“Oh dear, I ate the last of them yesterday evening when I was waiting for my egg to boil. I’ll buy some more today, promise.”
“I could pop round the shops.”
“That’s all right,” said Daisy, who had no intention of paying for the char’s time while she “popped”—and gossiped. “We’ll manage without, and you can have bread and jam with your elevenses. I’ll buy something extra special to make up.”
“Don’t you go wasting your pennies on fancy biscuits, miss,” Mrs. Potter advised. “Nothing but a boiled egg to yoursupper? Well I never!” She fixed Alec with an accusing glare and marched out.
“I’ll take you out to dinner tonight, Daisy,” said Alec, looking abashed.
“That will be spiffing, darling, but don’t worry, I’m not starving. I was just too tired last night to cook. Lucy and I don’t live entirely on eggs, cheese, and sardines since I started writing for the Americans.”
“I don’t want to keep you from your typewriter longer than I need. Let’s get on with business.”
“The Grand Duke Rudolf Maximilian of Transcarpathia,” anounced Piper grandly, as Daisy poured tea.
Handing cups, she told them all about the gaudy but threadbare young exile and his grandfather’s jewel. “He’s pompous but rather pathetic, in a way. Pettigrew was really foul to him. I don’t know if he (Rudolf) properly understands that he (Pettigrew) doesn’t … didn’t have the authority to turn over the ruby. He (Rudolf) honestly seems to believe he’s entitled to it.”
“So he could suppose a new Keeper of Mineralogy might be more accommodating,” Alec mused. “Motive, opportunity … as yet we don’t know enough about means. That’s a big help, Daisy. We might easily not have tumbled to your Grand Duke’s connection. Who’s next, Ernie?”
“Sergeant Wilfred Atkins, Chief, the dinosaur gallery commissionaire.”
“Is he a sergeant, too?” Daisy asked.
“D. C. Ross said lots of the commissionaires are ex-army, miss, and most of ’em sergeants. But all the commissionaires in the east wing ground floor give each other alibis, Chief.”
“Any comment, Daisy?”
“The only one I talked to much was Sergeant Hamm, in fossil mammals. In between quoting and misquoting theBible, he told me Pettigrew was perfectly beastly to Reg Underwood, who lost a leg in the War.”
“We don’t know much about the means yet, but I wouldn’t say this was a one-legged man’s crime. Pettigrew was pretty hefty, Tom says.”
“Yes, but all the commissionaires were sympathetic to Underwood and loathed Ol’ Stony, as they called Pettigrew. Isn’t it possible they might provide alibis for each other?”
“Possible,” Alec agreed with a sigh. “We’ll have to bear it in mind, and also for the two assistants who claim to have been together. Do you know them?”
“What are their names?”
Piper provided the names, and Daisy shook her head.
“I was introduced to them in passing, that’s all. I don’t know of any particular motive, beyond the general one applying to all the fossil people, that is.”
“Which is?” Alec asked, sitting up.
Daisy explained about the overwhelming scorn the Mineralogy Keeper poured on fusty old bones of no practical or pecuniary value, and those who studied them. “It’s hard to see it as a reason for murder,” she said, “though I know it doesn’t take much when tempers flare.”
“I wish you had understood what Pettigrew said! If it was extraordinarily insulting, it might have led to unpremeditated murder. We don’t know what he was doing in the reptile gallery, whether he met his murderer by chance, or had a rendezvous, which could mean premeditated murder. Great Scott, we don’t even know what the murder weapon was!”
“Dr. Renfrew’ll know by now, Chief,” Piper said. “D’you want me to telephone?”
“No, Ernie, I’m just letting off steam. Let’s get through this list first. Did any of the museum staff have more particular reason to hate Pettigrew, Daisy?”
“Next on the list’s not museum staff, Chief. Leastways, not that museum. A Mr. ffinch-Brown with two smallf’s.”
“The British Museum anthropologist,” Alec recalled.
“He has quite a temper,” said Daisy, “and he and Pettigrew were mixed up in a dispute over flint tools. Also, he feels that the Mineralogy Department’s cut gems belong in his custody.”
“Ah!”
