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“Did Lord Robert sit near you at the Sirmione Quartette’s concert on June the third?”
“You know he did.”
“Do you remember that this man, Colombo Dimitri, sat not very far away from you?”
“Why — yes.”
“Your bag was stolen that afternoon?”
“Yes.” She looked again at Lady Carrados who suddenly leant forward and touched her hand.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I, too. Indeed you have nothing to fear from us. We have suffered, too. I have made up my mind to hide nothing now. Will you help by also hiding — nothing?”
“Oh, my dear!” said Mrs Halcut-Hackett in a whisper.
“We need not ask for very much more,” said Alleyn.
“Would it have been possible for Dimitri to have taken your bag while you were out of the concert-room?”
“Lord Robert might have seen,” said Mrs Halcut-Hackett.
“Lord Robert did see,” said Alleyn.
“The dead!” cried Dimitri. “I ca
“If that was true,” said Alleyn, “as it often is, what a motive for murder! I tell you we have a statement, written and signed by the dead.”
Dimitri uttered a sort of moan and shrank back in his chair.
Alleyn took from his pocket the cigarette-case with the medallion.
“This is yours, isn’t it?” he asked Mrs Halcut-Hackett.
“Yes. I’ve told you so.”
“You left it in the green sitting-room at Marsdon House?”
“Yes — only a few minutes.”
“A minute or two, not more, after you came out of that room you heard the dialling tinkle of the telephone?”
“Yes.”
“You had seen Lord Robert coming upstairs?”
“Yes.”
Alleyn nodded to Fox who again left the room.
“After you had joined your partner in the other sitting-out room, you discovered the loss of your case?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Your partner fetched it.”
She wetted her lips. Dimitri was listening avidly. Carrados had slumped down in his chair with his chin on his chest. Alleyn felt he was giving, for anybody that had time to notice it, a quiet performance of a broken man. Lady Carrados sat upright, her hands folded in her lap, her face looked exhausted. The AC was motionless behind the green lamp.
“Well, Mrs Halcut-Hackett? Your partner fetched your case from the green sitting-room, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
The door opened and Withers walked in after Fox. He stood with his hands in his pockets and blinked his white eyelashes.
“Hallo,” he said. “What’s the idea?”
“I have invited you to come here, Captain Withers, in order that the Assistant Commissioner may hear your statement about your movements on the night of the ball at Marsdon House. I have discovered that although you left Marsdon House at three-thirty you did not arrive at the Matador Night Club until four-fifteen. You therefore have no alibi for the murder of Lord Robert Gospell.”
Withers looked at Mrs Halcut-Hackett with a sort of sneer.
“She can give me one,” he said.
She looked at him and spoke to Alleyn. Her voice was quite expressionless.
“I’d made up my mind it would have to come out. Between the time we left the ball and the time we got to the Matador, Captain Withers drove me about in his car. I was afraid of my husband. I had seen him watching me. I wanted to talk to Captain Withers. I was afraid to say this before.”
“I see,” said Alleyn. “You accept that, Captain Withers?”
“It’s true enough.”
“Very well. Now, to return to Marsdon House. You told me that at one o’clock you were in the sitting-room at the head of the stairs.”
“So I was.”
“You did not tell me you were also in the telephone-room.”
Withers stared at Mrs Halcut-Hackett. She had been watching him like a frightened animal but as soon as his eyes turned towards her she looked away from him.
“Why should I?” said Withers
“You were in the telephone room with Mrs Halcut-Hackett before you went to the other room. You returned to it from the other room to fetch this.”
Alleyn’s long arm shot up. Seven heads followed the movement. Seven pairs of eyes were concentrated on the gold cigarette-case with the jewelled medallion.
“And what if I did?”
“Where did you find this case?”
“On a table in the room with the telephone.”
“When I asked you yesterday if you overheard Lord Robert telephoning in this room, as we know he did at one o’clock, you denied it.”
“There wasn’t anybody in the room when I fetched the case. I told you I heard the dialling tinkle on the extension a bit before then. If it was Gospell I suppose he’d gone when I got there.”
“Is there any reason why anybody, say Mr Dimitri in the corner there, should not have gone into the telephone-room after you left it with Mrs Halcut-Hackett, and before you returned for the case?”
“No reason at all as far as I’m concerned.”
“Dimitri,” said Alleyn, “have you seen this case before? Look at it. Have you seen it before?”
“Never. I have never seen it. I do not know why you ask. I have never seen it.”
“Take it in your hands. Look at it.”
Dimitri took the case.
“Open it.”
Dimitri opened it. From where Alleyn stood he could see the little cutting taken from The Times. Dimitri saw it too. His eyes dilated. The case dropped through his hands to the floor. He pointed a shaking finger at Alleyn.
“I think you must be the devil himself,” he whispered.
“Fox,” said Alleyn, “will you pass the case round?”
It passed from hand to hand. Withers, Evelyn Carrados and Carrados all looked at it. Withers handled it as if he had done so before, but seemed quite unmoved by the cutting. The Carradoses both looked blankly at it and passed it on. Mrs Halcut-Hackett opened the case and stared at the scrap of paper.
“This wasn’t here before,” she said. “What is it? Who put it here?”
“I’m sorry,” said Alleyn. “It’s done no damage. It will come off quite easily.”
He took the case from her.
Dimitri suddenly leapt to his feet. Fox who had never taken his eyes off him moved in front of the door.
“Sit down, Mr Dimitri,” said Alleyn.
“I am going. You can keep me here no longer against my will. You accuse, you threaten, you lie! I say I can endure it no longer. I am an i
He plunged forward. Alleyn caught him by one arm. Fox by the other. He struggled violently. The AC pressed a bell on his desk, the door was opened from the outside and two plain-clothes men walked into the room. Beyond, in the brightly lit secretary’s room three startled faces, Bridget’s, Davidson’s and Miss Harris’s, peered over the shoulders of more Yard men, and through the doorway.
Dimitri, mouthing and panting, was taken over by the two officers.
“Now then,” they said. “Now then.”
“Lady Carrados,” said Alleyn, “will you formally charge this man?”
“I do charge him.”
“In a moment,” said Alleyn to Dimitri, “you will be taken to the charge-room, but before we talk about the exact nature of the charge—” He looked through the door: “Sir Daniel? I see you’re still there. May I trouble you again for a moment?”
Davidson, looking very startled, came through.
“Good God, Alleyn!” he said, staring at Dimitri. “What’s this?”
Alleyn said: “You can, I believe, give me the final piece of evidence in an extremely involved affair. You see this cigarette-case?”
Davidson took it.
“My dear fellow,” he said, “that’s the abortion. I told you about it. It’s part of the collection at Marsdon House. You remember?”
He moved to the light and after another startled glance at Dimitri, who had gone perfectly still and stared at him like a lost soul, Davidson put up his glasses and examined the case.
“You know, I believe it is Benvenuto,” he said, looking over his glasses at Alleyn.
“Yes, yes, I dare say. Will you tell us where you saw it?”