Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie [22]
‘Oh, I understand perfectly. You’ve got to think everybody’s a liar till he’s proved he’s speaking the truth. Here are my keys, superintendent. That’s the drawers of the desk—that’s the bureau—that little one’s the key of the poison cupboard. Be sure to lock it up again. Perhaps I’d better just have a word with my secretary.’
He pressed a button on his desk.
Almost immediately the door opened and a competent-looking young woman appeared.
‘You rang, doctor?’
‘This is Miss Burgess—Superintendent Battle from Scotland Yard.’
Miss Burgess turned a cool gaze on Battle. It seemed to say:
‘Dear me, what sort of an animal is this?’
‘I should be glad, Miss Burgess, if you will answer any questions Superintendent Battle may put to you, and give him any help he may need.’
‘Certainly, if you say so, doctor.’
‘Well,’ said Roberts, rising, ‘I’ll be off. Did you put the morphia in my case? I shall need it for the Lockheart case.’
He bustled out, still talking, and Miss Burgess followed him.
‘Will you press that button when you want me, Superintendent Battle?’
Superintendent Battle thanked her and said he would do so. Then he set to work.
His search was careful and methodical, though he had no great hopes of finding anything of importance. Roberts’ ready acquiescence dispelled the chance of that. Roberts was no fool. He would realize that a search would be bound to come and he would make provisions accordingly. There was, however, a faint chance that Battle might come across a hint of the information he was really after, since Roberts would not know the real object of his search.
Superintendent Battle opened and shut drawers, rifled pigeon-holes, glanced through a chequebook, estimated the unpaid bills—noted what those same bills were for, scrutinized Roberts’ passbook, ran through his case notes and generally left no written document unturned. The result was meagre in the extreme. He next took a look through the poison cupboard, noted the wholesale firms with which the doctor dealt, and the system of checking, relocked the cupboard and passed on to the bureau. The contents of the latter were of a more personal nature, but Battle found nothing germane to his search. He shook his head, sat down in the doctor’s chair and pressed the desk button.
Miss Burgess appeared with commendable promptitude.
Superintendent Battle asked her politely to be seated and then sat studying her for a moment, before he decided which way to tackle her. He had sensed immediately her hostility and he was uncertain whether to provoke her into unguarded speech by increasing that hostility or whether to try a softer method of approach.
‘I suppose you know what all this is about, Miss Burgess?’ he said at last.
‘Dr Roberts told me,’ said Miss Burgess shortly.
‘The whole thing’s rather delicate,’ said Superintendent Battle.
‘Is it?’ said Miss Burgess.
‘Well, it’s rather a nasty business. Four people are under suspicion and one of them must have done it. What I want to know is whether you’ve ever seen this Mr Shaitana?’
‘Never.’
‘Ever heard Dr Roberts speak of him?’
‘Never—no, I am wrong. About a week ago Dr Roberts told me to enter up a dinner appointment in his engagement-book. Mr Shaitana, 8.15, on the 18th.’
‘And that is the first you ever heard of this Mr Shaitana?’
‘Yes.’
‘Never seen his name in the papers? He was often in the fashionable news.’
‘I’ve got better things to do than reading the fashionable news.’
‘I expect you have. Oh, I expect you have,’ said