Part 21 (1/2)

Well, of course I could hear him or I wouldn't be answering him. ”Yes,” I said, looking all round the room and finally spying the baby monitor, half hidden behind a clock on one of the bookshelves. I reached to pick it up. ”Don't pick it up,” he said. ”You will ruin the forensic evidence you consider so important.”

”Do you want me to come up to the nursery?”

”That will not be necessary. I have found out what I wished to know. Go into the parlor and make sure that Lady Charlotte has a.s.sembled everyone.”

She had, though not in the parlor. ”We don't have a parlor,” she said, meeting me in the corridor as I came out of the library. ”I've put everyone in the solarium, where we were last night. I hope that's all right.”

”I'm sure it will be fine,” I said.

”And I didn't have any sherry.” She stopped at the door. ”I had Heidi make Singapore slings.”

”Probably a very good idea,” I said, and opened the door.

Leda was perched on a canvas-covered ha.s.sock, with Rutgers behind her. The nurse sat in one of the canvas chairs, and the police sergeant perched next to her on the coffee table. James leaned against one of the bookshelves with a drink in his hand. D'Artagnan stood over by the windows.

As I came in, they all, except James and Heidi, who was offering him a tray of drinks, looked up expectantly and then relaxed.

”Is it true?” Leda asked eagerly. ”Has Monsieur Touffet solved the crime? Does he know who murdered Lord Alastair?”

”We all know who murdered my father,” James said, pointing at D'Artagnan. ”That animal flew into a rage and strangled him! Isn't that right, Inspector Touffet?” he said to Touffet, who had just come in the door. ”My father was killed by that animal!”

”So I at first thought,” Touffet said, polis.h.i.+ng his monocle. ”A gorilla goes out of control, kills Lord Alastair in a violent rage, and destroys the nursery as he might his cage, throwing the furniture and the dishes against the wall. The baby monitor, also, was thrown against the wall and broken, which was why the nurse did not hear the murder being committed.”

”You see!” James said to his sister. ”Even your Great Detective says D'Artagnan did it.”

”I said that so it seemed at first,” Touffet said, looking irritated at the remark about the Great Detective, ”but then I began to notice things-the fact that there were no signs of forcible entry, that the baby monitor had been switched off before it was thrown against the wall, that though it looked like a scene of great violence, none of us had heard anything-things that made me think, perhaps this is not a violent crime at all, but a carefully planned murder.”

”Carefully planned!” James shouted. ”The gorilla choked the life out of him in a fit of animal rage.” He turned to Sergeant Eu-stis. ”Why aren't you upstairs, gathering forensic evidence to prove that was what happened?”

”I do not need the forensic evidence,” Touffet said. He took out a meerschaum pipe and filled it. ”To solve this murder, I need only the motive.”

”The motive?” James shouted. ”You don't ask a bear what his motive is for biting off someone's head, do you? It's a wild animal!”

Touffet lit his pipe and took several long puffs on it. ”So I begin by asking myself,” he went on implacably, ”who had a motive for killing Lord Alastair? Your father's will left everything to you, Lord James, did it not?”

”Yes,” James said. ”You're not suggesting I put that gorilla up to-”

”I do not suggest anything. I say only that you had a motive.” He picked up his monocle and surveyed the crowd. ”As does Miss Fox.”

”What?” Leda said, twitching her dress down over her thighs. ”I never even met Lord Alastair.”

”What you say is the truth,” Touffet said, ”though it is the only true thing you have said since your arrival, that is. You have even lied about your name, is that not so? You are not Leda Fox, the reporter. You are Genevieve Wrigley.”Lady Charlotte gasped.

”Who's Genevieve Wrigley?” I asked.

”The head of the ARA,” Touffet said, looking steadily at her. ”The Animal Rescue Army.”

Lady Charlotte had jumped up. ”You're here to steal D'Artagnan and Heidi from me!” She turned beseechingly to Touffet. ”You mustn't let her. The ARA are terrorists.”

I looked wonderingly at Leda, or rather Genevieve. Lady Charlotte was right about the ARA, it was a terrorist organization, a sort of IRA for animals. I'd seen them on television, blowing up cosmetics companies and holding zookeepers hostage, but Leda- Genevieve didn't look like them at all.

Touffet said sternly, ”You came here in disguise with the intention of liberating Lady Charlotte's animals, no matter what violent means were necessary.”

”That's right,” Leda, or rather, Genevieve, said, rearing back dangerously, and I was grateful there wasn't room anywhere for a bomb in that dress. ”But I wouldn't have killed animals. I love animals!”

”Releasing pets into a wilderness they can't survive in?” Lady Charlotte said bitterly. ”Sending primates back into the jungle to be killed by poachers? You don't love animals. You don't love anyone but yourselves.

Well, now you've gone too far. You've murdered my father, and I'll see you convicted.”

”Why would I murder your father?” Genevieve sneered. ”You're the one I wanted to murder!”

At her words, D'Artagnan and Heidi both moved protectively toward Lady Charlotte.

”Dressing primates up like servants, holding them captive here. You're slaves!” she said to D'Artagnan.

”She tells you she loves you, but she just wants to enslave you!”

D'Artagnan took a threatening step toward her, his huge white-gloved fist raised. ”It's all right, D'Artagnan,” Lady Charlotte said. ”Inspector Touffet won't let her hurt me.”

Genevieve slumped back in her chair and glared at Touffet. ”I can't believe you found me out,” she said. ”I even ate a piece of that disgusting meat at dinner.”

”We were discussing your motive,” Touffet said. ”Terrorists do not murder secretly. Their crimes are of no use unless they take credit for them. And by killing Lord Alastair, you might have given the Inst.i.tute bad publicity, but you would not necessarily have succeeded in closing the Inst.i.tute. Sympathetic donations might have poured in. How much better to blow up the Inst.i.tute's buildings. It is true, you might have killed primates, but your organization has been known to kill animals before, in the name of saving them.”

”You can't prove that!” she said sullenly.

”There are wire and detonating caps in your luggage.” He turned to Sergeant Eustis. ”Ms. Wrigley was out at the compound this afternoon. When we have concluded our business here, I would suggest searching it for plastic explosives.”

Sergeant Eustis nodded and came over to stand behind Genevieve's chair. She rolled her eyes in disgust and crossed her arms over her chest.

”Ms. Wrigley had a motive for murder, but she is not the only one.” He took several puffs on his pipe.

”Everyone in this room has a motive. Yes, even you, Captain Bridlings.”

”I?” I said.

”You long to spend Christmas at your sister's house, do you not? If Lord Alastair is murdered, the Christmas celebration at Marwaite Manor will be cancelled, and you will be free to attend your sister's celebration instead.”

”If I'm not detained for questioning,” I said. ”And I hardly think wanting to spend Christmas with my sister is an adequate motive for murdering a harmless, helpless old man.”

Touffet held up an objecting finger. ”Helpless, perhaps, but not harmless. But I quite agree with you, Bridlings, your motive is not adequate. People, though, have often murdered for inadequate motives. But you, Bridlings, are incapable of murder, and that is why I do not suspect you of the crime.”

”Thank you,” I said dryly.

”But. It is a motive,” Touffet said. ”As for Lady Charlotte, she has told all of us her motive this very evening at dinner. She has no money for her Inst.i.tute. She is in danger of losing D'Artagnan and Heidi and all her other primates unless she obtains a large sum of money. And she loves them even more than she loves her father.”

”But her father's will left all his money to her brother,” I blurted out.”Exactly,” Touffet said, ”so her brother must be eliminated as well, and what better method than to have him convicted of murder?”

”But Charlotte would never-” Rutgers said, rising involuntarily to his feet.

She looked at him in surprise.