The Verdict of You All. Illustrated by Henry Wade

Author:Henry Wade [Wade Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: det_classic
Publisher: Andrii Ponomarenko
Published: 2025-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17 Beginning Afresh

Outside a West-End club at eleven o’clock at night is hardly a place for confidences, so the Daimler was driven into the Mall and pulled to the side in a quiet spot, and there, the three of them seated in the closed car while the chauffeur walked patiently up and down out of ear-shot, Emily told her story. It was simple enough. On Monday night she had been, as she had already told the inspector, to a play with a party of friends, intending to go on to a dance at Prince’s afterwards. Coming out of the theatre, however, she had felt unwell and cried off the dance, telling her friends to go on without her. Mr McCorquodale, however, had insisted on accompanying her home to see that she was all right, and as she had not felt up to arguing, she allowed him to do so, although she had not at all wanted his company. Arrived at St Margaret’s Lodge, she had let herself in with her latch-key. Mr McCorquodale had followed her into the hall, saying something about handing her over to her maid, but she had told him that her maid would not be up, and he had then said good night. She had gone straight upstairs to bed, and he had left the house after saying good night to her.

Emily Smethurst paused for a moment, and then went on hurriedly, as if to anticipate the inevitable question:

“I haven’t said anything about it before because he was only in the house for a second, and, in any case, it’s impossible that he could have killed my father—and Geoffrey—Mr Hastings—hated him, and daddy didn’t like him, and it seemed awful that I should have had him in the house, practically against daddy’s wishes, on the very night he was killed. I knew you would be furious, Geof, at his taking me back, and it seemed so trivial and I didn’t think I need rake it up, and . . .” the halting sentence trailed away into silence. She looked miserably at Geoffrey, and saw on his face a look that frightened her; she looked at the detective and saw a different look, but one that frightened her hardly less—a scowl of annoyance mingled with a gleam of eagerness—eagerness to get on this new trail and hunt down the wretched man who had made it.

The detective was the first to speak. His face had quickly recovered its normal appearance, and his voice was calm.

“You said that this gentleman, Mr McCorquodale, left the house when you went upstairs, miss. Are you quite sure he did leave the house? Did you see him go?”

“Oh yes, of course. At least. . . . Oh yes, I must have.”

“Look here, miss,” said the detective. “I want you to think carefully about this, and not say anything you aren’t absolutely certain of. Now, about this gentleman, when he said good-bye to you, did he turn straight round and go out of the door while you were still looking at him?”

Emily thought for a moment.

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.