‘Shut up,’ said Mr Lamplough, ‘and, by the way, I’ve still got to finish that filling for you.’
ABSOLUTELY ELSEWHERE
A Lord Peter Wimsey Story
Lord Peter Wimsey sat with Chief-Inspector Parker, of the C.I.D., and Inspector Henley, of the Baldock police, in the library at ‘The Lilacs’.
‘So you see,’ said Parker, ‘that all the obvious suspects were elsewhere at the time.’
‘What do you mean by “elsewhere”?’ demanded Wimsey, peevishly. Parker had hauled him down to Wapley, on the Great North Road, without his breakfast, and his temper had suffered. ‘Do you mean that they couldn’t have reached the scene of the murder without travelling at over 186,000 miles a second? Because, if you don’t mean that, they weren’t absolutely elsewhere. They were only relatively and apparently elsewhere.’
‘For heaven’s sake, don’t go all Eddington. Humanly speaking, they were elsewhere, and if we’re going to nail one of them we shall have to do it without going into their Fitzgerald contractions and coefficients of spherical curvature. I think, Inspector, we had better have them in one by one, so that I can hear all their stories again. You can check them up if they depart from their original statements at any point. Let’s take the butler first.’
The Inspector put his head out into the hall and said: ‘Hamworthy.’
The butler was a man of middle age, whose spherical curvature was certainly worthy of consideration. His large face was pale and puffy, and he looked unwell. However, he embarked on his story without hesitation.
‘I have been in the late Mr Grimbold’s service for twenty years, gentlemen, and I have always found him a good master. He was a strict gentleman, but very just. I know he was considered very hard in business matters, but I suppose he had to be that. He was a bachelor, but he brought up his two nephews, Mr Harcourt and Mr Neville, and was very good to them. In his private life I should call him a kind and considerate man. His profession? Yes, I suppose you would call him a moneylender.
‘About the events of last night, sir, yes. I shut up the house at 7.30 as usual. Everything was done exactly to time, sir – Mr Grimbold was very regular in his habits. I locked all the windows on the ground floor, as was customary during the winter months. I am quite sure I didn’t miss anything out. They all have burglar-proof bolts and I should have noticed if they had been out of order. I also locked and bolted the front door and put up the chain.’
‘How about the conservatory door?’
‘That, sir, is a Yale lock. I tried it, and saw that it was shut. No, I didn’t fasten the catch. It was always left that way, sir, in case Mr Grimbold had business which kept him in Town late, so that he could get in without disturbing the household.’
‘But he had no business in Town last night?’
‘No, sir, but it was always left that way. Nobody could get in without the key, and Mr Grimbold had that on his ring.’
‘Is there no other key in existence?’
‘I believe’ – the butler coughed – ‘I believe, sir, though I do not know, that there is one, sir – in the possession of – of a lady, sir, who is at present in Paris.’
‘I see. Mr Grimbold was about sixty years old, I believe. Just so. What is the name of this lady?’
‘Mrs Winter, sir. She lives at Wapley, but since her husband died last month, sir, I understand she has been residing abroad.’
‘I see. Better make a note of that, Inspector. Now, how about the upper rooms and the back door?’
‘The upper-room windows were all fastened in the same way, sir, except Mr Grimbold’s bedroom and the cook’s room and mine, sir; but that couldn’t be reached without a ladder, and the ladder is locked up in the tool-shed.’
‘That’s all right,’ put in Inspector Henley. ‘We went into that last night. The shed was locked and, what’s more, there were unbroken cobwebs between the ladder and the wall.’
‘I went through all the rooms at half-past seven, sir, and there was nothing out of order.’
‘You may take it from me,’ said the Inspector, again, ‘that there was no interference with any of the locks. Carry on, Hamworthy.’
‘Yes, sir. While I was seeing to the house, Mr Grimbold came down into the library for his glass of sherry. At 7.45 the soup was served and I called Mr Grimbold to dinner. He sat at the end of the table as usual, facing the serving-hatch.’
‘With his back to the library door,’ said Parker, making a mark on a rough plan of the room, which lay before him. ‘Was that door shut?’
‘Oh, yes, sir. All the doors and windows were shut.’
‘It looks a dashed draughty room,’ said Wimsey. ‘Two doors and a serving-hatch and two french windows.’
‘Yes, my lord; but they are all very well-fitting, and the curtains were drawn.’
His lordship moved across to the connecting door and opened it.
‘Yes,’ he said; ‘good and heavy and moves in sinister silence. I like these thick carpets, but the pattern’s a bit fierce.’ He shut the door noiselessly, and returned to his seat.
‘Mr Grimbold would take about five minutes over his soup, sir. When he had done, I removed it and put on the fish. I did not have to leave the room; everything comes through the serving-hatch. The wine – that is, the Chablis – was already on the table. That course was only a small portion of turbot, and would take Mr Grimbold about five minutes again. I removed that, and put on the roast pheasant. I was just about to serve Mr Grimbold with the vegetables, when the telephone-bell rang. Mr Grimbold said: “You’d better see who it is. I’ll help myself.” It was not the cook’s business, of course, to answer the telephone.’
‘Are there no other servants?’
‘Only the woman who comes in to clean during the day, sir. I went out to the instrument, shutting the door behind me.’
‘Was that this telephone or the one in the hall?’
‘The one in the hall, sir. I always used that one, unless I happened to be actually in the library at the time. The call was from Mr Neville Grimbold in Town, sir. He and Mr Harcourt have a flat in Jermyn Street. Mr Neville spoke, and I recognised his voice. He said: “Is that you, Hamworthy? Wait a moment. Mr Harcourt wants you.” He put the receiver down and then Mr Harcourt came on. He said: “Hamworthy, I want to run down tonight to see my uncle, if he’s at home.” I said: “Yes, sir, I’ll tell him.” The young gentlemen often come down for a night or two, sir. We keep their bedrooms ready for them. Mr Harcourt said he would be starting at once and expected to get down by about half-past nine. While he was speaking I heard the big grandfather-clock up in their flat chime the quarters and strike eight, and immediately after, our own hall-clock struck, and then I heard the Exchange say “Three minutes.” So the call must have come through at three minutes to eight, sir.’
‘Then there’s no doubt about the time. That’s a comfort. What next, Hamworthy?’
‘Mr Harcourt asked for another call and said. “Mr Neville has got something to say,” and then Mr Neville came back to the phone. He said he was going up to Scotland shortly, and he wanted me to send up a country suit and some stockings and shirts that he had left down here. He wanted the suit sent to the cleaner’s first, and there were various other instructions, so that he asked for another three minutes. That would be at 8.30, sir, yes. And about a minute after that, while he was still speaking, the front-door bell rang. I couldn’t very well leave the phone, so the caller had to wait, and at five past eight he rang the bell again. I was just going to ask Mr Neville to excuse me, when I saw Cook come out of the kitchen and go through the hall to the front door. Mr Neville asked me to repeat his instructions, and then the Exchange interrupted us again, so he rang off, and when I turned round I saw Cook just closing the library door. I went to meet her, and she said: “Here’s that Mr Payne again, wanting Mr Grimbold. I’ve put him in the library, but I don’t like the looks of him.” So I said: “All right; I’ll fix him,” and Cook went back to the kitchen.’
&nb
sp; ‘One moment,’ said Parker. ‘Who’s Mr Payne?’
‘He’s one of Mr Grimbold’s clients, sir. He lives about five minutes away, across the fields, and he’s been here before, making trouble. I think he owes Mr Grimbold money, sir, and wanted more time to pay.’
‘He’s here, waiting in the hall,’ added Henley.
‘Oh?’ said Wimsey. ‘The unshaven party with the scowl and the ash-plant, and the blood-stained coat?’
‘That’s him, my lord,’ said the butler. ‘Well, sir’ – he turned to Parker again, ‘I started to go along to the library, when it come over me sudden-like that I’d never taken in the claret – Mr Grimbold would be getting very annoyed. So I went back to my pantry – you see where that is, sir – and fetched it from where it was warming before the fire. I had a little hunt then for the salver, sir, till I found I had put down my evening paper on top of it, but I wasn’t more than a minute, sir, before I got back into the dining-room. And then, sir’ – the butler’s voice faltered – ‘then I saw Mr Grimbold fallen forward on the table, sir, all across his plate, like. I thought he must have been took ill, and I hurried up to him and found – I found he was dead, sir, with a dreadful wound in his back.’
‘No weapon anywhere?’
‘Not that I could see, sir. There was a terrible lot of blood. It made me feel shockingly faint, sir, and for a minute I didn’t hardly know what to do. As soon as I could think of anything, I rushed over to the serving-hatch and called Cook. She came hurrying in and let out an awful scream when she saw the master. Then I remembered Mr Payne and opened the library door. He was standing there, and he began at once, asking how long he’d have to wait. So I said: “Here’s an awful thing! Mr Grimbold has been murdered!” and he pushed past me into the dining-room, and the first thing he said was: “How about those windows?” He pulled back the curtain of the one nearest the library, and there was the window standing open. “This is the way he went,” he said, and started to rush out. I said, “No, you don’t” – thinking he meant to get away, and I hung on to him. He called me a lot of names, and then he said: “Look here, my man, be reasonable. The fellow’s getting away all this time. We must have a look for him.” So I said, “Not without I go with you.” And he said, “All right.” So I told Cook not to touch anything but to ring up the police, and Mr Payne and I went out after I’d fetched my torch from the pantry.’
‘Did Payne go with you to fetch it?’
‘Yes, sir. Well, him and me went out and we searched about in the garden, but we couldn’t see any footprints or anything, because it’s an asphalt path all round the house and down to the gate. And we couldn’t see any weapon, either. So then he said: “We’d better go back and get the car and search the roads,” but I said: “No, he’ll be away by then,” because it’s only a quarter of a mile from our gate to the Great North Road, and it would take us five or ten minutes before we could start. So Mr Payne said: “Perhaps you’re right,” and came back to the house with me. Well, then, sir, the constable came from Wapley, and after a bit, the Inspector here and Dr Crofts from Baldock, and they made a search and asked a lot of questions, which I answered to the best of my ability, and I can’t tell you no more sir.’
‘Did you notice,’ asked Parker, ‘whether Mr Payne had any stains of blood about him?’
‘No sir – I can’t say that he had. When I first saw him, he was standing in here, right under the light, and I think I should have seen it if there was anything, sir. I can’t say fairer than that.’
‘Of course you’ve searched this room, Inspector, for bloodstains or a weapon or for anything such as gloves or a cloth, or anything that might have been used to protect the murderer from bloodstains?’
‘Yes, Mr Parker. We searched very carefully.’
‘Could anybody have come downstairs while you were in the dining-room with Mr Grimbold?’
‘Well, sir, I suppose they might. But they’d have to have got into the house before half-past seven, sir, and hidden themselves somewhere. Still, there’s no doubt it might have happened that way. They couldn’t come down by the back stairs, of course, because they’d have had to pass the kitchen and Cook would have heard them, the passage being flagged, sir, but the front stairs – well, I don’t know hardly what to say about that.’
‘That’s how the man got in, depend upon it,’ said Parker. ‘Don’t look so distressed, Hamworthy. You can’t be expected to search all the cupboards in the house every evening for concealed criminals. Now I think I had better see the two nephews. I suppose they and their uncle got on together all right?’
‘Oh, yes, sir. Never had a word of any sort. It’s been a great blow to them, sir. They were terribly upset when Mr Grimbold was ill in the summer—’
‘He was ill, was he?’
‘Yes sir, with his heart, last July. He took a very bad turn, sir, and we had to send for Mr Neville. But he pulled round wonderfully, sir – only he never seemed to be quite such a cheerful gentleman afterwards. I think it made him feel he wasn’t getting younger, sir. But I’m sure nobody ever thought he’d be cut off like this.’
‘How is his money left?’ asked Parker.
‘Well, sir, that I don’t know. I believe it would be divided between the two gentlemen, sir – not but what they have plenty of their own. But Mr Harcourt would be able to tell you, sir. He’s the executor.’
‘Very well, we’ll ask him. Are the brothers on good terms?’
‘Oh, yes, indeed, sir. Most devoted. Mr Neville would do anything for Mr Harcourt – and Mr Harcourt for him, I’m sure. A very pleasant pair of gentlemen, sir. You couldn’t have nicer.’
‘Thanks, Hamworthy. That will do for the moment, unless anybody else has anything to ask?’
‘How much of the pheasant was eaten, Hamworthy?’
‘Well, my lord, not a great deal of it – I mean, nothing like all of what Mr Grimbold had on his plate. But he’d ate some of it. It might have taken three or four minutes or so to eat what he had done, my lord, judging by what I helped him to.’
‘There was nothing to suggest that he had been interrupted, for example, by somebody coming to the windows, or of his having got up to let the person in?’
‘Nothing at all, my lord, that I could see.’
‘The chair was pushed in close to the table when I saw him,’ put in the Inspector, ‘and his napkin was on his knees and the knife and fork lying just under his hands, as though he had dropped them when the blow came. I understand that the body was not disturbed.’
‘No sir, I never moved it – except, of course, to make sure that he was dead. But I never felt any doubt of that, sir, when I saw that dreadful wound in his back. I just lifted his head and let it fall forward again, same as before.’
‘All right, then, Hamworthy. Ask Mr Harcourt to come in.’
Mr Harcourt Grimbold was a brisk-looking man of about thirty-five. He explained that he was a stockbroker and his brother Neville an official in the Ministry of Public Health, and that they had been brought up by their uncle from the ages of eleven and ten respectively. He was aware that his uncle had had many business enemies, but for his own part he had received nothing from him but kindness.
‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you much about this terrible business, as I didn’t get here till 9.45 last night, when, of course, it was all over.’
‘That was a little later than you hoped to be here?’
‘Just a little. My tail-lamp went out between Welwyn Garden City and Welwyn, and I was stopped by a bobby. I went to a garage in Welwyn, where they found that the lead had come loose. They put it right, and that delayed me for a few minutes more.’
‘It’s about forty miles from here to London?’
‘Just over. In the ordinary way, at that time of night, I should reckon an hour and a quarter from door to door. I’m not a speed merchant.’
‘Did you drive yourself?’
‘Yes. I have a chauffeur, but I don’t always bring him down here with me.’
r /> ‘When did you leave London?’
‘About 8.20, I should think. Neville went round to the garage and fetched the car as soon as he’d finished telephoning, while I put my toothbrush and so on in my bag.’
‘You didn’t hear about the death of your uncle before you left?’
‘No. They didn’t think of ringing me up, I gather, till after I had started. The police tried to get Neville later on, but he’d gone round to the club, or something. I phoned him myself after I got here, and he came down this morning.’
‘Well, now, Mr Grimbold, can you tell us anything about your late uncle’s affairs?’
‘You mean his will? Who profits, and that kind of thing? Well, I do, for one, and Neville, for another. And Mrs –. Have you heard of a Mrs Winter?’
‘Something, yes.’
‘Well, she does, for a third. And then, of course, old Hamworthy gets a nice little nest-egg, and the cook gets something, and there is a legacy of £500 to the clerk at my uncle’s London office. But the bulk of it goes to us and to Mrs Winter. I know what you’re going to ask – how much is it? I haven’t the faintest idea, but I know it must be something pretty considerable. The old man never let on to a soul how much he really was worth, and we never bothered about it. I’m turning over a good bit, and Neville’s salary is a heavy burden on a long-suffering public, so we only had a mild, academic kind of interest in the question.’
‘Do you suppose Hamworthy knew he was down for a legacy?’
‘Oh, yes – there was no secret about that. He was to get £100 and a life-interest in £200 a year, provided, of course, he was still in my uncle’s service when he – my uncle, I mean – died.’
‘And he wasn’t under notice, or anything?’
‘N-no. No. Not more than usual. My uncle gave everybody notice about once a month, to keep them up to the mark. But it never came to anything. He was like the Queen of Hearts in Alice – he never executed nobody, you know.’
‘I see. We’d better ask Hamworthy about that, though. Now, this Mrs Winter. Do you know anything about her?’