The Shadow at Greystone Chase (An Angela Marchmont Mystery Book 10) by Clara Benson Page B

‘He can ask questions of people that I can’t. He spoke to the Kent police this morning, for example, and found out a lot of information that I shouldn’t have been able to get myself, including the times of the various events on the evening in question. One thing I have discovered in Mr. de Lisle’s favour is that there wasn’t much of an opportunity for him to commit the crime. If he did do it, then it must have been in the twenty-five minutes between seven and twenty-five past, in which he was also supposed to be washing and changing for dinner. That doesn’t leave him much time to strangle his wife and hide her body.’
    ‘No,’ agreed Mr. Gilverson.
    ‘And if he didn’t do it, then there seems to have been a period of four hours in which she could have been killed by someone else. The only problem, of course, is the cupboard. If Selina was hidden there then how did the murderer get her out while Mr. de Lisle was asleep?’
    ‘Yes, that is a problem,’ said Gilverson.
    ‘I understand Mr. de Lisle claimed to have felt unusually tired that night, and to have slept soundly,’ continued Angela. ‘It did occur to me that he might have been drugged to allow whoever it was to come and fetch Selina in the night without waking him up.’
    ‘That is exactly what my nephew suspected, as a matter of fact,’ said Mr. Gilverson, nodding, ‘but the police were not interested.’
    ‘But then of course that leads to the question of why Selina’s body was put in the cupboard at all? If Mr. de Lisle did it himself, then it was awfully stupid of him. But if he didn’t, then that leads to the inescapable conclusion that someone did it deliberately to throw the blame onto him.’
    ‘Yes, it does rather, doesn’t it?’ said the solicitor.
    ‘Did Mr. de Lisle have any enemies?’ said Angela.
    ‘That is the question,’ said Mr. Gilverson. ‘Yes, that is very much the question.’
    Angela looked at him curiously, but he did not elaborate.
    ‘There’s not much more I can do in Kent,’ she said at last. ‘I’ve been to Greystone Chase and talked to Godfrey de Lisle, but I wasn’t able to bring the subject up. I should very much like to have had more time in which to speak to him.’
    ‘Yes, I’ve been thinking about that,’ said Mr. Gilverson. ‘I’m wondering whether I mightn’t be able to persuade Godfrey to invite you to dinner, with a view to buttering you up as a possible buyer of his house. I certainly think you ought to meet Victorine. She’s a most intriguing woman, and if she’s in the mood she might have something useful to say.’
    ‘I should certainly like to meet them both in their domestic surroundings, so to speak,’ said Angela. ‘A few minutes is not enough to bring the conversation around to the murder, but an evening might do it.’
    ‘Then I shall telephone him today,’ said Mr. Gilverson.
    ‘You’d better tell them to invite Freddy too,’ said Angela. She coughed. ‘For one reason and another, most of the people of Denborough are under the impression that he is my son and the one with the money.’
    ‘Indeed?’ said Mr. Gilverson, raising his eyebrows in some amusement.
    ‘I assure you it wasn’t my idea,’ said Angela. ‘Anyway, aside from another visit to Greystone there are one or two other leads I’d like to pursue. One is the alibis of all the people who were in the house that night, but I’d also like to speak to Henry Lacey, Selina’s brother. Do you know where we might find him?’
    ‘I’m afraid it will not be possible to speak to him,’ said the solicitor. ‘Henry Lacey died about a year after his sister.’
    ‘Goodness!’ said Angela. ‘How?’
    ‘He was something of a heavy drinker,’ said Mr. Gilverson. ‘And, as it turned out, an habitual user of morphine. It appears he died from a combination of the two.’
    ‘But wasn’t he very young?’ said Angela.
    ‘Not more than twenty-five, I think,’ said Gilverson. ‘I understand he began taking