“She says that she saw Mr. Rivers go past her and up the stairs to the second floor when she came out of Lord Geoffrey’s room,” Tom said. “Then she went into the suite at the end of the hall to prepare it for your mother and father’s arrival—” He glanced at Christopher, “and she didn’t notice anyone else going past while she was in there.”
“And when she got upstairs?”
“She didn’t,” Tom said. “Collins came tearing down the stairs after you found Rivers’s body, and told her on his way past what had happened, and for her to not touch the upstairs rooms. So she didn’t venture up to the second floor.”
I nodded. That was fine as far as it went. “She must have been up there at some point, though.”
Tom tilted his head. “What makes you say that?”
“Well, I saw her,” I said. “After all this had happened, of course. Aunt Roz and Uncle Herbert arrived, with His Grace, and Aunt Roslyn and I spoke, and then she went upstairs to look in on Olivia and Violet.”
Tom nodded. “And?”
“I eavesdropped on their conversation, and then Aunt Roz and I went into my room so I could change my clothes. I’d been wearing the same skirt and blouse all day.”
“Yes,” Tom said patiently. “And?”
“Well, when we came back out in the hallway, Nellie was replacing the vase in the alcove. Collins stuck his head out of Rivers’s room to ask her whether anyone else took care of the upstairs rooms—I think he had found fingerprints on the shards of the vase that had been used to bash Rivers over the head—and he wanted to know whether they were Nellie’s or someone else’s.”
“He’d have to take her fingerprints to make sure of that,” Tom said with a frown, and I nodded.
“And he planned to do, later. But he was alone at the time. The reinforcements from the village hadn’t arrived yet. It was just him, going through Dominic Rivers’s room and speculating.”
“And what did Nellie say?” Tom wanted to know.
“That there are two chambermaids and one parlor maid here at Marsden Manor. Jenny is the parlor maid—the one who was feeling unwell and had to put her feet up so Nellie served tea—and then there’s Edna, who takes care of the family’s bedchambers while Nellie takes care of the guests’.”
“The fingerprints on the vase are Nellie’s,” Tom said. “Collins told me. He must have had time to check them in the time since he asked the question.”
“Well, there doesn’t seem to be anything sinister about that. She probably dusted that vase every few days. Picked it up, put it on the floor, dusted the plinth, and put it back.”
“I imagine so,” Tom said, and we sat in silence for a few moments before Christopher cleared his throat.
“How did Nellie know that the vase needed to be replaced?”
“The vase with the peacock feathers?”
He nodded. “Did you see that the vase was missing when you were upstairs?”
“Twice, as a matter of fact. The first time was just after Rivers’s murder—I remember thinking that I hadn’t noticed it the first time we walked past, but I did look at it when we walked back down again, and I saw the feathers lying on the plinth. And the second time was when I followed Aunt Roz upstairs and tiptoed down the hall to listen at Violet Cumming’s door. I glanced into the alcove on my way past, and saw that the feathers were gone.”
“And then, a few minutes later, Nellie brought up a new vase.”
“It was more than a few minutes,” I said. “Perhaps ten or so. But yes, she did.”
“So sometime between Rivers’s murder and when she did that, she must have realized that the vase had been broken. Or she wouldn’t have known to replace it.”
“Perhaps Collins told her?” I suggested. “If he told her not to go upstairs because there had been another murder, and she asked what had happened, might he have told her what the murder weapon was?”
“He’s not supposed to,” Tom said. “That’s the sort of information that we can use to trip someone up. Or to determine how much they know about what happened. It’s not supposed to be shared with the public until we’re ready.”
“He’s a bit sweet on her, though,” I said indulgently. “She’s very pretty, you know, and he gets a bit flustered when he talks to her. If she asked, he might have tried to impress her.”
“That’s not how a copper is supposed to behave,” Tom said crossly. “Personal feelings aren’t supposed to interfere with the job.”
“Of course not.” I smiled sweetly. “But we all know that they do, don’t we? I don’t want to bring up nightclub raids, but?—”
“Yes, yes.” Tom waved this reminder away with a flap of his hand, but his cheekbones were flushed. “I take your point, Pippa. Say no more.”
