‘They have not been informed –’

‘On the contrary, unknown to Colonel Cartarette, they were informed by the author.’

‘Indeed?’ said Mr Phinn, trembling slightly. ‘If they possess any vestige of professional rectitude they will refuse to divulge the content.’

‘As you do?’

‘As I do. I shall refuse any information in this affair, no matter what pressure is put upon me, Inspector Alleyn.’

Mr Phinn had already turned aside when his garden gate creaked and Alleyn said quietly: ‘Good morning once again, Lady Lacklander.’

Mr Phinn spun round with an inarticulate ejaculation.

She stood blinking in the sun, without expression and very slightly tremulous.

‘Roderick,’ said Lady Lacklander, ‘I have come to confess.’

10. Return to Swevenings

CHAPTER 10

Return to Swevenings

Lady Lacklander advanced slowly towards them.

‘If that contraption of yours will support my weight, Octavius,’ she said, ‘I’ll take it.’

They stood aside for her. Mr Phinn suddenly began to gabble: ‘No, no, no! Not another word! I forbid it.’

She let herself down on a rustic seat.

‘For God’s sake,’ Mr Phinn implored her frantically, ‘hold your tongue, Lady L.’

‘Nonsense, Occy,’ she rejoined, panting slightly. ‘Hold yours, my good fool.’ She stared at him for a moment and then gave a sort of laugh.

‘Good lord, you think I did it myself, do you?’

‘No, no, no. What a thing to say!’

She shifted her great torso and addressed herself to Alleyn. ‘I’m here, Roderick, virtually on behalf of my husband. The confession I have to offer is his.’

‘At last,’ Alleyn said. ‘Chapter 7.’

‘Precisely. I’ve no idea how much you think you already know or how much you may have been told.’

‘By me,’ Mr Phinn cried out, ‘nothing!’

‘Humph!’ she said. ‘Uncommon generous of you, Octavius.’

Mr Phinn began to protest, threw up his hands and was silent.

‘There are, however, other sources,’ she went on. ‘I understand his wife has been kept posted.’ She stared at Alleyn who thought: ‘George has told Kitty Cartarette about Chapter 7 and Lady Lacklander has found out. She thinks Kitty has told me.’ He said nothing.

‘You may suppose, therefore,’ Lady Lacklander continued, ‘that I am merely making a virtue of necessity.’

Alleyn bowed.

‘It is not altogether that. To begin with, we are, as a family, under a certain obligation to you, Octavius.’

‘Stop!’ Mr Phinn shouted. ‘Before you go on much further, before you utter –’

‘Mr Phinn,’ Alleyn cut in, breaking about three vital items of the police code in one sentence, ‘if you don’t stop chattering, I shall take drastic steps to make you. Shut up, Mr Phinn.’

‘Yes, Occy,’ Lady Lacklander said. ‘I couldn’t agree more. Either shut up or take yourself off, my dear fellow.’ She lifted a tiny, fat hand, holding it aloft as if it was one of Mr Phinn’s kittens. ‘Do me the favour,’ she said, ‘of believing I have thought things over very carefully and be quiet.’