‘It wasn’t burglary at all,’ cried Miss Bunner. ‘I’ve told you so, Letty, all along. It wasrevenge! Because you wouldn’t give him that money! He deliberately shot at you-twice.’

‘Ah,’ said Craddock. ‘We’ll come now to last night. What happened exactly, Miss Blacklock? Tell me in your own words as nearly as you can remember.’

Miss Blacklock reflected a moment.

‘The clock struck,’ she said. ‘The one on the mantelpiece. I remember saying that if anything were going to happen it would have to happen soon. And then the clock struck. We all listened to it without saying anything. It chimes, you know. It chimed the two quarters and then, quite suddenly, the lights went out.’

‘What lights were on?’

‘The wall brackets in here and the further room. The standard lamp and the two small reading lamps weren’t on.’

‘Was there a flash first, or a noise when the lights went out?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘I’m sure therewas a flash,’ said Dora Bunner. ‘Anda cracking noise. Dangerous!’

‘And then, Miss Blacklock?’

‘The door opened-’

‘Which door? There are two in the room.’

‘Oh, this door in here. The one in the other room doesn’t open. It’s a dummy. The door opened and there he was-a masked man with a revolver. It just seemed too fantastic for words, but of course at the time I just thought it was a silly joke. He said something-I forget what-’

‘Hands up or I shoot!’ supplied Miss Bunner, dramatically.

‘Something like that,’ said Miss Blacklock, rather doubtfully.

‘And you all put your hands up?’

‘Oh,yes,’ said Miss Bunner. ‘We all did. I mean, it waspart of it.’

‘Ididn’t,’ said Miss Blacklock crisply. ‘It seemed so utterly silly. And I was annoyed by the whole thing.’

‘And then?’

‘The flashlight was right in my eyes. It dazzled me. And then, quite incredibly, I heard a bullet whizz past me and hit the wall by my head. Somebody shrieked and then I felt a burning pain in my ear and heard the second report.’

‘It wasterrifying,’ put in Miss Bunner.

‘And what happened next, Miss Blacklock?’

‘It’s difficult to say-I was so staggered by the pain and the surprise. The-the figure turned away and seemed to stumble and then there was another shot and his torch went out and everybody began pushing and calling out. All banging into each other.’

‘Where were you standing, Miss Blacklock?’

‘She was over by the table. She’d got that vase of violets in her hand,’ said Miss Bunner breathlessly.

‘I was over here.’ Miss Blacklock went over to the small table by the archway. ‘Actually it was the cigarette-box I’d got in my hand.’

Inspector Craddock examined the wall behind her. The two bullet holes showed plainly. The bullets themselves had been extracted and had been sent for comparison with the revolver.

He said quietly:

‘You had a very near escape, Miss Blacklock.’

‘Hedid shoot at her,’ said Miss Bunner. ‘Deliberatelyat her! I saw him. He turned the flash round on everybody until he found her and then he held it right at her and just fired ather. He meant to killyou, Letty.’

‘Dora dear, you’ve just got that into your head from mulling the whole thing over and over.’

‘He shot atyou,’ repeated Dora stubbornly. ‘He meant to shoot you and when he’d missed, he shot himself. I’mcertain that’s the way it was!’

‘I don’t think he meant to shoot himself for a minute,’ said Miss Blacklock. ‘He wasn’t the kind of man who shoots himself.’

‘You tell me, Miss Blacklock, that until the revolver was fired you thought the whole business was a joke?’

‘Naturally. What else could I think it was?’

‘Who do you think was the author of this joke?’

‘You thought Patrick had done it at first,’ Dora Bunner reminded her.

‘Patrick?’ asked the Inspector sharply.

‘My young cousin, Patrick Simmons,’ Miss Blacklock continued sharply, annoyed with her friend. ‘It did occur to me when I saw this advertisement that it might be some attempt at humour on his part, but he denied it absolutely.’

‘And then you were worried, Letty,’ said Miss Bunner. ‘Youwere worried, although you pretended not to be. And you were quite right to be worried. It said a murder is announced-and itwas announced-yourmurder! And if the man hadn’t missed, youwould have been murdered. And then where should we all be?’

Dora Bunner was trembling as she spoke. Her face was puckered up and she looked as though she were going to cry.

Miss Blacklock patted her on the shoulder.

‘It’s all right, Dora dear-don’t get excited. It’s so bad for you. Everything’s quite all right. We’ve had a nasty experience, but it’s over now.’ She added, ‘You must pull yourself together for my sake, Dora. I rely on you, you know, to keep the house going. Isn’t it the day for the laundry to come?’

‘Oh, dear me, Letty, howfortunate you reminded me! I wonder if they’ll return that missing pillowcase. I must make a note in the book about it. I’ll go and see to it at once.’

‘And take those violets away,’ said Miss Blacklock. ‘There’s nothing I hate more than dead flowers.’

‘What a pity. I picked them fresh yesterday. They haven’t lasted at all-oh, dear, I must have forgotten to put any water in the vase. Fancy that! I’m always forgetting things. Now I must go and see about the laundry. They might be here any moment.’

She bustled away, looking quite happy again.

‘She’s not very strong,’ said Miss Blacklock, ‘and excitements are bad for her. Is there anything more you want to know, Inspector?’

‘I just want to know exactly how many people make up your household here and something about them.’

‘Yes, well in addition to myself and Dora Bunner, I have two young cousins living here at present, Patrick and Julia Simmons.’

‘Cousins? Not a nephew and niece?’

‘No. They call me Aunt Letty, but actually they are distant cousins. Their mother was my second cousin.’

‘Have they always made their home with you?’

‘Oh, dear no, only for the last two months. They lived in the South of France before the war. Patrick went into the Navy and Julia, I believe, was in one of the Ministries. She was at Llandudno. When the war was over their mother wrote and asked me if they could possibly come to me as paying guests-Julia is training as a dispenser in Milchester General Hospital, Patrick is studying for an engineering degree at Milchester University. Milchester, as you know, is only fifty minutes by bus, and I was very glad to have them here. This house is really too large for me. They pay a small sum for board and lodging and it all works out very well.’ She added with a smile, ‘I like having somebody young about the place.’

‘Then there is a Mrs Haymes, I believe?’

‘Yes. She works as an assistant gardener at Dayas Hall, Mrs Lucas’s place. The cottage there is occupied by the old gardener and his wife and Mrs Lucas asked if I could billet her here. She’s a very nice girl. Her husband was killed in Italy, and she has a boy of eight who is at a prep school and whom I have arranged to have here in the holidays.’

‘And by way of domestic help?’

‘A jobbing gardener comes in on Tuesdays and Fridays. A Mrs Huggins from the village comes up five mornings a week and I have a foreign refugee with a most unpronouncable name as a kind of lady cook help. You will find Mitzi rather difficult, I’m afraid. She has a kind of persecution mania.’

Craddock nodded. He was conscious in his own mind of yet another of Constable Legg’s invaluable commentaries. Having appended the word ‘Scatty’ to Dora Bunner, and ‘All right’ to Letitia Blacklock, he had embellished Mitzi’s record with the one word ‘Liar’.

As though she had read his mind Miss Blacklock said:

‘Please don’t be too prejudiced against the poor thing because she’s a liar. I do really believe that, like so many liars, there is a real substratum of truth behind her lies. I mean that though, to take an instance, her atrocity stories have grown and grown until every kind of unpleasant story that has ever appeared in print has happened to her or her relations personally, she did have a bad shock initially and did see one, at least, of her relations killed. I think a lot of these displaced persons feel, perhaps justly, that their claim to our notice and sympathy lies in their atrocity value and so they exaggerate and invent.’

She added: ‘Quite frankly, Mitzi is a maddening person. She exasperates and infuriates us all, she is suspicious and sulky, is perpetually having “feelings” and thinking herself insulted. But in spite of it all, I really am sorry for her.’ She smiled. ‘And also, when she wants to, she can cook very nicely.’

‘I’ll try not to ruffle her more than I can help,’ said Craddock soothingly. ‘Was that Miss Julia Simmons who opened the door to me?’

‘Yes. Would you like to see her now? Patrick has gone out. Phillipa Haymes you will find working at Dayas Hall.’

‘Thank you, Miss Blacklock. I’d like to see Miss Simmons now if I may.’