to clean up a mess of liqueurs that he'd dropped in the great hall when Francesca Gerrard banged into him as she left the sitting room. It took him nearly an hour. Even with Helen's help, by the way."
Lynley ignored the final reference, saying only, "And?"
Barbara knew what Lynley wanted, but she delayed a bit by focussing on the minor players in the drama, whose comings and goings Gowan had remembered in astonishing detail. Lady Stinhurst, clad in black, wandering aimlessly between drawing room, dining room, sitting room, and great hall until after midnight when her husband came from above stairs to fetch her; Jeremy Vinney finding excuses to follow Lady Stinhurst, murmuring questions which she steadfastly ignored; Joanna Ellacourt, storming down an upstairs corridor in a violent fit of temper after a loud argument with her husband; Irene Sinclair and Robert Gabriel closeting themselves in the library. The house had eventually fallen into relative calm at about half past twelve.
Barbara heard Lynley say with his usual perspicacity, "But that's not all Gowan saw, I imagine."
Her teeth pulled at the inside of her lower lip. "No, that's not all. Later, after he'd gone to bed, he heard footsteps in the corridor outside his door. He's right on the corner, where the lower northwest wing meets the great hall. He's not certain of the time except that it was well after half past twelve. Close to one, he thinks. He was curious because of all the excitement in the evening. So he got out of bed, cracked his door, and listened."
"And?"
"More footsteps. And then a door opened and closed." Barbara wasn't particularly eager to relate the rest of Gowan's tale, and she knew her face reflected that reluctance. Nonetheless, she plodded forward and completed the story, relating how Gowan had left his room, gone to the end of the corridor, and peered out into the great hall. It was dark-he'd shut off the lights himself just minutes before-but the exterior estate lights managed to provide a faint illumination.
Barbara saw from the swift change of Lynley's expression that he read what was coming. "He saw Davies-Jones," he said.
"Yes. But he was coming out of the library, not the dining room where the dirks are, Inspector. He had a bottle. It must have been the cognac he took up to Helen." She waited for Lynley to offer the inevitable, the conclusion she had already worked out for herself. A trip to pick up a dirk in the dining room was every bit as convenient as one to pick up cognac thirty feet away in the library. And always there remained the fact that Joy Sinclair's hall door had been locked.
However, Lynley merely said, "What else?"
"Nothing. Davies-Jones went upstairs."
Lynley nodded grimly. "Let's do so ourselves."
He led Barbara towards the back stairway. Narrow, uncarpeted, lit only by two unshaded bulbs, and entirely devoid of decoration, it would take them to the west wing of the house.
"What about Mary Agnes?" Lynley asked as they climbed.
"She didn't hear a sound during the night according to the statement I had from her prior to this new Gabriel-twist. Just the wind, she said. But of course, she may well have heard that from Gabriel's room, not her own. However, there was one curious item, and I think you need to hear it." She waited until Lynley paused and turned on the stair above her. Near his left hand, a largish stain marred the wall, much the shape of Australia. It looked like a patch of damp. "Immediately after she found the body this morning, Mary Agnes went for Francesca Gerrard. They fetched Lord Stinhurst together. He went into Joy's room, came out a moment later, and ordered Mary Agnes to go back to her own room and wait for Mrs. Gerrard to come for her."
"I'm not certain I see your point, Sergeant."
"My point is that Francesca Gerrard didn't come back to fetch Mary Agnes from her room for the next twenty minutes. And only then did Lord Stinhurst tell Mary Agnes to begin waking the household and telling them to come to the drawing room. In the meantime, he placed some phone calls from Francesca's office-it's next to Mary Agnes' bedroom, so she could hear his voice. And, Inspector, he received two calls as well."
When Lynley didn't react to this piece of information, Barbara felt her earlier irritation begin to bite. "Sir, you've not forgotten Lord Stinhurst, have you? You know who he is: the man who ought to