Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 8: Death at the Dolphin, Hand in Glove, Dead Water

Alleyn disregarded this question. ‘Why dotty?’ he asked.

‘Judge for yourself.’

She put a hand on his shoulder, leant across him and pulled out a drawer in her desk, taking her time about it. ‘Here it is,’ she said and dropped a letter in front of him. ‘Go on,’ she said. ‘Read it.’

It was written in Mr Period’s old-fashioned hand, on his own letter-paper.

‘My dear,’ it read, ‘Please don’t think it too silly of me to be fussed about a little thing, but I can’t help feeling that you might very naturally, have drawn a quite unwarrantable conclusion from the turn our conversation took today. It really is a little too much to have to defend one’s own ancestry, but I care enough about such matters to feel I must assure you that mine goes back as far as I, or anyone else, might wish. I’m afraid Hal, poor dear, had developed a slight thing on the subject. But never mind! I don’t! Forgive me for bothering you, but I know you will understand.

As ever,

P.P.P.’

‘Have you any idea,’ Alleyn said, ‘what he’s driving at?’

‘Not a notion. He dined here last night and was normal.’

‘Would you have expected another sort of letter from him?’

‘Another sort? What sort? Oh! I see what you mean. About Ormsbury, poor brute? He’s dead, you know.’

‘Yes.’

‘With P.P.’s passion for condolences it would have been more likely. You mean he’s done the wrong thing? So, who was meant to have this one?’

‘May I at all events keep it?’

‘Do, if you want to.’

Alleyn pocketed the letter. ‘I’d better say at once that you may have been the last person to speak to Harold Cartell, not excepting his murderer.’

She had a cigarette ready in her mouth and the flame from the lighter didn’t waver until she drew on it.

‘How do you make that out?’ she asked easily. ‘Oh, I know. Somebody’s told you about the balcony scene. Who? Andrew, I suppose, or his girl. Or P.P., of course. He cut in on it from his window.’

‘So you had a brace of Romeos in reverse?’

‘Like hell I did. Both bald and me, if we face it, not quite the dewy job either.’

Alleyn found himself at once relishing this speech and knowing that she had intended him to have exactly that reaction.

‘The dewy jobs,’ he said, ‘have their limitations.’

‘Whereas for me,’ Desirée said, suddenly overdoing it, ‘the sky’s the limit. Did you know that?’

He decided to disregard this and pressed on. ‘Why,’ he asked, ‘having deposited Mr Period at his garden gate did you leave the car, cross the ditch and serenade Mr Cartell?’

‘I saw him at his window and thought it would be fun.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I think I said: “But soft what light from yonder window breaks.”’

‘And after that?’

‘I really don’t remember. I pulled his leg a bit.’

‘Did you tell him you were on the warpath?’

There was a fractional pause before she said: ‘Well, I must say P.P. has sharp ears for an elderly gent. Yes, I did. It meant nothing.’

‘And did you tell him to watch his step?’

‘Why,’ asked Desirée, ‘don’t we just let you tell me what I said and leave it at that?’

‘Did you tackle him about that boy of yours?’

‘All right,’ she said, ‘yes, I did!’ And then: ‘They didn’t tell you? Andy and the girl? Have you needled it out of them, you cunning fellow?’

‘I’m afraid,’ Alleyn prevaricated, ‘they were too far up the lane and much too concerned with each other to be reliable witnesses.’

‘So P.P. –’ She leant forward and touched him. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘I honestly don’t remember what I said to Hal. I’d had one or two little drinks and was a morsel high.’ She waited for a moment and then, with a sharpness that she hadn’t exhibited before, she said: ‘If it was a booby-trap, I hadn’t a chance to set it, had I? Not in full view of those two lovebirds.’

‘Who told you about the booby-trap?’

‘P.P. told Andy and Andy told me. And I drove straight here to Baynesholme arriving at twenty-five to twelve. The first couple got back soon afterwards. From then on I was under the closest imaginable observation. Isn’t that what one calls a water-tight alibi?’

‘I shall be glad,’ Alleyn said, ‘to have it confirmed. How do you know you got back at eleven thirty-five?’

‘The clock in the hall. I was watching the time because of the treasure hunt.’

‘Who won?’

‘Need you ask! The Moppett and her bully. They probably cheated in some way.’

‘Really? How do you suppose?’

‘They heard us plotting about the clues in the afternoon. The last one led back to the loo tank in the downstairs cloakroom.’

‘Here?’

‘That’s right. Most of the others guessed it but they were too late. Andrew and Nicola didn’t even try, I imagine.’

‘Any corroborative evidence, do you remember?’

‘Of my alibi?’

‘Of your alibi,’ Alleyn agreed sedately.