A Caribbean Mystery Page 9

  “They weren’t married?”

  A faint smile appeared on Lieutenant Weston’s lips. “No,” he said, “they weren’t married. We don’t have so many marriages on the Island. They christen the children, though. He’s had two children by Victoria.”

  “Do you think he was in it, whatever it was, with her?”

  “Probably not. I think he’d have been nervous of anything of that kind. And I’d say, too, that what she did know wasn’t very much.”

  “But enough for blackmail?”

  “I don’t know that I’d even call it that. I doubt if the girl would even understand that word. Payment for being discreet isn’t thought of as blackmail. You see, some of the people who stay here are the rich playboy lot and their morals won’t bear much investigation.” His voice was slightly scathing.

  “We get all kinds, I agree,” said Daventry. “A woman, maybe, doesn’t want it known that she’s sleeping around, so she gives a present to the girl who waits on her. It’s tacitly understood that the payment’s for discretion.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But this,” objected Daventry, “wasn’t anything of that kind. It was murder.”

  “I should doubt, though, if the girl knew it was serious. She saw something, some puzzling incident, something to do presumably with this bottle of pills. It belonged to Mr. Dyson, I understand. We’d better see him next.”

  Gregory came in with his usual hearty air.

  “Here I am,” he said, “what can I do to help? Too bad about this girl. She was a nice girl. We both liked her. I suppose it was some sort of quarrel or other with a man, but she seemed quite happy and no signs of being in trouble about anything. I was kidding her only last night.”

  “I believe you take a preparation, Mr. Dyson, called Serenite?”

  “Quite right. Little pink tablets.”

  “You have them on prescription from a physician?”

  “Yes. I can show it to you if you like. Suffer a bit from high blood pressure, like so many people do nowadays.”

  “Very few people seem to be aware of that fact.”

  “Well, I don’t go talking about it. I—well, I’ve always been well and hearty and I never like people who talk about their ailments all the time.”

  “How many of the pills do you take?”

  “Two, three times a day.”

  “Do you have a fairly large stock with you?”

  “Yes. I’ve got about half a dozen bottles. But they’re locked up, you know, in a suitcase. I only keep out one, the one that’s in current use.”

  “And you missed this bottle a short time ago, so I hear?”

  “Quite right.”

  “And you asked this girl, Victoria Johnson, whether she’d seen it?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “And what did she say?”

  “She said the last time she’d seen it was on the shelf in our bathroom. She said she’d looked around.”

  “And after that?”

  “She came and returned the bottle to me some time later. She said was this the bottle that was missing?”

  “And you said?”

  “I said ‘That’s it, all right, where did you find it?’ and she said it was in old Major Palgrave’s room. I said ‘How on earth did it get there?’”

  “And what did she answer to that?”

  “She said she didn’t know, but—” he hesitated.

  “Yes, Mr. Dyson?”

  “Well, she gave me the feeling that she did know a little more than she was saying, but I didn’t pay much attention. After all, it wasn’t very important. As I say, I’ve got other bottles of the pills with me. I thought perhaps I’d left it around in the restaurant or somewhere and old Palgrave picked it up for some reason. Perhaps he put it in his pocket meaning to return it to me, then forgot.”

  “And that’s all you know about it, Mr. Dyson?”

  “That’s all I know. Sorry to be so unhelpful. Is it important? Why?”

  Weston shrugged his shoulders. “As things are, anything may be important.”

  “I don’t see where pills come in. I thought you’d want to know about what my movements were when this wretched girl was stabbed. I’ve written them all down as carefully as I can.”

  Weston looked at him thoughtfully.

  “Indeed? That was very helpful of you, Mr. Dyson.”

  “Save everybody trouble, I thought,” said Greg. He shoved a piece of paper across the table.

  Weston studied it and Daventry drew his chair a little closer and looked over his shoulder.

  “That seems very clear,” said Weston, after a moment or two. “You and your wife were together changing for dinner in your bungalow until ten minutes to nine. You then went along to the terrace where you had drinks with Señora de Caspearo. At quarter past nine Colonel and Mrs. Hillingdon joined you and you went in to dine. As far as you can remember, you went off to bed at about half past eleven.”

  “Of course,” said Greg, “I don’t know what time the girl was actually killed—?”

  There was a faint semblance of a question in the words. Lieutenant Weston, however, did not appear to notice it.

  “Mrs. Kendal found her, I understand? Must have been a very nasty shock for her.”

  “Yes. Dr. Robertson had to give her a sedative.”

  “This was quite late, wasn’t it, when most people had trundled off to bed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Had she been dead long? When Mrs. Kendal found her, I mean?”

  “We’re not quite certain of the exact time yet,” said Weston smoothly.

  “Poor little Molly. It must have been a nasty shock for her. Matter of fact, I didn’t notice her about last night. Thought she might have had a headache or something and was lying down.”

  “When was the last time you did see Mrs. Kendal?”

  “Oh, quite early, before I went to change. She was playing about with some of the table decorations and things. Rearranging the knives.”

  “I see.”

  “She was quite cheerful then,” said Greg. “Kidding and all that. She’s a great girl. We’re all very fond of her. Tim’s a lucky fellow.”

  “Well, thank you, Mr. Dyson. You can’t remember anything more than you’ve told us about what the girl Victoria said when she returned the tablets?”

  “No … It was just as I say. Asked me were these the tablets I’d been asking for. Said she’d found them in old Palgrave’s room.”

  “She’d no idea who put them there?”

  “Don’t think so—can’t remember, really.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Dyson.”

  Gregory went out.

  “Very thoughtful of him,” said Weston, gently tapping the paper with his fingernail, “to be so anxious to want us to know for sure exactly where he was last night.”

  “A little over-anxious do you think?” asked Daventry.

  “That’s very difficult to tell. There are people, you know, who are naturally nervous about their own safety, about being mixed up with anything. It isn’t necessarily because they have any guilty knowledge. On the other hand it might be just that.”

  “What about opportunity? Nobody’s really got much of an alibi, what with the band and the dancing and the coming and going. People are getting up, leaving their tables, coming back. Women go to powder their noses. Men take a stroll. Dyson could have slipped away. Anybody could have slipped away. But he does seem rather anxious to prove that he didn’t.” He looked thoughtfully down at the paper. “So Mrs. Kendal was rearranging knives on the table,” he said. “I rather wonder if he dragged that in on purpose.”

  “Did it sound like it to you?”

  The other considered. “I think it’s possible.”

  Outside the room where the two men were sitting, a noise had arisen. A high voice was demanding admittance shrilly.

  “I’ve got something to tell. I’ve got something to tell. You take me in to where the gentlemen are. You take me in to where the police
man is.”

  A uniformed policeman pushed open the door.

  “It’s one of the cooks here,” he said, “very anxious to see you. Says he’s got something you ought to know.”

  A frightened dark man in a cook’s cap pushed past him and came into the room. It was one of the minor cooks. A Cuban, not a native of St. Honoré.

  “I tell you something. I tell you,” he said. “She come through my kitchen, she did, and she had a knife with her. A knife, I tell you. She had a knife in her hand. She come through my kitchen and out the door. Out into the garden. I saw her.”

  “Now calm down,” said Daventry, “calm down. Who are you talking about?”

  “I tell you who I’m talking about. I’m talking about the boss’s wife. Mrs. Kendal. I’m talking about her. She have a knife in her hand and she go out into the dark. Before dinner that was—and she didn’t come back.”

  Fifteen

  INQUIRY CONTINUED

  I

  “Can we have a word with you, Mr. Kendal?”

  “Of course.” Tim looked up from his desk. He pushed some papers aside and indicated chairs. His face was drawn and miserable. “How are you getting on? Got any forwarder? There seems to be a doom in this place. People are wanting to leave, you know, asking about air passages. Just when it seemed everything was being a success. Oh Lord, you don’t know what it means, this place, to me and to Molly. We staked everything on it.”

  “It’s very hard on you, I know,” said Inspector Weston. “Don’t think that we don’t sympathize.”

  “If it all could be cleared up quickly,” said Tim. “This wretched girl Victoria—Oh! I oughtn’t to talk about her like that. She was quite a good sort, Victoria was. But—but there must be some quite simple reason, some—kind of intrigue, or love affair she had. Perhaps her husband—”

  “Jim Ellis wasn’t her husband, and they seemed a settled sort of couple.”

  “If it could only be cleared up quickly,” said Tim again. “I’m sorry. You wanted to talk to me about something, ask me something.”

  “Yes. It was about last night. According to medical evidence Victoria was killed some time between 10:30 pm and midnight. Alibis under the circumstances that prevail here are not very easy to prove. People are moving about, dancing, walking away from the terrace, coming back. It’s all very difficult.”

  “I suppose so. But does that mean that you definitely consider Victoria was killed by one of the guests here?”

  “Well, we have to examine that possibility, Mr. Kendal. What I want to ask you particularly about, is a statement made by one of your cooks.”

  “Oh? Which one? What does he say?”

  “He’s a Cuban, I understand.”

  “We’ve got two Cubans and a Puerto Rican.”

  “This man Enrico states that your wife passed through the kitchen on her way from the dining room, and went out into the garden and that she was carrying a knife.”

  Tim stared at him.

  “Molly, carrying a knife? Well, why shouldn’t she? I mean—why—you don’t think—what are you trying to suggest?”

  “I am talking of the time before people had come into the dining room. It would be, I suppose, some time about 8:30. You yourself were in the dining room talking to the head waiter, Fernando, I believe.”

  “Yes.” Tim cast his mind back. “Yes, I remember.”

  “And your wife came in from the terrace?”

  “Yes, she did,” Tim agreed. “She always went out to look over the tables. Sometimes the boys set things wrong, forgot some of the cutlery, things like that. Very likely that’s what it was. She may have been rearranging cutlery or something. She might have had a spare knife or a spoon, something like that in her hand.”

  “And she came from the terrace into the dining room. Did she speak to you?”

  “Yes, we had a word or two together.”

  “What did she say? Can you remember?”

  “I think I asked her who she’d been talking to. I heard her voice out there.”

  “And who did she say she’d been talking to?”

  “Gregory Dyson.”

  “Ah. Yes. That is what he said.”

  Tim went on, “He’d been making a pass at her, I understand. He was a bit given to that kind of thing. It annoyed me and I said ‘Blast him’ and Molly laughed and said she could do all the blasting that needed to be done. Molly’s a very clever girl that way. It’s not always an easy position, you know. You can’t offend guests, and so an attractive girl like Molly has to pass things off with a laugh and a shrug. Gregory Dyson finds it difficult to keep his hands off any good-looking woman.”

  “Had there been an altercation between them?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I think, as I say, she just laughed it off as usual.”

  “You can’t say definitely whether she had a knife in her hand or not?”

  “I can’t remember—I’m almost sure she didn’t—in fact quite sure she didn’t.”

  “But you said just now….”

  “Look here, what I meant was that if she was in the dining room or in the kitchen it’s quite likely she might have picked up a knife or had one in her hand. Matter of fact I can remember quite well, she came in from the dining room and she had nothing in her hand. Nothing at all. That’s definite.”

  “I see,” said Weston.

  Tim looked at him uneasily.

  “What on earth is this you’re getting at? What did that damn’ fool Enrico—Manuel—whoever it was—say?”

  “He said your wife came out into the kitchen, that she looked upset, that she had a knife in her hand.”

  “He’s just dramatizing.”

  “Did you have any further conversation with your wife during dinner or after?”

  “No, I don’t think I did really. Matter of fact I was rather busy.”

  “Was your wife there in the dining room during the meal?”

  “I—oh—yes, we always move about among the guests and things like that. See how things are going on.”

  “Did you speak to her at all?”

  “No, I don’t think I did … We’re usually fairly busy. We don’t always notice what the other one’s doing and we certainly haven’t got time to talk to each other.”

  “Actually you don’t remember speaking to her until she came up the steps three hours later, after finding the body?”

  “It was an awful shock for her. It upset her terribly.”

  “I know. A very unpleasant experience. How did she come to be walking along the beach path?”

  “After the stress of dinner being served, she often does go for a turn. You know, get away from the guests for a minute or two, get a breather.”

  “When she came back, I understand you were talking to Mrs. Hillingdon.”

  “Yes. Practically everyone else had gone to bed.”

  “What was the subject of your conversation with Mrs. Hillingdon?”

  “Nothing particular. Why? What’s she been saying?”

  “So far she hasn’t said anything. We haven’t asked her.”

  “We were just talking of this and that. Molly, and hotel running, and one thing and another.”

  “And then—your wife came up the steps of the terrace and told you what had happened?”

  “Yes.”

  “There was blood on her hands?”

  “Of course there was! She’d been over the girl, tried to lift her, couldn’t understand what had happened, what was the matter with her. Of course there was blood on her hands! Look here, what the hell are you suggesting? You are suggesting something?”

  “Please calm down,” said Daventry. “It’s all a great strain on you I know, Tim, but we have to get the facts clear. I understand your wife hasn’t been feeling very well lately?”

  “Nonsense—she’s all right. Major Palgrave’s death upset her a bit. Naturally. She’s a sensitive girl.”

  “We shall have to ask her a few questions as soon as she’s fit enough,” sai
d Weston.

  “Well, you can’t now. The doctor gave her a sedative and said she wasn’t to be disturbed. I won’t have her upset and brow-beaten, d’you hear?”

  “We’re not going to do any brow-beating,” said Weston. “We’ve just got to get the facts clear. We won’t disturb her at present, but as soon as the doctor allows us, we’ll have to see her.” His voice was gentle—inflexible.

  Tim looked at him, opened his mouth, but said nothing.

  II

  Evelyn Hillingdon, calm and composed as usual, sat down in the chair indicated. She considered the few questions asked her, taking her time over it. Her dark, intelligent eyes looked at Weston thoughtfully.

  “Yes,” she said, “I was talking to Mr. Kendal on the terrace when his wife came up the steps and told us about the murder.”

  “Your husband wasn’t there?”

  “No, he had gone to bed.”

  “Had you any special reason for your conversation with Mr. Kendal?”

  Evelyn raised her finely pencilled eyebrows—It was a definite rebuke.

  She said coldly:

  “What a very odd question. No—there was nothing special about our conversation.”

  “Did you discuss the matter of his wife’s health?”

  Again Evelyn took her time.

  “I really can’t remember,” she said at last.

  “Are you sure of that?”

  “Sure that I can’t remember? What a curious way of putting it—one talks about so many things at different times.”

  “Mrs. Kendal has not been in good health lately, I understand.”

  “She looked quite all right—a little tired perhaps. Of course running a place like this means a lot of worries, and she is quite inexperienced. Naturally, she gets flustered now and then.”

  “Flustered.” Weston repeated the word. “That was the way you would describe it?”

  “It’s an old-fashioned word, perhaps, but just as good as the modern jargon we use for everything—A ‘virus infection’ for a bilious attack—an ‘anxiety neurosis’ for the minor bothers of daily life—”

  Her smile made Weston feel slightly ridiculous. He thought to himself that Evelyn Hillingdon was a clever woman. He looked at Daventry, whose face remained unmoved, and wondered what he thought.