LITMIR.BIZ

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bathing one day and gave my ankle a nasty turn.’

      Melchett had noticed that she walked with a slight limp.

      ‘Naturally that put the stop to dancing for a bit and it was rather awkward. I didn’t want the hotel to get someone else in my place. That’s always a danger’—for a minute her good-natured blue eyes were hard and sharp; she was the female fighting for existence—‘that they may queer your pitch, you see. So I thought of Ruby and suggested to the manager that I should get her down. I’d carry on with the hostess business and the bridge and all that. Ruby would just take on the dancing. Keep it in the family, if you see what I mean?’

      Melchett said he saw.

      ‘Well, they agreed, and I wired to Ruby and she came down. Rather a chance for her. Much better class than anything she’d ever done before. That was about a month ago.’

      Colonel Melchett said:

      ‘I understand. And she was a success?’

      ‘Oh, yes,’ Josie said carelessly, ‘she went down quite well. She doesn’t dance as well as I do, but Raymond’s clever and carried her through, and she was quite nice-looking, you know—slim and fair and baby-looking. Overdid the make-up a bit—I was always on at her about that. But you know what girls are. She was only eighteen, and at that age they always go and overdo it. It doesn’t do for a good-class place like the Majestic. I was always ticking her off about it and getting her to tone it down.’

      Melchett asked: ‘People liked her?’

      ‘Oh, yes. Mind you, Ruby hadn’t got much come-back. She was a bit dumb. She went down better with the older men than with the young ones.’

      ‘Had she got any special friend?’

      The girl’s eyes met his with complete understanding.

      ‘Not in the way you mean. Or, at any rate, not that I knew about. But then, you see, she wouldn’t tell me.’

      Just for a moment Melchett wondered why not—Josie did not give the impression of being a strict disciplinarian. But he only said: ‘Will you describe to me now when you last saw your cousin.’

      ‘Last night. She and Raymond do two exhibition dances—one at 10.30 and the other at midnight. They finished the first one. After it, I noticed Ruby dancing with one of the young men staying in the hotel. I was playing bridge with some people in the lounge. There’s a glass panel between the lounge and the ballroom. That’s the last time I saw her. Just after midnight Raymond came up in a terrible taking, said where was Ruby, she hadn’t turned up, and it was time to begin. I was vexed, I can tell you! That’s the sort of silly thing girls do and get the management’s backs up and then they get the sack! I went up with him to her room, but she wasn’t there. I noticed that she’d changed. The dress she’d been dancing in—a sort of pink, foamy thing with full skirts—was lying over a chair. Usually she kept the same dress on unless it was the special dance night—Wednesdays, that is.

      ‘I’d no idea where she’d got to. We got the band to play one more foxtrot—still no Ruby, so I said to Raymond I’d do the exhibition dance with him. We chose one that was easy on my ankle and made it short—but it played up my ankle pretty badly all the same. It’s all swollen this morning. Still Ruby didn’t show up. We sat about waiting up for her until two o’clock. Furious with her, I was.’

      Her voice vibrated slightly. Melchett caught the note of real anger in it. Just for a moment he wondered. The reaction seemed a little more intense than was justified by the facts. He had a feeling of something deliberately left unsaid. He said:

      ‘And this morning, when Ruby Keene had not returned and her bed had not been slept in, you went to the police?’

      He knew from Slack’s brief telephone message from Danemouth that that was not the case. But he wanted to hear what Josephine Turner would say.

      She did not hesitate. She said: ‘No, I didn’t.’

      ‘Why not, Miss Turner?’

      Her eyes met his frankly. She said:

      ‘You wouldn’t—in my place!’

      ‘You think not?’

      Josie said:

      ‘I’ve got my job to think about. The one thing a hotel doesn’t want is scandal—especially anything that brings in the police. I didn’t think anything had happened to Ruby. Not for a minute! I thought she’d just made a fool of herself about some young man. I thought she’d turn up all right—and I was going to give her a good dressing down when she did! Girls of eighteen are such fools.’

      Melchett pretended to glance through his notes.

      ‘Ah, yes, I see it was a Mr Jefferson who went to the police. One of the guests staying at the hotel?’

      Josephine Turner said shortly:

      ‘Yes.’

      Colonel Melchett asked:

      ‘What made this Mr Jefferson do that?’

      Josie was stroking the cuff of her jacket. There was a constraint in her manner. Again Colonel Melchett had a feeling that something was being withheld. She said rather sullenly:

      ‘He’s an invalid. He—he gets all het up rather easily. Being an invalid, I mean.’

      Melchett passed on from that. He asked:

      ‘Who was the young man with whom you last saw your cousin dancing?’

      ‘His name’s Bartlett. He’d been there about ten days.’

      ‘Were they on very friendly terms?’

      ‘Not specially, I should say. Not that I knew, anyway.’

      Again a curious note of anger in her voice.

      ‘What does he have to say?’

      ‘Said that after their dance Ruby went upstairs to powder her nose.’

      ‘That was when she changed her dress?’

      ‘I suppose so.’

      ‘And that is the last thing you know? After that she just—’

      ‘Vanished,’ said Josie. ‘That’s right.’

      ‘Did Miss Keene know anybody in St Mary Mead? Or in this neighbourhood?’

      ‘I don’t know. She may have done. You see, quite a lot of young men come into Danemouth to the Majestic from all round about. I wouldn’t know where they lived unless they happened to mention it.’

      ‘Did you ever hear your cousin mention Gossington?’

      ‘Gossington?’ Josie looked patently puzzled.

      ‘Gossington Hall.’

      She shook her head.

      ‘Never heard of it.’ Her tone carried conviction. There was curiosity in it too.

      ‘Gossington Hall,’ explained Colonel Melchett, ‘is where her body was found.’

      ‘Gossington Hall?’ She stared. ‘How extraordinary!’

      Melchett thought to himself: ‘Extraordinary’s the word!’ Aloud he said:

      ‘Do you know a Colonel or Mrs Bantry?’

      Again Josie shook her head.

      ‘Or a Mr Basil Blake?’

      She frowned slightly.

      ‘I think I’ve heard that name. Yes, I’m sure I have—but I don’t remember anything about him.’

      The diligent Inspector Slack slid across to his superior officer a page torn from his note-book. On it was pencilled:

       ‘Col. Bantry dined at Majestic

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