Free A Question of Proof by Nicholas Blake Page B

in this case are, as far as I can make out. But I’m coming to the funny part of it. I asked him for his movements on Wednesday. He blustered a bit – all these lawyers do – then he told me a very curious story. Says he got a typewritten anonymous note by the morning post, with a Sudeley postmark, asking him to be in Edgworth Wood, that’s less than a mile from Sudeley Hall, you know, at one-forty-five, when the sender would tell him something to his advantage. “Absolute secrecy,” “burn this note”; all the usual stuff.’
    ‘And did he?’
    ‘Did he what? Oh, yes, he burnt it, so he says.’
    ‘I meant – did he go, sir?’
    ‘Aha, George, you’re coming on. You’re wondering why a respectable solicitor should take any notice of a shady communication like that.’
    Pearson hadn’t thought of this at all, but he nodded his head portentously. ‘And I suppose nobody turned up,’ he said.
    ‘You suppose right, my boy, if Urquhart is to be believed. Now if the thing was a genuine hoax he would probably not have destroyed the note. On the other hand, if he really did meet someone, he would be eager to produce that someone to prove an alibi. Anyway, I’ve left him to simmer, too. We’re going to see him again tomorrow, though he doesn’t know it. I’ve put a tag on him, of course, and I’ve sent Wills and Johnson to inquire whether anyone saw him or his car anywhere about Edgworth. It’s a deserted sort of place, though.’
    ‘You mean, you think it’s possible that he –?’
    ‘He might have done it; yes.
But
I doubt it. He doesn’t stand to gain much by the boy’s death. No, I’ve other ideas about Mr. Urquhart. Lives very well for a solicitor, don’t he?’ the superintendent added irrelevantly. ‘Big car, posh house and all. Well, well, we shall see. Now, George, what is your theory about this crime?’
    This was another favorite gambit of the superintendent’s, and Pearson made the conventional movement in reply. He scratched his head, stared dismally into his whisky and soda, and mumbled something about not seeing the wood for the trees yet. Armstrong took so deep a breath that his buttons threatened to fly off and expelled it to the visible perturbation of his moustache; his decks thus cleared for action.
    ‘All right, then,’ he said, ‘let’s take a look at the trees. Assuming for the present that Wemyss was murdered where the body was found, some time between one and four p.m. Can we narrow the time down?’
    ‘Well, sir, no one but a loony would have killed him during the sports. Hayfield’s in full view of most of the sports ground and that particular haystack is only about thirty yards from where some of the spectators were standing.’
    ‘Twenty-six and a half, actually,’ said Armstrong with elaborate negligence. ‘Yes, you’re right there. We can take two-thirty as one limit. Probably two-twenty; because people were coming out on to the field by then. Now, Mrs. Vale says she was in that haystack till about one-twenty-five, and she wouldn’t be likely to admit it if it wasn’t true. What do you think of her, George?’
    George grinned sheepishly. ‘She’s a bit of all right, she is.’
    ‘Aha! Fallen for a skirt again. You’ll never make a detective, young man,’ rallied the superintendent ponderously. ‘Now, if you ask me, I’d say she was a deep one. Got nerve, too. Wonder if she’s got enough nerve to take her lunch beside a corpse.’
    ‘Good Lord, sir, you can’t mean that?’ The sergeant was genuinely shocked.
    ‘I should say she’d strength enough to strangle a young whippersnapper like that. And there’s the money, don’t forget that.’
    ‘Well, if you’re thinking of that motive, what about old Brimstone?’ said Pearson disrespectfully.
    ‘Mm. Took half an hour to change, he says. Had plenty of time to slip down before his wife came up. Mr. Urquhart told me the school was prosperous, though , and I can’t see Brimstone taking a risk like