Edna said, ‘Geoffrey?’

‘There is quite a strong case against him. In fact up to a point it is a very strong case indeed. I think you know that he went to the Lodge to see Mrs Trent on the night of the murder, and a witness has now come forward to prove that Miss Meriel followed him there. This witness overheard the violent quarrel which ensued. She heard Miss Meriel say to your husband that she would tell the police she had seen him push Miss Preston into the pool under the impression that the person wearing Adriana Ford’s coat was in fact Adriana Ford herself. Miss Meriel then left, and after being adjured by Mrs Trent to follow her Mr Geoffrey Ford did so.’

Superintendent Martin looked over his shoulder and saw Edna Ford sitting stiffly upright. She was clutching the three account-books, and there was a perfectly blank expression on her face. As he looked round, she said,

‘I don’t know why you are telling me all this. I don’t approve of Geoffrey going to see Mrs Trent – you have heard me say so before. She is an immoral woman – I don’t approve of her at all.’

Miss Silver said firmly,

‘There is a witness to the fact that Miss Meriel Ford threatened your husband, and that he followed her when she left the Lodge. Within a very short time of that she was struck down by a murderous blow and her body left in the pool.’

Edna had a gleam of animation.

‘I can’t think what she was doing there. So damp – and such unpleasant associations.’

‘Mrs Ford, your husband was seen to follow her. Do you not realize that that could be very serious for him? She threatened him. He followed her. She was found dead.’

The trace of animation became stronger.

‘Well, he had to get home. I hope you do not suppose he would have stayed at the Lodge all night.’

Miss Silver sighed. She looked round at the Superintendent, and he came back to his place at the writing-table.

‘Well, Mrs Ford, it is not part of my job to make you anxious about your husband, but the evidence of this witness whom Miss Silver has mentioned extends beyond his case.’

‘Really, you know, I came here to do these accounts with Mrs Lenton.’

‘Just a moment, if you please. This witness states that she followed Miss Meriel and Mr Geoffrey all the way to Ford House. She says Mr Geoffrey went in, but that someone else came up from behind her after she had reached the farther corner of the house and followed Miss Meriel across the lawn and into the enclosed garden which contains the pool. She states that it was a woman, and that after a little time this woman returned and went into Ford House by way of the study window. But Meriel Ford did not return.’

Edna fidgeted with the account-books.

‘How very strange.’

‘You realize that this witness was seeing the murderer?’

She nodded.

‘Then it would have been Esmé Trent.’

‘You think so?’

‘Oh, yes. She is a bad woman – I have always said so.’

‘But she would not have gone into Ford House.’

‘Oh, yes – she was always running after Geoffrey.’ She put a hand on the edge of the table and got up. ‘I really mustn’t keep Mrs Lenton waiting.’

And just at that moment the handle moved, the door opened, and Ellie Page came a half step into the room. She wore a dark blue jumper and skirt, and she looked like a ghost. When she saw Edna she said ‘Oh!’ and stopped where she was.

‘There was something I had forgotten. I thought perhaps – I ought to say-’

Edna began to move towards the door. As she did so, the loose steel buckle on her left-hand shoe fell sideways and almost tripped her. Ellie stared at it, and at her. Then she came right into the room, shut the door, and went back against it.

‘That was the thing I remembered,’ she said.

The Superintendent got to his feet and came round the table.

He saw Ellie’s eyes fixed and staring, and he wanted to see what they were staring at.

Edna Ford stooped down and pulled at the buckle. The loose threads broke and pulled away. She stood up with it in her hand.

‘Dear me – it nearly tripped me!’

Ellie’s eyes followed the buckle. She said,

‘That’s what I remembered. I saw it when she was crossing the lawn after she put the light on. The torch hung down in her left hand and shone on the buckle. It moved because it was loose, and the light shone down on it. I remembered, and I thought I ought to tell you.’ She looked from the buckle to Edna’s face and shrank back against the door. ‘Oh, you killed them! You killed them both!’

Edna Ford had a small complacent smile. She tilted the buckle on the palm of her hand and said,

‘It was very clever of me, wasn’t it?’

Chapter Forty-one

The way she smiled and the sound of her voice, the foolish inconsequent sound of it, were there in the room. They were there in a silence that no one seemed able to break. Thoughts beat against it, but it resisted them. In the end it was Edna Ford who broke it. She held the three account-books in her right hand. She glanced down at them now, still with that foolish smile, and said,

‘Well, I mustn’t keep Mrs Lenton waiting.’

Ellie gave a kind of gasp. Superintendent Martin said,

‘Mrs Ford, you have just made a very serious admission. Do you wish to make a statement on the subject? I have to tell you that anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence.’

She turned round, the buckle in one hand and the account-books in the other.

‘It was clever of me, wasn’t itî And if that buckle hadn’t been loose, no one would ever have known. I suppose I ought not to have put on the torch until I was out of sight of the house, but you don’t expect people to be looking out of their windows at that time of night. And what was Ellie Page doing in our garden in the dark? I should like to know that. Running after Geoffrey, I suppose – just like all the other silly women. But they won’t get him, because I happen to know that Adriana has left the money to me. So they won’t get him away from me-none of them will!’

The Superintendent addressed Ellie Page.

‘Miss Page, would you be so kind as to ask Watson to come in here. He took down your statement, and I asked him to wait. And please come back yourself – we may want you.’

Edna Ford went on talking about how attractive Geoffrey was, and the folly of the women who imagined that they could get him away from her. She did not seem to be addressing Superintendent Martin or anyone else in particular. The words just ran on as if they were her thoughts, and as if by saying them aloud she could make them come true. She was still talking when Ellie came back with a dark young man who sat down by the side of the table and opened a notebook. Miss Silver’s eyes rested on her gravely and compassionately.

When Watson was seated the Superintendent checked the flow.

‘Now, Mrs Ford, if you are prepared to answer questions or make a statement, Detective Watson will take down what you say in shorthand. When it has been typed it will be read over to you and you can sign it.’

She said in a fretful voice,

‘I don’t see why he wants to take it down. We were getting along very nicely without him.’

‘It is better to have it on record. Then it can be read over to you, and you can say whether it is all right.’

She had an approving nod for that.

‘Well, of course there is that. I wouldn’t want you to put things in afterwards.’

Ellie Page had found a chair beside Miss Silver. Her face was hidden in the hands which rested against the hard upright back. Martin said,

‘Now, Mrs Ford, when Miss Page said, “You killed them both!” you made this reply, “It was very clever of me, wasn’t it?” Did you mean that as an admission that you had pushed Mabel Preston into the pool and drowned her there, and that you subsequently struck Meriel Ford with an iron club and pushed her into the same pool?’