The Footsteps That Stopped (Musaicum Murder Mysteries). Dorothy Fielding

he had barely known that she existed.

      Walking up to the house just now, he had wondered whether the explanation of the discrepancies in her statements which had puzzled Pointer was going to turn out one of those sordid, triangular affairs called usual, because they are the exception. She did not look like a charmer. But you never could tell. Never. At a first glance she seemed to consist chiefly of negatives. She was not old. Neither did she suggest youth. Without being pretty, she was not bad-looking. Apparently she had no marked characteristics of any kind, unless it were those of the perfect background. She seemed a type of "Ye Discrete Companioun." Silent. Dark. Attentive.

      Gazing at her intently, Wilmot put her age, correctly, as close on forty. For the first time focussing his mind on her as she sat composedly facing Haviland,—Pointer was casually glancing through the morning paper,—noting her down-dropped lids, her pale, tight lips, Wilmot felt as though he were standing in front of a house with drawn blinds and closed doors, behind which were wild doings.

      It was one of his intuitive, telepathic impressions which, so far, had never let him down.

      "I should like to run through the facts of yesterday again, with you," Haviland explained, "for the benefit of Mr. Wilmot who is looking into Mrs. Tangye's death. He has asked the Chief Inspector and me to put a few more questions." She said nothing.

      "How long have you been with Mrs. Tangye?"

      "Three years." The little dark eyes looked up for a second. Something in the glance told Wilmot that the time had seemed long to this woman; very long.

      "And before that?"

      "I was mother's help to a Mrs. Wren. She will be quite willing to answer any questions. I was with her five years, and left of my own choice."

      "May I ask why Mrs. Tangye wanted a companion originally?" Pointer asked.

      "Chiefly for music. She had a good voice also, she was extremely fond of duets."

      "Were you ever a nurse?" the Chief Inspector continued. She looked surprised. "Never."

      "Was Mrs. Wren's husband a doctor? Was your father anything connected with medicine?"

      She was obviously puzzled. "Mr. Wren was a vicar. My father was an organist. I've never had anything whatever to do with nursing, or medicine, or illness, or anything of that sort. Why do you ask?"

      "Only part of our regular routine," Pointer said reassuringly. He rose and, followed by Haviland, stepped out through the French windows to look over the garden. They had agreed that Wilmot should be left alone with her to do some of the questioning.

      "Now, between ourselves, Miss Saunders, what sort of a woman was Mrs. Tangye?" Wilmot spoke confidentially. It was a tone that had helped him more than once. It was wasted on Miss Saunders.

      "Do you think there's much difference in women?" she asked indifferently. "Much real difference?"

      "The Colonel's lady, and Judy O'Grady," he quoted with a smile.

      "Quite so. Though there's no case of Judy here," she spoke sharply. "Mrs. Tangye is dead, poor soul. Dead." She repeated the word, lingering on it. To Wilmot's acute ear there was something approaching unction in her voice. "I, for one, would rather say nothing against her."

      And with that she gave a most illuminating character sketch of her late employer. Envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness were in every sentence. According to her, Mrs. Tangye had been a selfish virago.

      "Yet you stuck it here for three years," Wilmot said thought fully.

      "The pay was good."

      Pointer and the Superintendent returned from their inspection of the garden.

      "All seems in order. Now, Miss Saunders, about Mrs. Tangye's last days—"

      But when it came to Monday, Regina Saunders was of no help. Once a month she had that day off in addition to her free Sundays. As she had explained at the inquest, this last Moriday had been her own, and been spent away from Riverview.

      "And when did you decide to leave here?" Pointer asked. "You could hardly expect me to stop on after Mrs. Tangye's death," she said coldly.

      "It's a censorious world," Pointer agreed, "still—you left—when?"

      "About seven, I think."

      "I see. Now, as we explained to you, this gentleman," Pointer turned to Wilmot, "is investigating the death on behalf of the Insurance Society, and we want to give him all the aid we can. Would you object to occupying your old room again for a few days? It would be a help to be able to turn to you at any time."

      "I am here all day. I am staying on to superintend the household for a little while—at Mr. Tangye's request. But I prefer to go home to my sister's at night."

      "But to oblige us? Just for a night or two?" Pointer wheedled. "Something might turn up after you had left here?"

      Miss Saunders looked impatient.

      "I never go back on a decision. Once I have made up my mind, I stick to it."

      "Admirable trait," Wilmot murmured in mock admiration.

      "We should, of course, expect the Insurance Society to pay for the convenience," Pointer went on, "a pound a night is the usual thing, I believe, in a case of this kind, where it's done merely to help the investigation, and is only a question of two, or at most three nights." He turned to Wilmot. "Quite so; a pound a night," Wilmot agreed.

      Miss Saunders pondered the proposal for the first time. Evidently Pointer's improvised tariff appealed to her. But after a minute she shook her head. "I prefer to go to my sister's, as I have arranged."

      There was a pause.

      "Did any one see you leave the house yesterday when you went to the circulating library?" Haviland asked.

      "I don't know. But at any rate the person who served me with tea in the Japanese tea-room next door might remember me. She knows me by sight quite well." Miss Saunders spoke indifferently.

      "Did Mrs. Tangye want any particular book brought back, or leave it to you?" Pointer asked.

      "She left it to me. I found nothing that she would care for, so I brought home the book she had given me. She had not quite finished it I knew."

      "Did you ask the librarian for any book?"

      "No."

      "You didn't change any book whatever there?"

      "No."

      Pointer glanced at Wilmot.

      "Now going back to the cause of Mrs. Tangye's death," the newspaper man began, "which is what I want to establish, you feel sure that she didn't shoot herself intentionally?"

      "Quite sure. Why should she shoot herself? She had everything in the world that she wanted, hadn't she?" the last words came with a rush.

      "Do you mean Mr. Tangye?" Wilmot asked so blankly that Haviland bit his lip.

      "I mean everything." But Miss Saunders spoke more guardedly. "Mrs. Tangye wasn't used to the kind of life he gave her. A motor, and maids, and that. She told me herself once that she had known what it was to be bitterly poor."

      The stipend of the Reverend Charles Headly having been under three hundred a year, out of which he had to pay a curate, the men thought that that was quite likely.

      "Then you think she was happy?" persisted Wilmot.

      "As much as her temperament would let her, I do. She was one of those women who always want what they haven't got.. She was always contrasting Mr. Tangye with Mr. Branscombe's perfections."

      "That doesn't sound to me a happy life," Haviland murmured.

      Miss Saunders flashed him an ironic glance.

      "You mean in fact that they quarrelled?" he persisted.

      "They led the usual married life," she said dryly. Wilmot laughed, while Haviland, who was