The Mousetrap

LEONARD. No, I didn’t. Indeed I didn’t. But she seemed to—well, assume it, and I thought perhaps if I kept dragging Romaine into it she’d, well, lose interest in me. I didn’t want exactly to cadge money from her, but I’d invented a gadget for a car—a really good idea it is—and if I could have persuaded her to finance that, well, I mean it would have been her money, and it might have brought her in a lot. Oh, it’s very difficult to explain—but I wasn’t sponging on her, Sir Wilfrid, really I wasn’t.

SIRWILFRID. What sums of money did you obtain at any time from Miss French?

LEONARD. None. None at all.

SIRWILFRID. Tell me something about the housekeeper.

LEONARD. Janet MacKenzie? She was a regular old tyrant, you know, Janet was. Fairly bullied poor Miss French. Looked after her very well and all that, but the poor old dear couldn’t call her soul her own when Janet was about. (Thoughtfully.) Janet didn’t like me at all.

SIRWILFRID. Why didn’t she like you?

LEONARD. Oh, jealous, I expect. I don’t think she liked my helping Miss French with her business affairs.

SIRWILFRID. Oh, so you helped Miss French with her business affairs?

LEONARD. Yes. She was worried about some of her investments and things, and she found it a bit difficult to fill up forms and all that sort of thing. Yes, I helped her with a lot of things like that.

SIRWILFRID. Now, Mr. Vole, I’m going to ask you a very serious question. And it’s one to which it’s vital I should have a truthful answer. You were in low water financially, you had the handling of this lady’s affairs. Now did you at any time convert to your own use the securities that you handled?

(LEONARD is about to repudiate this hotly.)

Now, wait a minute, Mr. Vole, before you answer. Because, you see, there are two points of view. Either we can make a feature of your probity and honesty or, if you swindled the woman in any way, then we must take the line that you had no motive for murder, since you had already a profitable source of income. You can see that there are advantages in either point of view. What I want is the truth. Take your time if you like before you reply.

LEONARD. I assure you, Sir Wilfrid, that I played dead straight and you won’t find anything to the contrary. Dead straight.

SIRWILFRID. Thank you, Mr. Vole. You relieve my mind very much. I pay you the compliment of believing that you are far too intelligent to lie over such a vital matter. And we now come to October the. . . (He hesitates.)

MAYHEW. The fourteenth.

SIRWILFRID. Fourteenth. (He rises.) Did Miss French ask you to go and see her that night?

LEONARD. No, she didn’t, as a matter of fact. But I’d come across a new kind of gadget and I thought she’d like it. So I slipped up there that evening and got there about a quarter to eight. It was Janet MacKenzie’s night out and I knew she’d be alone and might be rather lonely.

SIRWILFRID. It was Janet MacKenzie’s night out and you knew that fact.

LEONARD. (Cheerfully.) Oh yes, I knew Janet always went out on a Friday.

SIRWILFRID. That’s not quite so good.

LEONARD. Why not? It seems very natural that I should choose that evening to go and see her.

SIRWILFRID. Please go on, Mr. Vole.

LEONARD. Well, I got there at a quarter to eight. She’d finished her supper but I had a cup of coffee with her and we played a game of Double Demon. Then at nine o’clock I said good night to her and went home.

(SIR WILFRID crosses below the OTHERS to L.)

MAYHEW. You told me the housekeeper said she came home that evening earlier than usual.

LEONARD. Yes, the police told me she came back for something she’d forgotten and she heard—or she says she heard—somebody talking with Miss French. Well, whoever it was, it wasn’t me.

SIRWILFRID. Can you prove that, Mr. Vole?

LEONARD. Yes, of course I can prove it. I was at home again with my wife by then. That’s what the police kept asking me. Where I was at nine-thirty. Well, I mean some days one wouldn’t know where one was. As it happens I can remember quite well that I’d gone straight home to Romaine and we hadn’t gone out again.

SIRWILFRID. (Crossing upC.) You live in a flat?

LEONARD. Yes. We’ve got a tiny maisonette over a shop behind Euston Station.

SIRWILFRID. (Standing upL. ofLEONARD) Did anybody see you returning to the flat?

LEONARD. I don’t suppose so. Why should they?

SIRWILFRID. It might be an advantage if they had.

LEONARD. But surely you don’t think—I mean if she were really killed at half past nine my wife’s evidence is all I need, isn’t it?