Page 11 of Murder at Hambledon Hall
Floyd stopped at his bedroom door. “They didn’t arrest him. He stayed at an inn in the village last night, but has already fled. He must have scarpered after shooting Shepherd. Before you ask, he didn’t leave a home address. The inn doesn’t note that information when their guests check in.”
He went to open the door, but I placed a hand to it, keeping it shut. “A poacher stayed at a village inn,” I said flatly. “Really, Floyd? You believe any of this?”
He shrugged. “It’s none of my business, and none of yours, Cleo. If they want to blame an anonymous fellow nobody can locate, what does it matter to me?”
I leaned in and lowered my voice. “It matters if the murderer is under the same roof as you.”
He barked a laugh. “He’s not coming for me next. Or you.”
“He? So you saw amanreturn the rifle to the armory?”
He sighed before finally giving in. “I didn’t see anyone. Nobody came or went from the armory while we played billiards. I asked Kershaw if I could take another look at some old pistols in his collection and he obliged. The empty space on the wall was still empty—much to Kershaw’s consternation, I might add.”
“He didn’t know the gun was missing until that moment?”
“It seems not, going by his reaction. He quickly covered up his shock, however, and didn’t mention it to me.”
“That’s odd.”
Floyd opened the door and entered.
I followed. “Lord Kershaw’s shock would implyhedidn’t take it. If only we’d found it when we searched the woods.”
“We?”
“Harmony and I.”
“Don’t drag her into this. Father won’t think twice about dismissing her if she causes trouble with the Kershaws, and I don’t want to lose her. I’ll never find another assistant who makes me look so good.” He removed his tie and undid his collar. “You’re wasting your time, anyway. If you do find the missing rifle, the police won’t test it if they want to continue to blame the poacher.”
“I don’t follow.”
“It would mean the poacher got into the locked armory on the first floor of the house without being seen, and that’s impossible. It doesn’t fit with the theory they’re pushing.” He scrunched up the tie and tossed it onto the bed. “I’m sure the rifle will be returned to its place on the wall quietly, before anyone else discovers it went missing.”
“Yes, I understand that, but what do you mean by test it? I didn’t think bullets could be matched to a gun anymore, not since they began making them by machine.”
“I don’t know. I’m not a ballistics expert.” He suddenly rounded on me. “No, Cleo.”
“No what?”
“You’re thinking about a gun expert, and that’s leading you to consider calling on Armitage. Well, don’t. He might be magnificent in your view, and the view of every woman under the sun, but he can’t be an expert on everything.”
“His father would know about matching bullets to guns.”
Floyd sighed.
“Thank you for the information, but I must dash. I need to dress for dinner. I don’t want to be late. I have suspects to observe.”
I closed the door on his protests that the Kershaw family and guests weren’t suspects.
We dinedon more partridge from the shoot at the final dinner of the weekend party. I was pleased to be seated beside Mr. Browning. Of all the guests, I knew him the least, having had few opportunities to speak to him. It wasn’t that I’d avoided him, or he me, it was more that we found ourselves in different conversations with different people. I doubted we had much in common.
By the time the soup course finished, I knew that to be correct. He enjoyed blood sports—the literal ones, like shooting and boxing, and the metaphorical one of politics. None of those interested me.
I thought a bloody murder might be up his alley, so asked him for his opinion of Esmond Shepherd’s death. “It looked to me like a rifle bullet must have done it. It certainly wasn’t a shotgun. Do you agree?”
His thick gray moustache and beard moved rather vigorously, but they almost covered his lips, so I wasn’t sure if he was disgusted, horrified or trying not to laugh. “I’d heard you were…unconventional, Miss Fox, but that is a more unconventional topic of conversation than I’m used to having with a young lady at dinner.”
His response didn’t shed any more light on his opinion of my question, so I decided to take a different path. “I heard you bagged quite a number of birds yesterday. How impressive.”
