Read Online The Act of Roger Murgatroyd by Gilbert Adair - Free Book Online

else to speak first, exactly as happens at many apublic lecture, whose listeners, visibly aching to interrupt the lecturer with their own opinions, opinions just as passionately held as his, suddenly seem to be struck dumb when questions are thrown open to members of the audience.
    It was, as ever, Evadne Mount who broke the silence.
    ‘Since you lot seem too timid to speak up, I will. I’m all for it. Matter of fact, Trubshawe, I might even give you a helping hand. Only if you wanted me to, of course. But we whodunit writers have a few aces up our sleeves, you know, just as you coppers have.’
    ‘No comment,’ replied the Chief-Inspector in an amiably dismissive aside. ‘But thank you anyway, Miss Mount, for taking the initiative. That’s one in favour. Any other takers? Rolfe?’
    ‘It
is
irregular, of course,’ said the Doctor, ‘but it certainly does seem to me preferable to doing nothing at all. I’m with you.’
    ‘Good. That makes two.’
    ‘However,’ Rolfe continued, ‘I would like to remind the undecideds’ – he gave his friends a steady appraising glance – ‘that the presence in this house of Raymond Gentry has reopened a number of wounds that many of you, many of
us
, believed and hoped had been closed for good. I fear the Chief-Inspector’s questions are going to open up those wounds even wider. We’ve all got to be prepared for that, am I not right, Trubshawe?’
    ‘Yes, Doctor, you are, and that was well put. As I saidbefore, I’m not in a position to oblige any of you to answer my questions. You won’t be required to take any kind of oath, as you would in a courtroom. And if you should opt to lie to me, no action could be taken against you, which would not be the case during a proper police interrogation, where lying is a very serious offence indeed.
    ‘Let me add, though, that if in your mind you’re already planning to be, well, economic with the truth, then, frankly, I’d prefer we didn’t waste our time by embarking on the experiment at all. You may like to think of it as a bit of a game, but, don’t forget, there’s not much point to any game, be it Ping-Pong or Mah-Jongg, if you refuse to abide by the rules.’
    ‘Then may I make a rather controversial suggestion?’
    ‘Please, Doctor, any suggestion, any sensible suggestion, is welcome.’
    ‘We’re all old friends here, aren’t we?’ said Rolfe. ‘And with everything that’s due to happen in the next few days whatever we elect to do now – the police trampling over our lives, the press snapping at our heels – our friendship is going to be put under a greater strain than it’s ever known. Already, both Evie and Trubshawe have spoken about how easy it is to poison the atmosphere with no more than a few lethal droplets of suspicion. Luckily, we haven’t had enough time yet to savour those droplets. But when the police do manage to get here, I guarantee there won’t be one of us who hasn’t hysterically accused his dearest friend of the murder of Raymond Gentry.
    ‘So it does appear to me to make extremely good sense to let the Chief-Inspector conduct his interviews. But what I also propose is this. So that none of us starts worrying about just what helpful little clues the others might be dropping into his ear in private, he should question us all together.’
    ‘All together?’ retorted an incredulous Colonel. ‘You mean, we all speak to Trubshawe in front of each other?’
    ‘That’s exactly what I mean. That we’re all present when each of us is being questioned. If dirty linen is going to be aired in public, then let it really be aired in public. It won’t be pleasant for any of us, I’ll be bound, but at least we’ll all be in the same boat. Otherwise, don’t you see, questioning us individually behind closed doors could destroy our friendship just as surely as not questioning us at all.’
    The Chief-Inspector was manifestly intrigued by this notion, but he was also perturbed by its