Appleby File by Michael Innes Read Free Book Online Page B

That’s true.’ Charles Trevor was a frightened man. ‘I had an…an encounter with Jolly in the past. Suddenly coming upon him again was a great shock. But it wasn’t–’
    ‘Very well. Suppose Frape didn’t see Mr Trevor peering through that door. Supposing he was concerned to shield–’
    ‘Of course Frape saw me . And then you discovered me. And now Strickland has discovered the bow and arrow.’ Robert Darien-Gore got these statements out in a series of gasps. ‘I haven’t been sleeping. Last night I knew it wasn’t even worthwhile going to bed. So I passed the time repairing one of the horns of that bow, and feathering an arrow. Then I brought them back here.’ Looking round the company, Robert met absolute silence. ‘I give you all my word of honour as a gentleman,’ he said, ‘that I did not shoot Jolly.’
    There was another long silence, broken only by an inarticulate sound from Prunella.
    ‘We can accept that,’ Appleby said gently. ‘But you killed him, all the same.’
    ‘Jolly came to Gore Castle in the way of trade,’ Appleby said. ‘His own filthy trade. He had papers he was going to sell – at a price. I don’t know what story these papers tell. But it is the story that failed to see the light of day when Robert Darien-Gore had to leave the army. Jolly, I may say, made a sinister joke to me. He said he knew when he’d been given enough; he knew just how much he could take. He was wrong.’
    ‘This must stop.’ Jasper Darien-Gore spoke with an assumption of authority. ‘If there is matter for the police to investigate, then the local police must be summoned in a regular way. Sir John, I consider that you have no standing in this matter. And it is an abuse–’
    ‘You are quite wrong, sir.’ Appleby looked sternly at his host. ‘I am the holder of a warrant card, like any other officer of the police. And on its authority I propose to make an arrest on a specific charge. Now, may I go on?’
    ‘For God’s sake do!’ Prunella cried out. ‘I can’t stand more of this…I can’t stand it!’
    ‘My dear,’ Mrs Strickland said, and went to sit beside her.
    ‘Strickland – take the binoculars again, will you? Look at the keep. Got it? What strikes you about it?’
    ‘Chiefly the scaffolding round it, I’d say.’
    ‘Windows?’
    ‘There are narrow windows all the way up – lighting a spiral staircase, I seem to remember.’
    ‘Glazed?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Imagine a skilled archer near ground-level on the near side of the bailey. Could he get an arrow through one of those windows?’
    ‘I suppose he could. First shot, if he was first c1ass.’
    ‘And on a flight that would pass over the well?’
    ‘Certainly.’
    ‘That was what happened. That was the bow-shot I heard and Frape heard. The arrow carried a line – by means of which somebody in the keep could draw a strong nylon cord across the bailey, something more than head-high above the well.’ Appleby turned to Robert. ‘You had already killed Jolly – simply with an arrow employed as a dagger, I rather think. He was a meagre little man. You carried the body to the well, pitched it in, mounted the lip – and returned across the bailey on the cord. For a climber, it wasn’t a particularly difficult feat. Then the line was released at the other end, swung like a skipping rope until it fell near one of the flanking walls, and drawn gently back through the snow. There will be virtually no trace of it. It only remained to return the bow to the ascham here. The bow and one arrow. The second missing arrow is…with Jolly, I rather think.’
    ‘You know too much.’ Robert Darien-Gore had been sitting hunched in a chair, his right hand deep in the pocket of his shooting jacket. Now he sprang to his feet, brought out his hand, and hurled something in the direction of Appleby, which flew past him and into the fireplace. Then the hand went back again, and came out holding something else. The crack of a pistol reverberated