"I wonder. Of course Gilbert made many enemies."
"Political enemies?"
"Yes, and private ones also. My dear Wilfred," said Lady Jenny, laying her hand on the young man's arm, "I wish to speak well of the dead, especially as the dead was my husband, but Gilbert was not a good man."
Wilfred looked at her doubtfully. "You speak as though you knew something."
"So I do; but that something has nothing to do, with the murder. I have no more idea who killed him than you have."
This conversation was interrupted by a message from Inspector Woke asking to see Lady Jenny, so she left the room at once. Mr. Inspector, a fat, stolid little man, much flurried by the unusual responsibility resting on his shoulders, had already seen the doctor and those who had found the body. He set about opening up the matter in his own way.
"I have seen the doctor, my lady," he said, wiping his face and breathing hard. "He tells me the deceased must have been murdered at about half-past nine last night. The wound is on the right temple, and as the skin and hair are burned and blackened with gunpowder, the shot must have been fired at close quarters. Death must have come very speedily, my lady. We can find no bullet, as it passed right through the deceased's head, and no weapon, although we have searched the orchards. All the evidence, my lady, must be circumstantial. We must find out who had a grudge against the deceased, or who had an interest in his death."
Lady Jenny arranged the ruffles of crape round her neck--she was in mourning for her father, and had been for some weeks--and laughed coldly. She thought very little of this elaborate explanation, and less of the man who made it. The inspector she took to be a man of the smallest intelligence, and one wedded to the red-tapeism and stereotyped routine of criminal procedure as conducted by the police generally.
"Mr. Malet had many enemies," she said quietly. "He was a politician, and at one time--not so long ago--was connected with the War Office."
"Can you tell me the names of any who had a grudge against him, my lady?"