Trent's Last Case, E. C. Bentley [parable of the sower read online .txt] 📗

and Mr. Manderson entered the library and rang for me. He handed me some letters for the postman in the morning and directed me to sit up, as Mr. Marlowe had persuaded him to go for a drive in the car by moonlight.”

“That was curious,” remarked Trent.

“I thought so, sir. But I recollected what I had heard about ‘not a word to a soul’, and I concluded that this about a moonlight drive was intended to mislead.”

“What time was this?”

“It would be about ten, sir, I should say. After speaking to me, Mr. Manderson waited until Mr. Marlowe had come down and brought round the car. He then went into the drawing-room, where Mrs. Manderson was.”

“Did that strike you as curious?”

Martin looked down his nose. “If you ask me the question, sir,” he said with reserve, “I had not known him enter that room since we came here this year. He preferred to sit in the library in the evenings. That evening he only remained with Mrs. Manderson for a few minutes. Then he and Mr. Marlowe started immediately.”

“You saw them start?”

“Yes, sir. They took the direction of Bishopsbridge.”

“And you saw Mr. Manderson again later?”

“After an hour or thereabouts, sir, in the library. That would have been about a quarter past eleven, I should say; I had noticed eleven striking from the church. I may say I am peculiarly quick of hearing, sir.”

“Mr. Manderson had rung the bell for you, I suppose. Yes? And what passed when you answered it?”

“Mr. Manderson had put out the decanter of whisky and a syphon and glass, sir, from the cupboard where he kept them—”

Trent held up his hand. “While we are on that point, Martin, I want to ask you plainly, did Mr. Manderson drink very much? You understand this is not impertinent curiosity on my part. I want you to tell me, because it may possibly help in the clearing up of this case.”

“Perfectly, sir,” replied Martin gravely. “I have no hesitation in telling you what I have already told the inspector. Mr. Manderson was, considering his position in life, a remarkably abstemious man. In my four years of service with him I never knew anything of an alcoholic nature pass his lips, except a glass or two of wine at dinner, very rarely a little at luncheon, and from time to time a whisky and soda before going to bed. He never seemed to form a habit of it. Often I used to find his glass in the morning with only a little soda water in it; sometimes he would have been having whisky with it, but never much. He never was particular about his drinks; ordinary soda was what he preferred, though I had ventured to suggest some of the natural minerals, having personally acquired a taste for them in my previous service. He used to keep them in the cupboard here, because he had a great dislike of being waited on more than was necessary. It was an understood thing that I never came near him after dinner unless sent for. And when he sent for anything, he liked it brought quick, and to be left alone again at once. He hated to be asked if he required anything more. Amazingly simple in his tastes, sir, Mr. Manderson was.”

“Very well; and he rang for you that night about a quarter past eleven. Now can you remember exactly what he said?”

“I think I can tell you with some approach to accuracy, sir. It was not much. First he asked me if Mr. Bunner had gone to bed, and I replied that he had been gone up some time. He then said that he wanted some one to sit up until 12.30, in case an important message should come by telephone, and that Mr. Marlowe having gone to Southampton for him in the motor, he wished me to do this, and that I was to take down the message if it came, and not disturb him. He also ordered a fresh syphon of soda water. I believe that was all, sir.”

“You noticed nothing unusual about him, I suppose?”

“No, sir, nothing unusual. When I answered the ring, he was seated at the desk listening at the telephone, waiting for a number, as I supposed. He gave his orders and went on listening at the same time. “When I returned with the syphon he was engaged in conversation over the wire.”

“Do you remember anything of what he was saying?”

“Very little, sir; it was something about somebody being at some hotel—of no interest to me. I was only in the room just time enough to place the syphon on the table and withdraw. As I closed the door he was saying, ‘You’re sure he isn’t in the hotel?’ or words to that effect.”

“And that was the last you saw and heard of him alive?”

“No, sir. A little later, at half-past eleven, when I had settled down in my pantry with the door ajar, and a book to pass the time, I heard Mr. Manderson go upstairs to bed. I immediately went to close the library window, and slipped the lock of the front door. I did not hear anything more.”

Trent considered. “I suppose you didn’t doze at all,” he said tentatively, “while you were sitting up waiting for the telephone message?”

“Oh no, sir. I am always very wakeful about that time. I’m a bad sleeper, especially in the neighbourhood of the sea, and I generally read in bed until somewhere about midnight.”

“And did any message come?”

“No, sir.”

“No. And I suppose you sleep with your window open, these warm nights?”

“It is never closed at night, sir.”

Trent added a last note; then he looked thoughtfully through those he had taken. He rose and paced up and down the room for some moments with a downcast eye. At length he paused opposite Martin.

“It all seems perfectly ordinary and simple,” he said. “I just want to get a few details clear. You went to shut the windows in the library before going to bed. Which windows?”

“The French window, sir. It had been open all day. The windows opposite the door were seldom opened.”

“And what about the curtains? I am wondering whether any one outside the house could have seen into the room.”

“Easily, sir, I should say, if he had got into the grounds on that side. The curtains were never drawn in the hot weather. Mr. Manderson would often sit right in the doorway at nights, smoking and looking out into the darkness. But nobody could have seen him who had any business to be there.”

“I see. And now tell me this. Your hearing is very acute, you say, and you heard Mr. Manderson enter the house when he came in after dinner from the garden. Did you hear him re-enter it after returning from the motor drive?”

Martin paused. “Now you mention it, sir, I remember that I did not. His ringing the bell in this room was the first I knew of his being back. I should have heard him come in, if he had come in by the front. I should have heard the door go. But he must have come in by the window.” The man reflected for a moment, then added, “As a general rule, Mr. Manderson would come in by the front, hang up his hat and coat in the hall, and pass down the hall into the study. It seems likely to me that he was in a great hurry to use the telephone, and so went straight across the lawn to the window. He was like that, sir, when there was anything important to be done. He had his hat on, now I remember, and had thrown his greatcoat over the end of the table. He gave his order very sharp, too, as he always did when busy. A very precipitate man indeed was Mr. Manderson; a hustler, as they say.”

“Ah! he appeared to be busy. But didn’t you say just now that you noticed nothing unusual about him?”

A melancholy smile flitted momentarily over Martin’s face. “That observation shows that you did not know Mr. Manderson, sir, if you will pardon my saying so. His being like that was nothing unusual; quite the contrary. It took me long enough to get used to it. Either he would be sitting quite still and smoking a cigar, thinking or reading, or else he would be writing, dictating, and sending off wires all at the same time, till it almost made one dizzy to see it, sometimes for an hour or more at a stretch. As for being in a hurry over a telephone message, I may say it wasn’t in him to be anything else.”

Trent turned to the inspector, who met his eye with a look of answering intelligence. Not sorry to show his understanding of the line of inquiry opened by Trent, Mr. Murch for the first time put a question.

“Then you left him telephoning by the open window, with the lights on, and the drinks on the table; is that it?” “That is so, Mr. Murch.” The delicacy of the change in Martin’s manner when called upon to answer the detective momentarily distracted Trent’s appreciative mind. But the big man’s next question brought it back to the problem at once.

“About those drinks. You say Mr. Manderson often took no whisky before going to bed. Did he have any that night?”

“I could not say. The room was put to rights in the morning by one of the maids, and the glass washed, I presume, as usual. I know that the decanter was nearly full that evening. I had refilled it a few days before, and I glanced at it when I brought the fresh syphon, just out of habit, to make sure there was a decent-looking amount.”

The inspector went to the tall corner-cupboard and opened it. He took out a decanter of cut glass and set it on the table before Martin. “Was it fuller than that?” he asked quietly. “That’s how I found it this morning.” The decanter was more than half empty.

For the first time Martin’s self-possession wavered. He took up the decanter quickly, tilted it before his eyes, and then stared amazedly at the others. He said slowly: “There’s not much short of half a bottle gone out of this since I last set eyes on it—and that was that Sunday night.”

“Nobody in the house, I suppose?” suggested Trent discreetly.

“Out of the question!” replied Martin briefly; then he added, “I beg pardon, sir, but this is a most extraordinary thing to me. Such a thing never happened in all my experience of Mr. Manderson. As for the women-servants, they never touch anything, I can answer for it; and as for me, when I want a drink I can help myself without going to the decanters.” He took up the decanter again and aimlessly renewed his observation of the contents, while the inspector eyed him with a look of serene satisfaction, as a master contemplates his handiwork.

Trent turned to a fresh page of his notebook, and tapped it thoughtfully with his pencil. Then he looked up and said, “I suppose Mr. Manderson had dressed for dinner that night?”

“Certainly, sir. He had on a suit with a dress-jacket, what he used to refer to as a Tuxedo, which he usually wore when dining at home.”

“And he was dressed like that when you saw him last?”

“All but the jacket, sir. When he spent the evening in the library, as usually happened, he would change it for an old shooting-jacket after dinner, a light-coloured tweed, a little too loud in pattern for English tastes, perhaps. He had it on when I saw him last. It used to hang in this cupboard here”—Martin opened the door of it as he spoke—“along with Mr. Manderson’s fishing-rods and such things, so that he could slip it on after dinner without going upstairs.”

“Leaving the dinner-jacket in the cupboard?”

“Yes, sir. The housemaid used to take it upstairs in the morning.”

“In the morning,” Trent repeated slowly. “And now that we are speaking of the morning, will you tell me exactly what you know about that? I understand that Mr. Manderson was not missed until the body was found about ten o’clock.”

“That is so, sir. Mr. Manderson would never be called, or have anything brought to him in the morning. He occupied a separate bedroom. Usually he would get up about eight and go round to the bathroom, and he would come down some time before nine. But often he would sleep till nine or ten o’clock. Mrs. Manderson was always called at seven. The maid would take in tea to her. Yesterday morning Mrs. Manderson took breakfast about eight in her sitting-room as usual, and every one supposed that Mr. Manderson was