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‘Don’t ask me, love! Well, I never did like policemen, and it just shows you, doesn’t it? As though I’d make up a thing like that! Why, whatever would I do it for, when the one thing I dread is everyone finding out about Wally’s goings-on with that girl?’
‘Not you,’ Mary said. ‘There’s no doubt Wally did say five hundred. He said it to you, and he said it to me. But was it true?’
‘But heavens alive, ducky, even Wally wouldn’t ask me for five hundred for his mistress, unless he couldn’t get out of it! I mean to say!’
‘You knew already about Gladys Baker. It wasn’t like making a confession to you. Supposing he wanted five hundred?’
‘Mary, what’s come over you? I never grudged Wally a penny! He could have had five hundred any day!’
‘Not for something you disapproved of.’
Ermyntrude blinked at her uncomprehendingly. ‘I don’t get what you’re after, dear. I don’t know what I could have disapproved of more than his getting that Baker girl into trouble, I’m sure!’
‘Aunt Ermy, do you mind if we have Hugh in? I’ve got an idea in my head, and I don’t know whether I ought to tell the police, or – or whether it’s all too vague. But if they’re suspicious of Baker, because of this five hundred pound business, and all the time he didn’t ask Wally for it, surely I ought to – Hugh would know!’
‘Well, I don’t mind his hearing about it. But what about Lady Dering? We can’t leave her all alone out there, can we?’
‘She’s gone.’ Mary went to the window and called to Hugh.
He came, but not unaccompanied. Vicky stepped into the room ahead of him, and inquired what the Inspector had wanted.
‘Oh, Vicky, you could have knocked me down with a feather! They’ve found one of your poor father’s rifles in the shrubbery! It’s quite true; it isn’t in the case.’
‘Good Lord!’ said Hugh. ‘Then – who could have got hold of it, Mrs Carter?’
‘Anybody!’ said Ermyntrude.
‘Not Baker,’ said Mary. ‘Surely not Baker! How could he have known about it? That makes me feel more than ever that he didn’t ask Wally for that money!’
Hugh said frowningly: ‘What’s all this?’
‘Mary darling, you aren’t coming unstuck or anything, are you?’ asked Vicky.
‘No. But I – I rather think I know something the rest of you don’t. And I can’t help feeling it may have something to do with Wally’s going to the Dower House yesterday, though what it has to do with his being shot, I can’t quite see.’
‘Do you mind being a little more explicit?’ said Hugh. ‘What is it you think you know?’
‘I believe Wally and Harold White had some scheme on hand for making money. He said something to me – oh, more than once! – about making his fortune, all through White. As a matter of fact, it was when I rather went for him about lending money to White. He had lent him money, you know, Aunt Ermy, and I told him he’d no right to. And then he said that about making his fortune, and White putting him on to a good thing. I didn’t pay much heed at the time, but now I can’t help wondering. It would be so like him!’
‘I’m afraid I haven’t grasped the gist of this, Mary,’ said Hugh. ‘What’s the connection between this, and Baker?’
‘Wally knew Aunty Ermy wouldn’t give him money to invest in any scheme of Harold White’s making. Then Aunt Ermy found out about Gladys Baker. Do you think – do you think he could possibly have made up that story of being blackmailed for five hundred, to get money for whatever scheme it was White had put up to him?’
Hugh, who had listened in blank amazement, said: ‘Frankly, no, I don’t. Good Lord, Mary, think it over for yourself ! It’s preposterous! Dash it, it’s indecent!’
‘She’s very likely right!’ said Ermyntrude, in tones of swelling indignation. ‘That would just be Wally all over! Oh, I see it now! The idea of it! Getting money out of me to save a scandal, as he knew very well he would, and then blueing the lot on some rubbishy plan of White’s!’
‘Do you mean to tell me you seriously believe that to get money for an investment, he would have told you he was being blackmailed by the brother of a girl he’d seduced?’ s
aid Hugh. ‘Look here, Mrs Carter, surely that’s too steep!’
‘Oh no, it isn’t! I can see him doing it!’ said Ermyntrude. ‘There never was such a man for turning things to good account. Oh, it fairly makes my blood boil!’
‘I – I should think it might,’ said Hugh, awed.
Ten
Hugh, although he was becoming inured to the vagaries of Ermyntrude and her daughter, was not prepared to find them accepting Mary’s theory with enthusiasm. But, within five minutes of her having explained it to them, nothing could have shaken their belief in its truth. Ermyntrude, indeed, seemed to feel that such duplicity on Wally’s part was unpardonable; but Vicky accorded it her frank admiration.
