Burgundy which arrived lukewarm, and they ended with bad coffee of the same temperature.
âYou got all that?â asked Rupert, referring to his conversation with the barmaid.
âYes. Iâll have a word with Mrs Gunn in the morning.â
He did. He went up after breakfast and found her making his bed. She was a heavily-built, hard-breathing person with hair on her upper lip and a wheezy voice, which did not prevent her from being garrulous.
Carolus thought he might as well risk it and come straight to the point. âMrs Gunn,â he said, âIâve been asked to make an independent investigation of the murder. I hear this is the room in which the suspect slept.â
âYes, in this very bed,â whistled Mrs Gunn asthmatically. âThatâs if he could sleep at all which I couldnât if I was going to do for someone next day and had it all planned out before I got to bed so that Iâd toss and turn thinking about it, but perhaps he didnât worry at the time though heâs paid for it now jumping off a ship and doing for himself which I must say surprised me from what I remember of himâ¦.â
âWhat do you remember of him?â
âWell it wasnât as though I saw a lot of him not to say as you would see anyone you knew well but I did meet him in the passage the first evening and noticed he was a big party with glasses and the sort of clothes my uncle used to wear who was an undertaker till his business failed from not enough dying he used to say but I believe it was the drink because he kept it in the house and thatâs always a bad sign though â¦â
âSo you only caught that one glimpse of the suspected murderer, Mrs Gunn?â
âNo, I saw him next morning when I took his breakfast in which heâd ordered the night before only he was in bed and just shouted âput it down thereâ at me and I thought to myself âwhat a voiceâ, I thought, âI wonder if thatâs how he speaks or if heâs trying to be rudeâ but I didnât say anything only put the tray down and went out of the room closing the door which had been locked before when I got there and had to be unlocked by him jumping out of bed and telling me to wait a minute while he jumped in again before I opened the door which has happened with others before nowâ¦.â
âThat was the last?â
âNo there was once more that afternoon when he was packing up and I went to see if he wanted anything and he came to the door and said he didnât but didnât think to leave anything on the dressing-table which I always think is mean though there is the percentage and that which is never really the Same Thingâ¦.â
âSo you didnât exchange any conversation with him?â
âNot to say conversation, no. In fact there was nothing said at all except what Iâve told you.â
âI understand that while he was out that afternoon you came to do his room and found his passport lying about?â
âThatâs right. It was right on top of his suit-case which Iâd just opened to pop something in and I couldnât help seeing it because it might have been left there to be looked at â¦â
âYou mean it was
open ?â
âWell not actually open but there it was right on top of everything and waiting for anyone just to notice what was in it â¦â
âSo you examined it?â
âOh no, I never did any such thing. I just peeped at thefront page thatâs all and saw that it was the same gentleman in the photograph but he had a different name to what heâd given in the hotel and what was on the label of one of his suit-cases. Not that I thought much about it at the time but when there was all this lark about the murder I thought to myselfâthatâs funny, I wonder if itâs got anything to do with itâ, so I told Mr Habbard who said heâd better tell the
âYou got all that?â asked Rupert, referring to his conversation with the barmaid.
âYes. Iâll have a word with Mrs Gunn in the morning.â
He did. He went up after breakfast and found her making his bed. She was a heavily-built, hard-breathing person with hair on her upper lip and a wheezy voice, which did not prevent her from being garrulous.
Carolus thought he might as well risk it and come straight to the point. âMrs Gunn,â he said, âIâve been asked to make an independent investigation of the murder. I hear this is the room in which the suspect slept.â
âYes, in this very bed,â whistled Mrs Gunn asthmatically. âThatâs if he could sleep at all which I couldnât if I was going to do for someone next day and had it all planned out before I got to bed so that Iâd toss and turn thinking about it, but perhaps he didnât worry at the time though heâs paid for it now jumping off a ship and doing for himself which I must say surprised me from what I remember of himâ¦.â
âWhat do you remember of him?â
âWell it wasnât as though I saw a lot of him not to say as you would see anyone you knew well but I did meet him in the passage the first evening and noticed he was a big party with glasses and the sort of clothes my uncle used to wear who was an undertaker till his business failed from not enough dying he used to say but I believe it was the drink because he kept it in the house and thatâs always a bad sign though â¦â
âSo you only caught that one glimpse of the suspected murderer, Mrs Gunn?â
âNo, I saw him next morning when I took his breakfast in which heâd ordered the night before only he was in bed and just shouted âput it down thereâ at me and I thought to myself âwhat a voiceâ, I thought, âI wonder if thatâs how he speaks or if heâs trying to be rudeâ but I didnât say anything only put the tray down and went out of the room closing the door which had been locked before when I got there and had to be unlocked by him jumping out of bed and telling me to wait a minute while he jumped in again before I opened the door which has happened with others before nowâ¦.â
âThat was the last?â
âNo there was once more that afternoon when he was packing up and I went to see if he wanted anything and he came to the door and said he didnât but didnât think to leave anything on the dressing-table which I always think is mean though there is the percentage and that which is never really the Same Thingâ¦.â
âSo you didnât exchange any conversation with him?â
âNot to say conversation, no. In fact there was nothing said at all except what Iâve told you.â
âI understand that while he was out that afternoon you came to do his room and found his passport lying about?â
âThatâs right. It was right on top of his suit-case which Iâd just opened to pop something in and I couldnât help seeing it because it might have been left there to be looked at â¦â
âYou mean it was
open ?â
âWell not actually open but there it was right on top of everything and waiting for anyone just to notice what was in it â¦â
âSo you examined it?â
âOh no, I never did any such thing. I just peeped at thefront page thatâs all and saw that it was the same gentleman in the photograph but he had a different name to what heâd given in the hotel and what was on the label of one of his suit-cases. Not that I thought much about it at the time but when there was all this lark about the murder I thought to myselfâthatâs funny, I wonder if itâs got anything to do with itâ, so I told Mr Habbard who said heâd better tell the
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