‘Dreadful? Why?’
‘They were so angry!’
‘Who was angry?’
‘Oh, all of them…I don’t mean George. His father didn’t say anything to him. But all the others.’
‘What happened exactly?’
‘Well, when we got there—he asked for all of us—he was speaking into the telephone—to his lawyers about his will. And then he told Alfred he was looking very glum. I think that was because of Harry coming home to live. Alfred was very upset about that, I believe. You see, Harry did something quite dreadful. And then he said something about his wife—she’s dead long ago—but she had the brains of a louse, he said, and David sprang up and looked as though he’d like to murder him—Oh!’ She stopped suddenly, her eyes alarmed. ‘I didn’t mean that—I didn’t mean it at all!’
Colonel Johnson said soothingly:
‘Quite—quite, figure of speech, that was all.’
‘Hilda, that’s David’s wife, quieted him down and— well, I think that’s all. Mr Lee said he didn’t want to see anyone again that evening. So we all went away.’
‘And that was the last time you saw him?’
‘Yes. Until—until—’
She shivered.
Colonel Johnson said:
‘Yes, quite so. Now, where were you at the time of the crime?’
‘Oh—let me see, I think I was in the drawing-room.’
‘Aren’t you sure?’
Magdalene’s eyes flickered a little, the lids drooped over them.
She said:
‘Of course! How stupid of me…I’d gone to telephone. One gets so mixed up.’
‘You were telephoning, you say. In this room?’
‘Yes, that’s the only telephone except the one upstairs in my father-in-law’s room.’
Superintendent Sugden said:
‘Was anybody else in the room with you?’
Her eyes widened.
‘Oh, no, I was quite alone.’
‘Had you been here long?’
‘Well—a little time. It takes some time to put a call through in the evening.’
‘It was a trunk call, then?’
‘Yes—to Westeringham.’
‘I see.’