Vanishing Point

But if either of them had fastened that cord to trip her to her death, he wouldn’t have left it there to be found in the morning. There must have been some time in the night when one of them had come to the top of the stair and looked over. But the cord would not have been there for him to see, because she had taken it away and burned it in her bedroom grate. So then whoever it was would have turned round and gone back to his bed again.

She had not closed her bedroom door. She did not think that she had slept. Could a man move so silently that she would not hear him? She looked back over the hours of the night, and she wasn’t sure. There were stretches of time which were like some dreadful dream. She couldn’t be sure whether the dream had crossed the boundaries of sleep or only trembled on the edge. She took Henry his sausage, and found him reading the paper and dawdling over a brown mess of cereal.

CHAPTER 23

Making the beds with Miss Cu

When she had finished the stairs she took her dustpan and brush round the hall, and right underneath where that mark was on the baluster the brush picked up a little curly piece of twine-some of that black garden stuff that gets used for tying up creepers and such. She put it in the pocket of her overall and went up to Miss Cu

All the time that she was doing her work, Mrs. Hubbard kept on putting two and two together. The trouble was she couldn’t get them to make anything, and it was pain and grief to her. It wasn’t until she was going away at half past two that she noticed something which excited her curiosity to a really passionate degree. Miss Cu

Mr. Hubbard worked in Melbury. He took a wrapped lunch with him which he supplemented at the canteen. It was therefore nothing to anyone if Mrs. Hubbard liked to drop in on Florrie Hunt at the White Cottage. There was a faint faraway co

She got her cup of tea, but she didn’t get such a very warm welcome. Florrie was in one of her moods-she could see that at a glance. Put her in mind of a house with all the blinds down and the people away. Nothing but a yes or no out of her, and not at all easy to get either. She handed up her cup to be filled a second time and began to tell Florrie about the marks on the balusters at the Dower House and the weal on Miss Cu

“Sounds like nonsense to me,” she said.

Mrs. Hubbard sipped her tea.

“Well then, it wasn’t,” she said. “Plain as plain the marks were. And the bit of string in the hall-what would anyone be doing with that nasty tarred-stuff indoors? And more of it burned in the bedroom grate. Just look here if you don’t believe me!”

She had to put the cup down and slip a hand under her coat to bring out the little curl of twine and the knot which had survived the fire.

Florrie stared at them and said bluntly,

“Seems to me you’re hinting at something, A

Mrs. Hubbard lowered her eyes.

“I wouldn’t be one to do that.”

“Well, I don’t know what else you’d call it. And if you’re hinting that there was a string tied across those stairs to trip Miss Cu

Mrs. Hubbard sipped her tea.

“It’s not for me to say. I’m not one to gossip, and that you know.”

The conversation wasn’t turning out at all as she had hoped. When Florrie was in that sort of mood she could be right down disagreeable, and no good trying to get anything out of her. She finished her cup and said she must be getting along.

It wasn’t until she was half way home that she remembered she had left the knot and the bit of twine behind her. Not worth going back for of course. She wouldn’t have shown them to anyone except Florrie. The job at Miss Cu

Miss Silver came out to the kitchen with the coffee-tray. Mrs. Merridew had just dropped off behind the morning paper, an after-lunch practice in which Miss Silver had never allowed herself to indulge. A sad waste of time, and a habit which was apt to grow. She carried the tray down the passage, and as she approached the door she became aware of voices on the other side of it. She had no intention of listening, but they forced themselves upon her ear. It all happened quite naturally. She had paused when she realized that Florrie was not alone, and the door in front of her was ajar. She heard Florrie say in her deep, harsh voice, “If you’re hinting there was a string tied across those stairs to trip Miss Cu