“No, no-he didn’t-oh, he didn’t! Miss Bingham didn’t see me. She’s making it all up. She’s a wicked old woman. I never came back. I tell you she couldn’t have seen me-I was asleep.”

The Inspector dropped the torn dress and came back to his chair.

“Pity to go on saying that sort of thing,” he said, “but if that’s what you want in your statement you can have it there. What were your relations with Mr. Craddock?”

The bright angry flush came up again. She stopped crying, and said,

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I think you do. Was he your lover? Was he courting you? Had he asked you to marry him? Were you engaged to him?”

“Of course I wasn’t! He liked me. He was a cousin, and we went about together, but there wasn’t anything in it. I’m not engaged to anyone, but if I were-”

“If you were?”

Mavis hesitated, but only for a moment. It couldn’t do any harm, and if it convinced them what nonsense it was to say this sort of thing about her and Ross, it might do quite a lot of good. She said in a defiant voice which still sounded tearful,

“If it were anyone, it would be Bobby Foster. He-he wants to, and I haven’t exactly said I would, but-oh, well, it would be him if it was anyone.”

“I see,” said the Inspector.

Chapter XIX

Mavis Grey was shown out. Detective Abbott stood behind her in the hall of the flat and watched to see what she would do. She had had a fright and a shaking, and he thought she would want to talk to Peter Renshaw. Short of arresting her or him, or detaining either or both of them on suspicion, you couldn’t prevent them talking things over, but of course it meant that she would tell him just what she had said and just what she hadn’t said, and then he would have to go all out and back her up. Detective Abbott’s opinion of Miss Mavis Grey was that she would say anything, without worrying about whether it was true or not, as long as she thought it would get her out of a mess.

She stood there for a moment, and then she went over to the door of No. 9 and rang the bell. Constable Lintott opened the door, a pleasant-looking young man with a rosy face and round blue eyes. Miss Grey was a good deal taken aback. She had had enough of policemen for the moment, and she wanted to see Peter. She said so in the rather haughty voice which very often means that a girl is afraid she is going to cry.

Constable Lintott directed her to No. 7, and put her in a dilemma. She wanted to see Peter, but she didn’t want to see Lee Fenton. She wanted to get away from all these policemen, and she simply had to tidy up her face before she went out on the street. Her eyelids pricked, her skin felt sticky, and she was quite convinced that the tip of her nose was red. She crossed the landing again and rang the bell of No. 7.

It was Lee who opened the door,, and as soon as Mavis saw her a wave of faintness came over her again. There was a mist, and a picture in the mist. But this time she made an effort, because she didn’t want to faint, she wanted to talk to Peter. She walked past Lee into the sitting-room, and Peter looked up from Aunt Lucy’s writing-table and said “Hullo!” She ran to him.

“I want to talk to you. Send her away.”

Lee may have heard what she said. She shut the sitting-room door and went into Lucy Craddock’s bedroom. She was so stiff and bewildered in her mind that it didn’t seem to matter where she went or what she did, except that it was a little better when Peter was there. She sat down on the bed and waited, shivering, although the day was so hot.

In the next room Mavis was talking nineteen to the dozen. What she had said, what the Inspector had said, what she wanted Peter to say-it all came out without pause or stop in a high, excited voice. Peter let her talk herself to a standstill. Then he said calmly,

“You’ve admitted coming home with Ross. You’ve admitted hitting him over the head with the decanter and coming across to my flat-”

“Because Miss Bingham saw me,” said Mavis.

Peter looked at her with a cynical eye.

“ ‘You tell the truth because you must, and not because you will.’ Parody on Matthew Arnold. No matter. What you haven’t admitted is the excursion at three in the morning.”

“I didn’t,” said Mavis in a hurry.

“You didn’t admit it? Or you didn’t go out of the flat?”

“Miss Bingham made it up. She’s a horrid spiteful old cat.”

“She says she saw you at three in the morning.”

“She made it up,” said Mavis in a sullen voice.

“What’s the good of saying she made it up? I mean, what’s the good of saying it to me, when you know perfectly well that I saw you come in?”

She shook her head.

“She made it up. You didn’t see me.”

Peter walked meditatively to the window and back again. Then he said with alarming mildness,

“That is what I am to say at the inquest?”

She gave an impatient nod.

“Of course.”

“I am, in fact, to commit perjury?”

“You’re not to say you saw me.”

His manner changed.

“Look here, Mavis-did you shoot him? You’d much better tell me. If you did, I’ll do my best for you.”

“I didn’t-I didn’t! Of course I didn’t! Why should I?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Half a dozen reasons why you should. But if you didn’t, it goes. I wonder if you’re speaking the truth. You haven’t had an awful lot of practice, have you?”

“Peter, I didn’t shoot him-I didn’t!”

“Well then, we’ve all got to tell the truth. Because somebody shot him. As long as it wasn’t you the best thing you can do is to weep on the Inspector’s shoulder and tell him all. If you lie, he’ll find you out. If you hold things back, you’ll get tripped up the minute a lawyer gets on to you, and it’s a thousand pounds to a halfpenny you’ll forget what you’ve said and say something else, and then the fat will be in the fire. It takes a heap more brains than you’ve got to be a consistent perjurer. Personally, I intend to stick to the truth.”

“You’re going to say-you saw me-at three o’clock?”

“I am.”

She changed, softened, came up to him caressingly.

“Peter, I only went to find my bag. I told you so.”

“Tell the Inspector, my dear.”

She put a hand on his shoulder, whispering,

“They’ve found my dress-it got stained-I cut a piece away. Oh, Peter, they’ll think-”

“How did it get stained?”

He held her away and watched her face. She said very low,

“I-knelt-down-”

“You were there?”

She wrenched herself away and sprang back.

“No, no, I wasn’t-I wasn’t!”

He stood where he was.

“You knelt down beside Ross-after he was shot?”

“No, no, I didn’t!”

“I think you did.” After a pause he said, “You’d better see a solicitor at once. I can’t advise you-it’s too serious.”

She came up to him again.

“You mustn’t say you saw me! Peter, you won’t!”

“Look here, Mavis, what’s the good of my saying I didn’t see you? Miss Bingham saw you. You’d better make a clean breast of it. I shan’t say anything unless I’m asked, but I’m bound to be asked.”

The door bell rang, and went on ringing. It sounded as if someone had put a finger on the bell-push and was keeping it there. Lee got up wearily off the bed and went to the door.

In the sitting-room Mavis put her lips quite close to Peter’s ear and said,

“If you tell about me, I shall tell about Lee-so there!”