The Catherine Wheel

Miss Silver gazed at him enquiringly.

“Geoffrey Taverner was in it?” she said, repeating his words with some additional emphasis.

He nodded.

“You’re too quick. He had cyanide on him-he was dead before we got him to the station.”

Miss Silver sighed.

“It will be a terrible shock to his sister.”

“Not so great a shock as seeing him stand his trial for murder and be hanged at the end of it. Castell swears it was Geoffrey who pla

Miss Silver said, “I have no doubt of it.”

He nodded.

“Well, as I said, Castell swears Geoffrey Taverner did the actual stabbing, and if Geoffrey were alive, no doubt he would say it was Castell. Both of them were only just across the passage from that very convenient back stair which comes down on the far side of Castell’s office. When last seen alive Al Miller was being hustled into that office through the door which opens from the lounge. He was then more than half drunk. This was about ten o’clock. At a guess I should say Castell kept him there, and kept him drunk. Remember, he said he had been drinking downstairs with Luke White till round about eleven. This, of course, wasn’t true, because Luke was impersonating Albert at the Wiltons’ in Thread Street, but I think it’s pretty well certain that Castell was down in his office plying Albert with drink. He may have slipped upstairs about eleven and pretended to go to bed, in which case Geoffrey could have gone down and kept an eye on Albert. They had to give time for everyone in the house to be asleep, and they had to give time for Luke to establish his alibi. Then, right in the middle of their arrangements, John Higgins cropped up. He had heard from Mrs. Bridling of Eily’s scene with Luke, and naturally enough he came out here hot-foot to try and get her to come away. As you know, they compromised on her going to sleep with Jane Heron. But meanwhile Castell had overheard their conversation, and it gave him a bright idea.”

Miss Silver coughed.

“I do not think that it was Castell’s idea. We know very little about Geoffrey Taverner’s part in the whole affair, but I am not inclined to minimize it.”

He looked at her sharply.

“Did you suspect him at all?”

Her needles clicked.

“I was begi

“On what grounds?”

“I thought him a little too calm and unruffled on the night of the first murder-a little too-no, I ca

Frank nodded.

“Yes, I expect it was something like that. Well, to get back to Saturday night. I think we may assume Castell went and told Geoffrey that John Higgins had rolled up, and that one of them, probably Geoffrey, saw a way of making use of this. They waited until twelve or so, one of them in charge of Albert, and then they dressed him in Luke’s clothes, bumped him off, and laid him out at the foot of the stairs to be found by the first person who came down. Then, I think, Geoffrey went out and whistled Greenland’s Icy Mountains under Jane Heron’s window. If nobody heard him, well, that was that. If anyone did, it would throw suspicion on John Higgins. Castell unlatched one of the lounge windows to help the good work along. Then they both went back to bed and waited for someone to give the alarm. It was a very ingenious plan, and if it hadn’t been for you it might have come off.”

Miss Silver gave a modest cough.

“What about Mr. Jacob Taverner? He made a statement, did he not? What did he say?”

Frank’s smile had a tinge of malice.

“He hasn’t confided in you?”

“No.”

“How surprising! All the same, I’d like to know how he strikes you.”

She laid her knitting down for a moment and rested her hands upon it.

“Because a man has made a fortune in business it does not follow that his judgment in other matters is to be relied upon. I have thought that, having retired from active management, he has perhaps found time hangs heavy upon his hands, and I think that he has always had some kind of romantic fancy about the Catherine-Wheel. Most men have a point on which they are not quite grown up. I think that with Mr. Jacob Taverner this point is the Catherine-Wheel. Like the rest of the family, he knew something, and I think at the back of his mind there was the idea that someday when he had time he would go into the matter and clear it up. The lease ran out, the property came back to him, he retired from business, and there was his opportunity. By assembling as many of Jeremiah Taverner’s descendants as possible he hoped to piece together what they knew. I think he also may have had the idea of observing them with a view to the ultimate disposal of his fortune.”