by John Creasey
‘Jolly’s just been through,’ said Tennant. ‘Never mind about you’re being dead – I can’t find Anne.’
The Toff said things that he should not have done, and: ‘What happened?’
‘Pat and I went for a stroll. Anne was doing some mending, and said she wouldn’t worry to come. We were out for only twenty minutes, and when we got back there was no sign of her, and she’d taken a hat and coat. I called the exchange, and they told me she had had two telephone calls.’
The Toff hesitated, and again the bleakness was in his eyes.
‘I get you, Bob. Well, it can’t be helped—’
‘But damn it!’ exclaimed Tennant. ‘I—’
‘Just stand by, and if you happen to see her again, don’t let her out of your sight,’ said the Toff.
He replaced the receiver, and stared down on McNab without smiling. The inspector looked worried, and the Toff suddenly laughed, but there was no humour in the sound.
‘I’ll be seeing you,’ he said.
It was half an hour later when he reached the ‘River Tavern’. The pub was closed, but Rene opened the side door, smiling widely when she saw who the visitor was; her smile disappeared when she saw the expression on his face.
‘Gracious, Mr. Rollison—’
‘Not now,’ said the Toff. ‘Is the little boy-friend still upstairs?’
‘Yes – yes sir.’ Rene hesitated, and then as the Toff started for the stairs she exclaimed: ‘But I must tell you, sir! There’s a tar – girl here, asking for you. Name o’ Lee. She says she’s got an urgent message, and she’s waitin’.’
21: OLD HAUNTS
Daisy Lee seemed a little defiant, a great deal scared, and considerably more anxious for haste. She looked as though she had dressed in a greater hurry than usual, and she spoke quickly, stumbling now and again over her words.
The Toff heard her out.
How she had been to Blind Sletter’s place, how, at the ‘Steam Packet’, she had seen two more of Garrotty’s gangsters, and several other men, including a Turk. ‘’E wus a Turk,’ Daisy reiterated several times, as though she expected the Toff to disbelieve her. And there was also a prisoner, a tall fair-haired cove, whose face had been bleeding something awful.
‘How did you know they were prisoners?’ demanded the Toff.
The girl’s eyes did not drop as he stared into them.
‘I know my way about the “Packet”, see? And the boys are liable to fergit me. I see them, the fella and the girl, in one o’ the bedrooms – cross my throat!’
‘I believe you,’ said the Toff. ‘Did you speak to them?’
Daisy shook her head, her lips twisting.
‘What am I – askin’ for it? Mister, I’ve took a chance, comin’ t’see you. I—’
‘You took a hell of a chance,’ admitted the Toff, and his mind was working like lightning, probing into the improbabilities and the possibilities of the situation. ‘I’ll pay you well for it, don’t worry.’
Daisy looked satisfied, and for the first time she smiled. The Toff did not pause to wonder at the cupidity of the lady, but went on: ‘You’d better stay here until it’s over.’
‘What’s over?’
The police raid on the “Steam Packet”, with me present,’ snapped the Toff, and as he spoke something seemed to crack inside him. Even Winkle was astonished at the man’s inward fury – a fury that he did not voice but which seemed to emanate from him.
‘Blimey!’ Daisy gasped, stopped, and then rushed on: ‘Mister, I reckin I c’n look arter meself, an’ I’ve got a date with my boy-friend. We’re going out inter the country; you don’t have to worry about me.’
‘That’s a relief,’ said the Toff, without smiling. ‘All right, scram.’
Daisy hesitated.
‘Got a bit on account, mister?’
The Toff eyed her uncertainly; Winkle rubbed his fat cheek as though he was prepared for the Toff to do violence. And then the Toff smiled with one side of his mouth.
‘I get you. In case I don’t get out, is that it?’
‘A girl’s gotta take care of herself,’ said Daisy sullenly, but her eyes gleamed when the Toff took out his wallet. He selected four five-pound notes, rustled them between his fingers and then pushed them towards her. She took them eagerly, grunted ‘ta’, and turned from the back parlour. Her high-heeled shoes rapped on the linoleum as she walked along the passage. The side door of the ‘River Tavern’ opened and slammed to.
The Toff moved as the echoes quivered.
‘I’ll be seeing you, Winkle, and look after Ali upstairs, he’s going to be wanted soon. So long.’
‘’Ere!’ started Winkle, but before he could move his ponderous body the Toff had gone in the wake of Daisy Lee.
A big man, with his mouth and chin muffled up, and a bowler hat on his head despite the fact that he was indoors, looked into Achmed Dragoli’s amber eyes and shrugged his shoulders impatiently.
‘I tell you we’ve got to get Rollison! The man’s more dangerous than the rest put together –’
‘I could have advised you of that, my dear sir.’ Dragoli, still clean-shaven, did not move his eyes. ‘We shall get Rollison and we shall do it quickly. In fact, even now –’
He stepped to the window of the house in Camberley, and looked out. He had the patience of the devil, and the man behind him stirred. Dragoli lifted his hand.
‘They’re coming,’ he said.
In less than three minutes a woman and a man had descended from the car he had seen, and a servant opened the doors. Dragoli and the man in the bowler hat waited. The woman who came in was Daisy Lee, and she flung her hat on a chair as she half-shouted: ‘He bit – he’s raidin’ the “Steam Packet”! With the cops! ‘
‘So,’ said Dragoli. ‘He told you the police would raid the “Steam Packet”, did he?’
The girl laughed; her voice high-pitched. She looked uglier even than when she had stood in front of the Toff, waiting for her money, wondering whether she had succeeded in convincing him or not.
‘That’s it, I’ve fixed him.’
‘If he works true to his past efforts,’ murmured Dragoli, ‘he will go alone. He will be afraid that we shall get warning of the police, and he will try to rescue the girl and Frensham – alone. He is very brave, is Rollison.’
There was a sneer in the Egyptian’s voice, but the man in the bowler hat looked dissatisfied. He pushed his hat back, revealing his very wide grey eyes.
‘Look here, Dragoli, he might have meant it, and if the police go to the “Steam Packet” –’
‘They will find Blind Sletter and perhaps some others, but no one who can give them any useful information.
But I think you are wrong in expecting Rollison to send the police there. Despite his manner on the telephone to me, I feel that he was disturbed. The thought of that poor young girl –’
‘Not so much of the gab!’ snapped Daisy Lee. ‘What’s the layout, Dragoli, if we get the Toff? He’s smart.’
‘And yet,’ murmured Dragoli, ‘you were able to deceive him so easily on two occasions.’
The girl laughed mockingly.
‘I know his sort, that’s why. But if he gets away –’
‘It’s not likely,’ said Dragoli, ‘that he will get away. But if he does, we will find another means of ending his career. Don’t worry about Rollison. Of far more concern are our own plans.’ He looked at the man with the bowler hat, his eyes expressionless. ‘You have made arrangements to replace the warehouse at Blackfriars?’
‘That’s all right,’ said Bowler Hat ‘I’ll find a place.’
‘But have you?’
‘Not yet! Kellson’s disappearance has made it awkward, Dragoli, but we’ll find him. What are you laughing at, my sweet?’ He drawled the words sarcastically as he looked at a giggling Daisy, and the girl stopped laughing.
‘Don’t mind me, brother. I was laughing when Rollison showed me that photo and I said you were Kellson.’
The man’s lips curved a little in a reluctant smile.
‘I see. I won’t be annoyed with you, Daisy, because you really have managed very well. To tell Rollison that Frensham was with the girl was a clever touch, I’ll admit it.’
‘And yet,’ said Dragoli slowly, ‘we have not yet faced facts, despite these clever touches. Whether we get Rollison tonight or not, we have to admit that he has robbed us of several members. They must be replaced. And the warehouse is no longer usable. That must be replaced. And with Kellson gone, we have to find a new method of distributing some of our stuff. On all those points we could do well with more clever touches, my friends.’
Bowler Hat nodded. Daisy Lee sat back in her chair, showing a plentiful streak of silk stockings. There was silence in the room for several minutes, and the clock on the mantelpiece struck eleven.
Bowler Hat looked at his watch.
‘That’s a minute fast. We’ll hear from the “Steam Packet” any time. I’m scared of Rollison. He would have got me at the warehouse if I hadn’t an extra-thick skull, and managed to get away before the police came.’
Dragoli’s eyes were flaming.
‘Listen! Rollison is an unimportant detail in our arrangements! The organization is all-important, and it must go on whether Rollison lives or dies. There will always be interruptions, always be trouble, but while we remain free from the police we need have no fears. Remember the money in this, and –’
Daisy sneered.
‘Listen, Big Boy. You’re always talking big about money, but we don’t see much. I reckon we’ve handled a hell of a lot’ve snow for you in the last year, and we ain’t had more than enough to pay for our keep. Supposing you show more dough, and then talk business?’
Dragoli did not speak, but his eyes were murderous. Daisy ignored them, and went on viciously.
‘I’ve touted the stuff for you, an’ I’ve took a lot of the risks. I –’
‘You do not seem to understand,’ said Dragoli very carefully, ‘that in the past week we have been forced to close up several of our outlets. The addresses which the police could get to know from their prisoners, for instance, have been crossed off the list.’
‘Sure, they’ve been crossed off, but they’re a dozen or so, and we feed hundreds. And they pay cash on the nail.’
‘That’s true,’ said the man in the bowler hat, and he eyed Dragoli curiously. ‘You are not playing the fool with the Black Circle, are you, Dragoli? It wouldn’t pay you in the end. It’s a pretty wide organization, and you may be the kingpin in England, but there are other countries.’
The Egyptian was breathing very hard.
‘I see. There are other countries, and you would be prepared to operate in them? Perhaps you are afraid of the police, my friend. Have you forgotten that I first introduced you to the Black Circle? That without me it would never have started properly in England? Are you forgetting that I, and no one else, arranged with Willow and Kellson to handle the stuff for us in the first place, and then followed with others? Have you not the intelligence to realize that I stopped using Willow and Kellson as soon as possible, that I have twelve firms in England, each handling the stuff for one month in turn? That I have a fool-proof organization, of which you are members? Supposing this had been a Willow and Kellson month? The police would have found the stuff and would have been satisfied they had found how it was distributed. Would they have looked for another eleven firms? Have I not arranged centres in the biggest industrial parts of the country? We three are the only ones who know of that – and Kellson. He is too frightened to talk. He is so frightened that he has disappeared. Well?’ His lips were twisted, and he looked as though he would gladly have killed the man and the woman. ‘What now?’
The man in the bowler hat was clenching his fingers nervously, but Daisy Lee’s hard eyes were fixed on Dragoli’s.
‘You’ve fergot something, pal. You’ve fergot the profits, and the shares we ain’t seen yet. Talk’s cheap, but I want my hands on some dough.’
Dragoli took a deep breath.
‘You have been well paid. When the arrangements for a distribution of profits come from the Stamboul headquarters, you would have been well rewarded. You –’
‘Would’a been!’ snarled Daisy, and she jumped up. But Dragoli had an automatic in his hand, and it covered the two of them. His eyes were glinting, and there was venom in his voice.
‘But you forgot a very important thing, my friends. I am the leader in England, and my recommendations are carried out. Naturally, I want as much as I can, and now – I am running the Black Circle’s business admirably. I don’t need you. And so . . .’
His gun moved a trifle. Fear was flaming in the girl’s eyes; she looked far worse than when she had acted so well with Rollison. And the man with the bowler hat was staring wide-eyed at the gun, was trying to speak.
‘I shall find it very profitable,’ murmured Dragoli. ‘This house, of course, is suspect. The police will eventually find it. I would prefer them to find it empty, but now they will find two bodies. You see how all my rivals go? Garrotty was useful, but he will never shoot again. So were his men. Some have suffered because I could not help them, but everyone who threatens Dragon’s safety, who might talk if they were paid well enough, goes the same way. Are you understanding now?’
The girl was on her feet, swaying a little to and fro, her eyes wide open. The man was shivering from head to foot. There was murder in Dragoli’s words, in his eyes: death in the automatic. It moved again, and there was a grin on the man’s sallow face, as though he enjoyed seeing their fear and was reluctant to finish his play.
‘You – you yellow swine! You worked for this!’
‘I did, Daisy. I have worked very carefully, and I can honestly report that the Black Circle will find danger from you if you live. So –’
And then the interruption came, from the door. It was a man’s voice, harsh and clipped. Dragoli swung round with his gun, and fired towards the door on sight. But the man standing there fired first, and the bullet took Dragoli’s hand – the hand that the Toff had shot badly at the ‘Steam Packet’ in Lambeth.
Dragoli’s oath quivered and his gun dropped as Daisy gasped: ‘Frens – Frensham! How did you get out?’
Frensham was breathing hard. His coat was torn, his hair bloodstained, and there was an ugly wound down his right cheek. But his voice was steady enough.
‘Never mind how I managed it. Stay right where you are, Colliss!’
And the man in the bowler hat stood still as though rooted to the spot. His heavy mouth and heavy chin were revealed as the muffler dropped away. Colliss, archaeologist and special agent of the police in Stamboul, was gaping at the other man’s gun.
And then another voice came.
It was different. There was a mocking lilt in it, and it seemed to make their blood run cold.
‘The answer to my Daisy’s prayer, little one, thanks for showing me the way. No, I didn’t believe you. Dragoli, I found three men and Daisy’s chauffeur downstairs, and they relieved me of a lot of worry. I offered them money to skedaddle without making a fight and alarming you: and they went. You should pay good wages, and you’d get better service. But after hearing Daisy’s complaint, it’s understandable: greed, my Achmed, is the lowest common denominator of the crooked race, and if you’d been more open-handed you might have lived instead of getting hanged. With your men gone I freed Frensham, and he took the door while I waited by the window.’
The Toff, smiling cheerfully, stepped through the open window from the top of a ladder. Frensham’s gun did not move, and none of the trio made the slightest move to escape.
They hadn’t recovered from their shock yet.
‘Rol – Rollison!’ gasped Daisy Lee. ‘But – but the “Steam Packet”, you were going –’
‘I repeat, I guessed you were lying, and I followed you. I’ll also repeat that I’ve heard the whole story, and it doesn’t show any of you up in a good light. But do tell me one
thing: why in the name of Allah did Garrotty attack Colliss if Colliss was working for you? It was the one thing that made me think our archaeologist was honest.’
22: THE RACKET
Colliss spoke in a dead voice.
There had been a few seconds of silence, as though the trio were trying to convince themselves that this was true. The Toff, as immaculate and smiling as ever, looked like a ghost to Daisy Lee and Achmed Dragoli. They did not look towards Frensham.
‘Dragoli – didn’t know,’ Colliss said. ‘Until afterwards. I didn’t join until I got to Stamboul –’
The Toff’s eyes glinted.
‘And they discovered you were a police agent, did they? So they doped you with cocaine until you had to have more and more – and then you joined them. Is that it?’
‘That’s – it,’ admitted Colliss, still in that dead voice.
‘Fine!’ The Toff’s voice was rollicking. ‘And thanks to your thick skull you escaped the other night. And you, Daisy, while we’re learning things? You’ve been a distributing agent, have you? And when Colliss was going to the meeting, you had to arrange for him to be taken there so that you could be sure the police weren’t giving him watch-dogs. Very nicely arranged. And after you’d played me up the garden, you rigged the shooting in Randle Street. Another question, little one – why scream and warn me?’
The woman’s eyes were venomous.
‘The fool was too slow! There were people in the street and I wanted them to tell the narks I tried to warn you. But you dropped down instead of turning round and he missed you. I wish to Gawd he’d shot your brains out!’
‘Now, now,’ murmured the Toff. ‘And after I’ve saved you from Dragoli, too. A nice fellow, our Achmed.’
It was then that Dragoli and Colliss moved.
They seemed to work in unison, although Dragoli started a fraction of a second before the other man. They grabbed the table and uplifted it, hurtling it towards the Toff. Colliss flashed a gun from his pocket and emptied it towards Frensham. The fair-haired man dodged, away from the door, and Dragoli and Colliss reached it. Daisy was a foot or two behind them, the Toff was on the floor, making no effort to get up; Frensham was pressing behind a sideboard.