MISS SILVER DID not join in the search. She remained in the study with Thomasina and the sergeant who had been put in charge of Anna Ball. Another of those dreadful times of waiting.
Anna had not moved at all. Looking at her rigid face, Miss Silver felt a stern compassion. So thwarted, so twisted a creature, and now in so much pain. And at the root of it all the dreadful poisons of jealousy and envy. How necessary to guard against them in the child, to correct them in the developing thought. For how much unhappiness, how much crime, were they not responsible?
Thomasina had her thoughts too. She remembered so many things. She had tried to be kind to Anna. The kindness that has to try isn’t enough. It doesn’t reach people. She felt humble and ashamed. She had been pleased with herself. She had thought pretty well of Thomasina Elliot. If she ever felt like that again she would remember Anna Ball.
The time passed. It was not really very long. Frank Abbott and Peter Brandon came back. Frank said,
‘He’s got away. The girl had a car. We got out through the garage in time to see his tail-light go off down the north drive. Jackson and Thomas have gone after him in Craddock’s car. It would have taken too long to go round the house for one of ours, and they would have lost him.’
Anna drew a long deep breath and said,
‘He’s gone—he’s got away! He’s too clever for you! He’s always been too clever for you—he always will be!’ The triumph went out of her voice. It broke half way and dropped. ‘He’s gone—’ she said.
Her voice whispered and stopped. She looked all round the room in a hesitating, bewildered kind of way, her hands twisting in her lap. She did not speak again.
There was coming and going. An ambulance arrived, and the body was removed. The sergeant sat at the desk and was busy with the telephone. Calls went out to all stations with a description of Augustus Remington. As to the car in which he had gone, there was no description available. Anna, questioned, did not even reply. She twisted her hands in her lap and stared at them. In the end they took her away with the policewoman who had come out from Ledlington in the ambulance.
Peter took Thomasina back to the Miss Tremletts, and Miss Silver returned to the Craddocks’ wing. The study was left with a couple of constables in charge.
Thomasina and Peter walked across the park in silence. When there is too much to say it is easier to say nothing at all. They did not speak. Thomasina was alive, and she might so very easily have been dead. There could have been two bodies in the ambulance now on its way to Ledlington. As often as Peter wrenched his mind from this thought, it swung back again.
Thomasina did not think about how narrowly she had escaped. She thought about Anna Ball. Those twisting hands, and the cold misery in her voice when she said, ‘He’s gone—’
Coming to the Miss Tremletts was like coming into another world. They wept, they talked, they were avid for every possible detail, they were instant with cups of tea. By the time they had reached the second brew they were beginning to be quite sure that they had always thought there was something odd about Augustus Remington.
Mr John Verney had a word with Miss Silver before he too went back to his own wing.
‘You’ll tell Emily—’
‘About Mr Craddock’s death—yes. As to your identity, Mr Verney, I think you must be aware that she recognized you, and that that was why she fainted. Your disguise was a very good one. The loose untidy clothes, the beard, the country drawl—all these were a most efficient barrier to recognition. But when Mr Craddock was speaking you broke into quite spontaneous and natural laughter. She recognized your laugh.’
‘He was being so pompous—’
‘It has been a very great shock.’ Miss Silver’s tone held a note of reproof. ‘Mrs Verney is not at all strong. She is going to need care.’
‘I know, I know. I’ve been a deplorable husband. That was why—I wanted to be sure— You’ll do your best for her, won’t you?’ He took her hand, held it very hard for a moment, and then dropped it abruptly.
They went their way to their separate wings.