Death on the Air: and other stories

‘It also affected all the heaters in the house. Vide Miss Tonks’s radiator.’

‘Yes. He put all that right again. It would be a simple enough matter for anyone who knew how. He’d just have to fix the fuse on the main switchboard.’

‘How long do you say it would take to – what’s the horrible word? – to recondition the whole show?’

‘M’m,’ said Fox deeply. ‘At a guess, sir, fifteen minutes. He’d have to be nippy.’

‘Yes,’ agreed Alleyn. ‘He or she.’

‘I don’t see a female making a success of it,’ grunted Fox. ‘Look here, Chief, you know what I’m thinking. Why did Mr Hislop lie about deceased’s habit of licking his thumbs? You say Hislop told you he remembered nothing and Chase says he overheard him saying the trick nearly drove him dippy.’

‘Exactly,’ said Alleyn. He was silent for so long that Fox felt moved to utter a discreet cough.

‘Eh?’ said Alleyn. ‘Yes, Fox, yes. It’ll have to be done.’ He consulted the telephone directory and dialled a number.

‘May I speak to Dr Meadows? Oh, it’s you, is it? Do you remember Mr Hislop telling you that Septimus Tonks’s trick of wetting his fingers nearly drove Hislop demented. Are you there? You don’t? Sure? All right. All right. Hislop rang you up at ten twenty, you said? And you telephoned him? At eleven. Sure of the times? I see. I’d be glad if you’d come round. Can you? Well, do if you can.’

He hung up the receiver.

‘Get Chase again, will you, Fox?’

Chase, recalled, was most insistent that Mr Hislop had spoken about it to Dr Meadows.

‘It was when Mr Hislop had flu, sir. I went up with the doctor. Mr Hislop had a high temperature and was talking very excited. He kept on and on, saying the master had guessed his ways had driven him crazy and that the master kept on purposely to aggravate. He said if it went on much longer he’d…he didn’t know what he was talking about, sir, really.’

‘What did he say he’d do?’

‘Well, sir, he said he’d – he’d do something desperate to the master. But it was only his rambling, sir. I daresay he wouldn’t remember anything about it.’

‘No,’ said Alleyn, ‘I daresay he wouldn’t.’ When Chase had gone he said to Fox: ‘Go and find out about those boys and their alibis. See if they can put you on to a quick means of checking up. Get Master Guy to corroborate Miss Phillipa’s statement that she was locked in her room.’

Fox had been gone for some time and Alleyn was still busy with his notes when the study door burst open and in came Dr Meadows.

‘Look here, my giddy sleuth-hound,’ he shouted, ‘what’s all this about Hislop? Who says he disliked Sep’s abominable habits?’

‘Chase does. And don’t bawl at me like that. I’m worried.’

‘So am I, blast you. What are you driving at? You can’t imagine that…that poor little broken-down hack is capable of electrocuting anybody, let alone Sep?’

‘I have no imagination,’ said Alleyn wearily.

‘I wish to God I hadn’t called you in. If the wireless killed Sep, it was because he’d monkeyed with it.’

‘And put it right after it had killed him?’

Dr Meadows stared at Alleyn in silence.

‘Now,’ said Alleyn, ‘you’ve got to give me a straight answer, Meadows. Did Hislop, while he was semi-delirious, say that this habit of Tonks’s made him feel like murdering him?’

‘I’d forgotten Chase was there,’ said Dr Meadows.

‘Yes, you’d forgotten that.’

‘But even if he did talk wildly, Alleyn, what of it? Damn it, you can’t arrest a man 6n the strength of a remark made in delirium.’

‘I don’t propose to do so. Another motive has come to light.’

‘You mean – Phips – last night?’

‘Did he tell you about that?’

‘She whispered something to me this morning. I’m very fond of Phips. My God, are you sure of your grounds?’

‘Yes,’ said Alleyn. ‘I’m sorry. I think you’d better go, Meadows.’

‘Are you going to arrest him?’

‘I have to do my job.’

There was a long silence.

‘Yes,’ said Dr Meadows at last. ‘You have to do your job. Goodbye, Alleyn.’

Fox returned to say that Guy and Arthur had never left their parties. He had got hold of two of their friends. Guy and Mrs Tonks confirmed the story of the locked door.