by John Creasey
“That’s good of you, Mr. Ar! P’raps you’ll come rahnd and see me when yer can?”
“I will, before long,” promised Rollison. “How soon can you get men to Little Lane?”
“Take me the best par’ve a coupla hours,” declared Bill.
“Make it less if you can,” urged Rollison, and rang off.
Walking back to Little Lane, he mused on the conversation. What had been left unsaid, a great deal. Ebbutt had preferred not to speak about Keller on the telephone, which was curious, and had presented an urgent plea for Rollison to go to see him. Something about Keller obviously worried Bill.
An hour and a half later, a knock at the door of Whiting’s house heralded the arrival of three men from the gymnasium. Rollison spoke to them, to make sure that they were genuine ‘club’ members, gave instructions, and left the house with Kemp.
In the street, Kemp asked gruffly: “Who are those fellows, Rollison?”
“Good friends of mine, and they will be friends of yours if you show them what you can do with your fists,” said Rollison. By the time he had finished explaining, they were back at the church hall.
As they attempted to tidy up the small room which Kemp used, Rollison spoke thoughtfully. “I should have fixed a bodyguard for you, too.”
“Don’t worry about me,” said Kemp. “You’ve taken a load off my mind, and I don’t know how to say thanks. I can look after myself, but when it comes to other people being victimised—” He broke off, and smiled. “You certainly know your way about!”
Rollison was on the point of leaving when a taxi drew up outside and Jolly arrived.
He had little information. No word of the trouble at the hall had yet reached Freddie Day or others whom Jolly had seen, but the hostility towards Kemp was already well known. Not until they were in the taxi, the driver of which was still in a good humour, did Jolly confide that the majority were taking a neutral attitude. Kemp had not yet made a very good impression among his parishioners.
“He will,” said Rollison, confidently.
He told Jolly what had happened, before they reached the flat. Rollison paid the driver off, adding a pound to the fare, and walked upstairs with the man’s gusty thanks ringing in his ears.
Jolly had gone ahead.
Afterwards, Rollison knew that he should have been prepared for some such development, although he had not thought of the possibility of a visit to the flat so early. As it was, he stepped inside the little hall, and saw Jolly standing motionless, with his back towards him, just inside the drawing room. “What—” he began.
“That’s enough from you, Rollison,” said a voice from behind him.
Rollison forced himself not to turn too hastily, but his heart began to thump. The voice was that of the thick-set man whom he had seen at the back of Whiting’s house. He caught a glimpse of the owner of the educated voice, standing in front of Jolly. He got the impression that Jolly was being held up at the point of a gun, as he turned to look into the curiously docile looking brown eyes of the man with the growling voice.
CHAPTER FIVE
“I’m Keller.”
Once he had recovered from the surprise, Rollison smiled into the man’s face.
“Harry Keller, I presume,” he said.
“I’m Keller, yes,” answered the thick-set man. “When are you going to stop nosing into other people’s business?”
“It’s a congenital failing, I’m afraid,” said Rollison, sadly, “I can’t help myself.”
“You’ll help yourself this time,” said Keller.
His assurance in itself was puzzling. If the visitors had planned an attack it would probably have been made when Rollison had walked unsuspectingly into the hall. It appeared more likely that Keller had come to reason with him, and that was puzzling.
“What makes you think so?” he inquired politely.
“We don’t want that big parson around, and we don’t intend to let him stay, Toff or no Toff. Nothing you can do will make any difference, but if you don’t lay off, you will get hurt.”
“Oh, dear,” said Rollison, blankly.
“I mean hurt,” repeated Keller, harshly. “It won’t help you to run to the dicks. They can’t get at me, and I’m too powerful for you on your own. It’s time you stayed where you belong.”
“Where do you think that is?” asked Rollison.
“In the West End with all your fancy tarts and your wealthy friends,” said Keller. “This isn’t a game for you, Rollison. You might get your hands dirty.” Rollison watched his mobile features, seeing the way his lips curled and his eyebrows rose. Keller was an impressive personality; it would be folly to underestimate him. “You stay in Mayfair, Rollison, and if you must stick your nose into things that don’t concern you, there’s plenty of cleaning up to be done in your own back yard. But you wouldn’t try that, would you? You might find your precious friends are mixed up in it.”
“In what?” asked Rollison, obtusely.
“You know what,” rasped Keller. “I’m telling you to stick around your own back yard and not meddle in mine.”
“A whole world, all of your own?” asked Rollison.
“If you won’t take a warning, don’t blame me for anything that happens. I don’t want to interfere with you. You let me alone, I’ll let you alone.”
“Now who could say fairer than that?” asked Rollison, lightly. “What would you say if a policeman were to walk into the fiat this minute?” He studied the man curiously, and thought he had him guessing. “I don’t suggest that it’s likely, but I have all sorts of queer friends. I’d say to him: ‘Bill’ – or Percy, or whatever his name happened to be – ‘this is Harry Keller. He employed Spike Adams and Tom Harris to beat up the Rev. Ronald Kemp. He employed others to wreck a mission hall and do some hundreds of pounds worth of damage. He stole the knife belonging to a man named Craik and killed a third party with the said Craik’s knife.’”
The atmosphere had grown noticeably more tense, while a movement from the drawing room made him glance at the man with the cultured voice, who was pushing past Jolly. He held a gun.
But no one spoke.
“Shall I go on?” Rollison asked. ‘”Having committed murder,’ I would add, ‘Keller worried because a man named Whiting knew about the stolen knife, so he visited Whiting and uttered threats and menaced the lives of Whiting’s children. After that, he heard from Spike Adams or Tom Harris that I was a friend of Kemp, so he came here, burglariously entered my flat, threatened my valet with a gun, and uttered more menaces.’ Then,” continued Rollison, smiling faintly, “I would ask him how many years in gaol you’d be likely to get.”
Keller spoke in a thin voice. “You don’t know what you’ve done, Rollison.”
“Oh, but I do,” said Rollison. “I’ve frightened you and your friend. Queer thing, fear. I’ve made a study of it.”
“Once and for all, Rollison, I’m telling you to stick to your own back yard!”
“But Whitechapel is mine,” protested the Toff. “I was a frequenter of Jupe Street before you knew the difference between Whitechapel and Bethnal Green. What time did Grice say he’d be here, Jolly?”
Jolly answered with hardly a pause, as if he had been expecting the question, and Keller stiffened.
“At four o’clock, sir. I think he’s a little late.”
“Grice is on holiday!” Keller growled.
“He was – but he would make any sacrifice in a good cause,” said Rollison, as if gratified. “When I asked him to come back, he promised to start right away. Of course, he’ll be alone, so you might prefer to stay. One Superintendent of Scotland Yard won’t make much difference to you. Besides, you are above the police.”
“I know what I’m about,” rasped Keller.
“That’s splendid,” declared Rolliso
n.
“If you don’t—”
“Oh, go away!” snapped Rollison, losing patience. “You and your empty threats – what do you expect to gain? You’ve already lined up half of Whitechapel behind Kemp. Before tonight they hadn’t much time for him, now they’re on his side. Go away, and assimilate a little common sense!” He sounded almost pettish as he turned away, passing Jolly and the second man and pushing the latter roughly to one side he strode into the drawing room, and picked up the telephone.
The success of the trick he had planned depended upon Jolly – who dodged back into the drawing room and slammed the door. Rollison dropped the telephone and jumped to the door, putting his full weight against it as Jolly turned the key. Three heavy thuds shook it; then the men outside ceased trying to break it down.
Rollison and Jolly stood either side of the door, so that if Keller or his man fired into it, they would be out of harm’s way.
Rollison spoke in a loud voice.
“Nicely done. Jolly!”
“Thank you, sir,” said Jolly, soberly.
“I hope Grice doesn’t run into them,” Rollison went on, sounding anxious. “He’s an impetuous beggar, and might start a riot. I’d better ring for someone else from the Yard,” he added. He walked heavily round the room, then lifted the telephone and banged the receiver up and down several times.
The hall door slammed.
Rollison grinned. “That might be a pretty trick to make us show ourselves again, we’ll stay where we are . . . Hallo, is that Scotland Yard? . . . Rollison speaking, give me Inspector Mason, please.” After a pause, he went on: “Yes, Sergeant Hamilton will do . . . hallo, Hamilton? Send a couple of your liveliest men round to the flat, will you? I’m locked in my own drawing room, with two homicidal maniacs in the hall, threatening to . . . yes, of course I’m serious!”
The startled sergeant promised that he would send men immediately, and Rollison replaced the receiver.
The flat was on the first floor and it would be possible to climb out of the window and surprise Keller from the rear. But he had no weapon, and had a healthy respect for the other’s gun. Even if he only tried to follow them, it was so dark that they would probably shake him off. It would be best to stay where he was, confident that the flat would be clear of the intruders by the time the police arrived.
He and Jolly conversed in whispers, but that soon palled. They heard nothing for five minutes, then a car drew up outside and heavy footsteps came thumping on the stairs. Not until the police were outside the flat did Rollison unlock the drawing room door, and let them in.
Sergeant Hamilton, tall, fair and brisk, hoped Rollison had not been pulling his leg.
“I have not!” Rollison assured him, fervently, “I expected the men to try to break the door down, but they heard me telephoning you and decided not to wait.”
“Who were they?” demanded Hamilton.
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” said Rollison.
Afterwards, when the police had gone and as dawn was breaking, he told Jolly that he did not propose to mention Keller’s name to the police until he knew more about the man. For one thing, Keller’s certainty that he was in no danger from the police, was a remarkable thing. For another, he wanted to feel the pulse of the East End before he stirred up police action. He had been perfectly serious when he had told Kemp that it would be better to fight on his own for the time being – the masses of the district would rally round him, when it was seen that he was trying to fight single-handed – or even with help from the Toff.
At a quarter-past five, Rollison went to bed.
At a quarter to eight, Jolly called him, for Rollison, an acting Colonel, was due at his office in Whitehall by nine-thirty. He had the week before him, for it was only Tuesday, and there was little chance of getting leave; the only way of doing that, he complained to Jolly, was to go sick.
“Won’t you await events before taking that step?” asked Jolly.
“You mean won’t I give you a free hand?” said Rollison, smiling unamusedly. “I suppose I’ll have to. See Kemp and the Whitings, and keep me in touch with what happens. I’ll lunch at the club, so ring me there.”
“Very good, sir,” said Jolly.
And the Toff, sadly, set out for Whitehall.
Twice in the course of the morning, a colleague said with some exasperation that he was not giving his mind to the subject under discussion, and twice he apologised and tried to pull himself together. In truth, he was apprehensive lest the Whitings had been made to suffer for their boldness. The one reassuring factor was that Bill Ebbutt had sounded as if he knew what kind of proposition he was up against with Keller, and would take elaborate precautions. It was absurd that Keller should be able to inspire such apprehension, and equally absurd that he should be so self-assured.
“But he isn’t!” exclaimed Rollison, aloud.
“Now look here, Rolly,” said plump, bespectacled Colonel Bimbleton, “you know perfectly well that he was.”
“Eh?” asked Rollison.
“Oh, you’re impossible!” declared Bimbleton, then peered at him with sudden interest. “I say, Rolly, is something up?”
“Up is the word,” said Rollison. “I’m sorry, Bimble, but I can’t concentrate on this report. Would you care to have a shot at it yourself?”
Bimbleton regarded him curiously.
“Well, I don’t mind trying,” he conceded, “provided you’ll look through it afterwards, and make sure I haven’t pulled a boner.”
Rollison promised this, and Bimbleton went off to wrestle with a report on pilfering from army stores depots, a task which Whitehall, in all its wisdom, had ordained to be eminently suitable for a man known to associate with the police.
Jolly did not telephone the office or the club.
After lunch, Rollison hurried back to the office, but his clerk, a plump A.T.S. sergeant, had no message for him.
In his cogitations, Rollison had got no further than that Keller was afraid of the police taking action against him, but had reason to think that a lot of prodding would be needed to make them. Keller had been at great pains to try to make sure that Whiting said nothing about the episode of the stolen knife, although there was nothing original in his methods. There were occasional outbursts of intimidation in the East End, and sometimes a terror wave which rarely lasted long once it was discovered by the authorities, but which might have gained a powerful hold before the police learned of it. Many a man had been frightened into refusing to give evidence, even to committing perjury, by threats such as Keller had made to Whiting.
Two inescapable facts troubled Rollison most.
One was that a man whose name he did not yet know had been murdered, and – judging from the evidence so far available – one Joe Craik had been framed for the murder. The second was that Keller had a very powerful reason for wanting to drum the curate out of the St. Guy’s district.
He dictated letters and signed them, made a brief report on a matter he had been handling by himself, went over Bimbleton’s prosy report with its author and made a few comments, and left for Gresham Terrace.
Jolly was not at the flat.
Rollison began to feel worried about his man; even if there was nothing to report, Jolly should have telephoned by now. When at last the telephone rang, he hurried to it, hoping to hear Jolly’s voice. Instead, he heard Kemp’s – and Kemp sounded excited.
CHAPTER SIX
More News From Kemp
“Great Scott, Rollison, I’ve been trying to get you all the afternoon!” exclaimed Kemp. “Where the dickens have you been?”
“I should have given you my office number,” said Rollison. “You’d better take a note of it.”
“Never mind that! Can you come here at once?”
“What’s the trouble?” “
“I’ve had a visit from a most astonishing fellow,” said Kemp, amazement making his voice shrill. “I don’t know his name, but you should have heard the way he talked! He told me that if you didn’t stop interfering, he would mighty soon make you!”
“Did he have brown eyes and a gruff voice?”
“Yes, he did. How did you know?”
“He calls himself Keller,” said Rollison. “Don’t worry about his threats. Did he do anything?”
He heard Kemp’s sharp intake of breath.
“He didn’t actually do anything,” said the curate. “But – he made the most astonishing offer. He offered to replace all the damaged goods at the hall and give five hundred pounds to St. Guy’s Relief Fund, if—” Kemp grew almost incoherent.
“If you resigned?” asked Rollison.
“Yes!”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him,” said Kemp, in a deep voice, “exactly where to get off!”
“That’s the spirit!” acclaimed Rollison, feeling considerably relieved, “I was afraid you might have fallen for it.”
“I might have done yesterday,” said Kemp, “but not now – I’ve heard a lot about you today. Last night, I only had your name and the little I’d heard about you from the Whitings, but today—”
“Spare my blushes,” said Rollison. “How did you part with our brown-eyed briber?”
“Well, as a matter of fact,” said Kemp, less boisterously, “I felt a bit uneasy. He’s a funny customer, isn’t he? He went out breathing threats, and said he would give me forty-eight hours to change my mind. He also said you would have forty-eight, but I’m not particularly worried about you.”
“So he’s given a time limit, has he?” asked Rollison. “Don’t let yourself be caught napping any time during the next forty-eight hours. Did he have anything else to say?”
“Have you thought of anything that might be the cause of the trouble?”
“I’ve wracked my brains, but I can’t think of anything,” declared Kemp. “In fact, I don’t think there can”Of course there is,” interrupted Rollison. “How are the Whitings?”