a good chap, and then tell me the whole story as far as you’ve got.’
Fox went into 26. The constable cleared his throat. Alleyn gazed at the lift well. The door into 25 opened and a good-looking pale young man peered out on to the landing.
‘Oh, hallo,’ he said politely. ‘I’m sorry to bother you. You’re Mr Alleyn, I expect.’
‘Yes,’ said Alleyn.
‘Yes. I’m so sorry to make a nuisance of myself, but I thought I’d just ask if it was likely to be a very long time before you began to pitch into us. I’m Henry Lamprey.’
‘How do you do,’ said Alleyn politely. ‘We’ll be as quick as we can. Not long now.’
‘Oh, good. It’s just that my mama is rather exhausted, poor thing, and I think she ought to go to bed. That is, of course, if my Aunt Violet can be moved off the bed or even out of the room which I must say seems to be doubtful … What is the right technique, do you know, with widows of murdered men who are also one’s near relations?’
‘Is Lady Charles with Lady Wutherwood at the moment?’ asked Alleyn. Henry came out on the landing and shut the door. He stood in the shadow of the lift.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘My mama is in there and so is Tinkerton who is my Aunt Violet’s maid. It appears that my Aunt Violet is in a sort of coma or trance and really doesn’t notice who goes or comes. But you won’t want to be bothered with all that. I was only going to suggest that if you could see my mother first and then Aunt Violet it would give us a chance to bundle mama off to bed.’
‘I’ll see what can be done about it. I’m afraid in this sort of business –’
‘Oh, I know,’ agreed Henry. ‘The rest of us are all quite prepared for the dawn to rise on our lies and evasions.’
‘I hope not,’ said Alleyn.
‘Actually we are a truthful family, only the things that happen to us are so peculiar that nobody ever believes in them. Still, I expect you’ve got a sort of winnowing ear for people’s testimonies and will know in a flash if we try any hanky-panky.’
‘I expect so,’ agreed Alleyn gravely. From the shadow of the lift Henry seemed to look solemnly at him.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid I expect so too. My father suggested that you ought to be offered a drink and some sandwiches but the rest of us knew you wouldn’t break bread with suspected persons. Or is that only in books? Anyway, sir, if you would like us to send something out here or if you would like to join us for a drink, we do hope you will.’
‘That’s very kind of you,’ said Alleyn, ‘but we don’t on duty.’
‘Or if there’s anything at all that we can do.’
‘I don’t think there’s anything at the moment. Oh, as you’re here, I may as well ask you. Who is the owner of those gloves?’
‘What gloves?’ Henry’s voice sounded blank.
‘A pair of heavy driving-gloves with stiff gauntlets.’
‘Lined with rather disgusting fur?’
‘Fur-lined, yes.’
‘Sound like mine,’ said Henry. ‘Where are they?’
‘I’ll return them to you. My colleague took them into the flat.’
‘Where did you find them?’
‘In the lift,’ said Alleyn.
‘But I wasn’t in the lift.’
‘No?’
‘No. I expect –’ Henry stopped short.
‘Yes?’
‘Nothing. I can’t imagine how they got there. You needn’t return them, sir. I don’t really think I want them any more.’
‘I don’t think you would,’ agreed Alleyn, ‘if you saw them.’
Henry’s face shone like ivory on that dimly lit landing. His eyes were like black coals under the cold whiteness of his forehead.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
‘They are stained.’
‘Stained? With what?’
‘It looks like blood.’
Henry turned on his heel and went blindly into the flat.
Fox returned with Bailey.
‘I want you to go all over the inside of the lift, Bailey,’ said Alleyn. ‘Try the stops and the door-knobs – everything. Get Thompson to take a close-up shot of the seat and wall.’
‘Very good, sir.’
‘And Fox, we’ll go over your notes and then I think I’d better see the family.’
III
The twins stood side by side on the hearthrug. The lamplight glinted on their blond heads. They wore grey flannel suits and dark-green pullovers that their mother had knitted for them. Their hands were in their pockets, their heads were tilted slightly to one side. Their faces were screwed into an expression of apologetic attentiveness. From her stool by the fire Roberta watched them and felt a cold pang of alarm. For behind the twins Roberta saw, not the coal fire of a London grate, but the sweetly aromatic logs that burnt in the drawing-room at Deepacres in New Zealand. And with the sharpest emphasis of memory she heard each twin confess that he had taken out the forbidden big car, and had driven it through a water-race into a bank. She saw herself sitting mum, knowing all the time that it was Stephen who had taken the car while Colin was indoors. She heard herself asking Colin privately why he had made this quixotic gesture and she again heard his answer. ‘It’s a kind of arrangement we have!’ ‘Always?’ she had asked him, and Colin, rumpling up his fair hair, had answered, ‘Oh, no. Only when there’s a really major row.’ ‘A twinny sort of arrangement,’ Roberta had said, and Colin had agreed. ‘Yes, that’s the idea. As between twins.’ So insistent was this memory that the past was clearer for a moment than the present and she was unaware of the voices in the drawing-room. Her mind seemed to change gear and she found herself thinking of the Lampreys as strangers. ‘I don’t know what they are like,’ thought Roberta in her cold panic. ‘I have no knowledge of their reality. I have fitted their words and actions into my own idea of them but my idea may be quite wrong.’ And she began to wonder confusedly if anybody had a complete secret reality or if each layer of thought merely represented the level of someone else’s idea of the thinker. ‘This won’t do,’ thought Roberta. ‘Stop!’ Her mind changed gear again and Lord Charles’s voice came back, familiar, gentle, a voice she knew and loved.
‘Now listen to me,’ Lord Charles was saying. ‘There is going to be no more of this. One of you went down in the lift with Violet and with him. Which was it?’
‘I d-did,’ said Stephen.
