‘Na’am.’
The house-boy came running. Mr Emmott spoke to him in Arabic. A vigorous colloquy passed between them. The boy seemed to be emphatically denying something.
At last Mr Emmott said in a perplexed voice, ‘He says there’s not been a soul here this afternoon. No stranger of any kind. I suppose the fellow must have slipped in without their seeing him.’
‘Of course he did,’ said Mrs Mercado. ‘He slunk in when the boys weren’t looking.’
‘Yes,’ said Mr Emmott.
The slight uncertainty in his voice made me look at him inquiringly.
He turned and spoke to the little pot-boy, Abdullah, asking him a question.
The boy replied vehemently at length.
The puzzled frown on Mr Emmott’s brow increased.
‘I don’t understand it,’ he murmured under his breath. ‘I don’t understand it at all.’
But he didn’t tell me what he didn’t understand.
Chapter 11
An Odd Business
I’m adhering as far as possible to telling only my personal part in the business. I pass over the events of the next two hours, the arrival of Captain Maitland and the police and Dr Reilly. There was a good deal of general confusion, questioning, all the routine business, I suppose.
In my opinion we began to get down to brass tacks about five o’clock when Dr Reilly asked me to come with him into the office. He shut the door, sat down in Dr Leidner’s chair, motioned me to sit down opposite him, and said briskly: ‘Now, then, nurse, let’s get down to it. There’s something damned odd here.’
I settled my cuffs and looked at him inquiringly.
He drew out a notebook.
‘This is for my own satisfaction. Now, what time was it exactly when Dr Leidner found his wife’s body?’
‘I should say it was almost exactly a quarter to three,’ I said.
‘And how do you know that?’
‘Well, I looked at my watch when I got up. It was twenty to three then.’
‘Let’s have a look at this watch of yours.’
I slipped it off my wrist and held it out to him.
‘Right to the minute. Excellent woman. Good, that’s that fixed. Now, did you form any opinion as to how long she’d been dead?’
‘Oh, really, doctor,’ I said, ‘I shouldn’t like to say.’
‘Don’t be so professional. I want to see if your estimate agrees with mine.’
‘Well, I should say she’d been dead at least an hour.’
‘Quite so. I examined the body at half-past four and I’m inclined to put the time of death between 1.15 and 1.45. We’ll say half-past one at a guess. That’s near enough.’
He stopped and drummed thoughtfully with his fingers on the table.
‘Damned odd, this business,’ he said. ‘Can you tell me about it—you were resting, you say? Did you hear anything?’
‘At half-past one? No, doctor. I didn’t hear anything at half-past one or at any other time. I lay on my bed from a quarter to one until twenty to three and I didn’t hear anything except that droning noise the Arab boy makes, and occasionally Mr Emmott shouting up to Dr Leidner on the roof.’
‘The Arab boy—yes.’
He frowned.
At that moment the door opened and Dr Leidner and Captain Maitland came in. Captain Maitland was a fussy little man with a pair of shrewd grey eyes.
Dr Reilly rose and pushed Dr Leidner into his chair.
‘Sit down, man. I’m glad you’ve come. We shall want you. There’s something very queer about this business.’
Dr Leidner bowed his head.
‘I know.’ He looked at me. ‘My wife confided the truth to Nurse Leatheran. We mustn’t keep anything back at this juncture, nurse, so please tell Captain Maitland and Dr Reilly just what passed between you and my wife yesterday.’
As nearly as possible I gave our conversation verbatim.
Captain Maitland uttered an occasional ejaculation. When I had finished he turned to Dr Leidner.
‘And this is all true, Leidner—eh?’
‘Every word Nurse Leatheran has told you is correct.’
‘What an extraordinary story!’ said Dr Reilly. ‘You can produce these letters?’
‘I have no doubt they will be found amongst my wife’s belongings.’
‘She took them out of the attaché-case on her table,’ I said.