In the Teeth of the Evidence Read Online Free PDF

speaking, the front-door bell rang. I couldn’t very well leave the phone, so the caller had to wait, and at five past eight he rang the bell again. I was just going to ask Mr Neville to excuse me, when I saw Cook come out of the kitchen and go through the hall to the front door. Mr Neville asked me to repeat his instructions, and then the Exchange interrupted us again, so he rang off, and when I turned round I saw Cook just closing the library door. I went to meet her, and she said: “Here’s that Mr Payne again, wanting Mr Grimbold. I’ve put him in the library, but I don’t like the looks of him.” So I said: “All right; I’ll fix him,” and Cook went back to the kitchen.’
        ‘One moment,’ said Parker. ‘Who’s Mr Payne?’
        ‘He’s one of Mr Grimbold’s clients, sir. He lives about five minutes away, across the fields, and he’s been here before, making trouble. I think he owes Mr Grimbold money, sir, and wanted more time to pay.’
        ‘He’s here, waiting in the hall,’ added Henley.
        ‘Oh?’ said Wimsey. ‘The unshaven party with the scowl and the ash-plant, and the blood-stained coat?’
        ‘That’s him, my lord,’ said the butler. ‘Well, sir’ – he turned to Parker again, ‘I started to go along to the library, when it come over me sudden-like that I’d never taken in the claret – Mr Grimbold would be getting very annoyed. So I went back to my pantry – you see where that is, sir – and fetched it from where it was warming before the fire. I had a little hunt then for the salver, sir, till I found I had put down my evening paper on top of it, but I wasn’t more than a minute, sir, before I got back into the dining-room. And then, sir’ – the butler’s voice faltered – ‘then I saw Mr Grimbold fallen forward on the table, sir, all across his plate, like. I thought he must have been took ill, and I hurried up to him and found – I found he was dead, sir, with a dreadful wound in his back.’
        ‘No weapon anywhere?’
        ‘Not that I could see, sir. There was a terrible lot of blood. It made me feel shockingly faint, sir, and for a minute I didn’t hardly know what to do. As soon as I could think of anything, I rushed over to the serving-hatch and called Cook. She came hurrying in and let out an awful scream when she saw the master. Then I remembered Mr Payne and opened the library door. He was standing there, and he began at once, asking how long he’d have to wait. So I said: “Here’s an awful thing! Mr Grimbold has been murdered!” and he pushed past me into the dining-room, and the first thing he said was: “How about those windows?” He pulled back the curtain of the one nearest the library, and there was the window standing open. “This is the way he went,” he said, and started to rush out. I said, “No, you don’t” – thinking he meant to get away, and I hung on to him. He called me a lot of names, and then he said: “Look here, my man, be reasonable. The fellow’s getting away all this time. We must have a look for him.” So I said, “Not without I go with you.” And he said, “All right.” So I told Cook not to touch anything but to ring up the police, and Mr Payne and I went out after I’d fetched my torch from the pantry.’
        ‘Did Payne go with you to fetch it?’
        ‘Yes, sir. Well, him and me went out and we searched about in the garden, but we couldn’t see any footprints or anything, because it’s an asphalt path all round the house and down to the gate. And we couldn’t see any weapon, either. So then he said: “We’d better go back and get the car and search the roads,” but I said: “No, he’ll be away by then,” because it’s only a quarter of a mile from our gate to the Great North Road, and it would take us five or ten minutes before we could start. So Mr Payne said: “Perhaps you’re right,” and came back to the house with me. Well, then, sir, the constable came