Inspector Felix 05 The Curious Death of Henry J. Vicenzi by R. A. Bentley

Author:R. A. Bentley [Bentley, R. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-10T23:00:00+00:00

‘This must be the place,’ said Felix, pulling up outside a private lodging house. ‘If he’s lucky, he’ll be here and not at the church. I’m going to be a little bit naughty, I’m afraid.’

‘Thought you might.’

‘You can wait here if you like.’

‘Not in the mood you’re in I won’t.’

Felix grinned. ‘Whatever do you mean, Sergeant?’

‘You had best come in,’ said the Reverend Curry, allowing them into his monastic-looking little room. ‘What is it? I was just going out.’

‘Another committee meeting eh, Mr Curry? What a busy man you are. This won’t take long.’

‘It’s not breach is it? Because if it is . . .’

Felix was briefly nonplussed. ‘Breach of promise is a civil matter, Mr Curry; it has nothing to do with us. You told me that after your dismissal by Henry Vicenzi you followed Miss Vicenzi out of the house and into the road. That wasn’t quite true, was it? You didn’t follow her immediately.’

Mr Curry looked nervously from one large policeman to the other. ‘I needed to visit the cloakroom, that’s all, after which I did indeed follow her.’

Felix breathed a secret sigh of relief. ‘And which of you actually left the study first?’

‘I . . . I did. I was very upset.’

‘And you went straight into the cloakroom?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then how do you know that Miss Vicenzi ran out of the house, if you were in the cloakroom?’

‘Because I joined her in the road, so she must have done.’

‘What was she doing exactly?’

‘Walking back towards the house. She thought she’d missed me.’

‘Mr Curry,’ said Felix loudly, ‘at about the time you claim to have been relieving yourself, the shot was fired that killed Mr Vicenzi. Was it you that murdered him?’

Curry leapt to the door and closed it. ‘Can’t you keep your voice down? No, it was not! I was where I said I was! Of course it wasn’t me; I’m a priest!’

‘Priests are not immune from sin, Mr Curry.’

It wasn’t me! It couldn’t have been me! I heard the shot while I was in there, in the cloakroom. I didn’t know what had happened. I was terrified! I looked out and the butler and maid ran by. They ran into the breakfast room and I fled.’

‘And let me repeat my question of our last meeting. Did you see anyone apart from the servants, either in the house or the front garden?’

‘No! No-one! No-one at all. I was very afraid. I thought you would accuse me and that’s why I ran away from your interview. I can’t be mixed up in murder, not in my position. It would mean ruin!’

‘And did you tell Miss Vicenzi that you’d heard a shot?’

Curry had the grace to look embarrassed. ‘No, I didn’t. I didn’t know what it was. I’d never heard a pistol shot. There was no point in worrying her with it.’

‘And you didn’t even bother to find out what had happened?’

‘It was none of my business!’

‘So you passed by on the other side, like the Levite.’ Felix stood glaring at him as Rattigan finished his notes.

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