by Richard Hull
‘Relations?’
‘Well, that was a bit involved, but I got it in the end. Then I must admit I got a valuable hint from Hughes, the library waiter you were mentioning just now. He very nearly caught the man red-handed.’
The memory of an incident shaped in Gladwin’s mind. ‘You do not mean green-handed, do you?’
‘I do not, emphatically. That was an individual turn on the part of Ford – and not very helpful.’
‘Pummy stone,’ giggled Henry.
‘Quite. Well, having got so far, I shadowed my man until I found that he did fit. I am afraid he saw through what I was trying to get at – perhaps Ford’s warning was earlier than I imagined, I don’t know – anyhow, he lied a good deal, but yesterday I got my final piece of evidence.’
‘Which was?’
‘I am afraid I can’t tell you without letting you know too much. You see, I want to see what happens when I do talk to this fellow. I have asked him as a matter of fact to meet me here as soon as possible, preferably this afternoon, and until we have had our little talk, perhaps I had better say no more.’
At that moment a page-boy came up to him with a note. He opened it and quickly read the few words, and then told the boy to tell the secretary that he would be with him almost at once. Quickly finishing his coffee, he rose to go. ‘Our secretary,’ he commented, ‘seems agitated. This is barely a request to come to his office, it is almost an order, and there is not even a platitude or a misquoted proverb to palliate it. This sounds interesting. I wonder into what new trouble Ford has got himself!’
He walked deliberately to the door, leaving behind a slight feeling of mystery and unsatisfied curiosity, but a strong impression that he was a very shrewd man.
30
A Matter Of Repetition
‘I gather that what you want to say to me is fairly private – at least that’s what Ford gave me to understand.’
The pretext was a thin one and Anstruther was surprised to see how easily Cardonnel allowed himself to be persuaded. Together they started to go up the stairs towards the silence library, Cardonnel falling into step without question and with unexpected docility. Arrived at the door of the cold library, he did seem for a moment to hesitate.
‘In there? But we are not supposed to talk in there.’
‘Oh, there’s never anyone in there at this time of day. We’re sure to have it all to ourselves.’ Anstruther pushed the door open to be met with a rush of air of a temperature that though definitely lower than the rather stuffy atmosphere of the Club, was still not really cold.
As if struck with some premonition, Cardonnel shivered slightly. ‘Rather chilly, won’t it be, in there? It looks though as if you must be right about the room being empty. No member of this Club would sit in such a draught! One would almost think that the room had been specially cleared for us.’
‘I like it, you know. As a general rule I find this Club a great deal too hot. It’s quite a mild day today, really, believe me. You see that curtain there doesn’t blow about in the very least.’ He pointed to the folds of the heavy red material which hung from ceiling to floor beside the window through which the air was blowing, and with apparent indifference strode to the French window and out on to the balcony. ‘Really, it’s quite warm out, you know,’ he added.
After a prolonged stare at the curtain, Cardonnel followed him and, giving one glance at the silhouette of the roofs opposite, looked down at the pavement so very far below and shuddered slightly. ‘Certainly we are alone here,’ he commented as cheerfully as he could, ‘but, you know, looking down any height always makes me giddy.’
Anstruther nodded grimly. He hoped that fact was known to others. It might serve as a possible explanation! For the rest, he had fully intended to have no spectators – that was why he had opened the window – now that at last he was to have it out finally with this meddlesome fellow. But it was unwise to waste time. They always might be disturbed. He brought Cardonnel to the point. ‘What was it that you wanted to discuss?’
‘When I wrote to you it had been my intention to discuss the books–’
‘The books?’
‘Yes. Come, my dear fellow, you know that books have been vanishing from the Club and you also know that you borrowed The Ways of Melanesia for some considerable time. You practically admitted it to me the other night.’
With a glance at the railing, Anstruther granted the point. In the circumstances it really was of no importance. ‘But what of it?’ he went on. ‘Wrong, I know, but I brought it back, and really, if you will pardon my saying so, it hardly seems of sufficient importance to worry about unduly.’
‘If that were all–’ Cardonnel broke off, while Anstruther waited anxiously to hear what the rest would be. If it were only a question of other books – an absurd mare’s nest – how happy he would be! In that case what he contemplated would be unnecessary perhaps.
‘But I am sure that you are aware,’ went on the lawyer’s precise voice, ‘that many books have gone, and gone regularly. I have worked out a chart and from it I was able to ascertain a great deal as to the hobbies and circumstances in life of whoever is mainly responsible for their loss. A most interesting piece of work. I really should like to show you how it was built up.’
‘But, excuse my interrupting you,’ Anstruther fearful of an interruption, was beginning to find the delay trying to his nerves, ‘how does this concern me?’
‘I next studied your character and antecedents. There was The Ways of Melanesia, you see, and in many ways you fitted the part. But not,’ Cardonnel shook his head sadly, ‘not entirely.’
‘And have you really summoned me merely to inform me that you once suspected me of stealing books from the Club? I can assure you that I have not done so – even you apparently almost recognise that.’ Anstruther drew himself up and stepped back from the railing. If that were all, his labours then were wasted. Cardonnel was rapidly shrinking in his eyes from the monstrous figure of his imagination to something almost insignificant and unimportant. The lawyer’s next remark, however, dispelled this pleasing hope.
‘No. That is not the only reason why I asked you to meet me in the Club, if not exactly here, this afternoon. In the first place I am not yet satisfied as to the books. I should have liked, if the circumstances as well as the locality had been more suitable, to have presented you with a little evidence, but, as it is, the whole subject has become a detail with which I need not worry you further. You see, in the course of investigating the question of the books, I have recently, quite recently, had my attention directed to some rather odd events.’
He looked his companion full in the face and went on. ‘Doctor Anstruther, it seems to be dangerous to take tea in this Club.’
He paused for a second time, and then added quietly but significantly: ‘It seems to be even more dangerous to be a member of this Club and to be one of your patients.’
Anstruther, conscious that his face was being carefully scrutinised, allowed no trace of emotion to be expressed by his thin lips or his half-veiled eyes. But though he remained calm, it was only by a violent effort. After all, then, the final settlement with Cardonnel was going to prove necessary! He was surprised to find that he was almost glad; glad, he supposed, that the suspense was over and that the time for action had arrived. To Cardonnel’s amazement he actually answered with a smile.
‘Dangerous to take tea?’
‘Yes. You see I have had the contents of some of the little salt containers analysed. Some of them contained salt and salt alone. Others had calomel; a few perchloride of mercury – two powders which as you well know, are very difficult to distinguish from salt, at any rate when mixed together, but whose presence cannot be accidental; which must have been added deliberately by someone who, perhaps from a perverted sense of humour, enjoyed giving pain – someone with some knowledge of poisons and an easy method of obtaining them.’
‘And what of it? There are many such people and both the drugs are common. Calom
el of course is not even a poison.’
‘Strange, Doctor Anstruther, that you should have been the first victim of a bottle of sherry into which perchloride had just been added, a poison whose use had previously been feared (though groundlessly) to have occurred, and stranger still that you should have so readily identified that poison.’
‘Not at all. An intelligent and apparently accurate guess based on my professional knowledge.’
‘By itself that might be so, but even the long arm of coincidence has its limitations. It cannot be extended indefinitely. It was strange that there should have been an attempt to lay the blame on the shoulders of the only quite independent witness – for Ford was far too involved to be called independent – who knew anything of the death of both your patients.’
‘That is the second time you have mentioned the death of my patients. Morrison died of heart failure, Pargiter of a clot on the brain. A loss of professional income to me in both cases. Otherwise I have nothing to say.’
His thin-lipped mouth closed with a snap. There was still a chance that action would not be necessary. Unfortunately close to the truth though Cardonnel might be, it was clear that he had no proof at all so far as Anstruther could make out. A little bluff and – who knew? – perhaps he might drop the whole thing. It was time to take a strong line.
‘Mr Cardonnel,’ he started, ‘since you are an older member and an older man than I, I have listened very patiently to a number of very wild accusations by you, ranging from the theft of books to professional incompetence – if that was the object of your last insinuations. I can now understand why you wished this conversation to take place without a witness. As a lawyer I need not suggest to you my obvious course of action had there been one. But I have listened for long enough.’
‘Not quite, I think,’ Cardonnel interrupted gently. ‘I am not speaking entirely without proof. The chain of reasoning is long, almost as long as that which connected you with the books, although I have had less time to work it out. But it is more conclusive. Indeed there are quite a number of points in it which I think would in themselves induce you to believe that the matter cannot thus lightly be dismissed. I will however mention just one of them. There was just one point over which you gave yourself away rather badly.’
Anstruther moved back from the railing to the window, and answered with a cold, almost contemptuous voice, but with his brain acutely responsive, ready for immediate action: ‘Well, I am listening.’
‘I have had the advantage of a long conversation with Ford in which he at last told me everything that he knew – a breach of confidence, no doubt, but that has not been confined, I gather, to one side only. It appears that he told you much about my suspicions and activities and you warned him that he was taking me too much into his confidence and that I knew too much already.’
‘Well?’
‘Ford happened without thinking to repeat the remark to me verbatim. Apparently you impressed it on his memory in some way or another. He seems to connect it with an intense stare. Without, I think, quite realising what he was doing, it came tripping from his tongue automatically, like a lesson he had been made to learn – even now I doubt if Ford has seen the point, but he is prepared to swear to the actual words you used. You prefaced your remark by the words “As I have told you before”.’
Cardonnel paused and moved a yard away from his companion so that he stood with one hand on the railing. Then he added:
‘So you had. But it was in a letter that you were not supposed to have read, still less to have written.’
The words were hardly uttered when with a sudden spring Anstruther jumped forward. If Ford had not seen the point, with Cardonnel out of the way, there was still time! Exerting his whole strength he pushed the lawyer violently against the railing on which his accuser was apparently relying. If it were firm, Cardonnel would be safe enough, but he knew that it was not.
To his amazement and horror, however, the railing held. Instead of the wiry body of his adversary hurtling through space to the hard pavement below, it was still present on the balcony. Anstruther had just time to notice the look of intense relief that had spread over Cardonnel’s white face, when he felt the collar of his coat firmly seized from behind. The reason why the curtain had not blown about at last became clear. All the while that he had been talking to Cardonnel, Hughes had been behind it, keeping it still.
31
The Final Reticence
‘And now, still with the object of avoiding any scandal in the Club, which of course has been the motive influencing all our actions, perhaps you will be so good as to promise me to walk quite quietly to bedroom Number 4? You will observe that we are still uninterrupted, but that is due not to luck, but to the fact that Ford has been standing for some time outside the door to prevent anyone from coming in. You may find that it adds to the piquancy of the situation when I tell you that Ford has no idea of what he is there for. I was afraid he would not let me carry out my little experiment and so I relied entirely on Hughes. After all he was the man who saw you tampering with the railing – and had the sense to come to me as well as the secretary. Then we had it repaired. But to go back, I want your promise to walk there without taking any action of any kind, partly to save you from the indignity of being forcibly pushed through the corridor and partly to avoid the risk of anyone seeing us and asking awkward questions.’
So long a speech gave Anstruther time to recover. The limp form stiffened while still in Hughes’s firm grip. His pride was coming back to him. Whatever was coming to him, he would meet it like a man and not a cry-baby. There was determination in his voice as he answered: ‘You have my promise. Leave go of me.’
With the ingrained habit of obedience – after all he was unused to laying violent hands on his members – Hughes relinquished his hold and then, mistrusting Anstruther, would have jumped forward to regain it if Cardonnel had not motioned him to stop. With a firm step Anstruther walked to the bedroom where previously he had helped to carry both Morrison and Pargiter. How long ago all that seemed now!
He looked round the familiar room until, hearing a noise behind him, he turned to see Ford shutting the door. With real hate he glared at the secretary. ‘You incompetent fool, you babbling, disloyal, senseless idiot. I can bear being beaten by Cardonnel’s brains – Hughes’s too – but to find that one has been let down by a snivelling old woman like you, whose black silk petticoats one can hear rustling as you walk – ah! If only I had just a little hyoscine available now.’
‘So it was hyoscine, was it?’ Cardonnel broke in.
‘Yes, if you must know, it was hyoscine – for Pargiter, and a mistake at that. As for Morrison, to the best of my knowledge and belief it was heart failure. You see,’ he turned to Cardonnel, ‘that is where the disadvantage comes of having to deal with a fool. It puts such a temptation in one’s way. It was too easy to hoodwink and, as it were, blackmail Ford. Pooh, you, you fried curled whiting!’
‘Stop it!’ Cardonnel’s voice cut in quickly. He had no desire to see Ford lose his temper, and if Hughes laughed he was afraid he might. ‘Sit down everybody. I shall be rather glad to do so myself after the last half hour. Anstruther, sit on the bed; you there, Ford. Hughes, first of all get me some brandy. I’m not so young as I once was and I never had any head for heights.’
‘I think a little would do me good too.’ Anstruther calmly sat down where he was told.
It takes a good deal to shake a club servant out of the correctness of his attitude, but this was too much. ‘Well, I’m damned,’ Hughes burst out, ‘of all the cool fish.’ Suddenly he recovered himself. ‘I beg your pardon, sir. You would prefer the ’51 or the ordinary club brandy?’
‘The ’51 of course,’ said Anstruther severely. ‘This habit of trying to foist one off with inferior wines, spirits rather – it’s too bad. On the whole, though, you know, I think he’s right about one thing – you seem to be the “pretty cool fish”. Supposing Hughes had not turned up in time? I should
have had you over in a minute in any case, even if I had to accompany you myself.’
‘I hate to suggest it, but isn’t it you who are being a little slow now? I thought I had explained that it was no accident that Hughes was there. As a matter of fact,’ he went on slowly, ‘I suppose that you were more right in your desire to get rid of him than in anything else. He has for a long time suspected you and been trying to work out the details. That’s why he spotted you so quickly about that book.’
‘Do stop talking about books. For the hundredth time I tell you that it has got nothing to do with me.’
‘I believe you, and yet it was the cause of – what has happened. You see, it was in considering the subject of the books that I first began to take an interest in you, and it was over the books that Hughes first began watching you – wasn’t it?’ he added as Hughes returned, ‘and it was while watching you that he saw you arranging that the rail of the balcony was weak. He had the sense to go away and turn out the light as if he had not seen you.’
‘So you knew everything! Well, I reiterate “Cool fish”. I wonder you did not make the conversation a bit shorter.’
‘I had to make sure. It was essential to catch you absolutely red-handed. But it was not very pleasant, even though I had the advantage of knowing that you were relying on the railing, which I knew had been repaired.’ He shuddered slightly at the very thought of that nervous half hour.
‘I see. Nevertheless,’ Anstruther raised his glass, ‘I drink to your courage.’
With an admiring glance, Cardonnel responded: ‘And I to yours.’
‘This is preposterous!’ broke in Ford, speaking for the first time. ‘You cannot go on behaving like this to the man who has tried to murder you within the last half hour and whom during the next hour you are going to hand over to the police.’