Possibly like Constable Davies, I had a sudden longing to be outdoors. After all, that was where I did so much of my work. Could I commandeer a horse? Perhaps one for Harriet too – she was now only nervously managing to ride side-saddle, so it would have to be a very gentle animal.
But a ride out for pleasure might encourage all the other guests to demand the same privilege, so unless I could persuade Davies, and even, if he put in an appearance, my cousin, that it was a vital errand, not a pleasure jaunt, I would have to remain in the house.
‘You all right there, Mr Rowsley?’
I jumped. ‘Yes, indeed. I was just wondering, Davies,’ I extemporized, ‘if I have the germ of an idea. You said that the state of the bridge to the village was common knowledge. I was just wondering if the thief might have tried to stow the missing jewel case behind a loose stone.’ As I spoke, the trivial excuse became almost a conviction. ‘And what if that was what took Biddlestone there? It’s not the natural habitat for a butler.’
‘Was he the thief?’ Davies asked, catching on quickly. ‘Or trying to catch the thief? Or meeting the thief? But whatever the answer, it’s worth looking at the bridge.’
‘Shall I ride out and check? We could all ride – I’ll send word to the stables. Davies, you must come: you alone have the absolute right to question people about anything we find. And you, Turton? Harriet, would you like to come too?’
She shook her head firmly. ‘But you should go, Jeremy. You and your sketch-pad in case you need to record anything of interest. I still have the accounts to check, after all.’
‘If you are sure, ma’am? No, it’s not safe, is it? What if our friend the Major got wind of the fact that you are alone and undefended? He might want to finish what he started yesterday. Unless—’ He strode to the door with a smile on his face. ‘Unless you lock yourself in.’ He tried to turn the key, and failed. Repeatedly. He withdrew it, staring in disbelief. In a well-ordered household, surely every lock would be well lubricated. He even opened the door to try the key from the corridor side. The result was the same.
‘Has the door been locked all this time? Ever since the Colonel chose it as his headquarters, as I’m sure he’d say?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’ve locked it myself, and unlocked it every morning. Either me or the Colonel, that is. Though of course in most households like this even rooms with priceless paintings are left unlocked. Guests don’t bother. Why should they? They know that penalties for even the smallest theft are so severe even the poorest servant could not risk stealing so much as a handkerchief. How on earth has the key been changed this morning? And when?’
Mine were not the only eyes turning in Jeremy’s direction. He blushed scarlet, and then went so white I feared he would faint.
‘The privy. Only five minutes. I thought I’d closed the door but it was open when I came back so I thought I’d made a mistake.’
Davies was almost pulling the words out of him, but could not speed up the agonizing delivery. ‘Was anything different when you returned?’
‘Nothing. Just as I’d left it. Even a pencil I was sharpening.’
‘Are you absolutely sure? Even your sketch-book is untouched?’
He flicked through his pad. ‘Just as I left it.’
The accounts ledger and the big chart seemed to be in order too.
Davies seemed to grow an inch taller and three inches broader. ‘Mason!’
It was Billy who, after a few minutes’ delay, answered the summons. ‘My apologies, sirs and ma’am. Mr Mason has been called away. The Colonel needed his assistance.’
‘So no one has been on duty in this corridor since?’
Biting his lip, Billy shook his head. ‘It was only for a few minutes, Morgan. I mean Constable Davies. I was just on my way here – in fact, I was just outside the door – when her ladyship told me to carry her sewing box to her private sitting room.’
‘And you came straight back?’
‘Pretty well. I – er – I think Mr Turton saw me as he came back from the privy.’
Jeremy nodded.
‘I understand. Now, before you return to your post, I want you to find another key for this door. If you can’t, the moment the roads are clear you send for a locksmith. On my orders. I think someone has deliberately swapped the keys to leave the room vulnerable.’ Davies sounded far older than his years. Not for the first time I wished he could be given a greater role in the police force – or elsewhere.
It took only a few minutes for Billy to return, flourishing a key. ‘It’s the one Mr Biddlestone used, Mrs Simpkiss says. Shall I try it?’
‘Perfect. Thank you, Billy. No, I’ll keep the one that doesn’t work, thank you very much.’ He waited till the door was shut. ‘All the same, ma’am, I’d really like you to accompany us as we look at the bridge. It’ll do you good to get a bit of fresh air, and I’d welcome an extra pair of eyes.’
She shook her head. ‘My eyes will be better employed going through these accounts. If I went, I would simply be a liability. See, Matthew isn’t arguing! If Billy stays outside to guard me, and I lock the door, I shall be perfectly safe.’
Davies frowned, as if doubting Billy’s prowess in a crisis.
‘Safer than on a horse, at any rate,’ she conceded. ‘I’m sure Cousin Barrington will soon be down, too.’
I should never have suggested the jaunt in the first place – but now it seemed quite essential to the case. I could not be happy.
Neither, it seemed, could Davies. ‘Have you an inkwell to hand, ma’am?’
She flourished a hideous vase. ‘But I have another idea! Why not suggest that Roddy and Charles practise their bowling within earshot? They’d love that!’
I despatched a bemused Billy with the message. Their reply was prompt and enthusiastic: they’d present themselves outside the window the moment they’d despatched the last of their boiled eggs.
Davies sighed in acquiescence, but as he ushered us from the room, he muttered, ‘If only my cousin would come soon.’
The presence of the boys reassured me; undoubtedly they would kill anyone hurting Harriet – except that was, if I thought about it, less encouraging.
‘Just one thing, Rowsley,’ Webbe said, ‘we never did have our tête-à-tête with Jameson. He’d just disappeared. Should we try again?’
‘I think I may know where he was. No, don’t do anything for now except practise and keep your ears open.’
‘How have you been able to get backwards and forwards with the bridge in this state?’ I asked Davies, as Turton got to work.
‘There’s the ford, if you’re very careful. And there’s a stone bridge, old as the hills and just as solid, if you’re prepared for a two-mile walk. I just picked my way across what’s left of this bridge, though now I see it from this side I’m not so sure I should come back this way.’
‘Borrow the horse. I’m sure Barrington would be happy to help. Stable it at the village inn, if you’ve got one, at his expense.’ He looked awkward, embarrassed so I didn’t pursue the notion. I could raise it myself later with Barrington. ‘Now, where do we start? You’ll have seen it being rebuilt, of course, and you knew that it was a poor job.’
‘Look – all that rubble. Rubbish, really. Nothing with any weight. A bridge like this has to withstand all weathers. Proper dressed stone they should have used too, for the walls proper, not these old bricks. From the house, they’ll be – left over from when some of the modernization was done. Modern bricks wouldn’t have been as good as these old stone blocks – look, you can see some boy’s carved initials there, by that rough heart: J A and E M, 1679. Stood ever since then, those blocks. And look at that rubbishy stuff. Couldn’t even get the mortar right. Should have used lime mortar, see.’
‘It would have been very easy to prise out a brick or two if you wanted to, wouldn’t it?’
‘Wouldn’t even have needed a hammer and chisel – just a strong blade,’ he said, demonstrating with a pen knife on a block of several bricks. ‘There. And what,’ he continued, ‘do you think someone might have wanted to leave there? That jewellery box? And if they did, did he – or she, since you say the Gräfin had a wet skirt – come back and get it or might it still be there?’
I stared at him in total disbelief. And then I remembered that he had not seen the skirt for himself. ‘I can see that the thief might well be a woman, but not the Gräfin – it was only the hem of her skirt that was wet, not the whole of it.’
‘But the rain stopped, didn’t it, after the deluge? So she could have made her way out and back again. And don’t forget her shoes or boots or whatever have never been found. Could she have hidden them somewhere in the house herself? Maybe she even gave them to a servant – the Colonel and his lady are not known for their generosity … I’m sorry, you’re his cousin, aren’t you?’
‘Cousins we might be, but I suspect from what I’ve heard that the servants aren’t well paid. So whoever has the shoes might be very tempted to keep them and tell no one … And maybe even if another servant knew, they would keep quiet. Oh, dear. But as for the Gräfin gallivanting about the countryside, I’m not convinced. Ladies don’t in general, do they?’
‘But,’ Turton said startling us both, ‘the Gräfin was no ordinary lady. People think,’ he said with his usual difficulties, ‘that because I’m mostly silent I can’t hear. So they are indiscreet. She didn’t just play whist for pleasure. She made money. A lot. And people were afraid of her. Hated her. Your wife was taken in, I’d say.’
‘Deliberately?’ Davies asked.
Turton nodded. ‘More people could be the Gräfin’s killer than you imagine.’
‘I should check that chart again. I might need your help,’ Davies added humbly. ‘Thank you. Now, before we go, I’d really like us to do one more check round here. The water’s sinking fast. We should be able to see things we missed even ten minutes ago. Now, exactly where did you find Mr Biddlestone? Ah.’ He stared at the spot. ‘A very funny place indeed for a butler to be taking the air. And a funny place for somewhere to agree to meet him. Or plan to find him. If only – we need some help here.’
His wish was granted almost immediately. Turton pointed. His sharp eyes had picked out a hammer, some twenty paces from where Biddlestone’s body had lain.
Retrieving it from the stream with some difficulty, Davies weighed it in his hand. ‘Strange, to be talking about one murder and find the weapon possibly used in the other. Anything else, gentlemen? No matter how big or small.’ He spread his arms almost hopelessly. ‘Yes, hopeless as searching for the famous needle in a haystack. I might ask the villagers to search here – but people might be tempted … It’s a hard time of year for us, waiting for the crops to grow after that late snow.’
‘My cousin might offer a reward?’
‘For what?’ Turton managed.
‘And how much? You don’t want people to “find” something just to get some money,’ Davies pointed out.
Chastened, I nodded. ‘It needs proper consideration, doesn’t it? And I would say that you are the one to advise my cousin. Gentlemen, as you know I left Harriet behind when we set out. For all that business of finding the right key and her locking herself in, I would much rather return to her if—’
Turton grabbed my arm, pointing. ‘What’s that there?’