Spider's Web - Agatha Christie [36]
‘Hm!’ the Inspector responded a little doubtfully. ‘Anything more?’
‘No,’ Elgin admitted. ‘They stopped when I came in, and when I went out they dropped their voices.’
‘I see,’ the Inspector commented. He looked intently at the butler, waiting for him to speak again.
Elgin got up from his chair. His voice was almost a whine as he pleaded, ‘You won’t be hard on me, sir, will you? I’ve had a lot of trouble one way and another.’
The Inspector regarded him for a moment longer, and then said dismissively, ‘Oh, that will do. Get out.’
‘Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,’ Elgin responded quickly as he made a hasty exit into the hall.
The Inspector watched him go, and then turned to the Constable. ‘Blackmail, eh?’ he murmured, exchanging glances with his colleague.
‘And Mrs Hailsham-Brown such a nice seeming lady,’ Constable Jones observed with a somewhat prim look.
‘Yes, well one never can tell,’ the Inspector observed. He paused, and then ordered curtly, ‘I’ll see Mr Birch now.’ The Constable went to the library door. ‘Mr Birch, please.’
Hugo came through the library door, looking dogged and rather defiant. The Constable closed the door behind him and took a seat at the table, while the Inspector greeted Hugo pleasantly. ‘Come in, Mr Birch,’ he invited. ‘Sit down here, please.’
Hugo sat, and the Inspector continued, ‘This is a very unpleasant business, I’m afraid, sir. What have you to tell us about it?’
Slapping his spectacle case on the table, Hugo replied defiantly, ‘Absolutely nothing.’
‘Nothing?’ queried the Inspector, sounding surprised.
‘What do you expect me to say?’ Hugo expostulated. ‘The blinking woman snaps open the blinking cupboard, and out falls a blinking corpse.’ He gave a snort of impatience. ‘Took my breath away,’ he declared. ‘I’ve not got over it yet.’ He glared at the Inspector. ‘It’s no good asking me anything,’ he said firmly, ‘because I don’t know anything about it.’
The Inspector regarded Hugo steadily for a moment before asking, ‘That’s your statement, is it? Just that you know nothing at all about it?’
‘I’m telling you,’ Hugo repeated. ‘I didn’t kill the fellow.’ Again he glared defiantly. ‘I didn’t even know him.’
‘You didn’t know him,’ the Inspector repeated. ‘Very well. I’m not suggesting that you did know him. I’m certainly not suggesting that you murdered him. But I can’t believe that you “know nothing”, as you put it. So let’s collaborate to find out what you do know. To begin with, you’d heard of him, hadn’t you?’
‘Yes,’ snapped Hugo, ‘and I’d heard he was a nasty bit of goods.’
‘In what way?’ the Inspector asked calmly.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Hugo blustered. ‘He was the sort of fellow that women liked and men had no use for. That sort of thing.’
The Inspector paused before asking carefully, ‘You’ve no idea why he should come back to this house a second time this evening?’
‘Not a clue,’ replied Hugo dismissively.
The Inspector took a few steps around the room, then turned abruptly to face Hugo. ‘Was there anything between him and the present Mrs Hailsham-Brown, do you think?’ he asked.
Hugo looked shocked. ‘Clarissa? Good Lord, no! Nice girl, Clarissa. Got a lot of sense. She wouldn’t look twice at a fellow like that.’
The Inspector paused again, and then said, finally, ‘So you can’t help us.’
‘Sorry. But there it is,’ replied Hugo with an attempt at nonchalance.
Making one last effort to extract at least a crumb of information from Hugo, the Inspector asked, ‘Had you really no idea that the body was in that recess?’
‘Of course not,’ replied Hugo, now sounding offended.
‘Thank you, sir,’ said the Inspector, turning away from him.
‘What?’ queried Hugo vaguely.
‘That’s all, thank you, sir,’ the Inspector repeated. He went to the desk and picked up a red book that lay on it.
Hugo rose, picked up his spectacle case, and was about to go across to the library door when the Constable got up and barred his way. Hugo then turned towards the French windows, but the Constable said, ‘This way, Mr Birch, please,’ and opened the hall door. Giving up, Hugo went