“It will be seex years next month. I am chef for a friend of M’sieu in Paris and when he is kill’ in the war M’sieu send for me. When the war it is finish’ M’sieu permits that my cousin Jean who was a poilu come also to be houseman. Jean and me, we do not concern ourselves with the affairs of Hughes, we know of him nothing!”
“Who comes here to see him, besides Snape, the butler from next door?” McCarty asked.
“No one.” André wiped his hands and came slowly around the table. “It is not often that we see Snape, for he arrive’ in the evening late, and when the dinner is finish’ Jean and me, we have our own affairs together.”
“What time did you and the rest have dinner last night?” McCarty dropped the futile line of questioning. “It was before you served Mr. Orbit and his company, wasn’t it?”
“But yes. At seex hours and a half.” The reply came promptly, in obvious relief.
“Did Hughes eat with you?”
“Of a certainty!” André looked his surprise. “Fu Moy arrange’ the tables in our dining-room there—one for himself and Ching Lee, who prefers that they eat alone together, and the other for us three, but Hughes he is late, he attend upon M’sieu. Ching Lee and Fu Moy have almost finish’ and Jean and me, we think we will wait no longer when at last Hughes he comes.”
“Did he tell you he was going out?”
“Not until after dinner. Ching Lee have gone to make complete the table for M’sieu and his guests and Fu Moy to robe himself in the little jaquette of embroidered satin that later he may serve coffee and liqueurs. Then Hughes says that he will go for a walk. Jean warns him that it will make rain—how you say? A storm, it is coming, but Hughes does not care, it is for his health that he walks. Jean and me, we think that is droll for there is nothing the matter with the health of Hughes, only that he drinks too much and often he is out very late.” Again André checked himself and then went on hurriedly. “It is the last month, perhaps two, that he is not look so well, but he is not seek, nevaire. He goes, and—”
“What time was this?” McCarty interrupted.