Death at the President's Lodging

Death at the President's Lodging Read Free Page A

Book: Death at the President's Lodging Read Free
Author: Michael Innes
Tags: Mystery & Detective, Classic British detective mystery
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generally holds about two.” But his eyes as he spoke were on the plan in front of him and in a moment he added: “But the point seems to be that the undergraduates don’t come in?”
    “I don’t think they do,” replied Dodd; “at least it’s likely they don’t, just as it’s likely the college servants and so on don’t – and, as you’ve gathered, for simple topographical reasons. So the list I’ve given you may be important. And now, after the scene and the persons, I suppose, events and times. Here is the time-scheme of the thing as far as I’ve got it into my head.
    “Dinner was over by about eight o’clock – as far as the proceedings in hall were concerned. But all the people at the high-table – the President, Dean and Fellows, that is – went across in a body as usual to their common-rooms. They sat in the smaller common-room for about half an hour, having a little extra, I gather, in the way of port and dessert. Then at about half-past eight they made another move – still in a body – to the larger common-room next door. They had coffee and cigarettes there – all according to the day’s routine still – and talked till about nine o’clock. Dr Umpleby was the first to leave: he went off through a door that gives directly into his own house. And if we’re to believe what we’re told, that was the last time any of his colleagues saw him alive.
    “Well, the common-room began to break up after that, and by half-past nine everybody was gone. Lambrick, Campbell, Chalmers-Paton are married men and by half-past nine they were off to their homes. The others all went to their rooms about the college. All, that is, with the exception of Gott, who is Junior Proctor and went out patrolling the streets.
    “At nine-thirty the locking up began. The porter locked the main gates. That is the moment, you may say, at which the submarine submerged: from that moment to this nobody can have got in or out of St Anthony’s without observation – unless he had a key .”
    Appleby shook his head in mild protest. “I incline to distrust those keys from the start,” he said, “and I distrust your submarine. A great rambling building like this may have half a dozen irregular entrances – or exits.”
    But Dodd’s reply was confident. “The submarine may sound as if I’ve been reading novels, but I believe it’s near the mark. It’s something we have to know in a quiet way – and we could surprise some colleges by pointing out a good many smart dodges. But I’ve overhauled St Anthony’s today, and it’s watertight .”
    Appleby nodded his provisional acceptance of the point. “Well,” he said, “the President is in his Lodging, the dons are in their rooms, the undergraduates are in theirs, and the great world is effectively locked out. What next?”
    “More locking out – or in,” Dodd promptly replied. “The President’s butler locked three doors. He locked the front door of the Lodging giving on Bishop’s Court, he locked the back door giving on St Ernulphus Lane, and he locked the door between the Lodging and the common-rooms – the one, that is, the President had used a little before. That was about ten o’clock. At ten-fifteen came the final locking-up. The porter locked the gates to Orchard Ground…”
    Dodd had so far been delivering himself of this scheme of things without book. Now he paused and handed Appleby a sheaf of notes. “I’d go over that again, if I were you,” he said; “it takes a little getting clear.”
    Appleby went slowly over the notes and observed, with something of the admiration that was intended, that Dodd had apparently let no discrepancy creep into his oral account. He looked up when he had digested the names and times, and Dodd went on to the crisis of his narrative.
    “When Dr Umpleby left the common-room he went straight to his study. At half-past ten his butler, Slotwiner, took in some sort of drink – it was the regular routine apparently – and

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