Nita had been alert to their arrival. When the delegation got to the head of the stairs, the bedroom door was ajar, and Nurse Nurney was standing on the threshold, all deference. Janet was propped up on a multitude of pillows, her bedjacket demurely tied at the throat, her hair neatly confined by a bonny blue ribbon, and her hands folded on the perfectly smooth counterpane in such a way that Mr. X could see her lovely antique diamond ring and realize Madoc was a man of status in his own right. Lady Rhys would have done the same for Sir Emlyn.
“Thank you, Nurse Nurney,” said the man of status. “I see your patient is ready to be examined by these two noted specialists. As you will not be needed during the examination, I suggest you go down and engage Mrs. Muriel in conversation. Perhaps on the subject of some light but nourishing snack she might have ready for us in half an hour or so, since she so obviously burns to be helpful.”
“Tell her to take whatever she likes from the fridge,” said Janet. “Just don’t let her cram it. Perhaps I’d better—” she caught Madoc’s eye and went back to being fragile.
“Jenny dear,” said Madoc when Nurse Nurney had bustled away in correct medical style and closed the door firmly behind her, “I believe you have met Deputy Commissioner Lawlord. And this is Mr. X, who would like to ask you some questions.”
“Of course,” said Janet. “I expect it’s about what happened yesterday, so you know why I’m in bed and I don’t have to apologize. What was it I left out of my statement?”
“For one thing,” said Mr. X, “you gave no description of any of the three men involved.”
“That’s because I never laid eyes on any of them. I thought I’d made that clear in my report. The truck flipped over before I could get a glimpse of the driver, and I couldn’t see into the cab after that because of the way it was lying. That was why I went hunting for the ladder.”
“And as for the two men who came to the house later,” said the deputy commissioner, “you say you happened to be in the woodshed when they entered the kitchen, and that the connecting door was shut tight.”
“I don’t recall having said tight,” Janet replied. “It was shut. There was no crack big enough for me to see through. Considering how anxious they sounded about my being properly murdered and my body safely disposed of, I had no special inclination to sneak over and take a peek. I just froze stiff and prayed they wouldn’t take a notion to open the door themselves, which they didn’t.”
“But you were able to hear them well enough,” said Mr. X. “Does that mean you’d be able to recognize their voices if you heard them again?”
“I should think likely.”
“Why are you so sure? Did they have foreign accents?”
“No, not at all. I’d say they both came from the Maritimes.”
“Were they speaking English or French?”
“English.”
“And you’d say English is the native tongue of both men?”
“Such was my impression, for what it’s worth. It’s hard to be sure nowadays, with so many kids growing up completely bilingual.”
“Kids? Were these young fellows?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to mislead you. No, they didn’t sound all that young. I’d guess they were full-grown men, maybe in their thirties or forties. They referred to the one who drove the truck and stole my car as a kid, and they were joking about teenage vandals in a sarcastic way while they were breaking dishes and lugging the furniture out to be burned. I don’t think real teenagers would have done that, and I don’t see them as having been really old, or they wouldn’t have been able to do so much heavy work in so short a time.”
“But you can’t remember anything unusual about them? They didn’t talk like educated men?”
“Well, I rather doubt they’d have been professors from the university. They talked just like ordinary people.”
“Yet you’re positive you could
“Thank you, Nurse Nurney,” said the man of status. “I see your patient is ready to be examined by these two noted specialists. As you will not be needed during the examination, I suggest you go down and engage Mrs. Muriel in conversation. Perhaps on the subject of some light but nourishing snack she might have ready for us in half an hour or so, since she so obviously burns to be helpful.”
“Tell her to take whatever she likes from the fridge,” said Janet. “Just don’t let her cram it. Perhaps I’d better—” she caught Madoc’s eye and went back to being fragile.
“Jenny dear,” said Madoc when Nurse Nurney had bustled away in correct medical style and closed the door firmly behind her, “I believe you have met Deputy Commissioner Lawlord. And this is Mr. X, who would like to ask you some questions.”
“Of course,” said Janet. “I expect it’s about what happened yesterday, so you know why I’m in bed and I don’t have to apologize. What was it I left out of my statement?”
“For one thing,” said Mr. X, “you gave no description of any of the three men involved.”
“That’s because I never laid eyes on any of them. I thought I’d made that clear in my report. The truck flipped over before I could get a glimpse of the driver, and I couldn’t see into the cab after that because of the way it was lying. That was why I went hunting for the ladder.”
“And as for the two men who came to the house later,” said the deputy commissioner, “you say you happened to be in the woodshed when they entered the kitchen, and that the connecting door was shut tight.”
“I don’t recall having said tight,” Janet replied. “It was shut. There was no crack big enough for me to see through. Considering how anxious they sounded about my being properly murdered and my body safely disposed of, I had no special inclination to sneak over and take a peek. I just froze stiff and prayed they wouldn’t take a notion to open the door themselves, which they didn’t.”
“But you were able to hear them well enough,” said Mr. X. “Does that mean you’d be able to recognize their voices if you heard them again?”
“I should think likely.”
“Why are you so sure? Did they have foreign accents?”
“No, not at all. I’d say they both came from the Maritimes.”
“Were they speaking English or French?”
“English.”
“And you’d say English is the native tongue of both men?”
“Such was my impression, for what it’s worth. It’s hard to be sure nowadays, with so many kids growing up completely bilingual.”
“Kids? Were these young fellows?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to mislead you. No, they didn’t sound all that young. I’d guess they were full-grown men, maybe in their thirties or forties. They referred to the one who drove the truck and stole my car as a kid, and they were joking about teenage vandals in a sarcastic way while they were breaking dishes and lugging the furniture out to be burned. I don’t think real teenagers would have done that, and I don’t see them as having been really old, or they wouldn’t have been able to do so much heavy work in so short a time.”
“But you can’t remember anything unusual about them? They didn’t talk like educated men?”
“Well, I rather doubt they’d have been professors from the university. They talked just like ordinary people.”
“Yet you’re positive you could
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