The Unfinished Clue (16 page)

"Well, sir, I couldn't help thinking that for Mr. Billington-Smith to say the General was a joke to him was a very different tale from any I ever heard. It didnt seem to me that you could very well rely on anything he said. What I should call a mighty bad witness, sir."

"Atrocious," said Harding.

The Sergeant coughed behind his hand. "Begging your pardon, sir, I thought you was a bit high-handed with him - if I might pass the remark. If he had happened to object to the question he took exception to I couldn't help wondering where we'd have been then."

"We should have apologised gracefully, Sergeant. But if I hadn't bullied him a little I should have got nothing out of him at all. A tiresome young gentleman."

"Yes, sir. And it's a weak story he told you."

"A very weak story," said Harding.

"He's what you might call hasty-tempered too," pondered the Sergeant. "Very excitable, he seemed."

"Excitable, and badly frightened," said Harding, and turned his head as the door opened to admit Basil Halliday.

Chapter Eleven

Halliday walked forward, glancing from Harding to the Sergeant, and back again. "Good afternoon," he said. "You want to ask me some questions, I think."

"Yes," Harding answered. "Sit down, will you, Mr. Halliday? You and your wife are guests in the house, I believe?"

"We came down for the week-end," replied Halliday, crossing one leg over the other. "In the ordinary course of events we should have gone back to town yesterday, but naturally that was impossible until this business had been cleared up. My home address is -"

"I have it here, Mr. Halliday," said Harding. "Had you known Sir Arthur for long?"

"No, we were quite recent acquaintances. We met at Nice, last winter. I had a temporary job that took me out to the South of France, and the Billington-Smiths were staying there during January and February. Lady Billington-Smith and my wife struck up a bit of a friendship. Then after we came home we rather lost sight of them, until my wife happened to run across Sir Arthur in town one day, and the acquaintance was picked up again." As he spoke he looked once or twice, as though compelled, at the Sergeant, and his brows twitched a little; he shifted his chair slightly to get out of the direct line of that paralysing stare.

Harding asked in his impersonal way: "When did you last see Sir Arthur alive, Mr. Halliday?"

"On Monday morning," replied Halliday promptly. "I saw him in his study about twelve o'clock. I'm not sure of the exact time, but it must have been about then. It's best that I should be quite frank with you, Inspector, so I'll tell you at once that Sir Arthur and I had - most unfortunately, as it turns out - a disagreement."

"A quarrel, Mr. Halliday?"

"No, not a quarrel. I don't say there might not have been a quarrel had the circumstances been rather different, for I had cause to feel considerable annoyance with Sir Arthur. But my being a guest in his house put me into an awkward position. One doesn't quarrel with a man under his own roof."

"Was your disagreement of a serious nature, Mr. Halliday?"

Halliday gave a quick, mirthless smile. "Well, that is rather difficult to answer, Inspector. The contretemps concerns my private affairs, and I should prefer not to take you into them. I can only say that it made me determined not to accept another invitation to stay with Sir Arthur."

"Did the interview become heated?" inquired Harding."Not on my side, I hope. Ah, you are thinking of Finch's somewhat exaggerated statement! He, I believe told the Superintendent that he had overheard me having a violent row with Sir Arthur. I'm afraid that was a highly coloured version of what actually occurred , though I must admit that I had to raise my voice to make myself heard. Sir Arthur had a habit of shouting when he was at all put out, as I dare say you've been told."

"What you had to say to Sir Arthur, then, had the effect of angering him?"

"Oh, very much!" replied Halliday with a short laugh. "Sir Arthur did not like finding himself in the wrong any more than most people do."

Harding drew his pocket-book out and opened it. Hadliday shot one quick glance at it, and fixed his eyes on Harding's face again. "Do you know anything about this, Mr. Halliday?" asked Harding, arranging the four torn quarters of the General's cheque.

Halliday's right hand clenched on the chair-arm, and relaxed again. It was a moment before he answered, and then he said carefully: "I do, Inspector. I am sorry you found that cheque. You'll understand why I didn't wish to tell you what I went to see Sir Arthur about."

"Perfectly," said Harding, and waited.

"I suppose I had better tell you exactly what happened," Halliday said. "My quarrel with Sir Arthur was purely on account of that cheque. Sir Arthur had been paying my wife a great many unwelcome attentions during our stay. I can best describe his attitude as pseudo-fatherly. You probably know what I mean. It made it very difficult for my wife to choke him off. Yesterday morning he pressed that cheque on her with a lot of talk about wanting to make her a little present. She tried, of course, to make him understand that it was quite impossible for her to accept such a thing, but he made it extremely awkward for her, and in the end she gave it up, and instead came at once to consult me. Naturally, I - '

"One moment, Mr. Halliday. At what time during this morning did Sir Arthur give this cheque to your wife?"

"That I can't tell you. It was when he and she were over at his keeper's cottage, inspecting a litter of puppies. Somewhere between eleven and twelve."

"They returned to the house shortly before ten to twelve, I understand. At what time did your wife confide what had happened to you?"

"Immediately, of course. She thought it was the best thing she could do - quite rightly."

"Where were you when this confidence took place Mr. Halliday?"

"Upstairs. My wife came up to take her hat off."

"You were in the bedroom, in fact?"

"Well, no, not when she first came in. I joined her then.- oh, a couple of minutes later!"

"How long did you remain there with your wife?"

"Well, I don't really know. Not more than a few minutes. I realised that the only thing for me to do was to see Sir Arthur myself, and I went down at once, to get it over."

"Where did your wife go?"

"Out on to the terrace, I think. She was there when I joined them later."

"And how long were you in the study with Sir Arthur."

Halliday considered. "It can't have been much more than ten minutes, if as much. I tried to be as civil about the thing as I could, but naturally I was very much annoyed, and I had to make it quite clear to the General that he was making a bad mistake. He tried to bluster it out, and I saw if I argued it would only lead to a lot of unpleasantness, so I tore up the cheque, as you see, dropped it into the waste-paper basket, and left the room."

"And then, Mr. Halliday?"

"Let me see, what did I do then? Did I - no, I went upstairs just to see that all my stuff had been packed, washed my hands and came down again on to the terrace."

"Did you go straight out on to the terrace, Mr. Halliday?"

"Yes, straight - oh no, I was forgetting! I went into the billiard-room first, where I remembered leaving my pipe. Then I went out on to the terrace through the billiard room windows."

"Have you any idea what time it was then?"

"No, I'm sorry, but I don't think I noticed."

"Do you think it was before half past twelve, or after?"

"I really couldn't - oh, wait a minute, though! Mrs. Chudleigh got up to go quite soon after I joined the party and I think she said it was then half past twelve, so I must have come out on to the terrace at about twenty-five minutes past, more or less."

"You did not leave the terrace again, until one o'clock?"

"No, not until Guest and I went to the study."

"Did anyone else leave the terrace?"

"Yes, Guest did."

"Do you .remember when that was?"

"It was just about the same time that Mrs. Chudleigh left, a moment or two before, I think. I'd only just sat down when he began to feel in his pockets for his pouch. I offered him mine, but he said he preferred to go and get his own tobacco."

"How long, in your opinion, was he away?"

"Oh, some little time. Quite a quarter of an hour, I should say."

Harding wrote something down in his notebook. "Thank you. Sergeant, will you ring the bell, please?"

Halliday sat watching him in a fidgety silence. After; moment he said with forced lightness: "If there's anything else I can tell you, Inspector, naturally I should be only too glad to."

"I don't think there's anything else just now, Mr. Halliday." Harding looked up as the butler came in. "Would you be good enough to ask Mrs. Halliday to come here?" he said.

"You'll find her in the drawing-room, Finch," interpolated Halliday. He turned back to Harding. "She's a bit upset about the whole business, you know. I must say, it came as a bad shock to me too. I was absolutely thunderstruck. I suppose there's no chance it could have been done by an outsider? That's what Lady Billington-Smith thinks, you know. Someone who must have entered by the window."

"Until I have a little more data, Mr. Halliday, I'm afraid I can't venture any opinion," replied Harding expressionlessly.

"Of course the unfortunate part of it is that there are so many of us who might have done it," said Halliday ruefully. "Myself, and Guest, and young Billington-Smith, and I suppose Miss de Silva as well. I don't mind telling you that I shall be rather glad when it's been cleared up. I'm not a fool, and I can't but see that so far everything points either to me or to Billington-Smith." He looked round quickly as his wife came in. "Ah, there you are, Camilla! Come along, dear: the Inspector just wants to ask you one or two questions."

Harding had risen. "Will you sit down, Mrs. Halliday? Yes, in that chair, please." He turned to Halliday. "I won't keep you any longer Mr. Halliday," he said pleasantly.

"Oh, that's all right, Inspector!" Halliday replied. "I'll stay till you've finished with my wife."

"I would rather see your wife alone, if you don't mind," said Harding, still pleasantly, but with a note of purpose in his voice.

Halliday frowned. "Is that entirely necessary? My wife would much prefer me to stay with her - she's feeling very nervy still, aren't you, Camilla?"

Harding smiled down at Camilla. "There's no need for you to be at all nervous, Mrs. Halliday. Sergeant, will you open the door for Mr. Halliday?" He sat down again at the table, and pushed the papers on it a little way away from him. His attitude was rather that of one settling down to a comfortable talk; he did not look towards Halliday again, and after a moment's indecision Halliday left the room.

The Sergeant, having shut the door, went back to take up his dogged stand again before the fireplace, but was foiled.

"Sit down, Sergeant," said Harding, nodding to a chair behind Camilla's. "Now, Mrs. Halliday, I'm sure this has all been a great shock to you, and you would much rather not talk about it. But I'm afraid I shall have to ask you one or two rather important questions, over which I think probably you can help me."

Camilla, who had entered the room with a mixture of fright and defiance on her pretty, weak face, revived somewhat under this gentle handling, and spoke quite cordially. "Of course, I don't mind a bit, only I simply don't know anything, Inspector."

"Well," said Harding, laughing, "if I ask you anything you don't know you must just say so, and we'll try again."

Camilla gave a little titter, and patted the set waves of her hair. "Oh, if you're not going to be cross with me for not knowing things, I'm ready to answer anything. Only I've got awfully highly strung nerves - I've always been like it: most frightfully sensitive - and that ghastly policeman yesterday simply barked at me, and it was too awful for words."

"I won't bark at you," promised Harding. With not appearing to look very closely at her he had, nevertheless, kept his eyes on her face from the moment she had entered the room. As a result of this trained observation he said now: "You will have to forgive me it I ask you something rather personal, Mrs. Halliday. You are, if I may say so, a very attractive woman. I think the General thought so too, didn't he?"