Page 130 of Marble Hall Murders

‘He?’ Lola asked. ‘You’re saying it was a man?’

‘There is only one man in this room who had everything to lose if he did not take action and, as I have already explained, that man was Elmer Waysmith.’

‘Now you look here.’ Elmer sprang out of his chair, his face deep red. ‘I’m not going to sit here and listen to any more of this—’

‘You will sit down and be silent, monsieur, unless you wish to spend the rest of the morning in a prison cell,’ Voltaire exclaimed. ‘Nobody is to leave this room until I give them permission.’

‘Sit down, Pa,’ Robert said. ‘I know you didn’t do it. Mr Pünd is just playing games.’

‘It is not a game, the investigation of murder.’ Pünd waited until Elmer had retaken his place. ‘Not only did Elmer Waysmith have the most obvious motive, every single piece of evidence points to his guilt.

‘His wife believed he was a criminal. She was quite possibly intending to cut him out of her will. And although it pains me to say it, Margaret Chalfont would not have been the first woman who married him and died unnaturally.’

‘Leave Marion out of this!’ Elmer snarled.

Pünd had already moved on. ‘We must discuss what happened at thepharmaciein the Rue Lafayette,’ he said. ‘On the very same day that Lady Chalfont died, a man wearing sunglasses and a straw hat and using an ebony walking stick purchased two grams of aconitine, the same poison that the police would discover in Lady Chalfont’s tea. We are led to believe that this occurred at a quarter past twelve. He spokein French but with an accent – quite possibly American. He did everything he could not to show his face.’

‘I’ve never been anywhere near any pharmacy,’ Elmer insisted.

‘The same man had taken a room at a neighbouring hotel. The chambermaid was able to give us a description of the person she had seen very briefly … the hat, the sunglasses, the walking stick. She also added one important detail, however. He had white hair. There are two other indications that he may have been American. It is almost certain that he used a false name when he checked into the hotel and he chose an American film director, John Ford, as his alias. Also, he left behind a bottle of shoe polish produced by an American manufacturer, Esquire.

‘Was this man Elmer Waysmith? There are two further clues that suggest it was. He signed the hotel register using turquoise ink. I saw exactly that same colour when I was in his office. He had been producing, I believe, a catalogue – and there were several pages written in turquoise. Also, I noticed a book on the shelf behind his desk. It wasErskine’s Toxicology, a study of poisons.’

‘I told you. It was relevant to my work.’

‘But it was jutting out, Mr Waysmith. You had clearly used it quite recently. Again, it cannot have been a coincidence.’

Waysmith gazed at Voltaire. ‘Mr Voltaire! You are an officer with the Sûreté. Are you going to sit there and allow an amateur with no credentials to spout this nonsense?’

‘On the contrary, Monsieur Waysmith.’ Voltaire was impassive. ‘Monsieur Pünd is one of the most celebrated detectives in the world. He was invited here specifically byyour late wife. I intend to sit here and listen to every word he has to say.’

Pünd nodded his gratitude, then continued. ‘Finally, we can piece together the movements of Mr Waysmith on the day of the murder. Let us return, once again, to thepharmacie.’

‘You said I was there at twelve fifteen.’ Hope flared in Elmer’s eyes. ‘Where is the Rue Lafayette?’

‘It is to the north of the Voie Pierre Mathis.’

‘That’s at least twenty minutes from my gallery in the Place Masséna. But I met my son at half past twelve, so I couldn’t possibly have got from one to the other in time.’

‘But it was not twelve fifteen, Mr Waysmith. Monsieur Brunelle, who runs the pharmacy, has poor eyesight, but even so he was able to confirm from a photograph that it was Alice Carling who came in at the same time as the man who was buying aconitine and the two of them engaged in a little performance to establish a false time. It was, in fact, closer to twelve o’clock and you would have had plenty of time to change your appearance at the hotel and then dispense with the walking stick and the clothes you had been wearing in a nearby dustbin. If you walked quickly enough, you would be able to reach the gallery at half past twelve, which is when you arrived.

‘And, indeed, you were seen running across the square just before that time. This was mentioned by Harry Lyttleton. He hoped you might be able to supply him with an alibi.’

‘Well, he’s wrong. I didn’t cross the square. I used the back door to enter the gallery.’

‘I wasn’t trying to get you into trouble, Elmer,’ Harry muttered miserably. ‘But I did think it was you. You had onthat same white suit and bow tie you’d worn at the breakfast table. You were some distance away, though. I suppose I could have been wrong.’

‘Of course you were wrong. I’ve just told you. It wasn’t me.’

‘We also know that you returned to the Chateau Belmar at exactly three o’clock. On this occasion it was Jeffrey Chalfont who heard the clock strike in thepetit salonand saw your car at the same time. Do you deny this?’

‘I only spent an hour with my son. I don’t know what time I got home, but I was in my study for the whole afternoon.’

‘And your study is very close to the service stairs that connect with the kitchen.’

‘Yes.’

‘Approximately an hour after you returned to the house, Lola Chalfont heard somebody go down to the kitchen, using that staircase. It was at this time that the aconitine was placed in the teapot intended for Lady Chalfont.’

---