The Sittaford Mystery - Agatha Christie [20]
‘Three, I fancy. Two girls and a boy—or possibly two boys and a girl—I cannot remember which.’
The Inspector nodded and put away his notebook and thanked the lawyer once more and took his departure.
When they had reached the street, he turned suddenly and faced his companion.
‘And now, sir,’ he said, ‘we’ll have the truth about the twenty-five past five business.’
Major Burnaby’s face reddened with annoyance.
‘I have told you already—’
‘That won’t go down with me. Withholding information, that is what you are doing, Major Burnaby. You must have had some idea in mentioning that specific time to Dr Warren—and I think I have a very good idea of what that something is.’
‘Well, if you know about it, why ask me?’ growled the Major.
‘I take it that you were aware that a certain person had an appointment with Captain Trevelyan somewhere about that time. Now, isn’t that so?’
Major Burnaby stared at him in surprise.
‘Nothing of the kind,’ he snarled, ‘nothing of the kind.’
‘Be careful, Major Burnaby. What about Mr James Pearson?’
‘James Pearson? James Pearson, who’s he? Do you mean one of Trevelyan’s nephews?’
‘I presume it would be a nephew. He had one called James, hadn’t he?’
‘Not the least idea. Trevelyan had nephews—I know that. But what their names were, I haven’t the vaguest idea.’
‘The young man in question was at the Three Crowns last night. You probably recognized him there.’
‘I didn’t recognize anybody,’ growled the Major. ‘Shouldn’t anyway—never saw any of Trevelyan’s nephews in my life.’
‘But you knew that Captain Trevelyan was expecting a nephew to call upon him yesterday afternoon?’
‘I did not,’ roared the Major.
Several people in the street turned round to stare at him.
‘Damn it, won’t you take plain truth! I knew nothing about any appointment. Trevelyan’s nephews may have been in Timbuctoo for all I knew about them.’
Inspector Narracott was a little taken aback. The Major’s vehement denial bore the mark of truth too plainly for him to be deceived.
‘Then why this twenty-five past five business?’
‘Oh! well—I suppose I had better tell you,’ the Major coughed in an embarrassed fashion. ‘But mind you—the whole thing is damned foolishness! Tommy rot, sir. How any thinking man can believe such nonsense!’
Inspector Narracott looked more and more surprised. Major Burnaby was looking more uncomfortable and ashamed of himself every minute.
‘You know what it is, Inspector. You have to join in these things to please a lady. Of course, I never thought there was anything in it.’
‘In what, Major Burnaby?’
‘Table-turning.’
‘Table-turning?’
Whatever Narracott had expected he had not expected this. The Major proceeded to explain himself. Haltingly, and with many disclaimers of his own belief in the thing, he described the events of the previous afternoon and the message that had purported to come through for himself.
‘You mean, Major Burnaby, that the table spelt out the name of Trevelyan and informed you that he was dead—murdered?’
Major Burnaby wiped his forehead.
‘Yes, that’s what happened. I didn’t believe in it—naturally, I didn’t believe in it.’ He looked ashamed. ‘Well—it was Friday and I thought after all I would make sure and go along and see if everything was all right.’
The Inspector reflected on the difficulties of that six mile walk, with the piled-up snowdrifts and the prospect of a heavy snowfall, and he realized that deny it as he would Major Burnaby must have been deeply impressed by the spirit message. Narracott turned it over in his mind. A queer thing to happen—a very queer thing to happen. The sort of thing you couldn’t explain satisfactorily. There might be something in this spirit business after all. It was the first well-authenticated case he had come across.
A very queer business altogether but, as far as he could see, though it explained Major Burnaby’s attitude, it had no practical bearing on the case as far as he himself was concerned. He had to deal with the physical world and not the psychic.
It was his job to track down the murderer.
And to do that he required