Page 74 of The Case of the Curate

“He was, actually, bless him.”

“Mrs. Bancroft?”

“Not so much,” Rupert admitted. “But then, she thinks I’m after her husband’s living and will turn them both out of the vicarage. Look, here’s a useful bench. If we had a pencil and paper, we could make lists of our suspects and find out who was provably where at the times of both crimes.”

“Like this?” Kate said, dragging her folded notes from the pocket of her cloak.

He smiled and took them from her as she sat down on the bench. “Never just a pretty face, were you, Kate?”

“No,” she said starkly. It had taken a lot of work to get Gilbert to see that. And then Chadbon and others.

Rupert was scouring the pages. “Oh, excellent. You’ve corroborated most of what Lewis told you about those who left the drawing room round about the time of Dinah’s murder.”

“These are my basic suspects. I have to include Lewis himself, since he could have left his post, though everyone who did leave the drawing room claims to have seen him there.”

“And last night, according to your notes, he was in the servants’ hall.”

“Most of the servants were, waiting for everyone abovestairs to go to bed so that they could. Or they were already in bed.”

“Mrs. Thornfield was supervising, but Kemp drifted in and out,” Rupert read.

“Exactly. No one thought it odd, because that’s what he does, keeps his eyes on everything. And he locks all the doors at night.”

“Does he have a firearm?” Rupert asked.

“Mrs. Thornfield seemed shocked by the idea and doubted it. But there are dueling pistols in the study, among Lord Chadbon’s collection, and there are pistols as well as fowling pieces in the gun room at the back of the house. According to His Lordship, everything is in its proper place.”

“When did he look?”

Kate grimaced. “Not until this morning. I didn’t think of it last night.”

“I’m not surprised. I suppose our killer could be following a pattern by using Chadbon’s weapons both times.” Rupert frowned. “He killed Dinah in silence. Why wasn’t he concerned about noise last night?”

Kate jerked her head up. “Because no one else was around. He could fire and escape without being seen. With Dinah, he knew he was close to the kitchen, and he probably knew you were in the orangery. He had to be silent.”

“Makes sense,” Rupert allowed, returning to the notes. “So Newman was in the library for most of yesterday evening and was seen there by Sir Colin Nye and Otteridge.”

“But they both wandered in and out, and Newman wasn’t paying attention. I suspect he was foxed on His Lordship’s brandy.”

“But he was there alone when the shot was fired?”

“Otteridge doesn’t know because he went to his own room from the library, then decided to go for a walk. He was on the stairs when he heard the shot and my cry, and then Kemp’s speaking to me.”

“Or he could have been in his own room, firing the gun before bolting downstairs to you.”

“Mrs. Otteridge says she was in the room too.” Kate pointed to the relevant line of her notes.

“Which means she could have fired the shot after he left. Or she is just covering for him. What about Nye? Did he claim to see Newman in the library?”

“He’s very vague about times. Says he fell asleep in the library at one point but doesn’t know when or who was there with him.”

“And Newman himself says Nye’s snoring was earlier,” Rupert read. “So he probably was alone and could have done it.”

“Nye claims he never looked out of the window. Certainly, no movement caught my eye up there, only at the ground-floor window, and that could easily have been imagination because I had an eerie feeling I was being watched.”

“You were right.”

“At any rate, we seem to have mostly the same suspects as for Dinah—Otteridge, Nye, and Newman. And Kemp.” She frowned. “On the whole, I’m inclined to rule out Carver and Elizabeth. I don’t think they had real reason to kill Dinah, and I can’t really see either of them coming all the way over here to stand about in the rain on the off chance that I might wander outside and they could shoot me. They would have been better off doing it while I was up at the Carvers’ place, or at least on my way home.”