The Mystery at Stowe

‘Then I think I shall see Mrs Gailey next,’ said Fisher. ‘If you don’t mind, Mr Barley, I shall question this witness privately.’

Barley started. ‘I hope I have not been in your way?’

‘Not at all,’ said Fisher dryly. ‘But please ask Mrs Gailey to come in. I have done with Mr Haine.’

Ortho bolted, much relieved, but Mr Barley was thoughtful and anxious as he went in search of Netta Gailey. Was it possible that the superintendent suspected something? It was odd his asking to see Mrs Gailey alone. If that young ass Haine had only held his tongue this ridiculous nonsense about Margery Tollard’s unhappiness need never have come up.

‘The police will be sure to make a mountain of this molehill!’ he said to himself plaintively.

CHAPTER VI (#ulink_34bb747b-4ab1-563a-a369-7c132c759aae)

FISHER LAYS A TRAP (#ulink_34bb747b-4ab1-563a-a369-7c132c759aae)

IT was certainly unfortunate that Ortho Haine had said even as much as he did. Superintendent Fisher had expected to hear that the dead lady had been a happy woman, but the earlier witnesses had not thought of saying so, and Haine had almost given him the impression that Mrs Tollard was unhappy in her married life.

‘There’s one thing certain,’ said Fisher, as he sat waiting for Mrs Gailey. ‘Mr Tollard left yesterday, so was not in the house last night. Mrs Tollard was most probably shot from outside. If that little fluff of silk-cotton had been detached in firing, as Miss Gurdon suggested, it ought to have been found. That is, if the criminal was indoors at the time. It might be possible, though, for someone to fire the dart through the keyhole of the communicating door. I must look into that. Come in!’

The last words he spoke aloud, and Netta Gailey entered shyly.

‘You are Mrs Gailey?’ asked Fisher. ‘Good! Will you please sit down?’

She sat down, and began to fidget. He added in a reassuring tone: ‘The questions I am going to put to you need not alarm you, Mrs Gailey.’

She nodded nervously. ‘I don’t know much, I’m afraid.’

‘I gathered as much from Mr Barley. But I want to hear a little about the poor lady. I expect we shall find she was happy enough when alive, but some of the guests here have given me the impression that she was rather melancholy. Now, as another woman, and one more or less in sympathy with her, can you tell me your opinion?’

Mrs Gailey had come determined to say nothing. But the superintendent seemed so mild, and so casual about it, that she was not so careful as she had intended to be.

‘Well, you see, she wasn’t a sporty type. She liked books and pictures and things, while Mr Tollard was fond of sports.’

Fisher nodded indifferently. ‘We mustn’t let that influence us too much. Dozens of husbands and wives manage to rub along very nicely, even when they don’t think alike.’

‘Oh, of course,’ she replied, more brightly. ‘I don’t say for a minute that Ned Tollard made her unhappy.’

‘I don’t suppose he did,’ said Fisher, giving her a keen look. ‘No one has dared to suggest that, I hope.’

‘Not suggest it. Oh, no,’ she cried. ‘She was rather languid, you know, and had a rather melancholy face. You see, Mr Tollard was only giving money to this expedition. I never saw anything in it myself.’

Fisher smiled inwardly. It was not for nothing that he had wished to see this lady in Mr Barley’s absence.

‘Too absurd to suggest it,’ he said. ‘With a big thing like that in view, there would be a lot to discuss and talk over?’

‘Miss Gurdon used to visit their house, with her maps and plans,’ she agreed. ‘I can assure you it was quite above-board. You do see that, don’t you?’

‘It seems hardly worth discussing,’ he said casually. ‘But let us leave that, and come back to Mr Tollard. He only left here yesterday. I presume you knew he was leaving?’

She reflected. ‘No. That was rather a surprise. We were all going to picnic at Heber Castle, in the afternoon, and he had driven his wife over to Elterham to get some books in the morning. I saw them come back in the car, but did not speak to them. It was later we heard he had to go back to town on business.’

‘I hope the drive did her good—I mean to say, how did she seem when you saw her?’

Netta Gailey gave a sudden start. Was it possible that this horrid man was pumping her? Had she said too much already?

‘Oh, all right,’ she said hastily.

Fisher had been watching her face. ‘Do you mean happy?’

She squirmed a little, and he saw that too. He came at her suddenly with a verbal thrust.

‘You thought not? You felt that she was not quite at her ease?’

Netta gasped. ‘Oh, I don’t know. She seemed a bit upset, perhaps, but she had a bad head later, and perhaps she felt it coming on.’

It had dawned on her that her conjecture was right. He had been drawing her on. She rose, much perturbed.

He got up, and rang a bell. ‘Please sit down for a few moments,’ he said, and began to scribble in his note-book as she resumed her seat.

Grover, the butler, came in. Fisher asked him to send in Miss Sayers, and went on writing. Miss Sayers appeared in a minute, and glanced woefully at Netta. The superintendent suddenly seemed to jump up, and be standing between them.

‘Thank you, Mrs Gailey, that will do,’ he said.

Netta went out, without a chance to warn her friend. Fisher courteously asked Nelly Sayers to sit, and stood near her, his hands behind his back.

‘I am sorry to trouble you, Miss Sayers,’ he began, ‘but duty is duty even when it is not very pleasant. Mrs Gailey tells me that Mrs Tollard returned yesterday from a drive with her husband, looking rather upset. Between you and me, I am not disposed to lay much stress on Mr Tollard’s connection with this expedition, but I get the impression that Mrs Tollard, perhaps, did not quite like her husband’s interest in it.’

Nelly Sayers was not vivacious, and quick, but she had at the back of her more common-sense than her friend Netta. The trouble was that she did not know what the latter had told the officer.

‘I think it’s rubbish,’ she cried. ‘She had nothing to complain of.’

‘Unfortunately, people do not require to have grounds for complaint,’ he said shrewdly. ‘Did you see her return from this drive?’