Death at Hallows End Read Online Free

that?”
    â€œNot long. Duncan must have been in his fifties at the time. You may discount any thought of his having been kidnapped if you had any idea like that. Duncan would never allow it.”
    â€œYou must have something to account for his disappearance, though,” pleaded Carolus.
    â€œI never theorise,” announced Theodora. “But I must confess to you that I begin to have the blackest forebodings. I
know
that he is not absent by his own wish. I
know
that he would never give me a moment’s anxiety if he could help it. Then what remains? I ask you, Mr. Deene. What possibility remains?”
    â€œSeveral,” said Carolus. “Loss of memory. An accident. Sudden illness.”
    Theodora shook her head. “No! No! I have intuitions, Mr. Deene. I can see only one way of accounting for his disappearance and it is the most terrible. But how or why it can have happened is beyond my imagination. It is for you to discover that.”
    â€œI hope it may not be. I hope we shall find some other explanation. I am going tomorrow to Hallows End and when I have even the smallest information I’ll phone you or Thripp at once to tell you what I can.”
    He had a most uncomfortable feeling about Theodora Humby. It was as though her habit of dramatisation demanded to be fed with more startling events, as though she would in some macabre way almost enjoy receiving news of her husband’s death. This did not mean that she was indifferent to him. She might even love him in her fashion. But she was clearly a pathological case and her histrionics were a kind of outlet for her emotions.
    She was very quiet now. Carolus thought there was something furtive, almost snakelike in her eyes as she looked aside at him.
    â€œYou think you will find him?” she asked.
    â€œHow can I say?”
    â€œExactly. How can you? We know nothing really. Do we even know that he left Newminster?”
    â€œHis car …”
    â€œBut many people can drive a car. Anyone who knew that he intended to go to Hallows End might have driven it there.”
    â€œBut who did know?” asked Carolus. He could scarcely believe that her suggestion pointed in the direction it might seem to point.
    â€œThat is for you to discover, surely. I certainly did not. But someone must have done.”
    Carolus kept his eyes on her face as he asked the next question.
    â€œSurely he told you that he would be later than usual in coming home that evening?”
    â€œHe did! Of course he did! But it was quite casually that he mentioned it. A matter of business. He had to drive out somewhere to see a client. He would get something to eat on the way back. Nothing more was said.”
    â€œOn the way back. Then you gathered that he had to go some considerable distance?”
    â€œI gave very little thought to it at the time.”
    â€œIs it possible that he said anything to Mrs. Caplan?”
    â€œAsk her, Mr. Deene. Leave no stone unturned! If my good Caplan knows anything she will tell you at once. I will take you to her little sitting room. She will be watching the television now. Unless there is anything more you wish to ask me?”
    Carolus was silent for a moment. He felt certain that Theodora knew things that would be valuable, but he doubted whether she herself was aware of this. He decided that until he had gone farther and could make his questions definite and explicit, it was useless to press her with vague enquiries.
    â€œNo. Nothing,” he said. “At least for the present. Yes, I should like to see Mrs. Caplan.”
    â€œYou shall. Come with me. She is so much more realistic than I am. I can only wish that I were as unimaginative as she. Imagination, in circumstances like these, is a terrible thing.”
    They found Molly Caplan warming her toes before a bright coal fire. When she saw Carolus she switched off the television.
    â€œMr. Deene would like to ask you one or two things,” said