Body in the Library - Agatha Christie [29]
Raymond considered.
“I don’t think so. I didn’t notice what happened afterwards. I had my own partners to look after. I do remember noticing she wasn’t in the ballroom. At midnight she hadn’t turned up. I was very annoyed and went to Josie about it. Josie was playing bridge with the Jeffersons. She hadn’t any idea where Ruby was, and I think she got a bit of a jolt. I noticed her shoot a quick, anxious glance at Mr. Jefferson. I persuaded the band to play another dance and I went to the office and got them to ring up to Ruby’s room. There wasn’t any answer. I went back to Josie. She suggested that Ruby was perhaps asleep in her room. Idiotic suggestion really, but it was meant for the Jeffersons, of course! She came away with me and said we’d go up together.”
“Yes, Mr. Starr. And what did she say when she was alone with you?”
“As far as I can remember, she looked very angry and said: ‘Damned little fool. She can’t do this sort of thing. It will ruin all her chances. Who’s she with, do you know?’
“I said that I hadn’t the least idea. The last I’d seen of her was dancing with young Bartlett. Josie said: ‘She wouldn’t be with him. What can she be up to? She isn’t with that film man, is she?’”
Harper said sharply: “Film man? Who was he?”
Raymond said: “I don’t know his name. He’s never stayed here. Rather an unusual-looking chap—black hair and theatrical-looking. He has something to do with the film industry, I believe—or so he told Ruby. He came over to dine here once or twice and danced with Ruby afterwards, but I don’t think she knew him at all well. That’s why I was surprised when Josie mentioned him. I said I didn’t think he’d been here tonight. Josie said: ‘Well, she must be out with someone. What on earth am I going to say to the Jeffersons?’ I said what did it matter to the Jeffersons? And Josie said it did matter. And she said, too, that she’d never forgive Ruby if she went and messed things up.
“We’d got to Ruby’s room by then. She wasn’t there, of course, but she’d been there, because the dress she had been wearing was lying across a chair. Josie looked in the wardrobe and said she thought she’d put on her old white dress. Normally she’d have changed into a black velvet dress for our Spanish dance. I was pretty angry by this time at the way Ruby had let me down. Josie did her best to soothe me and said she’d dance herself so that old Prestcott shouldn’t get after us all. She went away and changed her dress and we went down and did a tango—exaggerated style and quite showy but not really too exhausting upon the ankles. Josie was very plucky about it—for it hurt her, I could see. After that she asked me to help her soothe the Jeffersons down. She said it was important. So, of course, I did what I could.”
Superintendent Harper nodded. He said:
“Thank you, Mr. Starr.”
To himself he thought: “It was important, all right! Fifty thousand pounds!”
He watched Raymond Starr as the latter moved gracefully away. He went down the steps of the terrace, picking up a bag of tennis balls and a racquet on the way. Mrs. Jefferson, also carrying a racquet, joined him and they went towards the tennis courts.
“Excuse me, sir.”
Sergeant Higgins, rather breathless, stood at Harper’s side.
The Superintendent, jerked from the train of thought he was following, looked startled.
“Message just come through for you from headquarters, sir. Labourer reported this morning saw glare as of fire. Half an hour ago they found a burnt-out car in a quarry. Venn’s Quarry—about two miles from here. Traces of a charred body inside.”
A flush came over Harper’s heavy features. He said:
“What’s come to Glenshire? An epidemic of violence? Don’t tell me we’re going to have a Rouse case now!”
He asked: “Could they get the number of the car?”
“No, sir. But we’ll be able to identify it, of course, by the engine number. A Minoan 14, they think it is.”
Eight
I
Sir Henry Clithering, as he passed through the lounge of the Majestic, hardly glanced at its occupants. His mind was preoccupied. Nevertheless, as is the way of life, something