Death in the Stocks Read Online Free PDF

he'll merely suppose I told him I was going away for the night and he forgot.'
    'I wasn't worrying about that. Did anyone know you were coming here?'
    'Well, I didn't say anything to anyone,' replied Antonia helpfully. She regarded him with a certain amount of anxiety. 'Do you suppose they'll think I did it?'
    'I hope not. The fact that you spent the night at the cottage ought to tell in your favour. But you must stop fooling about, Tony. The police want you to account for your movements last night. We must trust that they won't inquire too closely into the letter Arnold wrote you. Otherwise you've nothing to conceal, and you must tell them the truth, and answer any questions they put to you.
    'How do you know I've nothing to conceal?' inquired Antonia, eyeing him wickedly. 'I wouldn't have minded murdering Arnold last night.'
    'I assume you have nothing to conceal,' Giles said a little sharply.
    She smiled. 'Nice Giles. Do you loathe being dragged into our murky affairs?'
    'I can think of things I like better. You'd better come along to the Chief Constable's office and apologise for being such a nuisance.'
    'And answer a lot of questions?' she asked doubtfully. 'Yes, answer anything you can, but try not to say a lot of unnecessary things.'
    She looked rather nervous. 'Well, you'd better frown at me if I do. I wish you could make a statement for me.'
    'So do I, but I can't,' said Giles, getting up, and opening the door. 'I'll find out if the Chief Constable is disengaged. You stay where you are.'
    He was gone for several minutes, and when he returned it was with the Superintendent and a Constable. Antonia looked at the Constable with deep misgiving. Her cousin smiled reassuringly and said, 'This is Superintendent Hannasyde, Tony, from Scotland Yard.'
    'How — how grim!' said Antonia in a small voice. 'It's particularly bitter because I've always thought how much I should hate to be mixed up in a murder case, on account of having everything you say turned round till you find you've said something quite different.'
    The Superintendent bent to pat Bill. 'I won't do that,' he promised. 'I only want you to tell me just how you came to visit your brother last night, and what you did.'
    Antonia drew in her breath. 'He was not my brother,' she said. 'I'm sick to death of correcting that mistake. He was nothing more than half!'
    'I'm sorry,' said the Superintendent. 'You see, I've only just come into this case, so you must forgive me if I quite mastered the details. Will you sit down? I understand from Inspector Jerrold that you came to Ashleigh Green yesterday because you wanted to see your half-brother on a private matter. Is that correct?'
    'Yes,' said Antonia.
    'And when you arrived at the cottage what did you do?'
    Antonia gave him a concise account of her movements. Once or twice he prompted her with a question, while the Constable, who had seated himself by the door, busily wrote in shorthand. The Superintendent's manner, unlike the Inspector's, was so free from suspicion, and his way of putting his questions so quiet and understanding, that Antonia's wary reserve soon left her. When he asked her if she was on good terms with Arnold Vereker she replied promptly. 'No, very bad terms. I know it isn't any use concealing that, because everyone knows it. We both were.'
    'Both?'
    'My brother Kenneth and I. We live together. He's an artist.'
    'I see. Were you on bad terms with your half-brother for any specific reason, or merely on general grounds?'
    She wrinkled up her nose. 'Well, not so much one specific reason as two or three. He was our guardian - at least he'd stopped being Kenneth's guardian, because Kenneth is over twenty-five. I lived with him till a year ago, when I decided I couldn't stick it any longer, and then I cleared out and joined Kenneth.'
    'Did your bro - half-brother object to that?'
    'Oh no, not in the least, because we'd just had a flaming row about a disgusting merchant he was trying to push me off on to, and