You may have had some quite innocent
reason for going there.”
204
“I tell you I never went to see Mrs. Fortescue
that day.”
The Inspector stood up.
“You know, Mr. Dubois,” he said
pleasantly, “I think we’ll have to ask you for a
statement and you’ll be well advised and
quite within your rights in having a solicitor
present when you are making that
statement.”
The colour fled from Mr. Dubois’s face,
leaving it a sickly greenish colour.
“You’re threatening me,” he said. “You’re
threatening me.”
“No, no, nothing of the kind.” Inspector
Neele spoke in a shocked voice. “We’re not
allowed to do anything of that sort. Quite the
contrary. I’m actually pointing out to you
that you have certain rights.”
“I had nothing to do with it at all, I tell
you! Nothing to do with it.”
“Come now, Mr. Dubois, you were at
Yewtree Lodge round about half-past four on
that day. Somebody looked out of the
window, you know, and saw you.”
“I was only in the garden. I didn’t go into
the house.”
“Didn’t you?” said Inspector Neele. “Are
you sure? Didn’t you go in by the side door,
205
and up the stairs to Mrs. Fortescue’s sittingroom
on the first floor? You were looking for
something, weren’t you, in the desk there?”
“You’ve got them, I suppose,” said Dubois
sullenly. “That fool Adele kept them, thenshe swore she burnt them—— But they don’t
mean what you think they mean.”
“You’re not denying, are you, Mr. Dubois,
that you were a very close friend of Mrs.
Fortescue’s?”
“No, of course I’m not. How can I when
you’ve got the letters? All I say is, there’s no
need to go reading any sinister meaning into
them. Don’t think for a moment that we—
that she—ever thought of getting rid of Rex
Fortescue. Good God, I’m not that kind of
man!”
“But perhaps she was that kind of
woman?”
“Nonsense,” cried Vivian Dubois, “wasn’t
she killed too?”
“Oh yes, yes.”
“Well, isn’t it natural to believe that the
same person who killed her husband killed
her?”
“It might be. It certainly might be. But
there are other solutions. For instance—(this
is quite a hypothetical case, Mr. Dubois) it’s
206
possible that Mrs. Fortescue got rid of her
husband, and that after his death she became
somewhat of a danger to someone else.
Someone who had, perhaps, not helped her in
what she had done but who had at least
encouraged her and provided, shall we say,
the motive for the deed. She might be, you
know, a danger to that particular person.”
Dubois stammered:
“You c-c-can’t build up a case against me.
You can’t.”
“She made a will, you know,” said
Inspector Neele. “She left all her money to
you. Everything she possessed.”
“I don’t want the money. I don’t want a
penny of it.”
“Of course, it isn’t very much really,” said
Inspector Neele. “There’s jewellery and
some furs, but I imagine very little actual
cash.”
Dubois stared at him, his jaw dropping.
“But I thought her husband——”
He stopped dead.
“Did you, Mr. Dubois?” said Inspector
Neele, and there was steel now in his voice.
“That’s very interesting. I wondered if you
knew the terms of Rex Fortescue’s will——”
207
Ill
Inspector Neele’s second interview at the
Golf Hotel was with Mr. Gerald Wright. Mr.
Gerald Wright was a thin, intellectual and
very superior young man. He was. Inspector
Neele noted, not unlike Vivian Dubois in
build.
“What can I do for you. Inspector Neele?”
he asked.
“I thought you might be able to help us
with a little information, Mr. Wright.”
“Information? Really? It seems very
unlikely.”
“It’s in connection with the recent events
at Yewtree Lodge. You’ve heard of them, of
course?”
Inspector Neele put a little irony into the
question. Mr. Wright smiled patronisingly.
“Heard of them,” he said, “is hardly the
right word. The newspapers appear to be full
of nothing else. How incredibly bloodthirsty
our public press is! What an age we live in!
On one side the manufacture of atom bombs,
on the other our newspapers delight in
reporting brutal murders! But you said you
had some questions to ask. Really, I cannot