday.'

‘I suggest that there was a fourth gun,' said Tait. ‘And that it was used to kill Jack Goodrum.'

Eunice Bell attempted to shrivel the Chief Inspector with a look. ‘Are you implying that
I
might have shot the man? That would have been impossible. I spent Saturday evening watching
My Fair Lady
at the Town Hall – as Chief Inspector Quantrill knows.'

‘Ah yes,' said Hilary. ‘He mentioned that you'd had a chat before the performance. Did you enjoy the show, Miss Bell?'

‘Certainly.'

‘And you sat through the whole of it?'

‘Of course.'

‘Such a pity it had to be interrupted, when Chief Inspector Quantrill was called out because of the murder. What happened, exactly? Did they bring the curtain down and make an announcement, or what?'

For a moment Miss Bell stood rigid. Then she said, ‘I had a headache, and went out to the cloakroom to take some codeine. I believe the interruption occurred while I was away. I knew none of the people who were sitting near me, so I heard none of the details.'

‘And how long were you away? Half an hour or more?'

‘Certainly not. Five minutes at most.'

‘So except for those five minutes, you were in the auditorium watching the show?'

‘Yes.'

‘Then that's more than can be said of Chief Inspector Quantrill! He didn't intend to watch it, you know. He pretended he was going to, but he left before it began. That was why the performance had to be interrupted twice, because he didn't respond to the first announcement. But then, you were there, Miss Bell, so you'll know about that. Even if you missed the first interruption, you must have been back in the auditorium for the second, twelve minutes later. What happened, exactly? Did they bring down the curtain and make another announcement?'

Eunice Bell drew her coat more closely about her, and made no reply.

‘We'd like to search your car, Miss Bell,' said Tait.

She gave him another look. ‘Not unless you have a warrant.'

‘Not yet – but meanwhile I'm taking charge of your ignition key.' He removed it from the car. ‘When Sergeant Lloyd was here this afternoon,' he added, ‘you gave her permission to search your brother's room. At the time, she decided not to do so. We'd like to do it now.'

‘No. I withdraw that permission. As I told you, I've just fumigated the room.'

‘With
petrol
?' the Chief Inspector said. He picked up a five litre can that was lying on the gravel of the drive half-hidden behind the last of the suitcases, as though ready to be taken away. The can was capped, but empty. ‘For God's sake, you haven't sprinkled petrol in the room, have you? Don't you realise that you could blow the place up?'

‘I'm sure Miss Bell does realise it,' said Hilary quietly. ‘If that's what she's done, then it was for a specific purpose.' She turned to the older woman. ‘It's too late for you to carry it through now. Let us in, please.'

Eunice Bell took a proud stand immediately in front of the door. ‘I refuse to allow you to enter.'

‘Madam,' said Tait, ‘in these circumstances we don't need your permission. We have reason to suspect that there's a serious fire risk in this building, and we're empowered to investigate it in the interests of public safety.' He side-stepped adroitly and barged the door open. ‘Which way, Hilary?'

‘Sorry, Miss Bell – but he's right.'

Sergeant Lloyd slipped through the door and ran down the lighted, echoing, bare-tiled hall, past the furniture lined up for sale. She pushed open the green baize door that led to the former servants' quarters. The passage beyond was dark, and smelled unmistakably of petrol. ‘No lights!' shouted Tait from behind her. ‘For God's sake don't touch the light switches!'

He took a powerful torch from the pocket of his Burberry and spotlit the end of the kitchen corridor. The smell increased as they neared Clanger Bell's room. In the beam from her own torch, Hilary could see the air thickening and wavering as fumes seeped through the gap under the door.

Her eyes began to sting. She pulled the silk square from the neck of her coat, held it to her face and retreated. ‘We can't go in there just to look for evidence,' she protested, coughing. ‘It's too dangerous. Let's get outside and call the fire brigade. We can come back when they've made the building safe.'

‘But it could blow up before they arrive,' objected Tait. ‘I'm not prepared to risk losing the shotgun, now we've come this far. It must be in there – why else should she want to destroy the room? If we don't rescue the gun intact, we shall never be able to prove that Eunice Bell murdered Jack Goodrum.'

‘Don't be a fool, Martin! It's crazy to think of searching a fume-filled room. Quite apart from the danger of an explosion, you'd damage your lungs. No piece of evidence is worth that.'

‘I shouldn't need to do any searching,' he said. ‘From what you've told me of the state of Clanger's room, would Miss Bell have wanted to stay there long enough to hide anything? I'll be in and out in a matter of seconds. You clear off and leave this to me.'

Sergeant Lloyd elected to remain; someone would have to do something if the young idiot collapsed. She lighted the corridor with her torch as Tait, looking absurdly like a thirties gangster with his hat tilted over his eyes and his scarf tied over the lower part of his face, stood back against the wall and pushed open the door with one hand. The petrol fumes rolled silently out, making both detectives cough.

Then Tait sprang in front of the doorway, thrusting his torch like a handgun. Immediately, muffled but triumphant, he cried, ‘I
told
you so!'