Walter did not forget his promise to Aunt Alice to talk to Captain Edgerton about the progress of his investigations, but the fellow was abominably close-lipped. He would say only that he had not yet discovered a reason for Nicholson’s murder, but the earl had given him permission to stay until the matter was resolved to his satisfaction.
“To your satisfaction?” Walter said sharply. “So you are to be judge and jury, are you?”
“No, sir, but it may be that we shall never know the truth, so I shall have to settle on whatever seems to me to be a reasonable explanation.”
“Surely it is obvious? Some lunatic broke in overnight with an axe and then attacked Nicholson as he slept.”
They were seated in the old nursery, Edgerton’s colleagues having diplomatically vanished. Edgerton had poured wine for them both, but had not yet touched his.
“We can all agree that he attacked Nicholson as he slept,” Edgerton said easily, “but the axe came from inside the castle. It was part of the display of armour and weaponry on the stairs.”
“Was it?”
“So Mr Eustace said.”
“Well, he would know, but that makes no difference,” Walter said testily. “So the culprit broke in, snatched up the axe as he ran up the stairs and then attacked Nicholson as he slept.”
“How did he know the axe was there?”
“He saw it, of course. He must have gone up the main stairs, then he would have seen it right in front of him.”
“It was the middle of the night. How did he see?”
“He carried a light. He must have done.”
“Very well. So he breaks in… how does he break in, by the way?” Edgerton’s tone was bland, but Walter thought he was enjoying himself.
“By a door into the basement. Not the drainpipe, and not the scullery window, because of the dogs that sleep nearby, you have proved that, so it would have to be the garden door — that is as far as it is possible to get from the dogs, and there are service stairs right beside it.”
“It is supposed to be kept locked, but let us suppose that it has helpfully been left unlocked, or perhaps with an idea that he might need it, he arms himself with one of the spare keys. He breaks in, stops to light a lantern or candle — we cannot be sure which — managing not to wake the kitchen boy or the dogs, and then up the service stairs to the upper floor… but no, he goes only so far as the ground floor, then for some reason enters the great hall in order to take the main stairs, where he finds a handily placed axe. He then goes to Nicholson’s room, sets his candle, or possibly his lamp, on a table without leaving any trace of dripping wax or smoke and without waking his quarry.Thenhe attacks Nicholson as he slept. Then he leaves again, taking his candle or lantern with him, and vanishes without trace.”
He smiled benignly, and Walter could not help but laugh. “You are very clever, Captain.”
“Indeed I am not,” he said with some vehemence. “If I were clever I would already know who had done this evil deed, even if the motive for it yet evaded me, but I have not the least idea. I believe you can understand why I am not convinced that the murderer is a passing lunatic. If he indeed came from outside, then he must know how to get in, how to move around undetected and where Nicholson slept. The axe I grant you may have been fortuitous, but there are hundreds of other weapons on the walls. And if it were someone from within the castle, it could have been absolutely anyone, even you, sir.”
Walter opened his mouth to protest, then laughed again, shaking his head. “Your argument is well made, but is there no one you can point a finger at and say‘There! That fellow is the most likely to have done the deed’?”
“Certainly there is,” Edgerton said, the smile dropping away. “There is most definitely one person at the top of my list, the one who was discovered beside the body covered in blood and with an axe in her hand. The Lady Alice is the very last person I want to accuse, but until I can say for certain that she did not kill her husband, I can make no progress on this case.”
“But surely… how could she possibly?” Walter said. “She isblind!”
“Yet she can move freely about the castle, even at night without needing a candle. The axe is light enough to be wielded even by a woman, and she knew precisely where her husband would be.”
“Why on earth would she kill him?” Walter burst out. “She depended on him to read and write for her, to prepare food attable, to ride with her… everything. They were together for many hours a day. Sheadoredhim.”
“I know all that,” Edgerton said tersely. “She is also a very composed person, well in control of herself. I cannot see her losing her temper, but then this is not a case of a sudden quarrel flaring up. Nicholson was fast asleep in his bed, killed not in a rage but coldly, calculatedly. Yes, the Lady Alice would be capable of that.”
“Are you assessing all of us by the same measure?” Walter said, horrified. “Do you thinkIam capable of such a murder?”
“No,” Edgerton said promptly. “You might get into a quarrel, you might even hit a man in a fit of passion, but then you would haul him back to his feet, apologise and pass him a glass of brandy, laughing at your own foolishness. I cannot see any circumstance when you would plot a murder of this kind.”
“Well, thank you for that, at least! I shall not ask your opinion of the rest of my family. I am not sure I want to know.”
“A wise decision, sir. Pray convey my apologies to the Lady Alice, and assure her that I am doing the very best I can to find her husband’s killer. You may also mention to her that I would proceed more swiftly if she herself would agree to talk to me again.”
Before Walter could answer, there was a knock on the door and Aunt Alice’s maid entered, a small box under her arm.
“Yes, Malling, what is it?” Walter said, forgetting the room was not his.
