The Seven Dials Mystery - Agatha Christie [64]
‘I didn’t think of it at first,’ confessed Lady Coote. ‘This poor boy here’–she indicated Jimmy–‘being shot–and everything so dreadful, but so exciting. It wasn’t till Mr Bateman asked me where Sir Oswald was that I remembered he’d gone out half an hour before for a stroll.’
‘Sleepless, eh, Sir Oswald?’ asked Battle.
‘I am usually an excellent sleeper,’ said Sir Oswald. ‘But I must confess that last night I felt unusually restless. I thought the night air would do me good.’
‘You came out through this window, I suppose?’
Was it his fancy, or did Sir Oswald hesitate for a moment before replying?
‘Yes.’
‘In your pumps too,’ said Lady Coote, ‘instead of putting thick shoes on. What would you do without me to look after you?’
She shook her head sadly.
‘I think, Maria, if you don’t mind leaving us–we have still a lot to discuss.’
‘I know, dear, I’m just going.’
Lady Coote withdrew, carrying the empty medicine glass as though it were a goblet out of which she had just administered a death potion.
‘Well, Battle,’ said George Lomax, ‘it all seems clear enough. Yes, perfectly clear. The man fires a shot, disabling Mr Thesiger, flings away the weapon, runs along the terrace and down the gravel path.’
‘Where he ought to have been caught by my men,’ put in Battle.
‘Your men, if I may say so, Battle, seem to have been singularly remiss. They didn’t see Miss Wade come in. If they could miss her coming in, they could easily miss the thief going out.’
Superintendent Battle opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to think better of it. Jimmy Thesiger looked at him curiously. He would have given a lot to know just what was in Superintendent Battle’s mind.
‘Must have been a champion runner,’ was all the Scotland Yard man contented himself with saying.
‘How do you mean, Battle?’
‘Just what I say, Mr Lomax. I was round the corner of the terrace myself not fifty seconds after the shot was fired. And for a man to run all that distance towards me and get round the corner of the path before I appeared round the side of the house–well, as I say, he must have been a champion runner.’
‘I am at a loss to understand you, Battle. You have some idea of your own which I have not yet–er–grasped. You say the man did not go across the lawn, and now you hint–What exactly do you hint? That the man did not go down the path? Then in your opinion–er–where did he go?’
For answer, Superintendent Battle jerked an eloquent thumb upwards.
‘Eh?’ said George.
The Superintendent jerked harder than ever. George raised his head and looked at the ceiling.
‘Up there,’ said Battle. ‘Up the ivy again.’
‘Nonsense, Superintendent. What you are suggesting is impossible.’
‘Not at all impossible, sir. He’d done it once. He could do it twice.’
‘I don’t mean impossible in that sense. But if the man wanted to escape, he’d never bolt back into the house.’
‘Safest place for him, Mr Lomax.’
‘But Mr O’Rourke’s door was still locked on the inside when we came to him.’
‘And how did you get to him? Through Sir Stanley’s room. That’s the way our man went. Lady Eileen tells me she saw the door knob of Mr O’Rourke’s room move. That was when our friend was up there the first time. I suspect the key was under Mr O’Rourke’s pillow. But his exit is clear enough the second time–through the communicating door and through Sir Stanley’s room, which, of course, was empty. Like everyone else, Sir Stanley is rushing downstairs to the library. Our man’s got a clear course.’
‘And where did he go then?’
Superintendent Battle shrugged his burly shoulders and became evasive.
‘Plenty of ways open. Into an empty room on the other side of the house and down the ivy again–out through a side door–or, just possibly, if it was an inside job, he–well, stayed in the house.’
George looked at him in shocked surprise.
‘Really, Battle, I should–I should feel it very deeply if one of my servants–er–I have the most perfect reliance on them–it would distress me very much to have to suspect–’
‘Nobody’s asking you to suspect