Read Online House That Berry Built by Dornford Yates - Free Book Online

think there can be no doubt that the murderer opened the garage and took ‘the family car’. Anyway, that car was taken and presently found at Hampstead at eight a.m. the next day. From Dewlap to London by night would take a good driver considerably less than four hours. Tass left Victoria Station by the early boat-train that day: he passed by Folkestone and Boulogne – passport number checked at each port – and went on to Paris at once. And there he disappeared.
    I have left to the last one very important point.
    ‘The family car’ was so called because it was at the disposal of Mr Shapely, Miss Joan Shapely and her sister, now married and in America. Each had a key of the garage and of the switch. When Mr Shapely left England, he forgot all about these keys. He noticed them some time later and dropped them into a pocket of his dressing-case. According to him, he never gave them a thought until the conversation he had with you at Pau. That conversation, of course, suggested Tass as the possible murderer. And then he thought of the keys. When he left you, he went at once to look at his dressing-case. And when he did so, he found that the keys were gone.
     
    To sum up:–
    (a)Against Sir Steuart, Tass had a violent grudge.
    (b)Tass was six miles from Dewlap four hours before the murder took place.
    (c)Tass was familiar with Dewlap as with Sir Steuart’s ways.
    (d)Tass had access to the keys of the garage and car.
    (e)Those keys have disappeared.
    (f)Tass left England immediately after the murder, after a stay in England of less than eighteen hours.
    (g)Tass has vanished.
     
    It looks pretty clear to me. But the French don’t seem able to find him. It shouldn’t be hard, should it? An Englishman, short of one eye?
    Are you staying on at Lally?
    I’m going on leave before long and I have a feeling I might come down that way.
     
    Yours very sincerely,
    RICHARD FALCON.
     
    As I handed the letter back—
    “O fortunate Jonah!” I said. “How many would give their eyes for a letter like that?”
    My cousin smiled and put the letter away.
    “I am very lucky,” he said. “But I’ve helped the Yard once or twice, and they never forget a friend.”
    “They probably value your opinion.”
    “I don’t know about that. In any event I don’t think they want it here. Friend Tass is for the high jump, if ever they run him to earth.”
    “I’ll say he is. Those keys… Still, why’s Falcon coming here?”
    “I imagine, to have a look round. After all, Tass knows this country – or some of it. He may have made a friend in some garage – some little garage right off the beaten track. The French won’t ask any questions, provided he’s good at his job. And what price the local police? And don’t forget that even Paris is not particularly interested. This is an English murder. ‘What’s Hecuba to him?’”
    “Yes, that sticks out,” said I. “Anyway to hear Falcon talk will be great fun. Didn’t he send Oxen down?”
    “He did,” said Jonah. “And Baal. He’s a very good man.”
     
    Dinner had been served and eaten, and we were distributed about our gargantuan suite. As those who had borne the burden and heat of the day, Jonah and I were enjoying the mighty sofa. (Each of us had his feet up, with room to spare.) His coffee and brandy beside him, Berry was enshrined in one of the sumptuous chairs: the other comfortably accepted Daphne and Jill.
    Therèse slipped into the room.
    “Madame will receive Monsieur de Moulin, the lawyer? He is the father of that insufferable youth. But he is of the old school. He desires to thank in person the Messieurs who saved his son.”
    “Of course,” said Daphne, rising.
    We all got up, as Monsieur de Moulin came in.
    He was a man of fifty or thereabouts, stout, clean-shaven, well-groomed, with a very pleasant expression and keen, grey eyes.
    He bowed, first to Daphne and Jill, and then to us.
    “Mesdames, Messieurs,” he said, “may I know whom to thank for