1

# The Blue Spill

## Chapter 1

A little knot of curious people were standing in the road outside Graylands. A policeman moved them on. Someone said "murder?" in a hush -ed and incredulous tone. The policeman to whom the remark was addressed only shook his head noncommitally. The crowd soon drifted off. Graylands was certainly the last place in the world one would think of as being the scene of a crime. From the little that could be seen over the top of the gate the place seemed singularly peaceful and attractive, every -thing about it spoke of beauty, comfort and rich middle class security. The house was set in a terraced garden. Very low wide brick steps str -etched from the front gate down to the house door, inside steps again down led from the front hall to the living rooms at the back which were on a level with the garden there, and in its turn the garden dropped away in terraces. The view stretched over the Surrey hills in the distance. The house, low and rambling was covered in roses for which Graylands was famous. Such was the scene of the crime as it appeared in the bri -gat of a May morning.

"Inspector Love speaking, ... who is it ... on Brooks, yes?"

The Inspector gave all his attention to the long burgle which came from the receiver. He jotted down a number on the pad in front of him "All right. all right I'll come along at once" Love rang off, his face were a brighter and less monday morning look than it had done before Inspector Brookes had called him up.

### place

"Murder, last night at a barman called garlands, near Ripton, at least they think it was murder" he said to the young sergeant who was busy among the filing cabinets. The Inspector pushed back his chair and stood up, when seated at his desk he had seemed a small man, but stood up it became apparent that he was above middle height and except for a pronounced scep would have seemed tall. His prematurely gray hair contrasted oddly with his small very black mustache. People hinted that this was dyed. With a hat on his greyness was less noticeable and

ix

and he looked ten years younger at least than when bare headed.

"Tell Inspector Beodwell that I've gone down to Graylands izzzazasks and if any important messages come for me telephone me there, you'll find the number in the book under the name Marishall."

"Right sir" The sergeant knew that messages for Inspector Love were best sent on at once and he stopped what he was doing to look up the Marishalls number in the suburban directory. The Inspector had taken off the receiver again.

Ripton 3244...Dr Whitby?...helle Whitby, Love speaking.I've just heard that you were in on that affair last night, I'm coming down myself to see about it now, their local man is tied up with another job I'm speaking from the office, could you meet me at Graylands in three quarters of an hour, I'll be there by ten....good!"

"Curious that old Whitby should be mixed up in this", he mused, 'it will be the fourth job we have been on together, wonder what he is doing in Ripton?" The Inspector went over to the book shelves and pulled out a few heavy directories. "Let me see.. Marishall.. Graylands, Ripton.." He spent some minutes consulting the books and jotted down a few notes. Bit never does any harm to seem to know a thing or two that people don't expect you to know" he said half out loud "Makes me think you probably know a deuce of a lot besides, and that's all to the good. Let me see now what I've got....christian names, wives, children, clubs, local charities...that ought to do me for the present to go on with." He pocketed his note book and picked up his hat. A car was waiting for him and in three quarters of an hour as he had promised Dr Whitby he arrived at the front gate of Graylands. The policeman outside recognized him as the famous Inspector Love and held open the gate for him without question, and a tall man already half way down the path and who had stopped hearing the car, turned and went back to meet him.

"An Whitby there you are" the two men greeted as old friends "Glad to see you, Brooks gave me your telephone number, how did you get yourself mixed up in this"

3

"I live here now, I've taken a house here and just moved in a week ago. Whitby had a calm rather languid manner of speaking that was a great contrast to the detective's spasmodic jerky one."

"I came down here for a little peace and quiet and to escape people like you" he continued. Love smiled "Not so easy as all that" he said "I was saying to myself just now that this would make the fourth job we have been on together"

Dr Whitby nodded

murder

"Always murder, that chinese student was the last and this is another"

"You are quite sure its murder?" enquired Love dropping his voice. The doctor glance round to see who the cautious Inspector was afraid of. They could overhear, but he saw no one near enough to bether about. He spoke with great deliberation,

"You know me Love, you know I don't easily say I'm sure of a thing, but in this case I don't think that there is any doubt of its being murder all right. In the first place the weapon is missing."

"HM" said Love " weapon missing eh?"

"Yes, and then the wound, though it might possibly have been self inflicted still it is extremely unlikely that anyone with serious intention of committing suicide would have gone about it in such an aw hard way. Oh well come and see for yourself. That's the room where it happened"

Dr Whitby pointed to a bow window giving on the left side of the house. The two men had been walking slowly towards the front door as they talked. The Inspector gave a perfunctory glance in the direction point -ed out to him.

"You were going to tell me how you got mixed up in this..whatever it is"

"Way I was called over last night when they found Marisaall shot, one of the maids ran over to get me, I've taken the place next door" Whitby nodded in the direction of a small house partly visible through the trees, at some distance. "I came over at once, but he was dead when I got here, must have died a few minutes before. He was shot in the throat."

4

His wife was with him when I arrived. She is nearly stone deaf and had 'nt heard the shot, the maid who heard it was too frightened to go in to the room and investigate for herself so she went for Mrs Marishall. A dreadful shock for her poor woman to go in there without proper war-ning and find her husband lying dead. She went all to pieces when she realised that he was dead, she had 'nt until I told her. She had been trying to revive him and all that. Curious how people will never admit that anyone is actually dead until they have had a doctor tell them so."

"Why did they send for you, I did 'nt know you had a private practice?"
"I hav 'nt. The maid was told to telephone for a doctor and for the phone, but she said she thought it would be quicker to run over to me, I think she was frightened to stay in the house. As a matter of fact

I did get there quicker than any other doctor could have done. My man rang up the police at once and they could 'nt have been more than ten minutes getting here." Love walked slower and slower as they neared the house.

"What do you know of the Marishalls?"

"Nothing much, I've been here such a short time, I knew them by sight. He had the reputation of being an old curmudgeon who bulled his fam-ily, especially his wife. I took over my place from the Purfords they had known the Marishalls for years. They said the old man used to be terribly rude to her and make fun of her for the mistakes she would make on account of her deafness. I thought he was 'nt a popular character. There is a daughter, I believe she manages to be away a good deal."

"Is 'nt there a son?"

"Yes, one son, just left Cambridge I think"

"Many servants?"

"Five or six indoor servants, by the way one of them is remarkably pretty, could 'nt help noticing it even last night"

"Hm. Whitby you used not to notice that kind of thing?"

"Now more 's the pity, I left it to you." Love laughed complacentlv

"Anything else to tell me before I go in? he said

5

The doctor shook his head.

"Well then lets go in. I'm glad you are here to stand by me with the old lady, I must confess that deaf people rattling me! I must see Brooks though first of all"

butler

They were admitted by a gentleman whose annoyance at the presence of a young policeman in 'his' hall was very obvious. Instead of asking for his colleague Inspector Brooks, or for anyone, Love walked straight off down the passage to the left, opening doors as he went until he found the one opening into the room he had been shown from the garden. He went in and shut the door behind him. It was there in Mr Marshall's study that the tragedy had occured.

Dr Whitby remained in the hall where he explained Love's identity to the astonished and indignant butler. The room in which the Inspector found himself was furnished handsomely in a heavy conventional manner. A large writing table that nearly filled the bow window was the most conspicuous object there. On the left side of this desk at right angles to it, and about six feet from the wall there was a large cesta-rfield sofa. Back of this was a door which led into the billiardroom.

In the middle of the room there was a large and unmistakable stain on the carpet, other stains on the leather cushions of the sofa showed where the wounded man had been placed the night before. The Inspector turned quickly as he heard the door he had just shut behind him open again. "Ah there you are" he said as Inspector Brooks of the local police station entered.

"I'm very pressed for time, we are all taken up with the Booth case & otherwise I shouldnt have bothered you. Shall I show you my notes before you look round"

Brooks was a tall, red-faced man at the moment he looked fussed and important.

"I met Whitby as I came in, do you know anything that he doesn't know?" Brooks was annoyed that his chance of telling the story first had been taken from him and his manner did not conceal the fact very well.

"Oh you've seen him already? Have you, well? I suppose he does know as much as we do so far. He got here before we did"

6

Notwithstanding the slight encouragement he had been given the Inspectors Brooks got out his note book, while Love sank into a chair with a horrid expression.

"Here is what I've got" he started to read in a very satisfied manner

"The station got the call at three minutes past twelve. Four men got here by a quarter past. I myself was here by twenty five past. The par-lourmaid Mullins had heard the shot a little before twelve and she had called her mistress. Dr Whittle had been sent for at once and was waiting for us here. The call to us had come from his house. We found no sign of anyone having got in here either in the house or grounds. The doors and windows were all locked and closed for the night. No sign of their having been touched."

"Any sign of a struggle in here?"

"Absolutely none, and as far as we know nothing has been stolen or destroyed. We haven't found the weapon though so it can't be suicide"

"Hmm..." said Love thoughtfully, "no weapon is needed. Nothing taken."

"There are the marks of a car outside the front gate which are the most important clue to my way of thinking. The household know nothing of it, I've asked them, but it is a car that must have stopped after eleven last night. I can tell from the state of the tracks as there was a slight shower after eleven last night, and the tracks are different to what they would have been if they had been made in the dry road."

"And the household know nothing of it?"

"Apparently not. I haven't seen Mrs Marishall since last night, she was very hysterical then and it was impossible to question her. The daughter had nothing to tell, she seemed even more upset about her mother than about her father. I haven't questioned the servants separately, though they said they knew nothing last night."

"Who was in the house at the time?"

"Only Mrs Marishall, her daughter and the four maids. The men servants slept over the garage."

7

"Is there no telephone to the garage from the house" Love interrupted
"There was one but it has been out of order for some days they tell
me, there is a bell though which rings from the kitchen" Brooks fumbled
in his pocket book for some papers.

"I've made a rough plan of the house and grounds you might find useful
and I've had finger prints taken of everyone in the house at the time
including the corpsman

Brooks had evidently made a great effort not to be caught napping by
his redoubtable colleague. Love however said nothing either in praise
or blame but got up out of his chair and Brooks quite correctly took
the move as a hint for his departure

"Shall I leave you the two men here now"?

"Yes" said Love "please do for the present, I'll call you up if I need
help"

Brooks looked as if he were doubtful whether the last remark was a
sarcasm or meant in good faith, however he decided that if he accepted
it as a compliment she would be spared the necessity for re-partee, ne
-ver his strong point.

"The body is in there, in the billiard room" he pointed to the door on
the left

"Our doctor was here this morning. He found one bullet in the throat
you ought to have his re-part soon now"

With a nod Brooks took himself off, inwardly congratulating himself
that pressure of work elsewhere enabled him to escape from the respon
to there
sibility of having to solve a problem which he felt was small chan
ce of finding the answer.

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Chapter 2

Inspector Love was received when Brooks left him to get on with the job his own way. It seemed to be a quiet and leisurely way. He said an agreeable few minutes admiring the rock garden under the stua dy window, then he turned and went into the bizzazzard next room. The dead man had been laid on the billiard table. The Inspector turned do wn the sheet that covered the body and dizzazzared disclosed the already discoloured face of a man of about sixty. The mouth and chin were partly hidden by the cotton wool that had been packed around the wound in the throat, but Love pushed it down to enable him to see the whole face and the line of the jaw. It was a countenance that must have been heavy and sullen looking even in life. In death it still had one eyelid slightly open which gave it a look of spying at what was going on. Love found that spying look on a dead face irritating, using a corner of the sheet he tried to close the eyelid but failed. After which a rapid glance that noted that the man was tall and strongly made, he paid no further attention to the corpse beyond covering it again with the sheet. Going back to the study Love sat down before the desk and gave his attention to the things on it, being meticulously careful to replace anything he took up in the exact spot in which he found it. He had put on a pair of gloves for the purpose. The desk was in great apparent disorder, the only unencumbered spot on it being a little through the large blotter in the center. Love examined this carefully and smi -led to himself on finding a letter and an envelope tucked away next to him in the lining of the cover. "Letter.. unfinished too.. wonder if Brooks missed this or if he left it" ?

Love had a habit of making running comments about things outloud to himself when alone. The habit had become so engrained that he often did it when other people were present without realizing it, but very few people could have followed his disjointed burbleings. He skimmed through the letter quickly and then put it away in his note case At that moment Dr Whitby came into the room.

"I've just been seeing Mrs Marshall, she is quite calm this morning

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I should have hardly thought it possible from the state she was in last night"

"Good, I'll see her as soon as I have finished here"

Love continued his examination of the room muttering to himself the while. He glanced through a pile of newspapers on a small table.

"The Financial Times," the Investor...all financial papers, he evident -ly wanted to watch what was going on even if he was retired...lets see what about the waste paper basket, did Brooks mention that, he's nuts on such things as a rule...Nothing in this one at all, cramps one's style that does" He picked up a Times that had been put behind the basket, to be thrown away doubtless, had he noticed that a small clipping had been made in the financial page, he made a note of the date.

"Has the son got here yet?" he asked

"No there has hardly been time"

"Why, wasn't he, abroad?" "No he is in London, but curiously enough no one seems to have thought of sending for him last night. It was only when Brooks asked for him this morning that they realized he hadnt been notified. Bennet, that's the butler sent off a wire then on his own responsibility. The young man should be here at any moment now".

The Inspector took off his gloves and rolled them carefully before pocketing them, he gave a last look round the room, before leaving

"Well, I suppose I had better start with the household if I am to see them all before lunch, will you come"

He went back to the front hall where the butler was still jealously guarding the young policeman.

"Will you tell Mrs Marishall I would like to see her"

"Mrs Marishall is waiting for you in the morning room, this way if you please sir" Bennet flung open a door and announced them generously. Whitby followed Love into what was a large pleasant room furnished in yellow chintz. Mrs Marishall was sitting in a large chair by the fireplace at the end of the room. She did not notice their entrance,

10

being unable to hear Bennets announcing them, and remained motionless in her chair, a slight figure in black, her hands clasped in her lap, not unlike in pose and appearance the portrait of Whistler's mother, familiar to travellers on the underground. Seeing her sitting there unconcious of them the Inspector thought that she looked older than her husband, but when she did at last see them and jumped up quickly from her chair to come towards them, her manner of moving was so young and spontaneous that he changed his opinion. She was a small and frail -ly built woman, with a severe though not unpleasant face, which had an expression of great absorption and concentration. If Mrs Marishall had cell-apsed the night before as Dr Whitby had stated, she had by now quite recovered her self control. She motioned the two men to the chairs she intended them to occupy and resumed her own.

"If you will turn towards the light a little more and speak distinctly I shall be able to follow you" she said to the Inspector

"I am getting very deaf but I can lip read." a fleeting instant

For an instant

Love had the feeling that the places were reversed and that he was not the examiner but the examined. He shook off the feeling with an effort.

what happened

"Will you tell me just what you know about the last night?"

"What happened last night?" said Mrs Marishall, repeating the phrase she had just seized in the interrogative manner usual to the very deaf "I know nothing but what I have already told Dr Whitby and the other Inspector last night, haven't they told you?"

"I must have it at first hand," said Love bluntly

"Very well," Mrs Marishall paused for an instant as if thinking how she should commence but Love interrupted her before she had a chance to speak.

"Where were you last night?"

"I was in here all the evening, but I wouldn't have been able to hear an unusual noise in the study if there had been any, even though it is only just across the passage. I did go into the study several times

11

during the evening but my husband was always alone".

"Have you ever had any reason to think such a thing might happen to your husband?"

When she had taken in the question Mrs Marshall seemed shocked by it and even indignant at the suggestion.

"Certainly not, who should I suspect of such a dreadful thing. My man husband had no enemies that I know of. He lead a very quiet orderly life, we all lead very quiet ordinary lives, I can see no possible reason anyone could have for doing such a thing, it must be the act of a maniac, that is all I can think"

Love could not help thinking that if the man he had just seen as a corpse on the billiard room table had led a "quiet orderly life" it was certainly a triumph of mind over matter, and that his physique maligned him.

"How

Xuexin did you first know what had occurred?" he asked

"When Eva, that is the parlourmaid, came and pulled me by the arm to attract my notice. I was reading by the fire here. I knew something serious must have happened from her manner, but she was so excited I could not make out what she was trying to tell me except something about study. I followed her into the passage and called out to my husband and when he did not come I went into the study and found him lying there."

"How was he lying when you found him, did you see his position at all?" The Inspector patiently repeated his question until Mrs Marshall seized it.

"Did I move him? Yes I had to a bit, the study door had stuck, something seemed to be holding it. I had to push hard to get it to open enough to look in. He had fallen in such a way that his legs kept the door from opening easily. I thought he had been taken ill, he was lying on his face and I turned him over, it was only then that I saw that he had been wounded."

"Did you turn him over yourself without help?"

"Yes Eva did not come into the room with me, I called out to her to

12

telephone to the doctor and I did everything I could to revive him, but I realize now that he must have been gone already. "The little woman was evidently trying hard to control herself but all her body was tre-mbling.

"You didn't call your daughter and the other servants, why?"

"I thought Eva would do that. I didn't realize she had gone herself for Dr Whitby instead of telephoning as I had told her to do"

"Where is the telephone kept?" Love remembered having seen one on the desk in the other room.

"On my husband's desk."

At this moment Benquet discreetly interrupted

"A message for you sir" he said handing Love an envelope
The Inspector took it and talked off to the other end of the room
reading it, leaving Mrs Marshall alone with the doctor. She turned to a
him anxiously

"Has he discovered anything else doctor, could I ask him, or would he tell me. I feel my deafness so much now" she said sadly "I can't tell you what is being said around me quickly enough. People are so impatient with deafness, I am never told anything until it is over and done with, people haven't time to try and explain to me, I get only old facts and stale news"

"I wouldn't advise you... the Inspector's return out short the answer Whitby had commenced making Mrs Marshall's question.

"One more thing" said Love "Has any one of the household ever had a small sized browning do you know?"

"No Inspector I am certain no one"

"The next report has just come in, it seems the wound was made by a small sized browning bullet" Love handed the report he had just received to Mrs Marshall.

"Mrs Marshall was just wondering if she might ask you if there was any further news" said Whitby

"Well until I have been another quarter of an hour on the job at least its no use expecting anything of me" said Love impatiently

13

That Mrs Marshall had not caught this remark was apparent by her next sentence

"Have you no news for us yet Inspector?"

"I am afraid up to the present that the doctors report is the only news. I can understand your anxiety. Please believe that we will leave no stone unturned, I hope soon we will have some news for you"

Whitby smiled at Love's sudden change to a courteous sympathetic manner so different to the one he had had a minute before when answering the same question put by Whitby on Mrs Marshall's behalf. He caught Love's eye and his smile deepened to a grin

"Old numbs" he murmured

The Inspector as he spoke had half opened one of the longurenows.

"May we go out this way, I should like to take a turn round the gard-
on before I see the servants"

He stepped outside, not waiting for an answer and Dr Whitby followed him. Looking back through the window as he was shutting it behind them Love saw Mrs Marshall resume her chair and the patiently waiting attitude in which he had first seen her, but now she kept her eyes on the door.

"Of course," thought Love, "the son, he hasn't come yet".

14

Chapter 3

The rose garden was looking its best, Love could not resist burking in
his nose in a large crimson damask and sniffing luxuriously.

"This is very pleasant," he said, "but not what I am here for, I want to
see those car tracks that Brooks was so proud of" he walked up the p
Path towards the front gate, the steepness of the slope did not allow
a carriage drive at Graylands.

"I suppose this is what he means," Love stopped where the marks of a I
large car were plainly visible out side the gate.

"Very interesting...and I suppose Brooks has cleverly deduced the make
and number of the car from these traces, a pity no one seems to have
get in or out of it though, that might have helped matters for us" he
walked slowly down the road to the side gate.

"Everything seems to be pretty much trampled out by now," he said
Whitby following him.

"The cop stood on the corner and his shoes were full of feet" Love ch
-anted

"Do you remember that American crook we caught in the Charing Cross
hotel Whitby?"

"Do I land his singing that in the taxi on the way to the station"

"Clever fellow he was, due out again by now I should think, its quite
ten years since all that"

"Yes at least, he was extradited I remember, why he may have been out
for years, there's no telling with these American judges though, queer
laws they have, they may have to give a life sentence for shop lifting
while a fellow who embezzles thousands can get of with a year and a caution"

The detective rambled on in his disjointed way, now stopping now going
on again abruptly.

"The garage...nice little garage... door on road...door at the back
into the garden...Path leading past our study window.." he commented
half out loud to himself. The path he had just noticed was screened
from the view of the house, as was the garage by a hedge. The Inspector

16
z3522208

followed always by Whitby walked along it until an opening in the hedged path led them into the rock garden in front of the study window. The two men both went over and looked into the room. Whitby was surprised to feel a chill strike him, he had had enough experience of gruesome things in the course of his profession to make him indifferent, but for some reason that he did not attempt to explain, he turned hurridly away from the sight of the dizzardanzinzzhe study with its grim significance and turned again to the garden.

"And to think I came down to this part of the world to get away from such things. And then I go and choose a house not two minutes away from this" he complained

"Yes" said the Inspector with a chuckle"and Brooks has probably got his eye on you, what were you doing up at that time of night, a respectable old fogey like you ought to have been in bed long before"

"Well I dare say you could get up quite a good case against me if you wanted a herring" said the doctor" there is even a small browning among my traps, or there should be. Come over and see if its there, at any rate come over for lunch"

"Thanks, I'd like to, I'll get on now with the servants"

The noise of a car stopping attracted their notice.

"There is the son" said Whitby as the Graylands front gate opened.

They waited till the young man came up to them. Whitby who had met him once before shook hands with him and introduced the Inspector

"I don't know," said the doctor"dizzex whether you know just what has happened?"

"My father's dead, yes I had a wire from Bennet" he took a crumpled te-legram from his pocket and mowed it to the doctor who read it in an undertone"Regret to inform you of sudden demise of Mr Marshall your father"

97

then he said firmly "yes he was alone"

"You are sure there was no one else in the hall?"

"Certain sir"

"Well that's all then "Love turned and walked along the garden till he came to the side gate. He wanted to get over to Whitby and find a comfortable chair where he could think the matter out in in quiet "One of them is lying, which one", it's not necessary Bryd because he chokes over an answer"

Whitby was a sympathetic listener and Love found it a help to talk to him, and that it wasaxxhelped him to straighten out his feet and pidgeon hole them better than solitary work with his note book.

"Say the old man and the girl are in the hall, Bryd comes and hands the brownings to him. He hands it straight over to his daughter "here you are, this is yours" or some remark like that, she may not want that remember at the present moment and she may have squared Bryde, on the other hand Bryde may never have gone to his master with it at all"

"It wouldnt surprise me if Bryde were trying to shield her, I should think he was a decent chap" said Whitby

"I think he is in to tight a hole to have much thought for anyone but himself, however it seems impossible to straighten this out, they may both be telling the truth, the girl would precede her father probably into the room, probably and she might very well not have noticed Bryde, he may have handed the thing to Marshall without a word, it seems unlikely though that neither of them notice the other if they were as naer as that. What suggestions have you Whitby?"

"Hmm" was all Whitby by com think of saying at the moment so Love took to his meditations with his note books and his numming again and Whitby took refuge in the nextroom next door m.

Mrs Rodney suddenly started to drag the pleyure back to its place against the wall and came back to her chair.

"You must think I am "Queer", "she said in a quiet conversation at- tone "to attach so much importance to your knowing my husband's work, and but really you know it is very logical, you are evidently interested in him for some reason or other, if you don't know his work, the principles that guide him, how can you expect to understand anything about him, you would only be dreadfully confused by what would seem to you incomprehensible things in his character and actions. You can only know Rodney through his work"

The logic of her argument appealed to the Inspector, he was glad that she had some method in her seeming madness and began to fee interested, he tried to frame a sentence in a way that would catch her imagination.

"How do you explain Mrs Rodney "he commenced whileley" that after your husband Painted the portrait of Miss Marshall so unlike his work in what you have just showed me, and that even I can see is a masterpiece"...

"You see that even do you, "Mrs Rodney showed her small teeth in a quick smile" It's like this, that portrait was intended to be entirely satirical, then, thump of a girl is an insinuating creature, Rodney was in a bad period, there is no excuse for him he knew what he was doing, "...she broke off as if she could not bear to continue the subject

"You mean that your husband just out of idleness, ahem, trifled with the feelings of the young lady"...

"Trifled, good God man where did you pick up that expression and what do you think I care about his trifling, as you say, bitch with that or any other for that matter. It's his work I am thinking of