Murder on the Flying Scotsman

by Carola Dunn

  Where was Fraser?

  The police surgeon had arrived in the landlord’s parlour while Alec was talking over the wire. A prosperous-looking gentleman, he had opened his black bag on the table by the window and was taking out the necessary equipment for drawing and testing blood samples.

  ‘I can do it all right here, Mr. Fletcher,’ he explained cheerfully. ‘Where are my victims?’

  ‘Piper, fetch Raymond Gillespie, please. He’ll want to know the worst as soon as possible, I imagine.’ Alec told Fraser about Raymond’s unfortunate condition.

  Piper was gone an unexpectedly long time. At last he returned, breathless. ‘Can’t find him, sir. He wasn’t in the lounge or the bar-parlour, nor Miss Smythe-Pike, so I went up to his room, and he’s not there neether. So not wanting to keep the doctor waiting, I thought I’d bring Mr. Braeburn down first instead, afore searching any further, but he’s not in his room eether.’

  ‘Did you speak to the constable at the front door?’ Alec asked sharply.

  ‘Crombie? Yes, sir. He hasn’t let nor one nor t’other of ’em out that way, only a couple of local blokes he knows personal who came in for a quick nip in the bar-parlour. I didn’t take the time to go out to the back gate.’

  ‘Both in the lavatories, no doubt,’ Fraser suggested. ‘Nervous anticipation takes a lot of people that way.’

  ‘Could be. Sergeant Tring, check, please. Piper, try the chap on the back gate.’

  Tring returned first. ‘All lavatories and bathrooms vacant,’ he reported, ‘and I took a quick dekko round their rooms again, sir – no one there.’

  ‘You’d better try the bar-parlour and lounge again. It’s just possible both you and D.C. Piper missed them in transit in that maze of passages upstairs.’

  Again Tom came back before Piper and with him came Daisy.

  ‘Alec, have you seen Belinda? I can’t find her or Dr. Jagai.’

  Alec’s heart jumped up and got stuck in his throat. Before he was able to speak, Ernie Piper dashed in.

  ‘Chief,’ he panted, formality in the presence of strangers forgotten, ‘the constable on the back gate’s lying there unconscious. Summun’s been and gone and hit him on the head.’

  CHAPTER 19

  The stranger in the parlour, the man Daisy didn’t know, sprang to his feet and reached for the black bag on the table. Clicking shut the catch, he snapped at Piper, ‘Show me!’ They hurried out.

  ‘Tom, try the dining room, kitchens, servants’ quarters, cellars – anywhere you can think of. Ask Briggs. I’ll ’phone Halliday, get a proper search organized.’ Alec, grey-faced, turned to Daisy, reaching for her hand. ‘Both our two suspects are missing. When did you last see Belinda?’

  ‘Just after I saw you, when we came downstairs together from Mr. Braeburn’s room.’ She held onto his hand, ignoring his painfully tight clasp. ‘Anne insisted on dragging me up to see her children, so I left Belinda with Dr. Jagai. He was taking her to get a ginger beer in the bar-parlour. Alec, he’s not one of your suspects?’

  ‘No, not him. Braeburn and Raymond Gillespie, and both of them gone. I don’t understand it.’

  ‘I can’t believe they’re accomplices,’ Daisy agreed.

  ‘If either’s harmed Belinda, I’ll kill him and be damned to the Law!’ He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. ‘I must get on to Halliday.’

  Going with him to the telephone, she listened while he explained the situation to the Superintendent. ‘So you see, sir,’ he finished up, ‘I’d like every man you can spare . . . Yes, sir . . . Thank you, sir.’ Hanging up, he ran his hand through his hair. ‘Halliday’s calling in every man on his force, on or off duty. Thank God he’s not one of those who resents the Met operating on his manor.’

  ‘He seemed pretty efficient, as well as being nice. I’m sure he’ll do all he can.’

  ‘Yes, he’s coming right over himself, to see the poor chap who’s injured and to help organize the search and question everyone.’

  ‘He’ll be here in no time. The police station’s just around the corner, isn’t it? Sergeant Barclay pointed it out.’

  ‘Three minutes, he said. I feel so helpless, Daisy, having to stay here giving orders when I’d rather be out scouring the town. I wish I knew the place, knew where to start looking for her. I have a dreadful vision of her lying out on the walls somewhere, injured . . . or dead.’

  So did Daisy but she put all the optimistic pragmatism she could muster into her voice. ‘I can’t see how either Ray or Braeburn could have overcome Dr. Jagai, hidden him, and spirited Belinda away without creating a frightful hullabaloo.’

  ‘Unless they asked him to treat their scratches, which I advised both to do, knowing Jagai had his black bag with him,’ Alec said despairingly. ‘He knew Belinda wasn’t to be left alone, he’d have taken her upstairs with him.’

  ‘More likely he’s taken her for another walk.’ Though it seemed highly unlikely he would do so without consulting her or Alec. ‘The bobby at the front door knows they’re allowed to go out.’

  ‘And Piper wouldn’t have asked about those two!’ As he spoke, Alec headed down the hall at a purposeful stride, Daisy at his heels. He opened the front door and asked, ‘Crombie, have the Indian doctor and my daughter gone out again?’

  ‘Not sin’ they cam’ back, sir, not unless they went by the back gate. Ye’d best ask Constable Spiers.’

  Alec’s shoulders slumped. ‘I’m afraid Spiers has been hurt.’ Taking in the constable’s shocked face, he assured him, ‘Dr. Fraser is with him now, and Superintendent Halliday is on his way. For heaven’s sake, don’t let anyone leave.’ He shut the door, saying wryly, ‘Talk about locking the stable door after the horse has been stolen!’

  ‘I could go and start searching on the walls,’ Daisy offered.

  ‘No, please stay. I want you here if . . . if they bring her back. Tom! Any sign?’

  Sergeant Tring shook his head as he came down the last few stairs. Daisy had never seen him look so grim. ‘Not that I can find, Chief. I haven’t spoke to Briggs yet.’

  ‘Go and find him now. I’m going to check Jagai’s room.’

  Daisy knew Alec was considering the possibility that the doctor and Belinda had been ambushed when he went to fetch his black bag. She followed him as he took the stairs two at a time, catching up as he banged on the bedroom door next to hers. No answer. Reaching for the handle, Alec said savagely, ‘I’ll break it down if I have to.’

  But the door was not locked, and no one was there.

  The doctor’s black bag was not in evidence either. Daisy went to the wardrobe. His overcoat hung there, but still no sign of the black bag, not at the bottom with his bedroom slippers, neatly placed side by side, nor on the shelf above with his hat.

  ‘That’s odd,’ she said, turning round. Alec was gone, to see if Mr. Halliday had arrived, she assumed.

  She glanced under the bed, though Alec had looked there for a body or bodies. A man who tidied away his slippers into the wardrobe was not likely to shove his medical paraphernalia under his bed, but one never could tell.

  Nothing. A minor mystery to add to the inexplicable disappearance of four people. Daisy plumped down on the edge of the bed to think.

  She found difficult to believe Raymond or Braeburn, or even the two acting in concert, could have biffed the unfortunate Spiers on the nob while abducting both Dr. Jagai and Belinda. One or both must still be in the hotel.

  Assume Dr. Jagai took his bag to treat Raymond’s or Braeburn’s scratches. Where? Piper had checked both their rooms. Sooner or later Alec would undoubtedly go through every bedroom with a fine-tooth comb, but he was fully occupied with Mr. Halliday for the moment. Besides, he might have to get a search warrant, she wasn’t sure – not that he’d let that requirement delay him if he suspected his daughter was in one of them.

  Which might land him in frightful trouble, whereas Daisy could pop in and out in no time, risking no more than a bit of a row if she were caught.
/>   Her own room was next door, so she went there first. Before, hunting for Belinda, she had merely glanced in. Now she checked inside the wardrobe and under the beds, uncertain whether she was praying to find or not to find one or two bodies bound and gagged, unconscious even, surely not dead!

  No bodies, alive or dead.

  After a moment’s hesitation, she crossed the passage to Alec’s room. It was close to Dr. Jagai’s and the villain would not expect a busy police officer to go up to his bedroom anytime soon. Quickly she searched it, forcing herself not to dwell on her midnight visit, the visit which had ended in a kiss.

  Then to Tring and Piper’s shared room, next door. Here she began to feel like a horrible Nosey Parker. It didn’t stop her peeking under the beds, opening the wardrobe door. There was the sergeant’s ‘secondbest’ blue and green chequered suit – he was wearing the ghastly yellow and tan today – but no body.

  Daisy hurried down the two steps and round the corner. Lavatory, bathroom, one step up, the next door was Room 9, Braeburn’s, where Piper had already been. But he was looking for Braeburn; he had probably just glanced around, as Daisy had in her own room. Holding her breath, she knocked, softly, then louder. To her relief there was no response. She let out her breath, turned the handle, and peeped in.

  The solicitor was not lying in wait to savage her. Nor had he carelessly left any victims lying around. Thirty seconds later, Daisy was knocking at the next door.

  She scurried from room to room, two more on this corridor then back to the other wing, down three steps this time. All were empty of both their lawful inhabitants and extraneous bodies. Growing quite blasé, she already had her hand on the door-knob of the fifth room when her knock was answered with a bellow.

  ‘Who the devil is that? Can’t a man get any rest in this godforsaken hole?’

  Unmistakably Desmond Smythe-Pike. Anyone trying any funny business in his presence would have quickly learned the error of his ways.

  ‘Verra sorry, sir,’ Daisy squeaked, hoping she sounded like a Scottish chambermaid, ‘wrang room.’ Did the Scots say wrang? She swallowed a giggle, reminding herself of the dreadful reason for her search.

  Crossing the passage, she raised her hand to knock. A strange humming sound came from beyond the door. The sound of someone trying to yell through a gag? Surely not, but she had never heard anyone trying to yell through a gag, so perhaps it was. And she rather thought this must be the room shared by Judith and Kitty – Judith who’d do anything for Raymond, Kitty who adored her older brother.

  Daisy looked back to make sure the Scottish chambermaid she had impersonated was not creeping up on her. Then she put her ear to the door, blatantly eavesdropping. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. It sounded like a thousand bees having a wonderful time on a heather-covered moor.

  She raised her hand to knock again, then changed her mind. With infinite caution she turned the doorknob. Inching the door open, she peered through the slit.

  Someone was sitting on the floor. All she could see was a thin strip of the back of a man’s jacket from the shoulder down. She pushed the door wider – a knee in grey flannels, and resting on it, palm upturned, a dark hand. Dr. Jagai’s hand.

  The bees continued to buzz uninterrupted. Emboldened, Daisy opened the door far enough to peer around it. The scene that met her eyes left her utterly baffled.

  On one bed, Judith sat cross-legged, her hands palm up on her knees, eyes closed. On the other perched Kitty and – thank God – Belinda, and on the floor Chandra Jagai and Raymond Gillespie, all in the same posture, eyes closed, humming.

  ‘Good gracious heavens above!’ said Daisy blankly. ‘What on earth are you doing?’

  The hum abruptly cut off. Five pairs of startled eyes stared at her. Then they all started babbling at once.

  Judith raised her voice. ‘Hush a minute,’ she said calmly. ‘Let Chandra explain.’

  ‘It’s a form of an ancient Hindu discipline.’ The doctor rose smoothly to his feet, Ray following suit less elegantly. ‘A very minor, elementary exercise which . . .’

  ‘Never mind now,’ Daisy broke in, ‘it’ll have to wait. Belinda, your father’s in a fearful pucker. He’s afraid you’ve been kidnapped, possibly by you, Raymond. You’d better both come down at once.’

  Belinda slid down from the bed and ran to take Daisy’s hand. ‘Why does Daddy think I’m kidnapped?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘Because you couldn’t be found and the constable guarding the back gate has been knocked out.’

  ‘Oh my sainted aunt!’ Raymond exclaimed, horrified. ‘Not by me!’

  ‘No, not by you, since you’re still here. Come on.’

  Judith, Kitty, and Dr. Jagai followed them downstairs. Halfway down, Daisy stopped. The front hall was a swarm with blue uniforms, their occupants chattering excitedly. Kidnappings and man-hunts were not exactly common fare in Berwick.

  Among them, Daisy spotted a face she recognized. ‘Sergeant Barclay,’ she called.

  Silence fell as he came over to the foot of the stairs. ‘Yes, miss, what can I do for you?’

  ‘I’ve found some of the missing people. Most of them, in fact. Is Mr. Fletcher in the back parlour?’

  ‘Yes, miss, and I don’t s’pose him and the Super’ll mind being interrupted! Good for you, miss. And hallo to you, missy. Glad to see you’re safe and sound.’

  ‘Hallo, Sergeant Barclay,’ Belinda replied shyly.

  He led the way, opened the door, and ushered in the small procession.

  Alec and Mr. Halliday were bending over a map spread out on the table by the window. They glanced round at the sound of the door opening and Alec frowned.

  ‘Miss Dalrymple, not now, we . . .’

  Belinda dashed past Daisy and flung herself at her father. ‘Daddy, I’m all right! I wasn’t kidnapped, I was upstairs in Kitty’s room. I stayed with Dr. Jagai all the time, every single minute. I’m all right, honestly.’

  Crushing her to his chest, he looked over her head at Daisy. His grey eyes glimmered with unshed tears. He smiled at her and she smiled back in pure joy at having restored his beloved daughter to him.

  Then he saw Raymond. At once he was all business.

  ‘So you’re here, Mr. Gillespie. Have you left the hotel since I last saw you?’

  ‘Eek, Daddy, you’re squashing me. He’s been with us all the time, with me and Dr. Jagai and Kitty and Judith.’

  ‘Then it’s yon lawyer we’re looking for,’ said Superintendent Halliday.

  ‘He won’t have gone far,’ Raymond observed with a grin.

  ‘Why not?’ Alec demanded.

  ‘Darling, let Chandra tell the story,’ Judith put in. ‘It’s all his doing.’

  They were all crowded into the small room by then. Dr. Jagai closed the door, but immediately it opened again behind him. Dr. Fraser and Piper squeezed in.

  ‘Doctor, how is Spiers?’ Mr. Halliday asked at once.

  ‘Concussed, but not badly, Superintendent. I’ll keep him under observation in the Infirmary for a day or two. Mr. Fletcher, Detective Constable Piper has been of the greatest assistance.’

  ‘Good,’ Alec grunted impatiently. ‘Now let’s get on with catching the man who put Spiers in the Infirmary. Dr. Jagai, what’s this about Braeburn not going far?’

  ‘I took the liberty of slipping quite a largish dose of bromide into his whisky,’ Chandra Jagai said diffidently. With a half-penitent glance at Dr. Fraser, he went on, ‘Not enough to harm him, sir. But I very much doubt that he’s more than a few hundred yards away, Chief Inspector, and he’ll be sound asleep by now. I believe he was heading for the King’s Arms Garage on Hide Hill.’

  ‘Great Scott,’ said Alec, ‘well done, Doctor!’

  ‘Wasn’t it clever of him, Daddy?’

  ‘Not exactly correct medical practice,’ Dr. Fraser said, his lips quirking, ‘but forgivable in the circumstances.’

  ‘What were the circumstances?’ Alec asked. ‘What made you believe he was about to take to his
heels?’

  Before the young Indian could answer, Superintendent Halliday weighed in. ‘That’s all very well,’ he said, full of foreboding as a farmer who sees thunderclouds building over his unharvested corn, ‘but Braeburn went out by the back gate. If he was heading for the King’s Arms, he must have planned to go the long way around to avoid detection. For your sake, Dr. Jagai, we must hope he has not fallen off the city walls in a stupor, and broken his neck.’

  CHAPTER 20

  Mister Halliday went off to send his men out hunting for the drugged lawyer.

  Seeing Dr. Jagai’s appalled face, Daisy put her hand on his arm. ‘Don’t forget, Braeburn killed Mr. McGowan,’ she said. ‘Otherwise he’d have stayed in the hotel as he was supposed to and he’d just have fallen asleep harmlessly in the bar-parlour.’

  ‘What made you think he was ready to scarper?’ Alec asked again. ‘How did you know he was one of my two remaining suspects?’

  ‘Speaking as the other,’ said Raymond, turning to Dr. Fraser, ‘if you’re the police doctor, sir, as I assume, would you mind doing that wretched blood test while Chandra explains? It may look as if Braeburn’s the murderer, but I want proof it wasn’t me, and I’d like to get it out of the way.’

  ‘Certainly.’ Beckoning him over to the table, Dr. Fraser started taking odds and ends out of his black bag. ‘Go ahead, Dr. Jagai.’

  Daisy had no intention of watching the blood-drawing. She kept her gaze on Dr. Jagai. He still looked shaken as he began his story.

  ‘Belinda told me Mr. Braeburn had frightened her. You, Mr. Fletcher, and Miss Dalrymple obviously took her fears seriously since you asked me not to let her out of my sight. And then Sergeant Tring brought her to me and she said her father was at that moment with Mr. Braeburn. Well, I knew at that point that the Chief Inspector was looking for scratches rather than information . . .

  ‘Ouch!’ Ray yelped. ‘No, it’s all right, Judith, it didn’t really hurt. Sorry to interrupt.’