A Blunt Instrument Read Free Page A

you've arrived at something? My aunt would like to see you before you go. Do you know who killed my uncle?"
    "It's early days to ask me that, sir," replied the Sergeant guardedly.
    "Your words hint at a prolonged period of suspense, which I find peculiarly depressing."
    "Very unpleasant for all concerned, sir," agreed the Sergeant. He turned to Simmons. "That'll be all for the present," he said.
    Simmons withdrew, and the Sergeant, who had been eyeing Neville with a good deal of curiosity, invited him to sit down. Neville obligingly complied with this request, choosing a deep armchair by the fireplace. The Sergeant said politely: "I'm hoping you may be able to help me, sir. I take it you were pretty intimate with the deceased?"
    "Oh no!" said Neville, shocked. "I shouldn't have liked that at all."
    "No, sir? Am I to understand you were not on good terms with Mr. Fletcher?"
    "But I was. I'm on good terms with everyone. Only I'm not intimate."
    "Well, but, what I mean, sir, is -'
    "Yes, yes, I know what you mean. Did I know the secrets of my uncle's life? No, Sergeant: I hate secrets, and other people's troubles."
    He said this with an air of sweet affability. The Sergeant was a little taken aback, but rallied, and said: "At all events, you knew him fairly well, sir?"
    "We won't argue the point," murmured Neville.
    "Do you know if he had any enemies?"
    "Well, obviously he had, hadn't he?"
    "Yes, sir, but what I'm trying to establish -'
    "I know, but you see I'm just as much at a loss as you are. You weren't acquainted with my uncle?"
    "I can't say as I was, sir."
    Neville blew one smoke ring through another, and watched it dreamily. "Everybody called him Ernie," he sighed. "Or Ernie dear, according to sex. You see?"
    The Sergeant stared for a moment, and then said slowly: "I think I get you, sir. I've always heard him well spoken of, I'm bound to say. I take it you don't know of any person with a grudge against him?"
    Neville shook his head. The Sergeant looked at him rather discontentedly, and consulted Glass's notebook. "I see you state that after you left the dining-room you went into the billiard-room, where you remained until Miss Fletcher came to find you. At what hour would that have been?"
    Neville smiled apologetically.
    "You don't know, sir? No idea at all? Try and think!"
    "Alas, time has hitherto meant practically nothing to me. Does it help if I say that my aunt mentioned that a most peculiar visitor was with my uncle? A fat little man, who carried his hat in his hand. She had seen him in the hall."
    "Did you see this man?" asked the Sergeant quickly.
    "No."
    "You don't know whether he was still with your uncle when you went up to your room?"
    "Sergeant, Sergeant, do you think I listen at keyholes?"
    "Of course not, sir, but -'
    "At least, not when I'm wholly incurious," explained Neville, temporising.
    "Well, sir, we'll say that some time between 9.00 and 10.00 you went up to your room."
    "At half-past nine," said Neville.
    "At - A moment ago, sir, you said you had no idea what time it was!"
    "Oh, I hadn't, but I remember now one solitary cuckoo."
    The Sergeant shot a startled look towards Glass, standing motionless and disapproving by the door. A suspicion that the eccentric Neville Fletcher was of unsound mind had darted into his brain. "What might you mean by that, sir?"
    "Only the clock on the landing," said Neville.
    "A cuckoo-clock! Well, really, sir, for a moment I thought - And it struck the half-hour?"
    "Yes, but it's quite often wrong."
    "We'll go into that presently. Which way does your room face, sir?"
    "North."
    "It's at the back of the house, then? Would it be possible for you to hear anyone coming up the side path?"
    "I don't know. I didn't hear anyone, but I wasn't trying to.
    "Quite," said the Sergeant. "Well, I think that'll be all for the present, thank you, sir. Of course, you understand that you will not be able to leave this house for a day or two? Just a matter of routine, you know. We'll