“Yes, Mr. Starr. And what did she say when she was alone with you?”
“As far as I can remember, she looked very angry and said, Damned little fool. She can’t do this sort of thing. It will ruin all her chances. Who’s she with? Do you know?”
“I said that I hadn’t the least idea. The last I’d seen of her was dancing with young Bartlett. Josie said, “She wouldn’t be with him. What can she be up to? She isn’t with that film man, is she?”
Harper said sharply, “Film man? Who was he?”
Raymond said, “I don’t know his name. He’s never stayed here. Rather an unusual-looking chap, black hair and theatrical-looking. He has something to do with the film industry, I believe or so he told Ruby. He came over to dine here once or twice and danced with Ruby afterward, but I don’t think she knew him at all well. That’s why I was surprised when Josie mentioned him. I said I didn’t think he’d been here tonight. Josie said, “Well, she must be out with someone. What on earth am I going to say to the Jeffersons?” I said what did it matter to the Jeffersons? And Josie said it did matter. And she said, too, that she’d never forgive Ruby if she went and messed things up.”
“We’d got to Ruby’s room by then. She wasn’t there, of course, but she’d been there, because the dress she had been wearing was lying across a chair. Josie looked in the wardrobe and said she thought she’d put on her old white dress. Normally she’d have changed into a black velvet dress for our Spanish dance. I was pretty angry by this time at the way Ruby had let me down. Josie did her best to soothe me and said she’d dance herself, so that old Prestcott shouldn’t get after us all. She went away and changed her dress, and we went down and did a tango exaggerated style and quiet the Jeffersons down. She said it was important. So, of course, I did what I could.”
Superintendent Harper nodded. He said, “Thank you, Mr. Starr.” To himself he thought. It was important all right. Fifty thousand pounds. He watched Raymond Starr as the latter moved gracefully away. He went down the steps of the terrace, picking up a bag of tennis balls and a racket on the way. Mrs. Jefferson, also carrying a racket, joined him, and they went toward the tennis courts.
“Excuse me, sir.” Sergeant Higgins, rather breathless, was standing at Superintendent Harper’s side. The superintendent, jerked from the train of thought he was following, looked startled. “Message just come through for you from headquarters, sir. Laborer reported this morning saw glare as of fire. Half an hour ago they found a burnt-out car near a quarry. Venn’s Quarry about two miles from here. Traces of a charred body inside.”
A flush came over Harper’s heavy features. He said, “What’s come to Glenshire? An epidemic of violence?” He asked, “Could they get the number of the car?” “No, sir. But we’ll be able to identify it, of course, by the engine number. A Minoan Fourteen, they think.”
Sir Henry Clithering, as he passed through the lounge of the Majestic, hardly glanced at its occupants. His mind was preoccupied. Nevertheless, as is the way of life, something registered in his subconscious. It waited its time patiently.
Sir Henry was wondering, as he went upstairs, just what had induced the sudden urgency of his friend’s message. Conway Jefferson was not the type of man who sent urgent summonses to anyone. Something quite out of the usual must have occurred, decided Sir Henry.
Jefferson wasted no time in beating about the bush. He said, “Glad you’ve come…. Edwards, get Sir Henry a drink…. Sit down, man. You’ve not heard anything, I suppose? Nothing in the papers yet?”
Sir Henry shook his head, his curiosity aroused. “What’s the matter?”
“Murder’s the matter. I’m concerned in it, and so are your friends, the Bantrys.”
“Arthur and Dolly Bantry?” Clithering sounded incredulous.
“Yes; you see, the body was found in their house.” Clearly and succinctly, Conway Jefferson ran through the facts. Sir Henry listened without interrupting. Both men were accustomed to grasping the gist of a matter. Sir Henry, during his term as commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, had been renowned for his quick grip on essentials. “It’s an extraordinary business,” he commented when the other had finished. “How do the Bantrys come into it, do you think?”