Towards Zero - Agatha Christie [70]
And then, an almost grotesque anticlimax, Hurstall opened the drawing room door and announced: “Mr. MacWhirter.”
MacWhirter strode in purposefully. He went straight up to Battle. “Are you the police officer in charge of the Tressilian case?” he asked.
“I am.”
“Then I have an important statement to make. I am sorry not to have come forward before, but the importance of something I happened to see on the night of Monday last has only just dawned on me.” He gave a quick glance round the room. “If I can speak to you somewhere?”
Battle turned to Leach.
“Will you stay here with Mrs. Strange?”
Leach said officially: “Yes, sir.”
Then he leaned forward and whispered something into the other’s ear.
Battle turned to MacWhirter. “Come this way.”
He led the way into the library.
“Now then, what’s all this? My colleague tells me that he’s seen you before—last winter?”
“Quite right,” said MacWhirter. “Attempted suicide. That’s part of my story.”
“Go on, Mr. MacWhirter.”
“Last January I attempted to kill myself by throwing myself off Stark Head. This year the fancy took me to revisit the spot. I walked up there on Monday night. I stood there for some time. I looked down at the sea and across to Easterhead Bay and I then looked to my left. That is to say I looked across towards this house. I could see it quite plainly in the moonlight.”
“Yes.”
“Until today I had not realized that that was the night when a murder was committed.”
He leant forward. “I’ll tell you what I saw.”
XVI
It was really only about five minutes before Battle returned to the drawing room, but to those there it seemed much longer.
Kay had suddenly lost control of herself. She had cried out to Audrey.
“I knew it was you. I always knew it was you. I knew you were up to something—”
Mary Aldin said quickly:
“Please, Kay.”
Nevile said sharply:
“Shut up, Kay, for God’s sake.”
Ted Latimer came over to Kay, who had begun to cry.
“Get a grip on yourself,” he said kindly.
He said to Nevile angrily:
“You don’t seem to realize that Kay has been under a lot of strain! Why don’t you look after her a bit, Strange?”
“I’m all right,” said Kay.
“For two pins,” said Ted, “I’d take you away from the lot of them!”
Inspector Leach cleared his throat. A lot of injudicious things were said at times like these, as he well knew. The unfortunate part was that they were usually remembered most inconveniently afterwards.
Battle came back into the room. His face was expressionless.
He said: “Will you put one or two things together, Mrs. Strange? I’m afraid Inspector Leach must come upstairs with you.”
Mary Aldin said: “I’ll come too.”
When the two women had left the room with the Inspector, Nevile said anxiously: “Well, what did that chap want?”
Battle said slowly:
“Mr. MacWhirter tells a very odd story.”
“Does it help Audrey? Are you still determined to arrest her?”
“I’ve told you, Mr. Strange. I’ve got to do my duty.”
Nevile turned away, the eagerness dying out of his face.
He said:
“I’d better telephone Trelawny, I suppose.”
“There’s no immediate hurry for that, Mr. Strange. There’s a certain experiment I want to make first as a result of Mr. MacWhirter’s statement. I’ll just see that Mrs. Strange gets off first.”
Audrey was coming down the stairs, Inspector Leach beside her. Her face still had that remote detached composure.
Nevile came towards her, his hands outstretched.
“Audrey—”
Her colourless glance swept over him. She said:
“It’s all right, Nevile. I don’t mind. I don’t mind anything.”
Thomas Royde stood by the front door, almost as though he would bar the way out.
A very faint smile came to her lips.
“‘True Thomas,’” she murmured.
He mumbled: “If there’s anything I can do—”
“No one can do anything,” said Audrey.
She went out with her head high. A police car was waiting outside with Sergeant Jones in it. Audrey and Leach got in.
Ted Latimer murmured appreciatively:
“Lovely exit!”
Nevile turned on him furiously. Superintendent Battle dexterously interposed his bulk and