‘You’d better get going, pet,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘Lurk somewhere for a few minutes to give them time to get down here, and then slip up to the attic rooms and do your snooping.’
I left the dining room and headed for the library, reasoning that there would be no one there, and waited for my chance to be a proper detective once more.
I hid out in the library for what I considered an appropriate length of time which I passed by leafing through a few of Sir Hector’s books. He had an impressive collection, comprising everything from history and biography, to poetry, plays and quite a few novels, including some published surprisingly recently.
But I couldn’t linger, no matter how interesting the reading matter, though I did make a mental note to ask Lady Hardcastle to ask Sir Hector if I might be able to read some of them at a more convenient time.
I managed to get all the way to the top of the servants’ staircase without meeting anyone, but that wasn’t really a surprise at that time of day. During the working day, all the servants would be hard at work (surreptitious comforting notwithstanding) but the musicians were self proclaimed late risers and might still be in their rooms.
There was a brass cardholder on each doorframe, holding a small white card bearing the occupants’ names written in a scrupulously neat hand. The rooms nearest the stairs belonged to the household servants so I kept going down the passageway to the smaller rooms at the end. Roland Richman had his own room, as had the late Mr Holloway. Skins and Dunn shared a room which meant that the last one must be Miss Sewell’s.
I opened the door and entered quickly, not wanting to linger outside lest I be spotted. I closed the door.
There was a bed – slept in and unmade; a washstand – jug empty, bowl full, face towel scrunched up on the floor; and a small wardrobe – door open, clothes strewn on the floor. Miss Sewell had the voice of an angel, but she lived like a pig.
I stood with my back to the door, trying my imagining trick again. I’d stolen something from the house. I had just a few moments to stash it and get back to the party before I was missed.
I looked around. There were stockings on the floor, a dress over the back of the chair. A suitcase stood open in the corner. Time was running out, what was I going to do with this stuff? My eyes fell on the makeup case standing on a small chair near the looking glass hanging on the wall. It was the only thing in the room that was in any way tidy and ordered.
I opened the case and lifted out the top tray of neatly arranged powders, lipsticks and creams. The compartment at the bottom was slightly less well ordered, but it contained a few items of interest: a pair of diamond earrings which I’d seen Lady Farley-Stroud wearing a few weeks earlier, a double string of pearls, and, at the very bottom, a beautiful diamond pendant which matched the earrings perfectly. I replaced the top tray, closed the case, and took it with me as I left the room and returned to the dining room.
When I returned to the dining room, the interview was in full flow.
‘…and I’m telling you that I’ve never heard of this Olive Sewell character.’
‘A case of mistaken identity, then, miss?’
‘I should say so, yes.’
‘I see,’ said the inspector, acknowledging my arrival with a nod. ‘Perhaps Miss Armstrong has found something that might shed a little light on the matter.’ He noticed what was in my hands. ‘Another sort of “case” entirely, it seems. Is this yours, Miss Montgomery?’
‘It looks exactly like mine, certainly,’ she said.
‘You won’t mind if I take a look inside?’
She sighed. ‘Be my guest, Inspector. Be my guest.’
He opened the make-up case and looked inside, taking in the neatly arranged items in the top section. Then he lifted the tray and removed it.
‘Well, well, well,’ he said. ‘And what do you suppose we have here?’
She sighed again. ‘If there’s not a pair of diamond earrings, a pendant, and a string of pearls, then your bloodhound has got stickier fingers than I have,’ she said, glaring at me.
I confess I was getting a little weary of the bloodhound references by this point, so I glared back.
‘So it’s not a plant, then? Not some sort of police fit-up?’ asked the inspector, holding up the jewellery.
‘Well, I could deny it, but I’m sure you consider your little Welsh maid here above reproach, so what would be the point? It’s a fair cop. You’ve got me bang to rights, guv, and no mistake.’
‘I have indeed, and you’re under arrest for theft. But you’re being remarkably flippant for someone accused of murder, Miss Sewell. You were seen leaving the scene of a particularly cowardly killing and here you are in possession of a few items of rather expensive jewellery. I’d say you ought to be taking things a little more seriously.’
‘Mrs Sewell, if you insist on using that name,’ she said, coldly. ‘I lifted a few of the lady of the house’s less revolting items of jewellery, Inspector, and it would be a waste of all our time to deny that now. But I didn’t kill anyone. You already know I was seen in the library while Nelson was still on stage.’
‘So tell us exactly what happened.’
Another sigh. ‘Well, Inspector, I'm reasonably sure I told you before that I left the stage during the instrumental numbers and went off in search of some decent booze. I started in the library but there wasn’t a drop to be had, so I left there and decided to explore the rest of the house. That was when Blodwyn Bloodhound here saw me.’
That earned her another glare.
‘And there was no one else in the library?’ asked Lady Hardcastle.
‘No one,’ replied Sylvia. Olive.
‘And you noticed nothing out of the ordinary in there?’
‘Nothing. I've told you all this before. Just a big library with the band’s instrument cases at one end and absolutely no booze anywhere. I mean, really. Not a drop.’
‘I know,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘Whoever heard of such a thing?’
‘It’s not like they couldn’t afford it,’ said Montgomery. Sewell.
‘Well, actually–’ Lady Hardcastle began.
The inspector ostentatiously cleared his throat.
‘Sorry, Inspector,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘Do, please, continue.’
‘Thank you, my lady, you’re most kind,’ he said. ‘Mrs Sewell?’
‘What?’
‘You left the library, and…’
‘Oh, yes. Pretty much everyone was still in the ballroom so I took the opportunity to have a bit of a poke round upstairs. And… well… you know… on thing led to another…’
‘And Lady Farley-Stroud’s best jewels accidentally fell into your pocket as you walked past them?’ said the inspector.
‘In a nutshell. I didn’t plan it, but it was too good a chance to miss.’