The Tall House Mystery by A. E. Fielding

Author:A. E. Fielding
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781839740664
Publisher: Red Kestrel Books
Published: 2019-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

About an hour after the inquest, Moy got a message that Mrs. Appleton would like to speak to him on the telephone.

“Do come round to see me as soon as you can,” she begged. “I’m thinking about Mr. Gilmour. It’s a dreadful position for him. I’m staying at my brother’s flat at Harrow for the present, as you know, but I shall be at Markham Square all the afternoon.”

When Moy went round, as he did at once, he found to his surprise that Tark was in the little drawing-room talking to a rather distrait-looking hostess. As Moy was shown in, Tark said that he would wait until Moy had finished, and go back with him, if he might, as there was something that he wanted to talk to the solicitor about.

Mrs. Appleton gave a nod that suggested inattention more than agreement, and Tark stepped out into the little passage, and Moy heard him opening and then closing a door farther down on the same side. The door of Appleton’s den. So he could find his way about the house...Moy had thought that he did not know Ingram’s sister or brother-in-law...but Moy dropped Tark, and what he might have to say to him, and devoted himself to Mrs. Appleton.

She had been deeply moved, she said, by the look of suffering in Gilmour’s face and she had just heard that Miss Longstaff had broken with him.

“I don’t know that there’s anything one can do, Mrs. Appleton,” Moy said rather hopelessly. “I quite agree with you, it’s awful for him, but how to help him is another matter.”

“I can’t bear the situation!” she said suddenly to that. “It’s an intolerable one for me, Charles’s sister!”

So it was not for Gilmour that she wanted to see him after all, Moy thought.

“You know, I’ve been wondering whether someone couldn’t have shot Charles over Lawrence Gilmour’s shoulder, just as he fired the blank cartridge...She looked very white and very tense as she said this. “I mean, Mr. Gilmour may be right in thinking he fired a blank shot, and yet Charles may have been shot dead—but by someone else.”

“I’ve thought of the same possibility myself,” Moy said, “but it seems so far-fetched. Besides, it would mean that someone was in Gilmour’s room, unknown to him, who fired through the open door at the exact second that Gilmour did.”

“Well? He would lift his arm to fire. There would be plenty of time to know when he was going to pull the trigger.” Her voice sounded harsh, as though her throat were dry. “Mind you,” she went on hastily, “I wouldn’t say this to the police for worlds. Nor have them know I ever thought it.” Her vehemence told Moy that her nerves must be frightfully on edge. “But as you’re our friend—friend to all three of us, Charles, Edward, Gilmour and to me—I know I can talk things over with you without fear of consequences.”

Moy assured her that she could. But he looked at her a trifle oddly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.