Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh

Author:Ngaio Marsh [Marsh, Ngaio]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: C429, Extratorrents, Kat
Published: 2010-01-22T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Lady Carrados Looks Back

Alleyn followed the footman upstairs, leaving Fox in the library to make the best of a sticky situation.

The footman handed Alleyn over to a maid who took him to Lady Carrados. She was not in bed. She was in her boudoir erect in a tall blue chair and wearing the look that had prompted Paddy O'Brien to compare her with a Madonna. She held out her hands when she saw Alleyn and as he took them a phrase came into his mind. He thought: "She is an English lady and these are an English lady's hands, thin, unsensual, on the end of delicate thin arms."

She said: "Roderick! I do call you Roderick, don't I?"

Alleyn said: "I hope so. It's a long time since we met, Evelyn."

"Too long. Your mother tells me about you sometimes. We spoke to each other today on the telephone. She was so very kind and understanding, Roderick, and she told me that you would be too. Do sit down and smoke. I should like to feel that you are not a great detective but an old friend."

"I should like to feel that too," said Alleyn. "I must tell you, Evelyn, that I was on the point of asking to see you when I got your message."

"An official call?"

"Yes, bad luck to it. You've made everything much pleasanter by asking for me."

She pressed the thin hands together and Alleyn, noticing the bluish lights on the knuckles, remembered how Troy had wanted to paint them.

Lady Carrados said, "I suppose Herbert didn't want you to see me?"

"He wasn't very pleased with the idea. He thought you were too tired and distressed."

She smiled faintly: "Yes," she said, and it was impossible to be sure that she spoke ironically. "Yes, he is very thoughtful. What do you want to ask me, Roderick?"

"All sorts of dreary questions, I'm afraid. I'm sorry about it. I know you were one of Bunchy's friends."

"So were you."

"Yes."

"What is your first question?"

Alleyn went over the final scene in the hall and found she had nothing new to tell him. She answered him quickly and concisely. He could see that his questions held no particular significance for her and that her thoughts were lying in wait, anxiously, for what was yet to come. As soon as he began to speak of the green room on the top landing he knew that he touched her more nearly. He felt a profound distaste for his task. He went on steadily, without emphasis.

"The green sitting-room with the telephone. We know that he used the telephone and are anxious to find out if he was overheard. Someone says you left your bag there, Evelyn. Did you?"

"Yes."

"Dimitri returned it to you?"

"Yes."

"When was this?"

"Soon after I had come up from supper -- about half-past twelve or a quarter to one."

"Not as late as one o'clock?"

"No."

"Why are you so certain of this, please?"

"Because," said Lady Carrados, "I was watching the time rather carefully."

"Were you? Does the peak of a successful ball come at a specific moment?"

"Well, one rather watches the time.

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