The young West African looked at him with smiling white teeth and childlike rather plaintive eyes.
“I should like to help-yes-please,” he said. “She is very nice to me, this Miss Celia. She give me once a box of Edinburgh rock-very nice confection which I do not know before. It seems very sad she should be killed. Is it blood feud, perhaps? Or is it perhaps fathers or uncles who come and kill her because they have heard false stories that she do wrong things?” Inspector Sharpe assured him that none of these things were remotely possible. The young man shook his head sadly.
“Then I do not know why it happened,” he said.
“I do not see why anybody here should want to do harm to her. But you give me piece of her hair and nail clippings,” he continued, “and I see if I find out by old method. Not scientific, not modern, but very much in use where I come from.” “Well, thank you, Mr. Akibombo, but I don’t think that will be necessary. We-er-don’t do things that way over here.” “No, sir, I quite understand. Not modern. Not Atomic Age. Not done at home now by new policemennly old men from bush. I am sure all new methods very superior and sure to achieve complete success.” Mr. Akibombo bowed politely and removed himself. Inspector Sharpe murmured to himself, “I sincerely hope we do meet with success-if only to maintain prestige.” His next interview was with Nigel Chapman, who was inclined to take the conduct of the conversation into his own hands.
“This is an absolutely extraordinary business, isn’t it?” he said. “Mind you, I had an idea that you were barking up the wrong tree when you insisted on suicide. I must say, it’s rather gratifying to me to think that the whole thing hinges, really, on her having filled her fountain pen with my green ink. Just the one thing the murderer couldn’t possibly foresee. I suppose you’ve given due consideration as to what can possibly be the motive for this crime?” “I’m asking the questions, Mr. Chapman,” said Inspector Sharpe drily.
“Oh, of course, of course,” said Nigel, airily waving a kand. “I was trying to make a bit of a short cut of it, that was all. But I suppose we’ve got to go through with all the red tape as usual. Name, Nigel Chapman. Age, twenty-five. Born, I believe, in Nagasaki-it really seems a most ridiculous place. What my father and mother were doing there at the time I can’t imagine. On a world tour, I suppose.
However, it doesn’t make me necessarily a Japanese, I understand. I’m talking a diploma at London University in Bronze Age and Mediaeval History. Anything else you want to know?” “What is your home address, Mr.
Chapman?” “No home address, my dear sir. I have a papa, but he and I have quarrelled, and his address is therefore no longer mine. So 26 Hickory Road and Coutts Bank, Leadenhall Street Branch, will always find me as one says to travelling acquaintances whom you hope you will never meet again.” Inspector Sharpe displayed no reaction towards Nigel’s airy impertinence. He had met ‘ationigels” before and shrewdly suspected that Nigel’s impertinence masked a natural nervousness of being questioned in connection with murder.
“How well did you know Celia Austin?” he asked.
“That’s really quite a diffivlt question. I knew her very well in the sense of seeing her practically every day, and being on quite cheerful terms with her, but actually I didn’t know her at all. Of course, I wasn’t in the least bit interested in her and I comthink she probably disapproved of me, if anything.” “Did she disapprove of you for any particular reason?” “Well, she didn’t like my sense of humour very much. Then, of course, I wasn’t one of those brooding, rude young men like Colin Mcationabb. That kind of rudeness is really the perfect technique for attracting women.” “When was the last time you saw Celia Austin?” “At dinner yesterday evening. We’d all given her the big hand, you know. Colin bad got up and hemmed and hahed and finally admitted, in a coy and bashful way, that they were engaged. Then we all ragged him a bit, and that was that.” “Was that at dinner or in the Common Room?” “Oh, at dinner. Afterwards, when we went into the Common Room, Colin went off somewhere.” “And the rest of you had coffee in the Common Room.” “If you call the fluid they serve coffee-yes,” said Nigel.