Not to Disturb by Muriel Spark Page B

we ourselves
know is that the library door is locked with the Baron, the Baroness and their
young friend unresponsive. We’re justifiably apprehensive, that’s all. Here
comes the crime squad. Group yourselves apprehensively.’
    He opens the front door to the sound of sirens in the
storm. Two police cars pull up at the door followed by an ambulance. An
inspector of police, a police detective, two plain-clothes men, three uniformed
policemen and a police photographer troop in the open door. The ambulance crew
alight and come in out of the rain.
    â€˜This is the door, Inspector,’ says Lister, leading the
way to the library.
    The Inspector turns the handle, rattles it, bangs on the
door and listens.
    â€˜Are you sure there’s somebody inside?’
    â€˜We fear so. The light’s still on as it was last night.
The Baron gave orders they were not to be disturbed,’ Lister says. ‘I have
already put through a call to the Baron’s brother, as I felt it was right.’
    â€˜Open the door,’ says the Inspector. Two hefty policemen
break it down. The Inspector and his men crowd into the room. Lister follows
while the rest of the household approaches the threshold. Mr Samuel’s camera
clicks. Mr McGuire has a small, light apparatus dangling from his wrist. The
body of the Baroness is lying on the floor by the window in a large dark red
stain. That of Victor Passerat lies curled against a bookcase which is well
splashed with his blood. The Baron’s body is slumped over a round table with a
revolver not far from his fingers.
    The women scream.
    â€˜Take the girls away,’ says the Inspector to a
plain-clothes man. ‘Put them in the kitchen and make them calm down.’
    Clovis leads the way to the servants’ quarters while the
Inspector says to Lister, ‘Didn’t you hear anything during the night? No shots?
No shouting or screaming?’
    The wind encircles the house and the shutters bang. From
the attic comes a loud clatter. ‘No, Inspector. It was a wild night,’ says
Lister.
    Up the drive comes a caravan of cars.
    The doctor has scrutinised the bodies, the police have
taken their statements, they have examined and photographed the room. They have
confiscated a letter written by the Baron, to the effect that he has just shot
his wife and his secretary and is about to shoot himself, that this is the only
solution and that he has no ill feelings against anyone. The Inspector has
permitted Lister to read it but has refused it to the reporters who now swarm in
the great hall and make a considerable hubbub.
    The women have been released from the kitchen, having
given their shaken and brief testimony, and again join the household group at
the door of the library.
    â€˜I must have a last look,’ says Eleanor. Heloise casts a
doleful eye at a television camera which does not fail to register it. The noise
from the reporters swells as, one by one, the covered bodies on their stretchers
are borne out of the room. ‘Here they come,’ says Lister to his troop,
‘Klopstock and barrel.’
    The bodies are stowed away in the ambulance. The police
seal off the main quarters of the house, pushing the reporters out into the
subsiding storm and requesting the servants to retire to their wing.
    The doctor then suggests he takes away the ladies to be
treated for shock, but they bravely resist. ‘The porter’s wife,’ says the
Inspector, ‘could do with a bit of treatment. Better take her.’
    â€˜I should take them both, sir,’ says Lister.
    The reporters now crowd in the back door. ‘Inspector,’
says Lister, ‘I shall deal with them briefly then turn them out. We’re all
rather shaken. If you want any further information we are here.’
    â€˜Very helpful,’ says the Inspector. ‘I’ll leave a couple
of my men to guard the house. Don’t let anyone into the library or upstairs, any
of