Free Detection Unlimited by Georgette Heyer Page A

allow this flight of fancy to go unchallenged?'

    'Yes,' said Abby, 'though I should think the detective must have known it was a whopper, if he happened to be looking at Charles when he said it. His jaw dropped a mile. The thing is you can't very well chip in and say the man was utterly barred, when his niece thinks he wasn't.'

    'Well, I very nearly did,' confessed Miss Patterdale. 'Because it's nonsense to say that Mavis thought he was liked in the neighbourhood. She knew very well he wasn't. It's all on a par with pretending to be heartbroken that he's dead. I don't say she isn't shocked -- I am, myself -- but she can't be sorry] I'll do her the justice to admit that she has always put a good face on things, and not broadcast the way he treated her, but I know from what she's told me, when he's been worse than usual, that she had a thoroughly miserable time with him.'

    Gavin, who had been listening to this speech with a rapt look on his face, said: 'Oh, I am glad I came to call on you! Of course she did it! It's almost too obvious!'

    Abby gave an involuntary giggle, but Miss Patterdale said sharply: 'Don't be silly!'

    'All the same, it's a pretty fragrant thought,' said Charles, grinning.

    'It's nothing of the sort! Now, I won't have you making that kind of joke, any of you! It's in very bad taste. Mavis says those things because she thinks one ought not to speak ill of the dead, that's all.'

    'In what terms does she speak of the Emperor Domitian, and the late Adolf Hitler?' enquired Gavin, interested.

    'That,' said Miss Patterdale severely, 'is different!' . 'Well,' said Gavin, setting down his empty cup, and dragging himself out of his chair, 'if I am not to be allowed to suspect Mavis, I must fall back upon my first choice.'

    'Who's that?' demanded Abby.

    'Mrs Midgeholme -- to avenge the blood of Ulysses. I won't deny that I infinitely prefer her as a suspect to Mavis, but there's always the fear that she'll turn out to have an unbreakable alibi. Mavis, we all know, has none at all. That, by the way, will be our next excitement: who had an alibi, and who had none. You three appear to have them, which, if you will permit me to say so, is very dull and unenterprising of you.'

    'Have you got one?' Abby asked forthrightly.

    'No, no! At least, I hope I haven't: if that wretched landlord says I was sitting in the Red Lion at the time I shall deny it hotly. Surely the police cannot overlook my claims to the post of chief suspect? I write detective novels, I have a lame leg, and I drove my half-brother to suicide. What more do the police want?'

    'You know,' said Charles, who had not been attending very closely to this, 'I've been thinking, and I shouldn't be at all surprised, taking into account the time when it happened, if quite a few people haven't got alibis. Everyone was on the way home from our party -- the Squire, Lindale, the Major, old Drybeck!'

    'Don't forget me, and the Vicar's wife!' interrupted Gavin.

    'I don't mind adding you to the list, but I won't have the Vicar's wife. She can'(have had anything to do with it, and only confuses the issue.'

    'What about the Vicar himself?' asked Abby, her chin propped on her clasped hands. 'Where was he?'

    'Went off to visit the sick, didn't he? Anyway, he's out of the running too.'

    'So are Major Midgeholme, and Mr Drybeck,' Abby pointed out. 'We ran them home.'

    'On the contrary! I set the Major down at the cross-road, because lie told me to. I don't know what he did when I drove on. Not that I think he's a likely candidate for the list, but we must stick to the facts. I then set old Drybeck down outside his house. We left him waving goodbye to us: we didn't actually see him enter his house, and for anything we know, he didn't.'

    'No, that's true,' agreed Abby, her eyes widening. 'And he really is a likely candidate! Gosh!'

    'Now, that's quite enough!' Miss Patterdale interposed. 'Talk like that can lead to trouble.'

    'That's all right, Aunt Miriam,' said