Briefly, de Silva considered calling, but Hebden was probably on his way. In any case, he would need to examine Alexei’s body to make the medical report for the coroner. It wasn’t far to the undertakers, and it would be more polite to explain in person that he no longer needed the advice he had thought he would and apologise if he had wasted Hebden’s time.
‘You did the right thing,’ he said. ‘I’ll go round now and try to catch him. If he rings here, please tell him I’m on my way.’
After quickly stowing the jewellery in a bag and placing it in the safe in his office, he hurried out to the Morris. He realised that he hadn’t told Prasanna how important his sighting of Kumar had turned out to be, but it would have to wait. He must be sure, however, to remember to praise him. It was an excellent thing that he was increasingly showing initiative. Nadar was a little further behind in that, although still a good worker. But one had to recognise that not everyone had it in them to advance to higher things, and the world needed its Nadars as well as its Prasannas.
It took longer than usual to reach the undertakers’ premises, and it was twenty past twelve when he arrived. As he jumped out of the car, Hebden emerged.
‘My apologies for keeping you waiting, Doctor Hebden.’
‘Think nothing of it. I should have waited for you to confirm the time. In any case, you weren’t keeping me from anything important. I only had a few appointments booked in this morning. My patients seem to have managed to stay healthy in my absence.’
‘I’m pleased to hear it. I hope you enjoyed your fishing trip.’
‘Very much; we had some excellent sport.’ He gestured to the undertakers’ premises. ‘Do you need to go inside? If not, shall we talk out here?’
‘Certainly.’
They strolled over to where there was a patch of shade close by where Hebden’s car was parked. ‘You said in your note that you would like me to examine Alexei Goncharov’s body with a view to advising you on whether he might have been dead before the hanging,’ he said. ‘From that, I take it you suspect he might not have killed himself.’
‘It’s something I was considering,’ said de Silva, ‘but the situation has changed. I’m sorry if your time was wasted.’
‘That’s quite alright. I’m afraid that in any event, my expertise doesn’t extend to giving you a definitive answer. It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility, but I wouldn’t like to stand up in court and swear it is what happened. A tragic business all round,’ he went on. ‘How is the brother taking it?’
‘He seems to be bearing up, but I’m sure he’ll be glad to move on and put Nuala behind him.’
Hebden nodded. ‘Well, I’d better be on my way.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I have a few house calls to make this afternoon.’
De Silva thanked him and walked back to the Morris. His hand was on the door handle when Hebden called over to him.
‘By the way, I forgot to mention something. It’s probably unimportant, but I found a strange mark on Alexei Goncharov’s right forearm. Two puncture wounds that nearly meet at one end so that it’s shaped like a V. From the bruising around it, it must have been made shortly before he died. Do you have any idea what Goncharov was doing before then?’
‘I know from his friend, Kumar, that they turned the horses out together early that morning, and he had an argument with his brother late the previous evening, but otherwise, I’m not sure.’
Hebden looked thoughtful. ‘It certainly didn’t look like anything a horse would do, and it seems unlikely that he caught it on a rough surface. I’d expect a wound from something like that to be a longer gash. If it were not so improbable, I would have said that the mark was caused by a snakebite.’
Chapter 13
As he drove home, de Silva’s mind raced. Was it so improbable?
‘It’s been a most interesting morning,’ he said to Jane as they ate lunch. He proceeded to tell her about the jewellery and other things he had found in the trunk at the circus and his theory that Kumar was working for the gang who had stolen it by hiding it and then moving it on for them. He went on to recount his conversation with Doctor Hebden and the mention of a snakebite.
‘That certainly is interesting.’
‘Yes. It seems too much of a coincidence that Alexei suffered a bite from a wild snake shortly before he died, so it’s a reasonable conclusion that it was one of Kumar’s. I doubt it was an accidental escape, and that suggests Kumar is not only an accessory to the de Vere jewellery theft and others, but also a murderer. If it is the case that Alexei was bitten before he was hung, it was probably to ensure that he was unable to struggle.’
‘But would the snake’s venom have acted on him quickly enough? I’ve always understood that if one is bitten by a snake, incapacity and death are not instantaneous. In fact, the process can be very slow and painful.’
De Silva shuddered at the thought. ‘That’s something on which I need expert advice, and I have the very man in mind.’
‘Reverend Peters?’
‘Yes.’
‘Will you tell him why you want to know?’
‘I may have to let him into part of the secret and ask him to keep it to himself for the moment.’
Jane frowned. ‘How would Kumar have got Alexei close enough to the snake for it to bite him without his having time to save himself?’
De Silva remembered the picnic basket he had noticed in the stables.
‘So,’ said Jane thoughtfully when he told her about it. ‘If Alexei wanted to avoid his brother because of their argument the previous evening, Kumar might have pretended he was being helpful bringing him food, so he didn’t have to eat with the company, but what was really in the basket was a snake.’
‘And when Alexei opened the lid, it would have been alarmed and reacted by attacking him.’
‘But why would Kumar want to kill Alexei? And what about Tatiana?’
De Silva pondered for a while. ‘Possibly Alexei found out what Kumar was up to and agreed to help him hide the jewellery and transport it from place to place in return for a cut of the profits. To start with, he might have been satisfied with a modest share, but what if he became greedy and wanted more? As co-owner of the circus, he might have thought that his position entitled him to demand it.’
‘That might be the case. But where does Tatiana fit in?’
‘Kumar may have engineered her accident, thinking that Alexei’s alleged suicide would be more convincing if people believed he had intended her to die too.’
‘Will you speak to Archie yet?’
‘No. Before I do, I want to show the jewels that I took from that trunk to William Cradler, the jeweller. I want his opinion on whether they’re fakes or not and I need to do that before Kumar notices they are missing. I’ll call Inspector Singh too. I wrote down descriptions of the pieces that I thought might be genuine. I hope he’ll be able to tell me if my descriptions match any of the items stolen from the de Veres or any of the other families who were burgled.’
**
After lunch, de Silva retrieved the jewellery from the station safe and drove on to William Cradler’s shop. He had always felt that there was something forbidding about the shop’s exterior. The frames of its many-paned windows were painted black. The door was also black and the lintel lower than usual, so that unless a customer was short, they had to stoop as they entered. One also had to take care not to stumble on the low step just inside the threshold. On his occasional visits to buy a present for Jane, de Silva had felt as if he were entering the cottage of a wicked witch in a fairy tale.
A sepulchral-sounding bell clanged as he opened the door and went in. Of middle age, with greying hair and watery blue eyes behind pebble spectacles, William Cradler greeted him with a smile. Despite his shop’s unnerving atmosphere, he was an amiable man.
‘Good afternoon, Inspector. What can I do for you today?’
‘I’m afraid I’ve not come to make a purchase. I’d like your advice on some pieces of jewellery I have
with me.’
‘By all means.’
Cradler put the silver bracelet that he had been polishing back in its velvet-lined box and tucked it away in a drawer. Producing a piece of green baize, he unrolled it on the glass-topped counter. ‘Lay them out here if you will.’
De Silva placed his collection on the counter. Cradler switched on the electric lamp at his elbow, picked up one of the rings and studied it. The light from the lamp caught the stones, making them sparkle.
‘Are the diamonds genuine?’ asked de Silva. Cradler examined them with a magnifying glass. ‘Yes.’ He took another ring. ‘These are too. How did you come by them?’
‘I’d prefer not to say, and I’d be obliged if you would treat my visit as confidential.’
Cradler nodded. ‘I understand.’ He put down the rings. ‘I estimate their value would be somewhere in the region of one hundred pounds each. Now, this necklace is a more interesting piece. It’s a pity that some of the rubies are missing. It reduces the value considerably. I may be able to replace them if you wish, but the quality of the existing ones is very high. It would be an expensive business.’
‘I don’t need them replacing, but I would be interested to know what you think of the rubies in this.’ De Silva indicated the headband.
The jeweller picked it up and studied the stones. ‘Strange,’ he mused. ‘Most of these are paste, but I’m convinced a few are genuine rubies.’ He held the headdress out to de Silva. ‘Do you see how the colour differs?’
He put down the headband. ‘Why anyone chose to set them in a cheap piece of tin is a mystery to me, but no doubt it makes sense to you.’
After Cradler had looked over the remaining pieces and given his opinion that they were genuine, de Silva thanked him and returned to the Morris. The jeweller had certainly given him plenty to think about.
At the station, he placed the jewellery in his office safe, locked it, and pocketed the key. His next job was to telephone Inspector Singh at Hatton.
**
When he came on the line, Singh didn’t sound his usual unruffled self. ‘I’m afraid I can’t talk for long,’ he said. ‘I need to return the call that Mr de Vere made while I was out this morning. He’s extremely impatient over the lack of success we are having with recovering his wife’s jewellery. I don’t want to make things any worse than they already are.’
‘I’m sorry to hear of your difficulties, but I hope to be able to help.’
Singh listened, occasionally intervening to ask a question, as de Silva recounted the recent events involving Kumar. He recognised several of the pieces that de Silva described.
‘They match what the de Veres say they lost, but would you send me descriptions of everything you’ve found?’ he asked.
‘With pleasure.’
‘I’ll find out more from the Kandy force about what has gone missing down there, but I assume you’d rather I didn’t pass on everything you’ve told me quite yet.’
‘I would.’
A deep chuckle rumbled from Singh’s throat. ‘Better to have your man in custody before the Kandy boys start crawling all over the place, eh?’
De Silva laughed. ‘No disrespect to our esteemed colleagues, but they do have a habit of thinking that we provincial policemen ought to stand back and leave them to get on with the job. I’ll send the details down this evening and keep you informed, my friend.’
‘Do you propose to put a watch on the house in case the occupants try to leave? There may be more stolen items in their possession, and it would be a feather in our caps if we apprehend them, particularly if they’re connected to the Black Lotus gang.’
‘It’s too risky to send my sergeant. Kumar has seen him several times now. If he comes back to the house and spots him, there’s a real danger it will give the game away. My constable would be a safer bet, but he may need some help.’
‘No problem. I’ll send you some of my people to keep an eye on the house with him. If they come by car, they’ll have transport to follow the occupants if they need to. I may not be able to arrange it before tomorrow, however.’
‘Thank you. That should do fine.’
Ending the call, de Silva went into the public room and told Nadar what had been arranged. His eyes lit up at the prospect. He was obviously happy at the idea of taking a more active part in the case than minding the cantankerous Izabella Rabach.
‘You had better hold the fort here,’ he said to Prasanna.
‘Yes, sir.’ Prasanna sounded a little disconsolate.
De Silva grinned. ‘Cheer up, Sergeant. It looks like your sighting of Kumar the evening before last may prove to be a turning point in the case.’
Prasanna’s expression brightened.
‘But there isn’t time to go into all that now,’ de Silva added. ‘I have another job for you both that needs doing straight away.’
He gave them the notes on the jewellery that he had made at the circus. ‘I want those copying out as quickly as you can and sent to Inspector Singh at Hatton. Drop them at the post office on your way home. I don’t expect anything more to happen this evening, but make sure you are here on time tomorrow.’
Back in his office, de Silva deliberated whether to make a call to Archie. A lot had happened since he had last updated him, but was this the right time? He felt the same hesitancy as he had towards involving the Kandy police. If Archie knew there was a chance of recovering the de Veres’ jewels, and possibly those belonging to other members of the British community, he would, for sure, want to mount a raid. It might be extremely difficult to persuade him to hold back on the grounds that closing the case on Alexei and Tatiana had possibly been a mistake.
As he considered what the best course of action would be, a fat bluebottle bumped against the window, then dropped to the sill, its spidery legs twitching. The ceiling fan rotated with its usual monotonous thrum. At last, he decided not to telephone Archie. Until Alexei’s and Tatiana’s funeral had taken place, the circus wouldn’t be going anywhere, and while the circus remained in town, so would Kumar. Hopefully, he would not feel the need to check on the whereabouts of the jewellery de Siva had removed.
What de Siva did want, however, was to hear Jane’s opinion on the afternoon’s developments. Going to the safe, he took out the jewellery. She would enjoy seeing it.
**
Before going home, he drove to a spot some way off from the house that Nadar and the Hatton reinforcements would be watching in the morning. He wanted to satisfy himself that nothing had changed, and that in leaving its occupants alone he was not being rash. Parking the Morris, he walked the rest of the way, arriving at the place where he had waited the night before last. The sun had already sunk below the line of the rooftops. The yellow glow of lights picked out the windows of some of the houses, but not the house he was interested in. For a moment he feared he was already too late, but then the front door opened. He tensed and shrank back into the shadows, but it was only an old woman with a bucket of water that she tipped down a nearby drain. She went back into the house and closed the door. Shortly afterwards, a light went on in one of the downstairs windows.
The scene looked so peaceful and domestic. It was hard to credit that members of a gang as justly feared and violent as the Black Lotus lived in the house. But wasn’t that the secret of their success? He remembered from his Colombo days how cleverly the brains behind the operation had selected agents who blended in with the run of ordinary people. They were also ingenious in the way they constructed their chain of command; whenever you thought you had reached the apex of the pyramid your hopes were invariably dashed. It had taken years of painstaking work to flush out the branch of the organisation that operated in Ceylon. Gloom filled him when he thought of how much work might be required in order to do so again.
It was dusk when he reached Sunnybank, and a familiar little shadow greeted him by the front door. He scooped her up and she purred. Jane was just coming into the hall from the drawing room.
‘Ah
, there she is. She seems to have a sixth sense for when you arrive home. We were in the garden until a few minutes ago, then she suddenly ran off.’
‘She’s a clever girl.’ He put Bella down. ‘I’ll go and change.’
‘You do that, dear. The three of us will be waiting on the verandah to hear your news.’
Dressed in cooler, more comfortable clothes, de Silva went to the sideboard in the drawing room and poured himself a whisky. The soda from the siphon fizzed into the tumbler with a satisfying sound.
‘Shall I bring you out a sherry?’ he called to Jane.
‘Yes, please.’
On the verandah, he put the drinks on the low table between their chairs and sat down.
‘How did your visit to William Cradler go?’
‘I think you would call it a success.’
He produced the jewellery and arranged the pieces on the table. Jane picked up the headband.
‘This is very exotic. It looks like one of the ones the dancers at the circus wore in their performance. But surely, it’s not valuable, is it? It’s far more likely to be costume jewellery.’
‘Cradler’s opinion was that some of the stones in it are genuine.’ He explained his theory about Kumar substituting real for fake stones as a means of concealing them.
‘I agree that would be an ingenious way of doing it,’ said Jane.
‘If there was a danger of any of the pieces of jewellery being identified, the stones could be removed from their setting once again and sold piecemeal.’
Jane nodded. ‘And the gold melted down and sold separately too.’
‘Do you think that makes sense?’
‘I do.’
‘I telephoned Singh when I got back to the station. He was glad to hear what I had to tell him. The poor fellow is under a lot of pressure to find the jewellery stolen from the de Veres.’
‘Did he think any of these pieces belonged to them?’
[Inspector de Silva 09] - High Wire in Nuala Page 14