Spider's Web

"It will lead to far less trouble in the end," the Inspector assured her. "Now, Mrs. Hailsham-Brown," he went on, "I shan't ask you to go into the recess while the body is still there, but I'd like you to show me exactly where the man was standing when you came through that way into this room."

"Oh... yes... well... he was..." Clarissa began hesitantly. She went across to the desk. "No," she continued, "I remember now. He was standing here like this." She stood at one end of the desk and leaned over it.

"Be ready to open the panel when I give you the word, Jones," said the Inspector, motioning to the Constable, who rose and put his hand on the panel switch.

"I see," the Inspector said to Clarissa. "That's where he was standing. And then the door opened and you came out. All right, I don't want you to have to look in there at the body now, so just stand in front of the panel when it opens. Now – Jones."

The Constable activated the switch, and the panel opened. The recess, however, was empty except for a small piece of paper on the floor, which Constable Jones retrieved, while the Inspector looked accusingly at Clarissa and Sir Rowland.

The Constable read out what was on the slip of paper. "Sucks to you!" As the Inspector snatched the paper from him, Clarissa and Sir Rowland looked at each other in astonishment.

Suddenly, the front-door bell began to peal loudly.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

THE FRONT-DOOR bell was answered by Elgin, who came into the drawing-room to announce to the Inspector that the Divisional Surgeon had arrived. The Inspector and Constable Jones immediately accompanied the butler to the front door, where the Inspector had the unenviable task of confessing to the Divisional Surgeon that, as it turned out, there was at present no body to examine.

"Really, Inspector Lord," the Divisional Surgeon said irritably, "Do you realize how infuriating it is to have brought me all this way on a wild-goose chase?"

"But I assure you, Doctor," the Inspector attempted to explain, "we did have a body."

"The Inspector's right, Doctor," Constable Jones added his voice. "We certainly did have a body. It just happens to have disappeared."

The sound of their voices had brought Hugo and Jeremy out from the dining-room on the other side of the hall. Hearing now that the body had disappeared, they could not refrain from making their unhelpful comments. "I can't think how you policemen ever get anything done – losing bodies, indeed," Hugo expostulated, while Jeremy exclaimed, "I don't understand why a guard wasn't put on the body."

"Well, whatever has happened, if there's no body for me to examine, I'm not wasting any more time here," the Divisional Surgeon snapped at the Inspector. "I can assure you that you'll hear more about this, Inspector Lord."

"Yes, Doctor. I've no doubt of that. Good night, Doctor," the Inspector replied wearily.

The Divisional Surgeon left, slamming the front door behind him, and the Inspector turned to Elgin, who forestalled him by saying quickly, "I know nothing about it, I assure you, sir, nothing at all."

Meanwhile, in the drawing-room, Clarissa and Sir Rowland were enjoying overhearing the discomfiture of the police officers. "Rather a bad moment for the police reinforcements to arrive," Sir Rowland chuckled. "The Divisional Surgeon seems very annoyed at finding no corpse to examine."

Clarissa giggled. "But who can have spirited it away?" she asked. "Do you think Jeremy managed it somehow?"

"I don't see how he could have done," Sir Rowland replied. "They didn't let anyone back into the library, and the door from the library to the hall was locked. Pippa's 'Sucks to you' was the last straw."

Clarissa laughed, and Sir Rowland continued, "Still, it shows us one thing. Costello had managed to open the secret drawer." He paused, and his manner changed. "Clarissa," he said in a serious tone, "why on earth didn't you tell the truth to the Inspector when I begged you to?"

"I did," Clarissa protested, "except for the part about Pippa. But he just didn't believe me."

"But, for Heaven's sake, why did you have to stuff him with all that nonsense?" Sir Rowland insisted on knowing.

"Well," Clarissa replied with a gesture of helplessness, "it seemed to me the most likely thing the Inspector would believe. And," she ended triumphantly, "he has believed me."

"And a nice mess you're in as a result," Sir Rowland pointed out. "You'll be up on a charge of manslaughter, for all you know."

"I shall claim it was self-defence," Clarissa said with confidence.

Before Sir Rowland had a chance to reply, Hugo and Jeremy entered from the hall, and Hugo walked over to the bridge table, grumbling. "Wretched police, pushing us around here and there. Now it seems they've gone and lost the body."

Jeremy closed the door behind him, then went over to the stool and took a sandwich. "Damn peculiar, I call it," he announced.