Free Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh Page B

parallel with the others and links them?’
    â€˜No. He did.’
    â€˜Mr Rubrick?’
    â€˜Yes. Earlier. Just as I was going to the house and before you went down there, Ursy, and talked to Terry.’
    â€˜Then you and Mr Rubrick must have been there together, Miss Lynne,’ said Alleyn.
    â€˜No,’ said Terence Lynne quickly.
    â€˜I understood Miss Harme to say that when she met you in the bottom path you told her you had been searching there.’
    â€˜I looked about there for a moment. I don’t remember seeing Mr Rubrick. I wasn’t with him.’
    â€˜But—’ Douglas broke off. ‘I suppose I made a mistake,’ he said. ‘I had it in my head that as I was going up to the house for the torches he came out of the lavender walk into my path and then moved on into the bottom path. And then I had the impression that as I returned with the torches he came hack from the bottom path. It was just then that I heard you two arguing about whether you’d stop in the bottom path or not. You were there then.’
    â€˜I may have seen him,’ said Terence. ‘I was only there a short time. I don’t remember positively, but we didn’t speak—I mean we were not together. It was getting dark.’
    â€˜Well, but Terry,’ said Ursula, ‘when I went into the bottom path you came towards me from the far end, the end nearest the lavender walk. If he was there at all, it would have been at that end.’
    â€˜I don’t remember, Ursula. If he was there we didn’t speak and I’ve simply forgotten.’
    â€˜Perhaps I was mistaken,’ said Douglas uncertainly. ‘But it doesn’t matter much, does it? Arthur was somewhere down there and so were both of you. I don’t mind admitting that the gentleman whose movements that evening I’ve always been anxious to trace, is our friend Mr Markins.’
    â€˜And away we go,’ said Fabian cheerfully. ‘We’re on your territory now, sir.’
    â€˜Good,’ said Alleyn; ‘what about Markins, Captain Grace? Let’s have it.’
    â€˜It goes back some way,’ said Douglas. ‘It goes back, to be exact, to the last wool sale held in this country, which was early in 1939.’

    â€˜â€”So Aunt Floss jockeyed poor old Arthur into scraping acquaintance with this Jap. Kurata Kan his name was. They brought him up here for the weekend. I’ve heard that he took a great interest in everything, grinning like a monkey and asking questions. He’d got a wizard of a camera, a German one, and told them photography was his hobby. Landscape mostly, he said, but he liked doing groups of objects too. He took a photograph in the Pass. He was keen on flying. Uncle Arthur told me he must have spent a whole heap of money on private trips while he was here, taking his camera with him. He bought photographs too, particularly infra-red aerial affairs. He got the names of the photographers from the newspaper offices. We found that out afterwards, though apparently he didn’t make any secret of it at the time. It seems he was bloody quaint in his ways and talked like something out of the movies. Flossie fell for it like an avalanche. “My dear little Mr Kan.” She was frightfully bucked because he gave top price for her wool clip. The Japs always bought second-rate stuff and anyway it’s very unusual for merino wool to fetch top price. I consider the whole thing was damn fishy. When she went to England they kept up a correspondence. Flossie had always said the Japs would weigh in on our side when war came. “My Mr Kan tells me all sorts of things.” By God, there’s this to say for the totalitarian countries, they wouldn’t have had gentlemen like Mr Kurata Kan hanging about for long. I’ll hand that to them. They know how to keep the rats out of their houses.’ Douglas laughed shortly.
    â€˜But not the bats out of their