Page 26 of Marble Hall Murders

Pünd chose his words carefully. He didn’t want to upset the housekeeper any more than she had been upset already. ‘You realise, mademoiselle, that if Lady Chalfont was deliberately poisoned at the gazebo, it could only have been in the tea.’ Before she could react, he went on. ‘Can you tell me how you prepared it? Of course, you boiled the kettle. You added the leaves. What I am asking is, did you leave the kitchen at any time during the preparation?’

‘I did. Yes. When Lady Chalfont came down, I spoke to her in thegrand salon.’

‘How long were you with her?’

‘For about a minute.’

Béatrice had more to say. Pünd saw her start, then hesitate. ‘There is something else?’ he asked.

‘I do not wish to make false accusations,’ she began.

‘You must tell us everything you know, mademoiselle,’ Voltaire said sternly.

‘Well, it was something I saw at the time. I’d taken two teapots from the cupboard and I placed them over there.’ She pointed at the sideboard. ‘I put in the tea leaves and filled them with boiling water and then I replacedles couvercles…’

Fraser looked to Voltaire. ‘The lids,’ Voltaire said.

‘That was when I heard Lady Chalfont outside and went to speak to her. I met her in thegrand salon. But here is what I do not understand, monsieur. When I returned, the lid of the smaller pot, the pink one, had been removed. That was madame’s! But I am sure the teapot was closed. It is not like me to be so clumsy.’

Pünd considered. ‘Can you tell me, Mademoiselle Laurent, how many ways there are into the kitchen?’

Béatrice had to think for a moment, looking around her to be sure. ‘There are four,’ she exclaimed eventually. ‘You came in through the main door to the house. The door over there connects directly with thepetit salon. There is a third door into the garden.’

‘And the fourth?’ It was Voltaire who asked.

‘There is a service staircase that leads all the way to the top floor. You cannot see it from here. It is hidden round the corner. I have a room at the top of the house and I use the stairs at the beginning and the end of every day.’

‘So someone could have been waiting for her to leave,’ Fraser said. ‘The moment she left to have a chat with Lady Chalfont, they could have crept in and added something to the teapot.’ He turned to Béatrice. ‘Did you hear anything?’

‘No, monsieur. I heard nothing.’

‘I would like to see for myself these hidden stairs,’ Pünd remarked. He bowed to the housekeeper. ‘Je vous remercie, mademoiselle. Vous m’avez beaucoup aidé.’

James Fraser stared at him as they made their way to the back of the kitchen. ‘You speak French!’

‘Only a little, James. A few words. You did an excellent job.’

What looked like a cupboard door opened to reveal a narrow wooden staircase, uncarpeted, rising between two plaster-covered walls. The steps creaked as he began the climb upwards, followed by Fraser and a struggling Voltaire. After a short while, he came to a door and opened it to emerge onto a wide, richly decorated corridor that ran the full length of the first floor with eight or nine doors leading off it. The door to the staircase itself virtually disappeared into the wall. Looking around him, Pünd recognised a Chagall painting nearby. In fact, there was so much art and fine furniture that he could have been standing in a museum.

‘You think someone entered the kitchen by the service stairs?’ Voltaire asked.

Pünd shrugged. ‘To come in from the garden – that is to take a great risk as they might have been seen from the gazebo. The main doorway also was in full sight of Mademoiselle Béatrice and Lady Chalfont. Thepetit salonis possible, but why would they have been in there in the first place? This would seem to be the most likely.’

‘Well, where do you want to start?’ Voltaire pointed to a door. ‘That’s Elmer Waysmith’s bedroom and office suite at the end of the corridor. He’s in there now, I would imagine, although I would doubt that he is ready to talk. I saw him this morning and he was so upset, he couldn’t say a word. His son, Robert, has the room opposite.’ He turned round and pointed. ‘Lady Chalfont slept at the back of the house.’

‘Not with her husband?’ Fraser asked.

Pünd smiled at his assistant. ‘It is quite common for members of the British aristocracy to sleep in separate rooms,’ he explained. ‘Also, you must remember, Lady Chalfont was unwell.’

‘Judith Lyttleton and her husband have a room round the corner,’ Voltaire explained. ‘And Jeffrey Chalfont and his wife are next door.’

‘I would like, I think, to speak to Dr Judith Lyttleton,’ Pünd said. ‘Her husband said that she did not discuss our meeting in London. I must ask her about this.’

‘You think he was lying?’

‘Somebody is most definitely lying, James. It seemed to me at the time that Dr Lyttleton was unhappy that her mother had approached me and I would be interested to know why she did not mention the encounter.’

‘All right,’ Voltaire said. ‘Let’s start with her.’

---