At nine o’clock that same night a young man carrying a parcel arrived at the house and asked for Hilda. William brought the message to Marian’s door.
“Tell him to wait,” she said briefly. “Put him in the morning room and close the door. Tell him he’s to stay if it takes all night.”
William hesitated, his old head shaking.
“How is she, miss?”
“A little better.”
“Thank God for that,” he said and tottered down the stairs.
It was ten o’clock when Courtney Brooke went out into the hall and, bending over, kissed Jan gently.
“It’s all right, darling. You can see her for a minute. Don’t talk to her.”
When Jan came out he was waiting. He took her back to her room and put his arms around her.
“My girl,” he said. “Always and ever my girl, sweet. Hold on to me, darling. You need somebody to hold on to, don’t you? And I’m strong. I’ll never let you down.”
“I’ve had so much, Court!”
“You’ve had too much, sweet. But it’s all over. There won’t be any more.”
She looked up into his eyes, steady and honest, and drew a long breath.
“Why did she do it, Court? Was it because Father—”
“Your father’s all right. Take my word for it, darling.”
“Then who—”
“Hush,” he said, cradling her in his arms. “Hush, my sweet. Don’t think. Don’t worry. It’s all over. You’re to rest now. Just rest.” He picked her up and laid her gently on the bed. “Sleep if you can. Think of me if you can’t! Look out, darling. There’s a moon. I ordered it for tonight, for you.”
She lay still, after he had gone, looking at the moon. She felt very tired, but she was peaceful, too. It was over. Court had said so. She wrapped herself in his promise like a blanket, and fell asleep. She was still asleep when, at eleven, the inspector drove in under the porte-cochere.
Susie and Carlton were in the library. Carlton’s face was haggard, and even Susie looked stricken. She could accept murder, but she could not face suicide, or the attempt at it. Life was too important to her, the love of it too strong.
She sat beside Carl, his head drawn down on her shoulder, her eyes soft.
“Don’t be a jackass,” she said. “Of course she didn’t do it.”
“Then why would she try to kill herself?”
“Because she’s the same kind of fool I am. Because she’s a one-man woman.” She sat up and lit a cigarette. “Let’s forget it,” she said. “Let’s think about a farm. You can raise what you want, and I’ll raise pigs. I rather like pigs,” she said. “At least they’re natural. They don’t pretend to be anything but pigs.”
“So long as you’re around, old girl,” he said huskily. “So long as you’re around.”
They did not hear the inspector as he went up the stairs and tiptoed into Mrs. Fairbanks’s room, closing the door behind him. He did not turn on a light, or sit down. Instead, he went to a window and stood looking out. The whole thing was not to his taste. He had come at Hilda’s request, and it was not like her to be dramatic. So Marian Garrison had tried to kill herself! It might be a confession, or the equivalent of one. And where the hell was Hilda, anyhow?
He was rapidly becoming indignant when suddenly without warning the radio behind him roared into action. He almost leaped into the air with the shock. It was playing the Habanera from Carmen, and the din was terrific. He was turning on the lights when Hilda came in.
For the first time in his experience she looked frightened. She shut off the machine and confronted him.
“That’s how it was done,” she said, and sat down weakly in a chair.
“What do you mean, that’s how?”
She did not answer directly. She looked tired and unhappy.
“It’s a phonograph. You set the radio dial on to a certain place and turn it on. It’s a blank spot, where there’s no station. Nothing happens, of course. But if you’ve got this machine plugged in on the same circuit, even in another room, it plays through the radio. As it did here.”
“There was no phonograph in the house that night,” he said stubbornly.
“I think there was.”
“Where was it? We searched this house for one. We didn’t find it.”
When she did not answer he looked at her. She was sitting still, her tired hands folded in her lap, her blue eyes sunken, the life gone out of her.
“I hate this job,” she said. “I hate prying and spying. I’m through. I can’t go on. I can’t send a woman to the chair.”
He knew her through long association. He realized that in her present mood he could not push her.
“It was a woman?” he said quietly.
She nodded.
“How was it done, Hilda?”
“It had to be done by someone who knew the house,” she said slowly. “Someone who knew the light circuits. Someone who knew this radio and had a chance sometime to discover how to adjust the remote-control phonograph. It didn’t need much. It could be done in a few minutes. After you find the blank spot on the radio, all you have to do after that is to turn the dial to that spot. Then you could start the record, and it would play here.”
“Where was it played from just now?”
“There’s a young man in Carlton’s room,” she said dully. “I promised him ten dollars to come tonight. I’d better pay him and let him go.”
He gave her the ten dollars and she went out. She was gone a considerable time. When she returned she looked so pale that the inspector thought she was going to faint.
“He left the machine,” she said. “He’ll get it in the morning. If you want to see it—”
“See here, I think you need some whisky.”
“No. I’m all right. If you’ll come along I’ll show you.”
She got up heavily and led the way. Carlton was still downstairs with Susie, but his room was lighted. Sitting on the floor by a base outlet was what looked like a small phonograph about a foot in diameter, with a record on it. It was plugged into the wall, and the inspector, picking up the record, saw that it was the Habanera from Carmen. He started it, and going to Mrs. Fairbanks’s room switched on the radio. Almost immediately the Habanera started. He switched it off, and went back to Hilda. She was still there, standing by a window.
“How long have you known about this?” he demanded.
“Only today. Something Susie said. I saw the radio set where it is, and—I wondered about it. You see, there are almost no stations on the air at one or later in the morning, and when they are it’s dance music. I had just remembered it was something from Carmen that night. I should have thought about that sooner,” she added, and tried to smile.
He had an idea that she was playing for time. He was wildly impatient, but he did not dare to hurry her.
“You see, it didn’t take long,” she went on. “I’ve tried it. Two minutes was enough to use the knife and turn the radio dial to the blank spot. And the doctor was in Jan’s room for five minutes, maybe more. Even at that she took a chance. A dreadful chance,” she said, and shivered. “She wasn’t quite normal, of course. Those bats and things—”
“Listen,” he said roughly. “Are you trying to tell me that Ida did all this?”
“Ida? No. She used them, of course. Amos saw her in the cupola. I suppose she was given a reason. Maybe to get Mrs. Fairbanks to leave the house. Maybe something worse, to scare her to death. And she hid the machine in the loft of the stable the next day. She carried it out in some blankets. That was why Jan was hurt, and I was locked in. The machine was hidden there, behind some trunks, or in one, I don’t know. It had to be taken away, of course. She was in the loft when Jan got there. She had to get out.”
She looked at her watch, and Fuller at last lost patience.
“Haven’t we played around enough?” he said. “What is all this? Are you giving someone a chance to get away?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t think so. No. I—” She closed her eyes. “Ida had to die, you see. She knew too much, so she got arsenic in a cup of tea. In the sugar, I suppose. The way Mrs. Fairbanks got it. If it hadn’t been for Ida—”
Downstairs the telephone was ringing. Hilda got up and opened the door. Carlton was talking over it in the library. He sounded excited, and a moment later he slammed out the side door. Hilda was standing very still, listening while the inspector watched her. Her eyes were on the stairs when Susie came running up. She was gasping for breath, and her eyes were wide with shock.
“It’s Eileen,” she gasped. “She’s killed herself with Frank’s service revolver.”
Then, for the first time in her life, Hilda fainted. The inspector caught her as she fell.