François muttered.
‘To resume,’ said Alleyn. ‘You were going to tell me where you were stationed last night.’
‘By the top landing, sir. The gallery above the ballroom. My duties were to keep the ash-trays emptied and to attend to the wishes of the guests who sat out dances on this floor.’
‘What are the rooms on this gallery?’
‘At the stairhead, sir, one finds a green baize door leading to the servants’ quarters, the back stairs and so on. Next to this door is a room which last night was employed as a sitting-room. One finds next a bathroom, bedroom and toilet used last night for ladies. Last at the end of the gallery, a green boudoir also used as a sitting-room for the ball.’
‘Was there a telephone in any of these rooms?’
‘In the green boudoir, sir. It was used several times during the evening.’
‘You are an excellent witness, François. I compliment you. Now tell me. You were stationed on this landing. Do you remember the names of the persons who used the telephone?’
François pinched his lower lip.
‘It was used by Lady Jennifer Trueman to enquire for her little girl who is ill. Her ladyship requested me to get the number for her. It was used by a young gentleman who called a toll number to say that he would not be returning to the country. Early in the evening it was answered by Sir Daniel Davidson, who, I think, is a doctor. He spoke about a patient who had had an operation. It was also used, sir, by Lord Robert Gospell.’
Alleyn waited a moment. With a sort of astonishment he realized his heart had quickened.
‘Could you hear what Lord Robert said?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Did you notice if anyone went into the room while Lord Robert was at the telephone?’
‘No, sir. Immediately after Lord Robert entered this room I was summoned by Sir Herbert Carrados who came out of the other sitting-room and spoke to me about the lack of matches. Sir Herbert was annoyed. He sent me into this room to see for myself and ordered me to go at once and fetch more matches. There did not appear to me to be any lack of matches but I did not, of course, say so. I fetched more matches from downstairs. When I returned I went to the telephone-room and found it empty. I attended to the ash-tray and the matches in the telephone-room, also.’
Alleyn sighed.
‘Yes, I see. I’ve no doubt you made a good job of it. Any cigar-stumps in the telephone-room? You wouldn’t remember, of course.’
‘No, sir.’
‘No. François – who was in the other sitting-room and who was on the landing before Lord Robert telephoned? Before Sir Herbert Carrados sent you away. Can you remember?’
‘I will try, sir. There were two gentlemen who also sent me away.’
‘What?’
‘I mean, sir, that one of them asked me to fetch two whiskies-and-sodas. That is not at all a usual request under the circumstances. It is not even comme il faut at a ball of this sort, where there is champagne at the buffet and also whisky, to order drinks as if it were an hotel. I received the impression that these two gentlemen wished to be alone on the landing. I obtained their drinks, using the back stairs. When I returned I gave them the drinks. At that time, sir, Lord Robert Gospell had just come up the stairs and when they saw him these two gentlemen moved into the first sitting-room which was unoccupied.’
‘Do you mean that they seemed to avoid him?’
‘I received the impression, sir, that these gentlemen wished to be alone. That is why I remember them.’
‘Their names?’
‘I do not know their names.’
‘Can you describe them?’
‘One, sir, was a man perhaps forty-five or fifty years of age. He was a big man with a red face and thick neck. His voice was an unsympathetic voice. The other was a young gentleman, dark, rather nervous. I observed that he danced repeatedly with Miss Bridget O’Brien.’
‘Thank you,’ said Alleyn. ‘That is excellent. Any others?’
‘I cannot recall any others, sir. Wait! There was someone who was there for some time.’
François put his first finger to his chin like a sort of male dairymaid and cast his eyes to the ceiling.
‘Tiens!’ he exclaimed, ‘who could it have been? Alors, I have it. It is of no importance at all, sir. It was the little mademoiselle, the secretary, who was known to few and therefore retired often to the gallery. I have remembered too that Sir Daniel Davidson, the physician, came upstairs. That was earlier. Before Lord Robert appeared. I think Sir Daniel looked for a partner because he went quickly in and out of both rooms and looked about the landing. I have remembered now that it was for Lady Carrados he enquired but she had gone downstairs a few minutes earlier. I told Sir Daniel this and he returned downstairs.’
Alleyn looked over his notes.
‘See now,’ he said. ‘I am right in saying this? The persons who, as far as you know, could have gone into the telephone-room while Lord Robert was using the telephone were Sir Herbert Carrados and the two gentlemen who sent you for whisky.’
‘Yes, sir. And the mademoiselle. Miss Harris is her name. I believe she entered the ladies’ toilet just as Lord Robert went into the telephone-room. I have remarked that when ladies are much disengaged at balls they frequently enter the dressing-room. It is,’ added François with an unexpected flash of humanity, ‘a circumstance that I find rather pathetic.’
‘Yes,’ said Alleyn. ‘Very pathetic I am right, then, in saying that before Lord Robert went to telephone, you fetched drinks for these two men and immediately after that he began to telephone. You were sent away by Sir Herbert Carrados, leaving him, Miss Harris and possibly others, whom you have forgotten, on the landing, and the two gentlemen in the other sitting-out room. Sir Daniel Davidson had gone downstairs some minutes previously. Lady Carrados before Sir Daniel, who was looking for her. You’re sure of that?’
‘Yes, sir. It is in my memory because after her ladyship had gone I entered the telephone-room and saw she had left her bag there. Monsieur – Mr Dimitri – came up at that time, saw it, and said he would return it to her ladyship. I told him she had gone downstairs and he returned, I think, by the back stairs.’
‘He fits in between Lady Carrados and Sir Daniel. Did he return?’
‘No, sir. I believe, sir, that I have mentioned everyone who was on the landing. At that time nearly all the guests were at supper. Later, of course, many ladies used the cloakroom toilet.’
‘I see. Now for the rest of the evening. Did you see Lord Robert again?’
‘No, sir. I remained on the top landing until the guests had gone, I then took a tray to Monsieur in the butler’s pantry.’
‘Was this long after the last guest had left?’
‘No, sir. To be correct, sir, I fancy there may still have been one or two left in the hall. Monsieur was in the buffet when I came down.’
‘Was Sir Herbert Carrados in the buffet?’
‘He left as I entered. It was after he left that Monsieur ordered his little supper.’
‘When did you go home?’
‘As I have explained to your colleague, at three-thirty, with Monsieur. The police rang up this flat before Monsieur had gone to bed.’
‘You carried Monsieur Dimitri’s luggage for him, no doubt?’
‘His luggage, sir? He had no luggage.’
‘Right.