by Ngaio Marsh
‘Forgiven? It doesn’t arise.’ Verity looked squarely at him. ‘That’s true, Basil. It’s the wrong sort of word. It upsets me to look back at what happened, of course it does. After all, one has one’s pride. But otherwise the question’s academic. Forgiven you? I suppose I must have but – no, it doesn’t arise.’
‘And if you “prefer not to answer”,’ he said, sneering it seemed at himself as much as at her, ‘what’s Alleyn going to think? Not much doubt about that one, is there? Look here, has he been at you already?’
‘He came to see me.’
‘What for? Why? Was it about – that other nonsense? On Capri?’
‘In the long vacation? When you practised as a qualified doctor? No, he said nothing about that.’
‘It was a joke. A ridiculous old hypochondriac, dripping with jewels and crying out for it. What did it matter?’
‘It mattered when they found out at St Luke’s.’
‘Bloody pompous lot of stuffed shirts. I knew a damn sight more medics than most of their qualified teachers’ pets.’
‘Have you ever qualified? No, don’t tell me,’ said Verity quickly.
‘Has Nick Markos talked about me? To you?’
‘No.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, Basil, really,’ she said and tried to keep the patient sound out of her voice.
‘I only wondered. Not that he’d have anything to say that mattered. It’s just that you seemed to be rather thick with him, I thought.’
There was only one thing now that Verity wanted and she wanted it urgently. It was for him to go away. She had no respect left for him and had had none for many years but it was awful to have him there, pussy-footing about in the ashes of their past and making such a shabby job of it. She felt ashamed and painfully sorry for him too.
‘Was that all you wanted to know?’ she asked.
‘I think so. No, there’s one other thing. You won’t believe this but it happens to be true. Ever since that dinner-party at Mardling, when we met again, I’ve had – I mean I’ve not been able to get you out of my head. You haven’t changed all that much, Verry. Whatever you may say, it was very pleasant. Us. Well, wasn’t it? What? Come on, be honest. Wasn’t it quite fun?’
He actually put his hand over hers. She was aghast. Something of her incredulity and enormous distaste must have appeared in her face. He withdrew his hand as if it had been scalded.
‘I’d better get on my tin tray and slide off,’ he said. ‘Thank you for seeing me.’
He got in his car. Verity went indoors and gave herself a strong drink. The room felt cold.
IV
Claude Carter had gone. His rucksack and its contents had disappeared and some of his undelicious garments. His room was in disorder. It had not been Mrs Jim’s day at Quintern Place. She had shown Alleyn where her key was always hidden – under a stone in the coal house – and they had let themselves in with it.
There was a note scrawled on a shopping-pad in the kitchen. ‘Away for an indefinite time. Will let you know if and when I return. C.C.’ No date. No time.
And now, in his room, they searched again and found nothing of interest until Alleyn retrieved a copy of last week’s local newspaper from the floor behind the unmade bed.
He looked through it. On the advertisement page under ‘Cars for Sale’ he found, half way down the column, a ring round an insertion that offered a 1964 Heron for £500 or nearest offer. The telephone number had been underlined.
‘He gave it out,’ Alleyn reminded Fox, ‘that he was seeing a man about a car.’
‘Will I ring them?’
‘If you please, Br’er Fox.’
But before Fox could do so a distant telephone began to ring. Alleyn opened the door and listened. He motioned to Fox to follow him and walked down the passage towards the stairhead.
The telephone in the hall below could now be heard. He ran down the stairs and answered it, giving the Quintern number.
‘Er yes,’ said a very loud man’s voice. ‘Would this be the gentleman who undertook to buy a ’64 Heron off of me and was to collect it yesterday evening? Name of Carter?’
‘He’s out at the moment, I’m afraid. Can I take a message?’
‘Yes, you can. I’ll be obliged if he’ll ring up and inform me one way or the other. If he don’t, I’ll take it the sale’s off and dispose of the vehicle elsewhere. He can collect his deposit when it bloody suits him. Thank you.’
The receiver was jammed back before Alleyn could reply.
‘Hear that?’ he asked Fox.
‘Very put about, wasn’t he? Funny that. Deposit paid down and all. Looks like something urgent cropped up to make him have it on the toes,’ said Fox, meaning ‘bolt’. ‘Or it might be he couldn’t raise the principal. What do you reckon, Mr Alleyn? He’s only recently returned from abroad so his passport ought to be in order.’
‘Presumably.’
‘Or he may be tucked away somewhere handy or gone to try and raise the cash for the car. Have we got anything on his associates?’
‘Nothing to write home about. His contact in the suspected drug business is thought to be this squalid little stationer’s shop in Southampton: one of the sort that provides an accommodation address. It’s called “The Good Read” and is in Port Lane.’
‘Sussy on drugs,’ Fox mused, ‘and done for blackmail.’
‘Attempted blackmail. The victim didn’t play ball. He charged him and Claude did three months. Blackmail tends to be a chronic condition. He may have operated at other times with success.’
‘What’s our move, then?’
‘Complete this search and then get down to the village again and see if we can find anything to bear out Artie’s tale of Claude’s nocturnal on-goings.’
When they arrived back at the village and inspected the hedgerow near the corner of Stile Lane and Long Lane they soon found what they sought, a hole in the tangle of saplings, blackthorn and weeds that could be crept into from the field beyond and was masked from the sunken lane below by grasses and wild parsnip. Footprints from a hurdle gate into the field led to the hole and a flattened depression within it where they found five cigarette butts and as many burnt matches. Clear of the hedge was an embryo fireplace constructed of a few old bricks and a crossbar of wood supported by two cleft sticks.
‘Snug,’ said Fox. ‘And here’s where sonny-boy plays Indian.’
‘That’s about the form.’
‘And kips with the bunnies and tiggywinkles.’
‘And down the lane comes Claude with his pack on his back.’
‘All of a summer’s night.’
‘All right, all right. He must have passed more or less under Artie’s nose.’
‘Within spitting range,’ Fox agreed. ‘Come on.’
Alleyn led the way back into Long Lane and to the lych-gate at the foot of the church steps. He pushed it open and it squeaked.
‘I wonder,’ Alleyn said, ‘how many people have walked up those steps since nine o’clock last night. The whole funeral procession.’
‘That’s right,’ said Fox gloomily.
‘Coffin bearers, mourners. Me. After that, tidying-uppers, and the vicar, one supposes.’
He stooped down, knelt, peered. ‘Yes, I think so,’ he said. ‘On the damp earth the near side of the gate and well to the left in the shelter of the lych, if that’s the way to put it. Very faint but I fancy they’re our old friends the crêpe-soled shoes. Take a look.’
Fox did so. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘By gum, I think so.’
‘More work for Bill Bailey and until he gets here the local copper can undisguise himself and take another turn at masterly inactivity. So far it’s one up to Artie.’
‘Not a chance of anything on the steps.’
‘I’m afraid, not a chance. Still – up we go.’
They climbed the steps, slowly and searchingly. Inside the church the organ suddenly blared and infant voices shrilled.
Through the night of doubt and s
orrow –
‘Choir practice,’ said Alleyn. ‘Damn. Not an inappropriate choice, though, when you come to think of it.’
The steps into the porch showed signs of the afternoon’s traffic. Alleyn took a look inside. The vicar’s wife was seated at the organ with five little girls and two little boys clustered round her. When she saw Alleyn her jaw dropped in the middle of ‘Onward’. He made a pacifying signal and withdrew. He and Fox walked round the church to Sybil Foster’s grave.
Bruce and Artie had taken trouble over finishing their job. The flowers – Bruce would certainly call them ‘floral tributes’, no longer lined the path but had been laid in meticulous order on the mound which they completely covered, stalks down, blossoms pointing up, in receding size. The Cellophane covers on the professional offerings glistened in the sun and looked, Alleyn thought, awful. On the top, as a sort of baleful bonne-bouche, was the great sheaf of red roses and carnations: ‘From B.S. with love’.
‘It’s quite hopeless,’ Alleyn said. ‘There must have been thirty or more people tramping round the place. If ever his prints were here they’ve been trodden out. We’d better take a look but we won’t find.’
And nor they did.
‘Not to be fanciful,’ Fox said. ‘As far as the footsteps go it’s like coming to the end of a trail. Room with the point marked x, gardener’s shed, broom recess, lych-gate and – nothing. It would have been appropriate, you might say, if they’d finished up for keeps at the graveside.’
Alleyn didn’t answer for a second or two.
‘You do,’ he then said, ‘get the oddest flights of fancy. It would in a macabre sort of way have been dramatically satisfactory.’
‘If he did her, that is.’
‘Ah. If.’
‘Well,’ said Fox, ‘it looks pretty good to me. How else do you explain the ruddy prints? He lets on he’s an electrician, he takes up the lilies, he hides in the recess and when the coast’s clear he slips in and does her. Motive: the cash – a lot of it. You can’t explain it any other way.’
‘Can’t you?’
‘Well, can you?’
‘We mentioned his record, didn’t we? Blackmail. Shouldn’t we perhaps bestow a passing thought on that?’
‘Here! Wait a bit – wait a bit,’ said Fox, startled. He became broody and remained so all the way to Great Quintern.
They drove to the police station where Alleyn had established his headquarters and been given a sort of mini-office next door to the charge room. It had a table, three chairs, writing material and a telephone which was all he expected to be given and suited him very well.
The sergeant behind the counter in the front office was on the telephone when they came in. When he saw Alleyn he raised his hand.
‘Just a minute, madam,’ he said. ‘The Chief Superintendent has come in. Will you hold on, please?’ He put his enormous hand over the receiver. ‘It’s a lady asking for you, sir. She seems to be upset. Shall I take the name?’
‘Do.’
‘What name was it, madam? Yes, madam, he is here. What name shall I say? Thank you. Hold the line, please,’ said the sergeant, re-stopping the receiver. ‘It’s a Sister Jackson, sir. She says it’s very urgent.’
Alleyn gave a long whistle, pulled a face at Fox and said he’d take the call in his room.
Sister Jackson’s voice, when it came through, was an extraordinary mixture of refinement and what sounded like sheer terror. She whispered, and her whisper was of the piercing kind. She gasped, she faded out altogether and came back with a rush. She apologized for being silly and said she didn’t know what he would think of her. Finally, she breathed heavily into the receiver, said she was ‘in shock’ and wanted to see him. She could not elaborate over the telephone.
Alleyn, thoughtfully contemplating Mr Fox, said he would come to Greengages, upon which she gave an instantly muffled shriek and said no, no that would never do and that she had the evening off and would meet him in the bar parlour of the Iron Duke on the outskirts of Maidstone. ‘It’s quite nice, really,’ she quavered.
‘Certainly,’ Alleyn said. ‘What time?’
‘About nayne?’
‘Nine let it be. Cheer up, Sister. You don’t feel like giving me an inkling as to what it’s all about?’
When she answered she had evidently put her mouth inside the receiver.
‘Blackmail,’ she articulated and his eardrum tingled.
Approaching voices were to be heard. Sister Jackson came through from a normal distance. ‘OK,’ she cried, ‘that’ll be fantastic, cheery-bye,’ and hung up.
‘Blackmail,’ Alleyn said to Fox. ‘We’ve only got to mention it and up it rises.’
‘Well!’ said Fox. ‘Fancy that! Would it be going too far to mention Claude?’
‘Who can tell? But at least it’s suggestive. I’ll leave you to get things laid on up in the village. Where are Bailey and Thompson, by the way?’
‘Doing the fireplace and the tool shed. They’re to ring back here before leaving.’
‘Right. Get the local copper to keep an eye on the lych-gate until B and T arrive. Having dealt with that and just to show zealous they may then go over the churchyard area and see if they can find a trace we’ve missed. And having turned them on, Fox, check the progress if any of the search for Claude Carter. Oh, and see if you can get a check on the London train from Great Quintern at eleven-five last night. I think that’s the lot.’
‘You don’t require me at the Iron Duke?’
‘No. La Belle Jackson is clearly not in the mood. Sickening for you.’
‘We’ll meet at our pub, then?’
‘Yes.’
‘I shan’t wait up,’ said Fox. ‘Don’t dream of it.’
‘In the meantime, I’ll stroll down to the station hoping for better luck than I had with the Greengages bus.’
‘Do. I’ll bring my file up to date.’
‘Were you thinking of taking dinner at the Iron Duke?’
‘I was thinking of taking worm-coloured fish in pink sauce and athletic fowl at our own pub. Do join me.’
‘Thanks. That’s all settled then,’ said Fox comfortably, and took himself off.
V
There were only seven customers in the bar parlour of the Iron Duke when Alleyn walked in at a quarter to nine: an amorous couple at a corner table and five city-dressed men playing poker.
Alleyn took a glass of a respectable port to a banquette at the furthest remove from the other tables and opened the evening paper. A distant roar of voices from the two bars bore witness to the Duke’s popularity. At five to nine Sister Jackson walked in. He received the slight shock caused by an encounter with a nurse seen for the first time out of uniform. Sister Jackson was sheathed in clinging blue with a fairly reckless cleavage. She wore a velvet beret that rakishly shaded her face, and insistent gloves. He saw that her make-up was more emphatic than usual, especially about the eyes. She had been crying.
‘How punctual we both are,’ he said. He turned a chair to the table with its back to the room and facing the banquette. She sat in it without looking at him and with a movement of her shoulders that held a faint suggestion of what might have passed as provocation under happier circumstances. He asked her what she would have to drink and when she hesitated and bridled a little, proposed brandy.
‘Well – thank you,’ she said. He ordered a double one. When it came she took a sudden pull at it, shuddered and said she had been under a severe strain. It was the first remark of more than three words that she had offered.
‘This seems quite a pleasant pub,’ he said. ‘Do you often come here?’
‘No. Never. They – we – all use the Crown at Greenvale. That’s why I suggested it. To be sure.’
‘I’m glad,’ Alleyn said, ‘that whatever it’s all about you decided to tell me.’
‘It’s very difficult to begin.’
‘Never mind. Try. You said something about blackmail, didn’t you? Shall we begin there?’
Alleyn unfolded the paper, using his pen and a fingernail to do so. ‘Were you by any chance wearing gloves when you handled this?’ he asked.
‘As it happened. I was going out. I picked it up at the desk.’
‘Where’s the envelope?’
‘I don’t know. Yes, I do. I think. On the floor of my car. I opened it in the car.’
The paper was now spread out on the table. It was a kind as well known to the police as a hand-bill: a piece of off-white commercial paper, long and narrow, that might have been torn from a domestic aide-mémoire. The message was composed of words and letters that had been cut from newsprint and gummed in two irregular lines.
‘Post £500 fives and singles to C. Morris, 11 Port Lane Southampton otherwise will inform police your visit to room 20 Genuine.’
Alleyn looked at Sister Jackson and Sister Jackson looked like a mesmerized rabbit at him.
‘When did it come?’
‘Yesterday morning.’
‘To Greengages?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is the envelope addressed in this fashion?’
‘Yes. My name’s all in one. I recognized it – it’s from an advertisement in the local rag for Jackson’s Drapery and it’s the same with Greengages Hotel. Cut out of an advertisement.’
‘You didn’t comply, of course?’
‘No. I didn’t know what to do. I – nothing like that’s ever happened to me – I – I was dreadfully upset.’
‘You didn’t ask anyone to advise you?’
She shook her head.
‘Dr Schramm, for instance?’
He could have sworn that her opulent flesh did a little hop and that for the briefest moment an extremely vindictive look clicked on and off. She wetted her mouth. ‘Oh no,’ she whispered. ‘No, thank you!’
‘This is the only message you’ve received?’
‘There’s been something else. Something much worse. Last evening. Soon after eight. They fetched me from the dining-room!’