Overture to Death

“What the hell did she tell you?” asked Blandish. “Shut that damned book and come to the point.”

“Sir, the girl told me in her silly way that she came down to the hall at six-thirty on yesterday evening being one of them selected to usher. She let herself in and finding herself the first to arrive, living nearby and not wishing to return home, the night being heavy rain with squalls and her hair being artificially twisted up with curls which to my mind—”

“What did she tell you?”

“She told me that at six-thirty she sat down as bold as brass and played ‘Nearer my Gawd to Thee’ with the soft pedal on,” said Roper.

CHAPTER TWENTY

According to Miss Wright

i

Sergeant Roper, sweating lightly, allowed an expression of extreme gratification to suffuse his enormous face. The effect of his statement on his superiors left nothing to be desired. Superintendent Blandish stared at his sergeant like a startled codfish, Detective-Inspector Fox pushed his glasses up his forehead and brought his hands down smartly on his knees. Dr. Templett uttered in a whisper a string of amazing blasphemies. Chief Inspector Alleyn pulled his own nose, made a peculiar grimace, and said:

“Roper, you shall be hung with garlands, led through the village, and offered up at the Harvest Festival.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Roper.

“Where,” asked Alleyn, “is Gladys Wrieht?”

Roper flexed his knees and pointed with his thumb over his shoulder.

“Stuck to her like glue, I have. I telephoned Fife from the hall to relieve me, keeping the silly maiden under observation the while. I brought her here, sir, on the bar of my bike, all ten stones of her, and seven mile if it’s an inch.”

“Magnificent. Bring her in, Roper.”

Roper went out.

“I didn’t get there till half-past seven,” whispered Dr. Templett, shaking his finger at Alleyn. “Not till half-past seven. You see! You see! The hall was full of people. Ask Dinah Copeland. She’ll tell you I never went on the stage. Ask Copeland. He was sitting on the stage. I saw him through the door when I called him down. Ask any of them. My God!”

Alleyn reached out a long arm and gripped his wrist.

“Steady, now,” he said. “Fox, there’s the emergency flask in that case.”

He got Templett to take the brandy before Roper returned.

“Miss Gladys Wright, sir,” said Roper, flinging back the door and expanding his chest.

He shepherded his quarry into the room with watchful pride, handed her over, and retired behind the door to wipe his face down excitedly with the palm of his hand.

Miss Wright was the large young lady whom Alleyn had encountered in the rectory hall. Under a mackintosh she wore a plushy sort of dress with a hint of fur about it. Her head was indeed a mass of curls. Her face was crimson and her eyes black.

“Good-evening, Miss Wright,” said Alleyn. “I’m afraid we’ve put you to a lot of trouble. Will you sit down?”

He gave her his own chair and sat on the edge of the desk.

Miss Wright backed up to the chair rather in the ma

“Sergeant Roper tells us you’ve got some information for us,” continued Alleyn.

“Aw him!” said Miss Wright. She laughed and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Now I understand that you arrived at the parish hall at half-past six last night. Is that right?”

“That’s right.”

“Sure of the time?”

“Yass,” said Miss Wright. “I heard the clock strike, see?”

“Good. How did you get in?”

“I got the key from outside and came in by the back door,” said Miss Wright, and looked at the floor. “Miss Dinah was soon after me.”

“Nobody else was in the hall. You switched on the light, I suppose?”

“Yas, that’s right.”

“What did you do next?”

“Well, I looked round, like.”

“Yes. Have a good look round?”

“Aaw, yaas, I suppose so.”

“Back and front of the stage, what? Yes. And then?”

“I took off my mac. and put out my programmes, like, and counted up my change, see, for selling.”

“Yes?”

“Aw deer,” said Miss Wright, “it does give me such a turn when I think about it.”

“I’m sure it does.”

“You know! When you think! What I was saying to Charley Roper, you never know. And look, I never thought of it till this afternoon at the Children’s Service. I was collecting up hymn-books and it come all over me, so when I see Charley Roper hanging about outside the hall, I says, ‘Pardon me, Mr. Roper,’ I says, ‘but I have a piece of information I feel it my duty to pass on.’ ”

“Very proper,” said Alleyn, with a glance at Roper.

“Yass, and I told him. I told him I might be laying where she is, seeing what I did!”

“What did you do?”

“I sat down and played a hymn on that rickety old affair. Aw, well!”

“Did you play loudly or softly?”

“Well, well, both, ackshully. I was seeing which pedal worked best on that shocking old affair, see?”

“Yes,” said Alleyn. “I see. Did you put the pedal on suddenly and hard?”

“Aw no. Because one time the soft pedal went all queer because Cissie Dewry put her foot on it, so we always use it gentle-like. I didn’t try it but the bare once. The loud one worked better,” said Miss Wright.

“Yes,” agreed Alleyn. “I expect it would.”

“Well, it did,” confessed Miss Wright, and giggled again.

“But you did actually press the soft pedal down?” insisted Alleyn.

“Yass. Firm like. Not sharp.”

“Exactly. Was there a piece of music on the rack?”

“Oo yass, Miss Prentice’s piece. I never touched it. Truly!”

“I’m sure you didn’t. Miss Wright, suppose you were in a court of law, and someone put a Bible in your hand, and you were asked to swear solemnly in God’s name that at about twenty to seven last night you put your foot firmly on the left pedal, would you swear it?”

Miss Wright giggled.

“It’s very important,” said Alleyn. “You see, there would be a prisoner in the court on trial for murder. Please think very carefully indeed. Would you make this statement on oath?”

“Oh yass,” said Miss Wright.

“Thank you,” said Alleyn. He looked at Templett. “I don’t think we need keep you, Dr. Templett, if you are anxious to get home.”

“I–I’ll drive you back,” said Templett.

“That’s very nice of you — I shan’t be long.” He turned back to Gladys Wright. “Did any one come in while you were playing?”

“I stopped when I heard them coming. Cissie Dewry come first and then all the other girls.”

“Did you notice any of the performers?”

“No. We was all talking round the door, like.” She rolled her eyes at Roper. “That was when you come, Mr. Roper.”

“Well, Roper?”

“They were in the entrance, sir, giggling and cackling in their female ma

“Oo you are,” said Miss Wright.

“And had any of the company arrived at that time?”

“Yes, sir,” said Roper. “Miss Copeland was there ahead of me, but she went to the back door same as all the performers, I don’t doubt. And the Pen Cuckoo party was there, sir, but I didn’t know that till I went round to back of stage when I found them bedizening their faces in the Sunday-school rooms.”

“So that there was a moment when the ladies were at the front door, talking, and the Pen Cuckoo party and Miss Copeland were behind the scenes?”

“That’s right, sir.”

“They were ringing and ringing at the telephone,” interjected Miss Wright, “all the time us girls was there.”

“And you say, Miss Wright, that none of the performers came into the front of the hall.”

“Not one. Truly.”

“Sure?”

“Yass. Certain sure. We would have seen them. Soon after that the doors were open and people started to come in.”