and – and – well, without us noticing while the Guiser was laying doggo behind the stone – Ar, hell!’
‘Yes,’ Alleyn said grimly, ‘and it’ll turn out that the only time Ernie might have waltzed behind the stone was the time when young Stayne pinched his sword. And what about the state of the sword, Carey? Nobody had time to clean it and restain it with green sap, had they? And, my dear man, what about blood? Blood, Carey, which reminds me we are keeping the doctor waiting. Leave Bailey and Thompson here while you arrange with Obby or that PC by the castle gates to take your place when you want to get off. I’ll bring extra men in if we need them. I’ll leave you the car and ask Dr Otterly to take us up to the pub. OK?’
‘OK, Mr Alleyn. I’ll be up along later then?’
‘Right. Here’s Fox. Come on Foxkin. Otterly, will you give us a lift?’
Carey turned back into the forge and Alleyn and Fox got into Dr Otterly’s car.
Dr Otterly said: ‘Look here, Alleyn, before we go on I want to ask you something.’
‘I bet I know what it is. Do we or do we not include you on our list of suspects?’
‘Exactly so,’ Otterly said rather stiffly. ‘After all, one would prefer to know. Um?’
‘Of course. Well, at the moment, unless you can explain how you fiddled unceasingly in full view of a Superintendent of Police, a P.C, a Dame of the British Empire, a parson and about fifty other witnesses during the whole of the period when this job must have been done and, at the same time, did it, you don’t look to be a likely starter.’
‘Thank you,’ said Dr Otterly.
‘On the other hand, you look to be a damn’ good witness. Did you watch the dancers throughout?’
‘Never took my eyes off ’em. A conscientious fiddler doesn’t.’
‘Wonderful. Don’t let’s drive up for a moment, shall we? Tell me this. Would you swear that it was in fact the Guiser who danced the rôle of Fool?’
Dr Otterly stared at him. ‘Good lord, of course it was! I thought you understood. I’d gone out to start proceedings, I heard the rumpus, I went back and found him lugging his clothes off Ernie. I had a look at him, not a proper medical look, because he wouldn’t let me, and I told him if he worked himself up any more he’d probably crock up anyway. So he calmed down, put on the Fool’s clothes and the bag-mask, and, when he was ready, I went out. Ernie followed and did his whiffling. I could see the others waiting to come on. The old man appeared last, certainly, but I could see him just beyond the gate, watching the others. He’d taken his mask off and only put it on at the last moment.’
‘Nobody, at any stage, could have taken his place?’
‘Utterly impossible,’ Otterly said impatiently.
‘At no time could he have gone off-stage and swapped with somebody?’
‘Lord, lord, lord, how many more times! No!’
‘All right. So he danced and lay down behind the stone. You fiddled and watched and fiddled and watched. Stayne and Ernie fooled and Stayne collared Ernie’s sword. Begg, as the Hobby Horse, retired. These three throughout the show were all over the place and dodged in and out of the rear archway. Do you know exactly when and for how long any of them was out of sight?’
‘I do not. I doubt if they do. Begg dodged out after his first appearance when he chivvied the girls, you know. It’s damn’ heavy, that gear he wears, and he took the chance, during the first sword dance, to get the weight off his shoulders. He came back before they made the lock. He had another let-up after the “death”. Ralph Stayne was all over the shop. In and out. So was Ernie during their interlude.’
‘Right. And at some stage Stayne returned the sword to Ernie. Dan did a solo. The Sons danced and then came the dénouement. Right?’
‘It hasn’t altered,’ Dr Otterly said drily, ‘since the last time you asked.’
‘It’s got to alter some time, somehow,’ Fox observed unexpectedly.
‘Would you also swear,’ Alleyn said, ‘that at no time did either Ernie or Ralph Stayne prance round behind the stone and make one great swipe with the sword that might have done the job?’
‘I know damn’ well neither of them did.’
‘Yes? Why?’
‘Because, my dear man, as I’ve told you, I never took my eyes off them. I knew the old chap was lying there. I’d have thought it a bloody dangerous thing to do.’
‘Is there still another reason why it didn’t happen that way?’
‘Isn’t it obvious that there is?’
‘Yes,’ Alleyn said, ‘I’d have thought it was. If anybody had killed him in that way he’d have been smothered in blood?’
‘Exactly.’
‘But, all the same, Otterly, there could be one explanation that would cover that difficulty.’
Dr Otterly slewed round in his seat and stared at Alleyn. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Yes, you’re right. I’d thought of it, of course. But I’d still swear that neither of them did.’
‘All the same it is, essentially, I’m sure, the explanation nearest to the truth.’
‘And, in the meantime,’ Mr Fox observed, ‘we still go on believing in fairies.’
Before they set off for the Green Man, Alleyn asked Dr Otterly if he could arrange for the Guiser’s accommodation in a suitable mortuary.
‘Curtis, the Home Office man, will do the PM,’ Alleyn said, ‘but he’s two hundred odd miles away across country and, the last time I heard of him, he was held up on a tricky case. I don’t know how or when he’ll contrive to get here.’
‘Biddlefast would offer the best facilities. It’s twenty miles away. We’ve a cottage hospital at Yowford where we could fix him up straight away – after a fashion.’
‘Do, will you? Things are very unsatisfactory as they are. Can we get a mortuary van or an ambulance?’
‘The latter. I’ll fix it up.’
‘Look,’ Alleyn said, ‘I want you to do something else, if you will. I’m going, now, to talk to Simon Begg, young Stayne, the German lady and the Guiser’s granddaughter who, I hear, is staying at the pub. Will you sit in on the interviews? Will you tell me if you think anything they may say is contrary to the facts as you observed them? Will you do that, Otterly?’
Dr
