said Alleyn.
‘I’ll go and ask. I don’t somehow think you’ll have much luck, Mr Alleyn. My mother will come, of course. I’d better get Nanny while I’m at it. What about Aunt Kit, Daddy?’
Fox who had seated himself discreetly in the background glanced up in surprise and Alleyn said: ‘Is there someone else?’
‘I can’t imagine,’ said Lord Charles with an air of vexation, ‘why nobody can remember Aunt Kit.’
‘Well, she just popped off,’ said Frid. ‘We do remember her from time to time. Mummy said about an hour ago, “For pity’s sake, what’s become of Aunt Kit?” Shall I ring her up?’
‘It’s my aunt, Alleyn,’ explained Lord Charles apologetically. ‘Lady Katherine Lobe. She was here this afternoon but I’m afraid this terrible business put her out of our minds. She was with my wife just before it happened. I suppose she must have slipped away without realizing – I quite forgot to say anything about her. I’m so sorry. Shall we ring her up?’
‘I think it might be as well,’ said Alleyn. ‘Her name is Lady Katherine Lobe, did you say?’
‘Yes. Why?’
‘The commissionaire saw her leave a few minutes before the accident was discovered.’
‘Well,’ said Lord Charles, ‘I call it very odd to go off like that without a word. I hope to Heaven that nothing was the matter with her. We’d better ring her up. Frid, darling, will you?’
‘Am I to tell her to come trundling in from Hammersmith?’
‘I’ll send the car,’ said Lord Charles. ‘Tell her I’ll send the car, Frid, and then you’d better ring up Mayling. Mayling’s my chauffeur, Alleyn. He wasn’t here this afternoon, so I imagine –’
‘That will do admirably.’
Frid knelt on a chair beside the desk and dialled a number.
‘Aunt Kit,’ said Henry, ‘is almost quite deaf and not very bright. Shall I go and fetch my mama?’
‘If you please.’
‘And Aunt V.’ Frid reminded Henry. She began talking into the telephone.
‘Tell her about it gently, Frid,’ said Lord Charles.
‘She’ll go into a flat spin anyway,’ said Patch gloomily.
Henry went out into the hall. Colin said to nobody in particular: ‘Isn’t it rather a shame to summon Aunt Kit? I know maiden aunts are fashionable as murderesses but Mr Alleyn told us not to go by the detective novels. And honestly – Aunt Kit!’
‘Even as a witness,’ said Stephen, ‘she’ll be quite hopeless. She n-never knows what’s going on under her own n-nose even.’
‘Shut up,’ hissed Frid. ‘I can’t hear. What did you say? What? But – oh well, thank you so much. Would you just say Miss Lamprey rang up. She knows our number. No, I’m afraid we don’t but I expect it’s quite all right really. Don’t worry, Gibson. Good night.’
Frid replaced the receiver and gazed blankly at her father.
‘It’s a bit funny,’ she said. ‘Aunt Kit said she’d be in to dinner and there’s someone coming to see her by appointment and, well, she’s not telephoned or anything but she’s simply not turned up.’
Alleyn had been confronted with the Lampreys for only some twenty minutes but already he had begun to feel a little as though they were handfuls of wet sand which, as fast as he grasped them, were dragged through his fingers by the action of some mysterious undertow. He sent Fox off to find out, if possible from the commissionaire, when Lady Katherine Lobe had left the flat and what direction she had taken. Privately he instructed Fox to set the machinery of the department at work. Hospitals would be rung up, street accidents reported. And in the end, thought Alleyn, Lady Katherine would arrive home at half past eleven after an impulsive visit to the cinema. In the meantime he concentrated on the Lampreys still in hand.
Henry came back, bringing his mother and his old nurse. Again there were vague polite introductions for which Lady Charles did not wait. She advanced with a swift graciousness which Alleyn at once recognized as the fruit of an excellent social technique. They shook hands. Alleyn saw the small New Zealander give her hostess a startled glance and he wondered if Lady Charles Lamprey was usually so pale. But she greeted him with a perfection of manner that sketched with subtlety relief at his arrival, deference to his ability, and a delicate suggestion that they spoke the same language.
‘Please forgive me,’ she said, ‘for keeping you waiting. My sister-in-law –’ she made a rueful grimace – ‘too terribly upset. Henry says you want to see her.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ said Alleyn. ‘I’m afraid I do.’
‘At the moment she simply can’t come. I mean I can’t move her. Her maid may manage her better. She’s going to try.’
‘She must come, Immy,’ said Lord Charles.
‘Charlie darling, if you saw her. I mean honestly.’
‘We’ll carry on as we are for the present,’ said Alleyn quickly. ‘Has Dr Kantripp seen Lady Wutherwood?’
‘Yes. He’s given her something and the nurse is going to stay here tonight. Dr Kantripp guessed that you would ask to speak to her and said he would look in again later and see if she was up to it. Of course she’s had the most appalling and overwhelming shock.’
‘Of course.’
‘She’s not English,’ said Lord Charles uncomfortably. Frid and Henry exchanged glances and grinned.
‘Well,’ said Alleyn hurriedly. ‘To begin with –’
‘Do sit down, everybody,’ said Charlot. ‘Nanny came too in case she was wanted.’
They sat down.
As he waited for a moment, collecting his thoughts and the attention of his audience, Alleyn received a sudden and extremely vivid impression of a united family.
Whatever their qualities of elusiveness, vagueness or apparent flippancy might be, he felt sure these qualities would never be used by the Lampreys against each other. They would always present a united if slightly ridiculous front. Until Lady Charles came in he had thought the children markedly resembled their father. He now saw that they bore in their faces and mannerisms confusing and subtle traces of both their parents. It was odd to see the complete separateness of Roberta Grey. Alleyn’s attention had been arrested by Roberta, by her small
