Simon/Chapter 23
XXIII
SIMON'S VIEWS
"Well," said Mr. Rattar deliberately, "I think myself that the actual evidence is very slight and extremely inclusive."
"You mean the direct evidence afforded by the unfastened window, position of the body, table said to have been overturned, and so forth?"
"Exactly. That evidence is slight, but so far as it goes it seems to me to point to entry by the door and to the man having been in the house for some little time previously."
"Well?" said Carrington in an encouraging voice.
"So much for the direct evidence. I may be wrong, but that is my decided opinion. No bad characters are known to the police to have been in the county at that time, and there was no robbery."
"Apparently confirming the direct evidence?"
"Decidedly confirming it—or so it seems to me."
"Then you think there is something in the popular theory that the present baronet and Miss Farmond were the guilty parties?"
Simon was silent for a moment, but his face was unusually expressive.
"I fear it looks like it."
"An unpleasant conclusion for you to come to," observed Mr. Carrington. "You are the family lawyer, I understand."
"Very unpleasant," Mr. Rattar agreed. "But, of course, there is no absolute proof."
"Naturally; or they'd have been arrested by now. What sort of a fellow is Sir Malcolm?"
"My own experience of him," said the lawyer drily, "is chiefly confined to his visits to my office to borrow money of me."
"Indeed?" said Carrington with interest. "That sort of fellow, is he? He writes, I understand."
Simon nodded.
"Any other known vices?"
"I know little about his vices except that they cost him considerably more than he could possibly have paid, had it not been for Sir Reginald's death."
"So the motive is plain enough. Any evidence against him?"
Simon pursed his lips and became exceedingly grave.
"When questioned next morning by the superintendent of police and myself, he led us to understand that he had retired to bed early and was in no position to hear or notice anything. I have since found that he was in the habit of sitting up late."
"'In the habit,'" repeated Carrington quickly. "But you don't suggest he sat up that night in particular?"
"Undoubtedly he sat up that night."
"But merely as he always did?"
"He might have been waiting for his chance on the previous nights."
Carrington smoked thoughtfully for a moment and then asked:
"But there is no evidence that he left his room or was heard moving about that night, is there?"
"There is not yet any positive evidence. But he was obviously in a position to do so."
"Was his room near or over the library?"
"N—no," said the fiscal, and there seemed to be a hint of reluctance in his voice.
Carrington glanced at him quickly and then gazed up at the ceiling.
"What sort of a girl is Miss Farmond?" he enquired next.
"She is the illegitimate daughter of a brother of the late Sir Reginald's."
Carrington nodded.
"So I gathered from the local gossips. But that fact is hardly against her, is it?"
"Why not?"
Carrington looked a little surprised.
"Girls don't generally murder their uncles for choice, in my own experience; especially if they are also their benefactors."
"This was hardly the usual relationship," said the lawyer with a touch of significance.
"Do you suggest that the irregularity is apt to breed crime?"
Simon's grunt seemed to signify considerable doubt as to the morals of the type of relative.
"But what sort of girl is she otherwise?"
"I should call Miss Farmond the insinuating type. A young man like yourself would probably find her very attractive—at first anyhow."
Mr. Carrington seemed to ponder for a moment on this suggestive description of Miss Farmond's allurements. And then he asked:
"Is it the case that she is engaged to Sir Malcolm?"
"Certainly."
"You are sure?"
Something in his voice seemed to make the lawyer reflect.
"Is it called in question?" he asked.
Carrington shook his head.
"By nobody who has spoken to me on the subject. But I understand that it has not yet been announced."
"No," said Simon. "It was a secret engagement; and marriage would have been impossible while Sir Reginald lived."
"So there we get the motive on her part. And you yourself, Mr. Rattar, know both these young people, and you believe that this accusation against them is probably well founded?"
"I believe, Mr. Carrington, that there is no proof and probably never will be any; but all the evidence, positive and negative, together with the question of motive, points to nobody else. What alternative is possible?"
"That is the difficulty, so far," agreed Carrington, but his thoughts at the moment seemed to be following his smoke rings up towards the ceiling. For a few moments he was silent, and then he asked:
"What other people benefited by the will and to what extent?"
The lawyer went to his safe, brought out the will, and read through the legacies to the servants, mentioning that the chauffeur and gardener were excluded by circumstances from suspicion.
"That leaves Mr. Bisset," observed Carrington. "Well, I shall be seeing him to-morrow. Any other legatees who might conceivably have committed the crime?"
Simon looked serious and spoke with a little reluctance that he seemed to make no effort to conceal.
"There is a relative of the family, a Mr. Cromarty of Stanesland, who certainly benefited considerably by the will and who certainly lives in the neighbourhood—if one once admitted the possibility of the crime being committed by some one outside the house. And I admit that it is a possibility."
"Ah!" said Carrington. "I heard about him last night, but so far suspicion certainly hasn't fastened on him. What sort of a fellow is he?"
"He has lived the greater part of his life in the wilder parts of America—rather what one might call a rough and ready customer."
It was apparent that Mr. Carrington, for all his easy going air, was extremely interested.
"This is quite interesting!" he murmured. "To what extent did he benefit by the will?"
"£l,200."
"£l,200!" Carrington repeated the words with an odd intonation and stared very hard at the lawyer. There was no doubt that his interest was highly excited now, and yet it seemed to be rather a different quality of interest this time.
"A considerable sum," said Simon.
"That is the only point about it which strikes you?"
Simon was manifestly puzzled.
"What else?" he enquired.
"No coincidence occurs to you?"
The lawyer's puzzled look remained, and the next instant Carrington broke into a hearty laugh.
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Rattar," he cried. "What an owl I am! I have just been dealing lately with a case where that sum of money was involved, and for the moment I mixed the two up together!" He laughed again, and then resuming his businesslike air, asked: "Now, what else about this Mr. Cromarty? You say he is a relation. Near or distant?"
"Oh, quite distant. Another branch altogether."
"Younger branch, I presume."
"Poorer but not younger. He is said to be the head of the family."
"Really!" exclaimed Mr. Carrington, and this information seemed to have set him thinking again. "He is the head of the family, and I hear he took up the case with some energy."
Simon's grunt seemed to be critical.
"He got in our way," he said.
"Got in your way, did he?"
Carrington was silent for a few moments, and then said:
"Well I am afraid I have taken up a great deal of your time. May I have a line of introduction to Mr. Bisset before I go?"
While the line was being written he walked over to the fire and cleared the stump of his last cigarette out of the holder. This operation was very deliberately performed, and through it his eyes seemed scarcely to note what his hands were doing.
He put the note in his pocket, shook hands, and then, just as he was going, he said:
"I want to understand the lie of the land as exactly as possible. Your own attitude, so far has been, I take it—no proof, therefore no arrest; but a nasty family scandal left festering, so you decided to call me in. Now, I want to know this—is there anybody else in the neighbourhood who knows that I have been sent for?"
Mr. Rattar replied with even more than his usual deliberation, and after what is said by foreigners to be the national habit, his reply consisted of another question.
"You say that your employer made a particular point of having his identity concealed?"
"Yes, a particular point."
"Doesn't that answer your question, Mr. Carrington?"
"No," said Carrington, "not in the least. I am asking now whether there is any other employer in this neighbourhood besides yourself. And I may say that I ask for the very good reason that it might be awkward for me if there were and I didn't know him, while if I did know him, I could consult with him if it happened to be advisable. Is there any one?"
He seemed to hang on the lawyer's answer, and Simon to dislike making the answer.
Yet when he did make it, it was quite emphatic.
"No," he replied.
"That's all right then," said Mr. Carrington with his brightest smile. "Good afternoon, Mr. Rattar."
The smile faded from his ingenuous face the moment the door had closed behind him, and it was a very thoughtful Mr. Carrington who slowly went downstairs and strolled along the pavement. If his morning's interview had puzzled him, his afternoon's interview seemed to have baffled him completely. He even forgot to relapse into the thoughtless young sportsman when he entered the hotel, and his friend the manageress, after eyeing him with great surprise, cried archly:
"A penny for your thoughts, Mr. Carrington! About shooting or fishing, I'm sure!"
Mr. Carrington recovered his pleasant spirits instantly.
"Quite right," said he. "I was thinking about fishing—in very deep waters."