George went purple. He began to splutter.
‘What do you mean? What the devil do you mean? Damned impudence! Are you doubting my word? Doubting the word of a man of my position? I—er—why should I have to account for every minute of my time?’
Superintendent Sugden said with a stolidness that Poirot admired:
‘It’s usual.’
George turned angrily on the chief constable.
‘Colonel Johnson. Do you countenance this—this unprecedented attitude?’
The chief constable said crisply: ‘In a murder case, Mr Lee, then questions must be asked—and answered.’
‘I have answered them! I had finished telephoning and was—er—debating a further call.’
‘You were in this room when the alarm was raised upstairs?’
‘I was—yes, I was.’
Johnson turned to Magdalene.
‘I think, Mrs Lee,’ he said, ‘that you stated that you were telephoning when the alarm broke out, and that at the time you were alone in this room?’
Magdalene was flustered. She caught her breath, looked sideways at George—at Sugden, then appealingly at Colonel Johnson. She said:
‘Oh, really—I don’t know—I don’t remember what I said…I was so upset…’
Sugden said:
‘We’ve got it all written down, you know.’
She turned her batteries on him—wide appealing eyes—quivering mouth. But she met in return the rigid aloofness of a man of stern respectability who didn’t approve of her type.
She said uncertainly:
‘I—I—of course I telephoned. I can’t be quite sure just when—’
She stopped.
George said:
‘What’s all this? Where did you telephone from? Not in here.’
Superintendent Sugden said:
‘I suggest, Mrs Lee, that you didn’t telephone at all. In that case, where were you and what were you doing?’
Magdalene glanced distractedly about her and burst into tears. She sobbed:
‘George, don’t let them bully me! You know that if anyone frightens me and thunders questions at me, I can’t remember anything at all! I—I don’t know what I was saying that night—it was all so horrible—and I was so upset—and they’re being so beastly to me…’
She jumped up and ran sobbing
out of the room.
Springing up, George Lee blustered:
‘What d’you mean? I won’t have my wife bullied and frightened out of her life! She’s very sensitive. It’s disgraceful! I shall have a question asked in the House about the disgraceful bullying methods of the police. It’s absolutely disgraceful!’