by Bruce, Leo
‘That’s very Holmes,’ said Goad. ‘With a touch of the patronizing manner of Lord Peter Wimsey. You “don’t know with any certainty”. No. But you’ve got a pretty good idea, haven’t you Mr Deene?’
‘I must admit I have made some wild guesses.’
‘Oh come. I’m not going to press you. You’ve got your public to consider, haven’t you? Revelation right at the end while the police are gasping with astonishment! I know. I know. But you shall have what you want because you don’t come to me with a tale of “having reason to know that the child may be kidnapped at any minute”.’
‘If I had done that it would have been “murdered” not “kidnapped”,’ said Carolus.
‘Oh it would? And you really think that?’
‘I think if it happened at all it would be murder.’
Goad was thoughtful.
‘How old is the child?’
‘About twelve.’
‘Moors stuff, eh?’
‘In a way, perhaps.’
Goad took up the phone. Carolus was amused to see that he had to dial the Station number, having no private line.
‘Is WPO Major there?’ he asked, and when he was connected—‘Oh, Barbara. Could you come round for a few moments?’
The answer was audible to them all.
‘Rather!’ said Barbara cheerily. ‘I’ll hop on the bike and come round.’
She was, as old-fashioned story-tellers say, as good as her word. A motor-bike roared up to the gate and a hefty female figure came up to the front door in three paces, ignoring the squiggles of the path.
‘Yes, Chief?’ the two heard her say, doubtless wringing Goad’s hand.
Carolus prepared for his introduction. WPO Major gave her hearty handshake to each in turn. Then with her mighty legs far apart she prepared to listen to Goad.
‘What’s the trouble?’ she asked.
‘We want you to keep an eye on a child,’ said Goad and Carolus was grateful for the tact of that ‘we’.
‘What sort of child?’
Carolus took it up.
‘A little schoolgirl named Liz Bodmin. Her mother’s at work all day and hasn’t much time for the child.’
‘Why can’t she look after herself? Case of dirty old men?’
‘The child is very young for her age,’ began Carolus patiently.
‘Arrested development?’ asked the WPO.
‘You might call it that, though she’s bright enough in some ways. I found her quite a charming little girl.’
‘Oh, you did?’ said WPO Major and looked at Carolus as though she thought he might be one of the dirty old men she suspected. ‘Have you been on to the Headmistress, Chief? She should be able to take precautions,’ and she glanced again at Carolus.
‘Not yet,’ said Goad. ‘We’ve only just been given the information. I will do so today.’
‘Good-o.’
‘But the school can only be responsible in school hours. We need more than that. This might be a case of murder.’
‘Murder, by jove!’ exclaimed the WPO, as though this were a particularly juicy possibility.
‘No,’ corrected Carolus, who found the big woman’s manner a trifle hard to take. ‘By someone locally.’
‘We are not in a position to state anything more than that,’ said Goad. ‘Will you take it on, Barbara?’
‘You can bet your bottom dollar I will. Dirty old men are just my tea. I can handle them half-a-dozen at a time.’
‘Good. But I don’t want the child to know she’s watched.’
‘I shan’t be noticed,’ promised Barbara. ‘I can be quiet as a lamb when I need to be.’
‘I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove,’ said Grimsby who had evidently been studying A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
‘Shut up, Grimsby,’ said Barbara.
‘I must tell you,’ said Goad seriously, ‘that this is a case in which some considerable danger is involved. To the child, I mean.’
Barbara seemed sobered. ‘Let’s have all the gen, Chief,’ she said.
‘Mr Deene will give you what information he can.’
This Carolus did and was not surprised to find that WPO Major, under her bluff exterior, had a keen and efficient mind, and became acquainted with all the details most intelligently.
‘Right-o,’ she said closing her notebook with a snap. ‘Let me get at him, whoever he is.’
‘May not be a him,’ warned Goad.
‘True. But it’s ten to one,’ said Barbara. ‘Anyhow you can depend on me, Chief. Just my job.’
‘I am going round to see the mother this evening,’ said Carolus.
‘You can hop up on my pillion,’ offered Barbara, ‘and we can see her together.’
‘I think I should see her alone first,’ said Carolus, smiling his gratitude for the offer.
‘Okey-doke. I’ll nip round and case the house later. Right. So are we all set? I’ll report tomorrow Chief.’
Her motor-bike made a loud noise as she started it. She rode off.
‘I shouldn’t like to be what she calls a dirty old man if your WPO got her hands on him,’ said Grimsby. ‘But she’s good at her job,’ he admitted.
When Goad had poured out some more beer he turned unexpectedly to Carolus.
‘I’ve just remembered where I’ve seen you before Mr Deene,’ he said.
‘Really. Where?’
‘Here in Hartington, unless I’m mistaken.’
‘Quite likely. I’ve been over here a lot lately.’
‘Oh, you have? The dead boy came from here, of course.’ Then he added, looking keenly at Carolus, ‘This was last night.’
‘Last night? I must have been motoring home.’
‘No. You were on foot.’
‘On foot? I’m never on foot if I can help it!’
Goad did not smile responsively.
‘You were last night,’ he said.
‘What time would it have been?’
‘Latish. I was just coming home from a friend’s house where we’d been playing Bridge. Could have been two o’clock. Is that right?’
Carolus grinned.
‘I see you know all my secrets,’ he said.
Grimsby seemed rather offended.
‘You never told me you were over here last night,’ he said.
‘There was no need to. I’ve always been a bit of a noctambule.’
‘Night-walker’s right,’ said Goad. ‘Where was your car, Mr Deene?’ It was not a question as a policeman asks questions, but it sounded as though Goad wanted an answer.
‘In the yard of the Royal Oak,’ said Carolus. ‘I was just going to pick it up. It’s open all night. I’d been in the bar earlier.’
Goad, having been answered, was all smiles.
‘Yes, I thought it was you,’ he said. ‘I knew as soon as you came in that I’d seen you before, but it took me a few minutes to remember when and where.’
‘It’s a small world,’ said Grimsby sarcastically. ‘No wonder I couldn’t get you on the phone last night, Carolus. But your housekeeper didn’t say you’d gone to Hartington.’
‘No. Why should she? I warned you that Mrs Stick finds it very hard to distinguish between policemen and criminals. It’s not her fault. I have friends among both.’
But as though to compensate Grimsby for his lack of co-operative friendliness, Carolus suggested, when they had left Goad, that the two of them should go and see Mrs Bodmin together, and this they did.
Chapter Twelve
At 47 Docker Street Carolus obtained a certain insight into the way the police were received into a home like this. The tall pale Mrs Bodmin appeared pleased to see Carolus, though she was incapable of being effusive, but when Carolus introduced Detective Sergeant Grimsby her manner changed at once.
‘What do you want to see me for?’ she asked, more of Grimsby than of Carolus.
‘Is Liz in?’ asked Carolus ignoring the question.
‘She’s just run out for something. S
he’ll be home in a few minutes.’
‘That’s rather what I wanted to see you about, Mrs Bodmin,’ said Carolus.
‘Why? What’s she been up to?’
It was clear that Mrs Bodmin was determined to treat this as ‘a visit from the police’ and nothing else.
‘It’s nothing that she has done,’ went on Carolus. ‘It’s something that we’re afraid may happen to her.’
If Mrs Bodmin had been a horse one would have said that she tossed her mane. As it was one must admit that her movement was not unlike that.
‘Don’t you worry about Liz,’ she said. ‘She can take care of herself. She doesn’t need any police running round after her. She’s quite all right on her own, thank you very much, and if she wasn’t I shouldn’t let her go out as I do.’
‘But Mrs Bodmin,’ went on Carolus reasonably, realizing that it was a mistake to have brought Grimsby however discreetly he was behaving. ‘You won’t mind if I tell you something which we find rather worrying?’
‘If it’s about Liz I don’t want to hear it. Liz is as able to look after herself as you or me. Better, very likely. So it’s no good telling me different and bringing a policeman round to frighten me into thinking it, with all the neighbours watching who comes in or out and knowing him very likely whether he’s in plain clothes or not.’
‘It’s quite dark outside,’ said Carolus mildly.
‘Not dark enough for them, it isn’t; they’ve got eyes everywhere and know more about your business than what you know yourself.’
She paused to take breath and Carolus seized the advantage.
‘I know you have to work hard and be away from home a great deal, Mrs Bodmin; that’s why I’m worried about Liz.’
‘There’s no call to be, I can tell you that and…’
But Carolus, once in the saddle rode on. ‘I have to tell you that there is very real danger for your little daughter. I know you wouldn’t like anything to happen to her.’
‘Nothing is going to happen to her,’ said Mrs Bodmin but with less assurance than before.
‘Let’s hope not. But there’s a danger of it. I have been trying to find out about young Kenneth Carver’s death, as you know…’
‘That’s different. There was plenty of them wanted him out of the way. Who’s going to hurt a child of eleven?’
‘I thought she was twelve.’
‘So she may be but I can’t remember everything. I say, who’s going to hurt a child like that?’
‘Will you believe me when I tell you that there is someone who wants to do so? Someone who would like to see her dead?’
Mrs Bodmin’s jaw dropped and she was silent for a whole half minute.
‘You mean, same as Dutch?’ she asked with something like a gasp.
‘Not necessarily the same person, or even for the same reason, but the result could be the same.’
‘Oh my God!’ said Mrs Bodmin, for the first time being visibly startled.
Carolus was about to go on when the woman rose and hurried to the street door.
‘Liz!’ she shouted. ‘Come here when I tell you! Liz!’ She spoke to someone invisible. ‘Have you seen Liz, Mrs Nustle?’ she demanded in a somewhat peremptory voice.
‘She was round here about half an hour ago,’ replied the invisible person. ‘I should think she’s gone down to Castles’s. That’s where she usually goes.’
‘She isn’t with your Freda, is she?’
‘No. Freda’s been home half an hour or more, doing her homework. It’s a pity your Liz hasn’t got young Dutch to look after her any more. You never know with kiddies nowadays. Look what you read in the paper! It doesn’t bear thinking about. Here, who’s that coming up the road? Isn’t that your Liz? She’s not hurrying, is she?’
Mrs Bodmin let out a yell like a hyena.
‘Liz!’ she shouted. ‘Come here at once, will you? I’ll smack your bottom, you see if I don’t! Making me worry like that! There’s a policeman after you and was going to take you away in a minute if you didn’t come. Wherever have you been?’
Liz entered, seeming quite calm.
‘I got your fags mum. Here’s the change.’
‘You go straight up to bed, you naughty girl, you. Frightening me like that. And don’t you ever dare to go out alone, do you hear? Up you go and don’t let me hear another sound.’ She turned to Carolus and Grimsby. ‘You see what I have to put up with? It’s enough to upset anyone, with you telling me she’s going to be murdered same as Dutch. I don’t know where to turn.’
Grimsby spoke for the first time.
‘It’s all right, Mrs Bodmin. The Inspector’s going to have the little girl watched as far as he can.’
‘Watched?’ It was clear there could only be one meaning for the word in the present circumstances. ‘Watched what for?’
‘I should have said “watched over”. One of our women police officers is going to help protect Liz.’
‘Women police officer? Lot of use she’ll be if they mean to murder the child. She’ll be no more use than Liz herself.’
Carolus wanted to say ‘you should see her!’ but resisted the temptation, and only said that WPO Major was quite capable of looking after Liz.
‘If you say so,’ said Mrs Bodmin.
‘Though we hope you will watch over her yourself, when you are home from work. Nobody can be there all the time.’
‘Oh yes, I will. And so will Mrs Nustle next door. Her little girl Freda’s very good with Liz and she’ll keep an eye open if anything happens. Liz is in and out of Nustles’s half the time when I’m not here so she ought to be all right. I hope this woman policeman of yours won’t be wearing uniform when she comes here? It gives anyone a bad name in the district.’
‘Oh no. She’ll be very careful of that,’ promised Grimsby. ‘Anyhow she’s coming to see you first, so you can tell her.’
Mrs Bodmin did her best to express gratitude to Grimsby, though always with the reserve that any contact with the police seemed to call forth. Then Grimsby, at a signal from Carolus, took his leave.
‘Mrs Bodmin,’ said Carolus confidentially when they were alone together. ‘I want to ask you something.’
‘I suppose you can,’ said Mrs Bodmin, not very graciously.
‘When I was here before, I gathered from Liz herself that she had a secret shared with Kenneth Carver. When I mentioned this, you thought I was implying that the boy had interfered with Liz or something of the sort.’
‘And I told you it was nonsense,’ said Mrs Bodmin.
‘Yes. If I had suggested that, I quite believe that it would have been. But they had a secret together all the same. I’m pretty sure of that now.’
‘What sort of secret?’
Carolus hesitated.
‘I think,’ he said, ‘though I’m not sure, that it concerned someone else.’
This took a moment to be fully understood.
‘You mean, you think some other bastard had interfered with my little girl?’
‘It’s just possible.’
‘I don’t believe it. Not for a minute, I don’t. Liz tells me everything,’
‘D’you think so, Mrs Bodmin?’
The same expression came over her face as had been aroused when Carolus had told her that someone wanted to see Liz dead.
‘Well, I’ve always thought so. D’you mean to say something may have happened that I don’t know about?’
‘I know you have to work very hard…’
‘Never mind the work. What you’re saying is that someone got hold of Liz and Dutch knew about it but I didn’t?’
‘I’m afraid it could be that.’
Instead of flaring up as she was accustomed to do, Mrs Bodmin seemed to think this over.
‘How long ago do you think it might have been?’ she asked.
‘It’s impossible to say. I’m not even sure that it happened.’
‘No, but you must be pretty certain or you wouldn’t have mentioned it at all. If it is true
and I could get hold of the man who did it I’d kill him. Straight I would. I don’t say I’ve been the best mother in the world to Liz, having to go to work and that, but this is something that doesn’t bear thinking about. It’s horrible. Horrible.’
‘I’m going to ask you to help bring it home to whoever’s guilty. Do you think you can get Liz to tell you the truth about it now?’
To Carolus’s great embarrassment there were tears in Mrs Bodmin’s eyes.
‘I think so, I’ll try,’ she blurted out.
‘You won’t do it by threatening her,’ Carolus said. ‘And I’m afraid she won’t tell you while she thinks that Dutch will be coming back. She promised him to keep the secret, you see. He gave her presents but that is not the important thing. She loved Dutch. It’s good to know that one human being at least loved that unfortunate boy. So it will take a lot of tact and care to get it out of her. You’re the only person who can do it.’
Some of the spirit returned to Mrs Bodmin.
‘What about the policewoman?’ she asked.
‘Liz isn’t even to know that she is a policewoman or looking after her. Anyhow she could never get the secret from Liz. But I’m sure you can.’
‘That’s more than I am. Liz is a funny child; if she makes up her mind about something wild horses wouldn’t change her. If she promised Dutch she wouldn’t tell I don’t know how I’m ever going to find out. I’ll try, of course. But don’t blame me if she decides to shut up like an oyster. Then we shall never know.’
‘Unless…’ said Carolus.
‘Unless what?’
‘It takes two to keep a secret. Dutch’s dead, but do you think he could have told anyone else his side of it?’
‘I should have thought if he told anyone it would have been me. Or one of the lads he went about with.’
‘Phil and Des, you mean? I’m afraid not. I’ve talked to them and I’m pretty sure they know nothing.’
‘It certainly wasn’t Connie Farnham. That’s a sure thing. He wouldn’t have opened his mouth to her even to tell her her house was on fire. Tell you what, though. There is someone he used to see. That West Indian who’s living with Flo Carver. I won’t call her Dutch’s mother because she behaved no more like a mother to him than the man in the moon. But Dutch might have said something to that Justus Delafont as he calls himself.’