by John Creasey
‘The little vixen!’ said Gardener, in a restrained voice.
‘Nicely done,’ said Roger. ‘Handcuff her.’ He watched Gardener fasten handcuffs on her wrists, and then looked at her coldly. ‘That was one of your mistakes,’ he said. ‘Did Alexander send you?’
She said: ‘Supposing he did?’
‘I’ll deal with you later,’ said Roger, and turned to Kelham, who was white-faced and trembling. ‘The bullet didn’t touch you, did it?’ he asked.
‘No, I’m all right,’ said Kelham. ‘But your nose—’
‘It’s only a scratch,’ said Roger, dabbing his nose, which was now bleeding freely, with a handkerchief. ‘Not more than I deserve. Nice exhibition of brotherly love, isn’t it?’
Kelham caught his breath. ‘What—what are you talking about?’
‘Your half-brother’s emissary,’ said Roger. ‘Isn’t it time you stopped being obstructive? Isn’t it time you stopped pretending to be helpful, but actually keeping back the only information of importance? You’ve lied twice this morning. You know that your wife is suffering from a narcotic drug and you also know that Alexander is your half-brother. Whatever thing is keeping you silent, whatever ugly skeleton there is in your cupboard, we’ll find it sooner or later. It will be much better if we get the information in a voluntary statement, instead of having to find out by delving deeper and deeper into your past. None of us likes muck-raking. I wish—’
He broke off, for Gardener, who had taken Ethel Downy into the outer room, tapped on the door, and said: ‘Inspector, Dr Merlin – I mean Sir Randolph Merlin has come again. He wants to see you.’
Roger said: ‘Show him in, and then take the woman to Cannon Row.’ He looked at Kelham, and added quietly. ‘This may be your only chance of making a full statement and cooperating. Take it.’
Merlin came in on the words.
If he were annoyed at his earlier rebuff, he hid it successfully, smiled at Roger and put his hat, stick and gloves in a chair. Then he advanced towards Kelham, rubbing his hands together softly.
‘Well, Andy, here I am at last! How are you, old fellow?’ Merlin in such a bluff mood was a new experience for Roger, and he was surprised that the men were on such familiar terms.
‘There is nothing much the matter with me,’ said Kelham. ‘Be quiet a minute, Randolph.’ He sat quite still, closing his eyes, and Merlin looked reproachfully at Roger, who ignored him and stared at the injured financier. The silence lasted for what seemed a long time. He imagined something of the inner battle going on in Kelham, and he hoped that Merlin would do nothing to interfere.
At last, Kelham opened his eyes.
‘All right, West,’ he said, hesitantly. ‘Randolph, don’t interrupt.’ He paused again, and then went on in a firmer voice: ‘I have been victimised by my half-brother, Alexander, for some years. I have been blackmailed, tormented, and forced into courses of action which were against my own wishes and my own principles. There were two causes for this blackmail. In the first place, I have gained some eminence in the financial world. I could not have done so if it were generally known that—’
‘Andy!’ exclaimed Merlin. ‘There is no need—’
‘It had better all come out,’ said Kelham. ‘Be a good fellow and don’t interrupt. I was going to say, West, that it would have been impossible for me to reach my present position had it been generally known that I served a three-year sentence for embezzlement—not here, but in America.’
Roger said nothing; he was not wholly surprised, for it had become very clear that the past had an important bearing on the present; but the fact that the crime had been in America, and had been paid for with three years in jail, was unexpected.
‘I had made the legal restitution for my sins,’ said Kelham, ‘and I will make no attempt to gloss over the fact—I did embezzle my client’s money, although, like everyone who does so, I thought I would be able to replace it before it was found out. That episode in my past would, of course, have prevented me from adopting a financial career in England. I did not think that it was known over here. I had used a different name when in America, and posed as an American citizen. I made what we know as a fresh start in England’ – there was a wealth of irony in his voice – ‘and was making considerable progress when my half-brother came and saw me. Alexander was never a particularly honest man, but has always been brilliantly clever. Both of us have a peculiar faculty, that of completely mastering finance. The difference between us is, I think, that he is amoral, whereas I now try to act up to a code of behaviour which is generally accepted as honest. However, I need not waste words in whitewashing myself.’
He paused again, and groped for cigarettes on the table by his side. In doing so he nearly knocked over one of the plates on the tray. Roger gave him a cigarette, and lit it.
‘Thank you,’ said Kelham. ‘I knew that Alexander would try to coerce me into certain courses of action which I would dislike. To try to stop him, I financed him and allowed him to go his own way. I thought that I had succeeded until I made the discovery—through Merlin, here—that my wife’s poor health was due to a narcotic drug, a form of laudanum. I thought that she was suffering from a sleeping sickness, but Merlin quickly disabused me. It was clear from the start that the drug was being administered cunningly. To this day I do not know how it was done, and is being done. I only know that I sent her to Poplars, I surrounded her with servants whom I believed to be trustworthy, and I tried to make sure that no one inimical to her would have access to the house. No matter what precautions I took, however, the drug still reached her. There would be periods when she was on the mend, and then she would suffer a sharp relapse. I did all I could to find out who was giving her the drug, but I failed completely. I knew who was arranging it—Alexander. But he had a stranglehold on me, and continually strengthened it. I could only have stopped him by telling the truth about my past. And I would have done that, even at the risk of losing everything, had that been the only thing at stake. But he drugged my wife, and made it clear that the process would go on whether he were free or not. I believed him. Merlin was able to assure me that the drug would not prove fatal in the quantities with which she was being treated. So I was under his thumb. You know that I was involved in doubtful schemes, and now you know why. The next step was an obvious one. I saw the possibilities in the land boom. My interests were mainly financial of course, and I tried to keep from Alexander the fact that I was acquiring several large estates at a fair price. I was also acquiring interests in firms of building contractors, in brickfields, and in allied industries. I naturally wanted as much influence as I could get. I tell you, West, that it was my sincere intention to make homes at a reasonable price for the working people of this country. I was satisfied with moderate profits. I knew that there would be a great deal of speculation, and I hoped, with Government assistance, to check them. However, Alexander found out. He sold me some land, through a nominee, which had forged conveyances. He bribed a town council employee, in my name, to give him information about land to be taken over for Council development, bought the land cheap and sold it at a big profit. He made it look as if I were trying to corner the market for illegal profit-taking. He made Government departments suspicious of my intentions. His method was simple. I was to make big profits, some illegally—and he would blackmail me for a share of those profits. I couldn’t prove he had committed the crimes, but he could fake proof that I had. I know all this sounds incredible,’ Kelham added, wearily, ‘but it is the truth. Apart from the blackmail, I had to do as he wished, or else see my wife die before my eyes. Every time she suffered a relapse it was like a dagger pointing at my heart. I knew, of course, that Alexander would soon make bigger demands on me. He had carefully prepared the stage, and sooner or later he would demand my full cooperation. He had his own plans prepared, you see – plans for taking control of some of the larger firms in the allied building trades, in which I already had a large interest.
‘Alexander is very wealthy.
He had no difficulty in getting men to work for him, for he pays extremely well. He might be described as a pirate, a buccaneer determined to take fat prizes from whichever victim seemed the most easily attacked. By the time the war ended and there was an opportunity for beginning the rebuilding programme, he had contrived to make himself extremely powerful. Using my name – you might say that I served as a guinea pig – he waxed more and more powerful. I was charged with negotiating with the Ministry of Works, and all the time the threat to my wife increased.
‘I have no doubt that I aroused the suspicions of the police,’ went on Kelham. ‘In fact I know that I did, and I know why your attitude has been so hostile, Inspector—not openly so, but enough for me to see. That was but one aspect. I also made enemies. I did not know at first that some small firms in which I bought interests were reduced almost to ruin by Alexander, so that they could be bought cheaply. Charles Blair’s father was the owner of one of them, and he killed himself. Griselda Fayne’s father was another; he tried to kill himself, and as the affairs of his business were in great disorder and he had broken the criminal law, he was sent to Broadmoor. Charles Blair came to see me, but I was able to persuade him that I had done all I could to help. He became the most loyal servant I have ever had. Griselda did not tell me openly that she knew. I love the child,’ he added, very gently. ‘There is something very beautiful about Griselda. I hoped that I would break down her hostility. I even hoped that she would marry my son, and that there would be peace between us. Unfortunately, she knew that Anthony, for all his excellent qualities, was unreliable when women were around. And there was a time when he got out of hand, was drunk most nights, and became a positive savage. On one such night he and Griselda had their bitterest quarrel, but I did not give up hope even then, I kept on trying. You see, Inspector?’
‘Yes,’ said Roger, quietly.
‘There were many trivial results of the unholy partnership,’ went on Kelham, bitterly. ‘Other people who thought I had wronged them wrote me threatening letters, and I ignored them. I had so many at one time that I would not even see them, and told Charles to destroy them all. I kept on, hoping and praying that the day would come when I would discover how it was that Alexander managed to continue to get the drugs to my wife. It was an obsession. I determined that I would work with him just as long as there was danger to her. I may have been wrong, but that was my decision. Even when Anthony was murdered, I kept to my course. I do not know who killed him. Sometimes I think that it was Alexander, and that perhaps Anthony had discovered his true nature. At others, I think that he was killed by someone who believed he or she had good reason to hate me, and mistook him for me – we were very much alike. Of course, I knew that there was a risk that you would find out there was much more happening than there appeared on the surface, but I was determined at all costs to try to save my wife. I wonder whether you would have discovered my half-brother’s part in this if he had not been foolish enough to come to your house and to try to get Griselda away.’
‘Sooner or later it would have come out,’ said Roger. ‘Do you know why he was so anxious to get Griselda?’
He tried to make the question sound casual, but he knew that much depended on it. He waited, while Kelham seemed to be trying to frame an answer, and then the man said, quietly: ‘Where is Griselda now?’
‘At my house, being well cared for,’ said Roger. ‘I—’
‘Griselda, of course! I heard the name mentioned at your house!’ exclaimed Merlin, and Kelham started. ‘Andy, the child is suffering from exactly the same drug as Lynda!’
Kelham drew in his breath, and eyed Roger coldly.
‘So you let her go,’ he said, and the words turned the sword in Roger’s wound. ‘You let the beast get her.’
Roger said: ‘She will not be in danger now, and we can also protect your wife. You must tell me, if you know, why Alexander was so desperately anxious to see her.’
‘I am not sure,’ said Kelham, ‘but I think it was because she knows who killed Anthony.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
Fingerprints of Great Interest
If Kelham’s theory was the right one, there were puzzling features which preoccupied Roger as he returned to Scotland Yard. He had spent another two minutes talking to Kelham, and a few of the points which the man had made had been elaborated. The larger problem was solved, but it was a curiously unsatisfactory solution. While Alexander remained free, he would be dangerous. It was clear that he had worked not only behind his half-brother, but also behind other people whom Roger did not know. Kelham believed that he had established a powerful syndicate in which his nominees had great influence in all building and allied trades, and that, without once revealing himself, Alexander would take great profits. It had seemed to Kelham that for some time his half-brother had believed that the stages of preparation were all but completed; that was borne out by Alexander’s great confidence in his own future.
Roger telephoned Chatworth, and was told to go to his office immediately. He marshalled his thoughts as he went upstairs, and told Chatworth everything he had learned. The AC seemed fascinated by the story, and when Roger had finished, he pulled at the tufts of hair at his temples until they stuck out at right angles, and said heartily: ‘That’s a very fine report, West, a very fine report. You must have handled Kelham extremely well! Now all we want is Alexander.’
‘All!’ exclaimed Roger.
‘Oh, we’ll get him,’ said Chatworth. What about this Downy girl? Has she talked?’
‘I haven’t tried to make her, yet,’ said Roger, ‘I thought it would be better to keep her on edge for a few hours.’
He saw Guy Bellew before he interrogated Ethel Downy. Bellew was now in a mood to make a full confession. It proved that he had worked with Alexander on the wrong side of the law for some time; so had his brother and Newman. Gradually Alexander had forced them into a position where they had to obey him, or be betrayed to the police. They had always known, too, that he might choose to murder them; Mr Alexander was a past-master in the art of blackmail.
‘And I haven’t the faintest notion of where to find him!’ Roger muttered as he went from Bellew’s cell to Ethel Downy’s. ‘For once I almost wish I weren’t a policeman – I’d make the little vixen talk then!’ The limitations of police regulations had never been more irksome.
Ethel Downy did not refuse to talk; she simply said that her parents had been ruined by Kelham and that she had tried to kill him because of that, and she had helped Alexander because he was an enemy of Kelham’s.
‘When did you start helping Alexander?’ Roger demanded.
‘Years ago,’ she said. ‘He discovered that I hated Kelham, and it’s no use asking me how, I don’t know. I would have helped anyone who wanted to harm Kelham.’ Her voice was spiteful, and it seemed to Roger that she believed her hatred to be well founded. ‘You people wouldn’t do anything, so—’
Roger interrupted sharply: ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I kept writing to you,’ muttered Ethel Downy.
‘I see,’ said Roger, slowly, knowing that another part of the puzzle was solved. ‘You used Griselda Fayne’s typewriter to write to Kelham and to the police, did you?’
‘Supposing I did! I never had any time for Griselda, the stuck-up little beast. I knew she was a friend of Kelham’s, so she deserved what she got.’
Roger made no comment. The girl said that she knew nothing of Alexander’s hiding places, and professed to know little of what he did. She was pert and, to Roger’s surprise, she seemed confident that she was in no great danger. He spent an hour talking to her, and came away with no more useful information, still dogged by the nagging realization that Alexander, somewhere in England, was laughing at him.
He went home to lunch, and was glad to find Mark there. For once he paid only the slightest attention to Scoopy who was gurgling in his pram, and discoursed at some length; when he had finished, Mark said thoughtfully: ‘So there are just two qu
estions—where is Alexander? and who killed Anthony Kelham?’
‘I’m in a frame of mind where I don’t much care who killed Anthony Kelham,’ said Roger. ‘All I want is to arrest Alexander. I’ve been on the telephone to all the places where he might be hiding-out—I mean, all police headquarters within a hundred miles of Newbury, and there hasn’t been a sign of him. Confound it, that Packard couldn’t have been spirited away!’
‘Hasn’t it been seen anywhere?’ asked Janet.
‘She isn’t very bright today,’ said Mark, apologetically. ‘Scoopy and tummy-ache this morning, and it’s distracted her. Hang it, Roger, the car must have gone to earth somewhere.’
Roger put his head on one side.
‘Who did you say isn’t very bright?’
‘Have any of those men who ran away from the Austin you talked about been found?’ asked Janet.
‘Yes,’ said Roger. ‘They were found hiding in a copse. The Winchester police got them, eventually. I was on the telephone about it just before I came home. They all say that they had no idea where Alexander was going, and that he had instructed them to follow his car. He didn’t intend that too many people should know where to find him,’ he added, bitterly. ‘Oh, we’ve got a lot of the well-paid crooks, and one or two of them will probably be charged with conspiracy to murder, but—’ he shrugged his shoulders. ‘They don’t really matter. Alexander’s our man. I’ve got a damnable feeling that we’ll never see him again,’ he added. ‘I think I’ve been troubled at the thought that Alexander would defeat us, right from the first. His confidence was almost unnerving. The very fact that he let me go free, and sent Griselda back, is a measure of his confidence.’ He lit a cigarette gloomily, and broke a match on his bread plate.