and spoke distinctly.
‘Do you want to tell us something?’
The eyelid flickered.
‘Do you want to tell us how you were hurt?’
The door opened. Lord Charles Lamprey came into the half-light. He stood motionless at the foot of the bed and watched his brother’s hand move, lagging inch by inch, up the sharp angle of his jaw.
‘There’s no significance in this,’ said the doctor.
‘I’d like to ask him, though,’ said Fox, ‘if it’s all the same to you, Sir Matthew.’
The doctor moved aside. Fox bent forward and stared at Lord Wutherwood.
A deep frown had drawn the eyebrows together. Some sort of sound came from the open mouth. ‘You want to show us something, my lord, don’t you?’ said Fox. The fingers crawled across the cheek and upwards. ‘Your eyes? You want to show us your eyes?’ The one eye closed slowly, and opened again, and a voice oddly definite, almost articulate, made a short sound.
‘Is he going?’ asked Lord Charles clearly.
‘I think so,’ said the doctor. ‘Is Lady Wutherwood –?’
‘She is very much distressed. She feels that she cannot face the ordeal.’
‘She realizes,’ said Dr Kantripp who had not spoken before, ‘that there is probably very little time?’
‘Yes. My wife says she made it quite clear.’
The doctors turned again to the bed and seemed by this movement to dismiss Lady Wutherwood. The patient’s hand slipped away from his face. His gaze seemed to be fixed on the shadows at the foot of his bed.
‘Perhaps,’ said Fox, ‘if he could see you, my lord, he might make a greater effort to speak.’
‘He can see me.’
Fox reached out a massive arm and tilted the lamp. The figure at the foot of the bed was thrown into strong relief. Lord Charles blinked in the sudden glare but did not move.
‘Will you speak to him, my lord?’
‘Gabriel, do you know me?’
‘Will you ask him who attacked him, my lord?’
‘It is horrible – now – when he –’
‘He might manage to answer you,’ said Fox.
‘Gabriel, do you know who hurt you?’
The frown deepened and the one eye and mouth opened so widely that Lord Wutherwood’s face looked like a mask in a nightmare. There was a sharp violence of sound and then silence. Fox turned away tactfully and the nurse’s hands went out to the hem of the sheet.
II
‘I am very sorry, my lord,’ said Fox, ‘to have to trouble you at such a time.’
‘That can’t be helped.’
‘That is so, my lord. Under the circumstances we’ve got to make one or two inquiries.’
‘One or two!’ said Lord Charles unevenly. ‘Do sit down, won’t you? I’m afraid I don’t know your name.’
‘Fox, my lord. Inspector Fox.’
‘Oh, yes. Do sit down.’
‘Thank you, my lord.’
Fox sat down and with an air of composure drew out his spectacle case. Lord Charles took a chair near the fire and held out his hands to the blaze. They were unsteady and with an impatient movement he drew them back and thrust them into his pockets. He turned to Fox and found the inspector regarding him blandly through steel-rimmed glasses.
‘Before I trouble you with any questions, my lord,’ said Fox, ‘I think it would be advisable for me to ring up my superior officer and report this occurrence. If I may use the telephone, my lord.’
‘There is one on that desk. But of course you’d rather be alone.’
‘No, thank you, my lord. This will be very convenient. If you will excuse me.’
He moved to the desk, dialled a number, and almost immediately spoke in a very subdued voice into the receiver. ‘Fox here, Mr Alleyn’s room.’ He waited, looking thoughtfully at the base of the telephone. ‘Mr Alleyn? Fox, speaking from Flats 25–26 Pleasaunce Court Mansions, Cadogan Square. Residence of Lord Charles Lamprey. The case reported at seven thirty-five is a fatality. Circumstances point that way, sir. Well, I was going to suggest it, sir, if it’s convenient. Yes, sir.’ Here there was a longish pause during which Fox looked remarkably bland. ‘That’s so, Mr Alleyn,’ he said finally. ‘Thank you, sir.’
He hung up the receiver and returned to his chair.
‘Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn, my lord,’ said Fox, ‘will take over the case. He will be here in half an hour. In the meantime he has instructed me to carry on. So if I may trouble you, my lord.’ He took out his note-book and adjusted his glasses. Lord Charles shivered, hunched up a shoulder, put his glass in his eye and waited.
‘I have here,’ said Fox, ‘the statement taken by the officer who was called in from the local station. I’d just like to check that over, my lord, if I may.’
‘Yes. It’s my own statement, I imagine, but check it by all means if you will.’
‘Yes. Thank you. Times. I understand Lord Wutherwood arrived here shortly after six and left at approximately seven fifteen?’
‘About then. I heard seven strike some little time before he left.’
‘Yes, my lord. Your butler gets a little closer than that. He noticed it was seven fifteen before his lordship rang for his man.’
‘I see.’
‘His lordship was alone in the lift for some minutes before any one went out to the landing,’ read Fox.
‘Yes.’
‘Thank you, my lord. After he had been there for some minutes he was joined by her ladyship; Lady Wutherwood, that is, and by Lady Charles Lamprey and by Mr Lamprey. Which Mr Lamprey would that be, my lord?’
‘Let me think. You must forgive me but my thoughts are intolerably confused.’
Fox waited politely.
‘My brother,’ said Lord Charles at last, ‘left me in the drawing-room. Soon after that the boys, I mean my three sons, joined me there. Then I think my wife opened the door and asked if one of the boys would take my brother and sister-in-law down in the lift. They never take themselves down. One of the boys went out. That will be the one you mean?’
‘Yes. That is so, my
