"This play-acting is all very well, my dear," said Hugo, sounding distinctly annoyed, "but a dead body is a nasty, serious business, and monkeying about with it could land you in a real mess. You can't go carting bodies about at dead of night."
Clarissa went to Jeremy and placed her hand on his arm. "Jeremy, darling, you'll help me, surely. Won't you?" she asked, with urgent appeal in her voice.
Jeremy gazed at her adoringly. "All right, I'm game," he replied cheerfully. "What's a dead body or two among friends?"
"Stop, young man," Sir Rowland ordered. "I'm not going to allow this." He turned to Clarissa. "Now, you must he guided by me, Clarissa. I insist. After all, there's Henry to consider, too."
Clarissa gave him a look of exasperation. "But it's Henry I am considering," she declared.
CHAPTER NINE
THE THREE men greeted Clarissa's announcement in silence. Sir Rowland shook his head gravely, Hugo continued to look puzzled, while Jeremy simply shrugged his shoulders as though giving up all hope of understanding the situation.
Taking a deep breath, Clarissa addressed all three of them. "Something terribly important is happening tonight," she told them. "Henry's gone to – to meet someone and bring him back here. It's very important and secret. A top political secret. No one is supposed to know about it. There was to be absolutely no publicity."
"Henry's gone to meet a Mr. Jones?" Sir Rowland queried dubiously.
"It's a silly name, I agree," said Clarissa, "but that's what they're calling him. I can't tell you his real name. I can't tell you any more about it. I promised Henry I wouldn't say a word to anybody, but I have to make you see that I'm not just..." She turned to look at Hugo as she continued, "... not just being an idiot and play-acting, as Hugo called it."
She turned back to Sir Rowland. "What sort of effect do you think it will have on Henry's career," she asked him, "if he has to walk in here with this distinguished person – and another very distinguished person travelling down from London for this meeting – only to find the police investigating a murder – the murder of a man who has just married Henry's former wife?"
"Good Lord!" Sir Rowland exclaimed. Then, looking Clarissa straight in the eye, he added suspiciously, "You're not making all this up now, are you? This isn't just another of your complicated games, intended to make fools of us all?"
Clarissa shook her head mournfully. "Nobody ever believes me when I'm speaking the truth," she protested.
"Sorry, my dear," said Sir Rowland. "Yes, I can see it's a more difficult problem than I thought."
"You see?" Clarissa urged him. "So it's absolutely vital that we get the body away from here."
"Where's his car, did you say?" Jeremy asked.
"Round by the stables," Clarissa told him.
"And the servants are out, I gather?"
Clarissa nodded her head. "Yes."
Jeremy picked up a pair of gloves from the sofa. "Right," he exclaimed decisively. "Do I take the body to the car, or bring the car to the body?"
Sir Rowland held out a hand in a restraining gesture. "Wait a moment," he advised. "We mustn't rush it like this."
Jeremy replaced the gloves, but Clarissa turned to Sir Rowland, crying desperately, "But we must hurry."
Sir Rowland regarded her gravely. "I'm not sure that this plan of yours is the best one, Clarissa," he declared. "Now, if we could just delay finding the body until tomorrow morning – that would meet the case, I think, and it would be very much simpler. If, for now, we merely moved the body to another room, for instance, I think that might be just excusable."
Clarissa turned to address Sir Rowland directly. "It's you I've got to convince, isn't it?" she told him. Looking at Jeremy, she continued, "Jeremy's ready enough." She glanced at Hugo. "And Hugo will grunt and shake his head, but he'd do it all the same. It's you..."
She went to the library door and opened it. "Will you both go next door for a short time?" she asked Jeremy and Hugo. "I want to speak to Roly alone."
Hugo and Jeremy did as they were told. "Don't you let her talk you into any tomfoolery, Roly," Hugo warned as he left the room with Jeremy, who gave Clarissa a reassuring smile and a murmured "Good luck!"
Sir Rowland, looking grave, took a seat at the bridge table.
"Now!" Clarissa exclaimed, as she sat and faced him on the other side of the table.
"My dear," Sir Rowland warned her, "I love you, and I will always love you dearly. But, before you ask, in this case the answer simply has to be no."
Clarissa began to speak seriously and with emphasis. "That man's body mustn't be found in this house," she insisted. "If he's found in Marsden Wood, I can say that he was here today for a short time, and I can also tell the police exactly when he left. Actually, Miss Peake saw him off, which turns out to be very fortunate. There need be no question of his ever having come back here."
She took a deep breath. "But if his body is found here," she continued, "then we shall all be questioned." She paused before adding, with great deliberation, "And Pippa won't be able to stand it."
"Pippa?" Sir Rowland was obviously puzzled.
Clarissa's face was grim. "Yes, Pippa. She'll break down and confess that she did it."
"Pippa!" Sir Rowland repeated, as he slowly took in what he was hearing.
Clarissa nodded.
"My God!" Sir Rowland exclaimed.
"She was terrified when he came here today," Clarissa told him. "I tried to reassure her that I wouldn't let him take her away, but I don't think she believed me. You know what she's been through – the nervous breakdown she's had? Well, I don't think she could have survived being made to go back and live with Oliver and Miranda. Pippa was here when I found Oliver's body. She told me she never meant to do it, I'm sure she was telling the truth. It was sheer panic. She got hold of that stick, and struck out blindly."
"What stick?" Sir Rowland asked.
"The one from the hall-stand. It's in the recess. I left it there; I didn't touch it."
Sir Rowland thought for a moment, and then asked sharply, "Where is Pippa now?"
"In bed," said Clarissa. "I've given her a sleeping-pill. She ought not to wake up till morning. Tomorrow I'll take her up to London, and my old nanny will look after her for a while."
Sir Rowland got up and walked over to look down at Oliver Costello's body behind the sofa. Returning to Clarissa, he kissed her. "You win, my dear," he said. "I apologise. That child mustn't be asked to face the music. Get the others back."
He went across to the French windows, looked out, and then closed the curtains, while Clarissa opened the library door, calling, "Hugo, Jeremy. Would you come back, please?"
The two men came back into the room. "That butler of yours doesn't lock up very carefully," Hugo announced. "The window in the library was open. I've shut it now." Addressing Sir Rowland, he asked abruptly, "Well?"
"I'm converted," was the equally abrupt reply he received.
"Well done!" was Jeremy's comment.
"There's no time to lose," Sir Rowland declared. "Now, those gloves." He picked up a pair of gloves and put them on. Jeremy picked up the other two pairs, handed one pair to Hugo, and they both put them on. Sir Rowland went over to the panel. "How does this thing open?" he asked.
Jeremy went across to join him. "Like this, sir," he said. "Pippa showed me." He moved the lever and opened the panel.
Sir Rowland looked into the recess, reached in, and brought out the walking-stick. "Yes, it's heavy enough," he commented. "Weighted in the head. All the same, I shouldn't have thought..." He paused.
"What wouldn't you have thought?" Hugo wanted to know.
Sir Rowland shook his head. "I should have thought," he replied, "that it would have to have been something with a sharper edge – metal of some kind."
"You mean a goddamn chopper," Hugo observed bluntly.
"I don't know," Jeremy interjected. "That stick looks pretty murderous to me. You could easily crack a man's head open with that."
"Evidently," said Sir Rowland drily. He turned to Hugo and handed him the stick. "Hugo, will you burn this in the kitchen stove, please," he instructed him. Then, addressing Jeremy, he continued, "Warrender, you and I will get the body to the car."
He and Jeremy bent down on either side of the body. As they did so, a bell suddenly rang. "What's that?" Sir Rowland exclaimed, startled.
"It's the front-door bell," said Clarissa, sounding bewildered. They all stood petrified for a moment. "Who can it be?" Clarissa wondered aloud. "It's much too early for Henry and – er – Mr. Jones. It must be Sir John."
"Sir John?" asked Sir Rowland, now sounding even more startled. "You mean the Prime Minister is expected here this evening?"
"Yes," Clarissa replied.
"Hm." Sir Rowland looked momentarily undecided. Then, "Yes," he murmured. "Well, we've got to do something." The bell rang again, and he stirred into action. "Clarissa," he ordered, "go and answer the door. Use whatever delaying tactics you can think of. In the meantime, we'll clear up in here."
Clarissa went quickly out to the hall, and Sir Rowland turned to Hugo and Jeremy. "Now then," he explained urgently, "this is what we do. We'll get him into that recess. Later, when everyone's in this room having their pow-wow, we can take him out through the library."
"Good idea," Jeremy agreed, as he helped Sir Rowland lift the body.
"Want me to give you a hand?" asked Hugo.
"No, it's all right," Jeremy replied. He and Sir Rowland supported Costello's body under the armpits and carried it into the recess, while Hugo picked up the torch. A moment or two later, Sir Rowland emerged from the recess and pressed the lever as Jeremy hastened out behind him. Hugo quickly slipped under Jeremy's arm into the recess with the torch and stick. The panel then closed.
Sir Rowland, after examining his jacket for signs of blood, murmured, "Gloves," removed the gloves he was wearing, and put them under a cushion on the sofa. Jeremy removed his gloves and did likewise. Then, "Bridge," Sir Rowland reminded himself, as he hastened to the bridge table and sat.
Jeremy ran to the bridge table, sat, and picked up his cards. "Come along, Hugo, make haste," Sir Rowland urged as he picked up his own cards.
He was answered by a knock from inside the recess. Suddenly realizing that Hugo was not in the room, Sir Rowland and Jeremy looked at each other in alarm. Jeremy got up, rushed to the switch and opened the panel. "Come along, Hugo," Sir Rowland repeated urgently as Hugo emerged. "Quickly, Hugo," Jeremy muttered impatiently, closing the panel again.
Sir Rowland took Hugo's gloves from him and put them under the cushion. The three men took their seats quickly at the bridge table and picked up their cards, just as Clarissa came back into the room from the hall, followed by two men in uniform.
In a tone of innocent surprise, Clarissa announced, "It's the police, Uncle Roly."
CHAPTER TEN
THE OLDER of the two police officers, a stocky, grey-haired man, followed Clarissa into the room, while his colleague remained standing by the hall door. "This is Inspector Lord," Clarissa declared. "And – " She turned back to the younger officer, a dark-haired man in his twenties with the build of a footballer. "I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?" she asked.
The Inspector answered for him. "That's Constable Jones," he announced. Addressing the three men, he continued, "I'm sorry to intrude, gentlemen, but we have received information that a murder has been committed here."
Clarissa and her friends all spoke simultaneously. "What?" Hugo shouted. "A murder!" Jeremy exclaimed. "Good heavens," Sir Rowland cried, as Clarissa said, "Isn't it extraordinary?" They all sounded completely astonished.
"Yes, we had a telephone call at the station," the Inspector told them. Nodding to Hugo, whom he apparently knew by sight, he added, "Good evening, Mr. Birch."
"Er – good evening, Inspector," Hugo mumbled.
"It looks as though somebody's been hoaxing you, Inspector," Sir Rowland suggested.
"Yes," Clarissa agreed. "We've been playing bridge here all evening."
The others nodded in support, and Clarissa asked, "Who did they say had been murdered?"
"No names were mentioned," the Inspector informed them. "The caller just said that a man had been murdered at Copplestone Court, and would we come along immediately. They rang off before any additional information could be obtained."
"It must have been a hoax," Clarissa declared, adding virtuously, "What a wicked thing to do."
Hugo tut-tutted, and the Inspector replied, "You'd be surprised, madam, at the potty things people do."
He paused, glancing at each of them in turn, and then continued, addressing Clarissa. "Well now, according to you, nothing out of the ordinary has happened here this evening?" Without waiting for an answer, he added, "Perhaps I'd better see Mr. Hailsham-Brown as well."
"He's not here," Clarissa told the Inspector. "I don't expect him back until late tonight."
"I see," he replied. "Who is staying in the house at present?"
"Sir Rowland Delahaye, and Mr. Warrender," said Clarissa, indicating them in turn. She added, "And Mr. Birch, whom you already know, is here for the evening."
