The Floating Admiral - Agatha Christie [76]
He produced his photograph and asked if the hotel manager had ever seen the original. And then came the information which brought all his suspicions of Mount back with a rush and made him congratulate himself on having followed up this line of the case.
Mount, it appeared, had called at the hotel on the day following that on which the telegram had been received, and Rudge saw that he must have gone there immediately on arrival in Drychester. He had stated that he was conducting a delicate enquiry on behalf of a member of his church. It concerned an unhappy marriage; he hoped the manager would not ask for details. His parishioner’s wife had intended to meet her husband on the previous night with reference to a possible reconciliation, returning afterwards to the Anglers’ Arms and there spending the night. But she had not turned up and his friend was very distressed about her. He, the friend, wishing to keep his family skeleton hidden, had not himself come to the hotel to make enquiries, but had deputed him, the Vicar, to do so in his stead. Could the manager give him any information about the lady? The Vicar could not say under what name she might have registered.
Though the manager did not personally know Mount, he had seen him at functions at the cathedral, and was satisfied of his bona fides. He therefore gave him all the information at his disposal. Mr. Mount had thanked him and had at once left.
Rudge imagined that this interview had probably constituted Mount’s whole business in Drychester, but to make assurance as sure as possible, he went to the cathedral and in the guise of a former parishioner, asked the head verger if he had ever heard of his old rector, the Rev. Philip Mount, who he believed was now in charge of a parish somewhere near. From this beginning it was easy to steer the conversation in the way it should go, and Rudge was soon convinced that the Vicar had not been at the cathedral on the day in question.
Rudge caught the last train to town that night. Next morning he was early at Scotland Yard, where he explained that he wanted to make some enquiries at the Charing Cross Hotel and possibly elsewhere. He was asked if he required help, and on his saying that he did not, he was told to go ahead and ring up if he was stuck.
Assured of a free hand, Rudge went on to the hotel. There with the aid of his photograph he had no difficulty in establishing the fact that Mount had arrived at a few minutes before nine on the evening he rang up, evidently from the train arriving at Waterloo at 8.35. So far as was known he had not gone out that night. Next morning he had paid his bill after breakfast and left.
So far it had been plain sailing for Rudge. Enquiries at the reception office and from waiters and chambermaids had quickly brought him his information. But now he was up against something stiffer. In vain he questioned porters and messenger boys. The head porter remembered seeing the Vicar, but he couldn’t remember how he had left. He or one of his staff might have got a taxi for him, but they got so many taxis they couldn’t be sure.
Rudge was extremely persistent, but success did not crown his efforts. Mount had gone, but no one knew how.
Rudge went out into the square in front of the station. In all probability Mount had walked to where he had wanted to go, or, if not, had taken a ’bus or gone down to the Underground. If so, Rudge did not see how he could possibly get on his track, and he would be forced to return to Whynmouth and fall back on the chance of getting a statement. Such a statement Mount might, of course, refuse to make, and Rudge didn’t see how he could force it from him. No, if he, Rudge, could find out what Mount had done in town, it would be infinitely better.
He wondered whether Mount might not after all have taken a taxi. The porters might have forgotten the circumstance, or Mount might have come out into the square and hailed