Basil decided this was not an auspicious moment to mention Pauline’s name. “Sometimes I think a popular man’s desire to please everybody does more harm than the worst vices,” he agreed blandly.
“Then there are at least three motives,” resumed Lambert. “And of course, that’s just two too many.”
“In other words, this murder follows the same pattern in motive as in opportunity,” responded Basil. “At first we had too many people with opportunity to commit the murder, and now we have too many people with motives. All three of these motives were matters of general public knowledge—two were rooted in a will, a matter of public record, and one in the affair between Wanda and Rodney which was widely publicized. It seems to me we were meant to discover these motives. It’s all part of the murderer’s plan to diffuse suspicion among as many people as possible.”
“But we still have one advantage,” insisted Foyle. “Opportunity limits our suspects to four people.”
“No,” said Basil. “Three—providing we accept Adeane’s testimony that Margot Ingelow left the alcove before her husband entered it. Only Wanda and Rod have both motive and opportunity. Leonard had opportunity without motive and Margot had motive without opportunity.”
“Can’t you break down the alibi Adeane is giving Margot?” suggested Lambert.
“Adeane is thinking only of himself,” answered Basil. “It’s hard to tell whether he’s telling the truth about Margot or whether he only gave her an alibi in the hope that she would repay him for it by backing his play.”
“What about finding a motive for Leonard?”
“This was a premeditated murder,” answered Basil. “The weapon—the situation—everything was prepared beforehand. That means that the motive must be unusually compelling. Almost anyone may kill on impulse, but premeditated murder must have a motive strong enough to sustain a mood of cold fury that nullifies all fear of punishment. It must be a motive that makes every alternative to murder seem intolerable. So far we haven’t learned anything about Leonard that suggests a motive of such intensity.”
“I don’t want motives!” exclaimed Foyle. “I want evidence. And I don’t see how I’m going to get it.”
“I can see several possibilities.” Basil turned to Lambert. “Have you tried a spectrograph on that knife handle?”
“Is it as important as all that?”
“It never hurts to try.”
“I don’t suppose you could give me any idea what to look for?”
“If I were you, I’d look for the constituents of butyric acid.”
This remark had no effect on Foyle, but it seemed to startle Lambert. “You don’t mean—?”
Basil cut him short. “I mean that every possibility should be tested.”
“Any little job for me?” queried Foyle.
“You might try to find out more about the dark figure on the fire escape that night. If it was the murderer—what was he or she doing there? Why was Wanda’s copy of the script dropped? And why was that line spoken by Hutchins marked?” I don’t believe it was anything so melodramatic as a warning or a threat. This murder was planned by a neat, ingenious mind—not a flamboyant one.”
“I’ve assumed all along that the figure was the murderer,” said Foyle. “But I suppose it could have been anyone.”
“Anyone who had a black cloak at the theater that night,” answered Basil. “Or a cloak that would look black in a dim light. I saw Wanda, Leonard, and Rodney so soon after that incident they wouldn’t have had time to change. Wanda was in yellow, Rodney in pale blue, Leonard in bright red. After the murder, when we searched the dressing rooms, we found that the men had no dark coats or cloaks they could have worn over their light-colored dressing gowns and suits. Wanda had a dark brown sable cloak that enveloped her from head to heels, but she told me this morning that it didn’t reach the theater until just after the curtain rose—a long time after the incident. Margot Ingelow was wearing a long, sooty, black velvet cloak at the theater that evening, and Ingelow himself was wearing a black overcoat and black trousers when I saw him at the cocktail bar just beforehand.”
“But what would either of the Ingelows be doing on the fire escape with Wanda’s script?” demanded Foyle.
“I don’t know. At the moment it seems as if it must have been one of them, and yet that doesn’t fit any other detail of the crime as I see it now.”
“It would make Mrs. Ingelow the most likely suspect,” went on Foyle. “Don’t you believe it’s possible that she is the murderer?”
Basil rose and turned toward the door. “I shan’t accuse anyone seriously until I find out exactly why the fly was attracted to the knife handle, and why the canary was let out of its cage.”
Lambert laughed. “He knows—or guesses—a lot more than he’s telling, Inspector. Butyric acid!” The words seemed to fascinate Lambert. “That’s what I call neat!”
II
