Out of the Past

“I have met them. Miss A

“It is not her house, I gather.”

“Oh, no, it belongs to her niece’s husband, Major Hardwick. He has been abroad and only returned yesterday evening. That is to say, not more than a few hours before the murder.”

“And how well did the Hardwicks know Alan Field?”

“Mrs. Hardwick was brought up with him. She was left an orphan at the age of twelve. Mrs. Field and another of the guests, Colonel Trevor, were her guardians. They are, by all accounts, very much attached to her. Three years ago she was engaged to Alan Field and about to marry him, but he left the country and has not been back again till now.”

Frank’s fair eyebrows rose.

“Any reason given?”

“No-he just went away. The Fields have friends down here, and there was quite a lot of talk about it. The affair went as far as the bride going to the church and waiting there for a bridegroom who never came.”

He laughed.

“After all these years you can still amaze me! You have been here-how long-a fortnight, and you know everyone’s family history!”

Miss Silver smiled.

“That, my dear Frank, is an exaggeration. The A

He nodded.

“So Mrs. Hardwick was jilted at the altar-is that it? And nobody knows why. When did she marry Hardwick?”

“About three months later.”

“And she didn’t see Field again until he walked in on Tuesday. Any evidence as to how she reacted to the prodigal’s return?”

“Mrs. Field mentioned that they were all very much surprised. She had not heard from her stepson for three years.”

“Room for quite a lot of emotions. But I’m told he dined there that night, having booked a room here in the house of another old flame.” He made a French quotation which would have incensed his respected Chief. It was the opinion of Chief Inspector Lamb that if a thing couldn’t be said in English it had much better not be said at all. “Sounds like a case of ‘On retourne toujours à ses premiers amours.’ Tell me about Mrs. Hardwick. What is she like?”

“A charming girl-sensitive and rather quiet. About twenty-four or twentyfive.”

“Happily married?”

“There is no reason to think otherwise. I have not met Major Hardwick.”

“And the rest of the house-party-have you met them?”

“I have met Colonel and Mrs. Trevor, and Lady Castleton. They are old friends of Mrs. Field’s and have known Carmona Hardwick since she was a child. Colonel Trevor is a keen gardener. His wife is a silly woman with a taste for bygone scandal. Lady Castleton was a famous beauty and is still very handsome. She is rather an imposing person, and does a good deal of public speaking in the Conservative interest and on various philanthropic subjects. Then since Tuesday there has been a Mrs. Maybury at Cliff Edge, a very pretty lively young woman who was, I believe, at school with Carmona Hardwick.”

He nodded.

“One of my various cousins is married to a man in Bill Maybury’s regiment. Everyone likes him and thinks she leads him a dance, but Je

“I believe they all belong to the same set, and would therefore know each other, but how well I ca

“He didn’t by any chance jilt her as well as Mrs. Hardwick and Miss A

“I never heard any suggestion that he did.”

Frank repeated the last of the three names he had mentioned.

“Miss A

Miss Silver made no reply. After a short pause she turned the conversation back to José Cardozo, enquiring whether there was any evidence of his having been seen in Cliffton-on-Sea on the night of the murder.

“Well, nothing decisive. A man who seemed to be a foreigner came into the bar at the Jolly Fishermen at about half past nine. There was a girl with him whom they took to be a foreigner too. They had a few drinks and went away before closing time. Colt has turned up someone who came out of the Fishermen at about the same time and says he saw them get into a car and drive away. I don’t know why Cardozo should have brought a girl with him or had a girl with him, and it was probably someone quite different, but you never can tell. Colt doesn’t seem to have been able to pick up anything that gets us nearer than that. He says that as far as he can make out Cardozo neither rang up nor came to this house, so just how he was going to make his contact with Field one doesn’t know.”

Miss Silver gazed at him in a meditative ma

“On so fine an evening Mr. Field would be unlikely to stay indoors. It is possible that Mr. Cardozo may have counted on this.”

“And on such a fine evening a car parked anywhere near enough to this house to be within watching distance would certainly have been both noticeable and noticed.”

Miss Silver remained silent for a time. Then she said mildly,

“But the murder, Frank, and therefore we may presume, the interview which led up to it, must have taken place after darkness had fallen.”

Just what did one make of that? He didn’t know, but he was to return to it afterwards. Meanwhile his mind went back to Miss A

“That girl-the one who let me in-I’d like to have a talk with her. But first just tell me-how does she strike you?”

Miss Silver made a curious oblique answer. She said,

“Mrs. A

CHAPTER 18

Marie Bo

He looked up as Marie came. Not pretty, but with something about her that took the eye-very smooth, pale skin, good ankles, and quite expensive stockings. He had too many female cousins not to know just as much about nylons as they did. Marie’s nylons were of good quality, and if he wasn’t mistaken, just out of the packet. It would have surprised him very much to learn that she had bought them herself.