Killer Dolphin (29 page)

“Are you tired?”

“No. I’m reading.” His eye lit on Gertrude Bracey’s parcel. “Might as well look it over,” he said and unwrapped a tie. “Where’d she dig that up?” he wondered and returned to his comic.

“You are a young toad, aren’t you?” Alleyn remarked. “How old are you, in Heaven’s name?”

“Eleven and three months,” Trevor said. He was helping himself to a crystallized plum.

A slight rumpus broke out in the passage. Peregrine put his head round the door. “Marco and Harry are both here,” he said and cast up his eyes.

When Alleyn joined him at the door he muttered: “Marco won’t wait. He didn’t want to come. And Harry says he got here first. He’s up to his usual game,” Peregrine said. “Knight-baiting.”

“Tell him to shut up and wait or I’ll run him in.”

“I wish to Heaven you would, at that.”

“Ask Knight to come along.”

“Yes. All right”

“No sign of Conducis as yet?”

“No.”

When Marcus Knight came in he did not exhibit his usual signs of emotional disturbance: the flashing eye, the empurpled cheek, the throbbing pulse and the ringing tone. On the contrary he was pale and as near to being subdued, Alleyn felt, as he could be. He laid his offering upon the now filled-to-capacity bed-tray. Fruit: in season and a gilded basket. He brusquely ran his fingers through Trevor’s curls and Trevor immediately responded with a look that successfully combined young Hamnet and Paul Dombey.

“Oh Mr. Knight,” he said, “You honestly shouldn’t. You
are
kind. Grapes! How fab!”

A rather stilted bedside conversation followed, during which Knight gave at least half his uneasy attention to Alleyn. Presently Trevor complained that he had slipped down in his bed and asked his illustrious guest to help him up. When Knight with an ill-grace bent over him, Trevor gazed admiringly into his face and wreathed his arms round his neck. “Just like the end of Act I come true,” he said, “isn’t it, Mr. Knight? I ought to be wearing the glove.”

Knight hurriedly extricated himself. A look of doubt crossed Trevor’s face. “
The glove
,” he repeated. “There’s something about the real one—Isn’t there? Something?”

Knight looked a question at Alleyn, who said: “Trevor doesn’t recall the latter part of his adventures in the theatre on Saturday night I think Jay has explained that we hope one of you may help to restore his memory.”

“I
am
remembering more,” Trevor said importantly. “I remember hearing Mr. Knight in the office with Mr. Meyer.”

Marcus Knight stiffened. “I believe you are aware, Alleyn, that I left with Meyer at about eleven.”

“He has told us so,” Alleyn said.

“Very well,” Knight stood over Trevor and imposed upon himself, evidently with difficulty, an air of sweet reasonableness. “If,” he said, “dear boy, you were spying about in front while I was with Mr. Meyer in his office, and if you heard our voices, you doubtless also saw us leave the theatre.”

Trevor nodded.

“Precisely,” Knight said and spread his hands at Alleyn.

“
People come back
,” said the treble voice. Alleyn turned to find Trevor, the picture of puzzled innocence, frowning, his fingers at his lips.

“What the hell do you mean by that!” Knight ejaculated.

“It’s part of what I can’t remember. Somebody came back.”

“I really cannot imagine, Alleyn—” Knight began.

“
I-don’t-think-I-want-to-remember
.”

“There you are, you see. This is infamous. The boy will be harmed. I absolutely refuse to take part in a dangerous and unwarranted experiment. Don’t worry yourself, boy. You are perfectly right. Don’t try to remember.”

“Why?”

“
Because I tell you
,” Knight roared and strode to the door. Here he paused. “I am an artist,” he said, suddenly adopting a muted voice that was rather more awful than a piercing scream. “In eight hours’ time I appear before the public in a most exhausting role. Moreover I shall be saddled throughout a poignant, delicate and exacting scene with the incompetence of some revolting child-actor of whose excesses I am as yet ignorant. My nerves have been exacerbated. For the past forty-eight hours I have suffered the torments of hell. Slighted. Betrayed. Derided. Threatened. And now—this ludicrous, useless and important summons by the police. Very well, Superintendent Alleyn. There shall be no more of it. I shall lodge a formal complaint. In the meantime—
Goodbye
.”

The door was opened with violence and shut—not slammed—with well-judged temperance.

“Lovely eggzit,” said Trevor, yawning and reading his comic.

From outside in the corridor came the sound of applause, an oath, and rapidly retreating footsteps.

Alleyn reopened the door to disclose Harry Grove, gently clapping his hands, and Marcus Knight striding down the corridor.

Harry said, “Isn’t he
superb
? Honestly, you have to hand it to him.” He drew a parcel from his pocket. “Baby roulette,” he said. “Trevor can work out systems. It is true that this is a sort of identification parade?”

“You could put it like that I suppose,” Alleyn agreed.

“Do you mean,” Hairy said, changing colour, “that this unfortunate but nauseating little boy may suddenly point his finger at one of us and enunciate in ringing tones: ‘It all comes back to me. He dunnit’ ”

“That, roughly, is the idea.”

“Then I freely confess it terrifies me.”

“Come inside and get it over.”

“Very well. But I’d have you know that he’s quite capable of putting on a false show of recovery smartly followed up by a still falser accusation. Particularly,” Harry said grimly, “in my case when he knows the act would draw loud cheers and much laughter from all hands and the cook.”

“We’ll have to risk it. In you go.”

Alleyn opened the door and followed Harry into the room.

Trevor had slithered down again in his bed and had dropped off into a convalescent cat-nap. Harry stopped short and stared at him.

“He looks,” he whispered, “as if he was quite a nice little boy, doesn’t he? You’d say butter wouldn’t melt. Is he really asleep or is it an act?”

“He dozes. If you just lean over him he’ll wake.”

“It seems a damn shame, I must say.”

“All the same I’ll ask you to do it, if you will. There’s a bruise on the cheekbone that mystifies us all. I wonder if you’ve any ideas. Have a look at it.”

A trolley jingled past the door and down the corridor. Outside on the river a barge hooted. Against the multiple, shapeless voice of London, Big Ben struck one o’clock.

Harry put his parcel on the tray.

“Look at the bruise on his face. His hair’s fallen across it. Move his hair back and look.”

Harry stooped over the boy and put out his left hand.

From behind the screen in the corner there rang out a single, plangent note. “
Twang
.”

Trevor opened his eyes, looked into Harry’s face and screamed.

Harry Grove had given no trouble. When Trevor screamed he stepped back from him. He was sheet-white but he achieved a kind of smile.

“No doubt,” he had said to Alleyn, “you will now issue the usual warning and invite me to accompany you to the nearest police station. May I suggest that Perry should be informed. He’ll want to get hold of my understudy.”

And as this was the normal procedure it had been carried out.

So now, at Alleyn’s suggestion, they had returned, not to the Yard but to The Dolphin. Here for the first time Mr. Conducis kept company with the actors that he employed. They sat round the circle foyer while, down below, the public began to cue up for the early doors.

Peregrine had called Harry Grove’s understudy and he and the new child-actor were being rehearsed behind the fire curtain by the stage-director.

“I think,” Alleyn said, “it is only fair to give you all some explanation since each of you has to some extent been involved. These, as I believe, are the facts about Saturday night. I may say that Hartly Grove has admitted to them in substance.

“Grove left the theatre with Miss Meade and her party, saying he would go to Canonbury and pick up his guitar. He had in fact brought his guitar to the theatre and had hidden it in a broom cupboard in the Property Room where it was found, in the course of his illicit explorations, by Trevor. Grove got into his open sports car, drove round the block and parked the car in Phipps Passage. He re-entered the theatre by the pass-door while Mr. Meyer and Mr. Knight were in the office. He may have been seen by Jobbins, who would think nothing of it as Grove was in the habit of coming round for messages. He was not seen by Miss Bracey who mistook Jobbins for him because of the coat.

“Grove remained hidden throughout the rumpus about Trevor until, as he thought, the theatre was deserted except for Jobbins. At eleven o’clock he dialled his own number and let it ring just long enough for his wakeful neighbour to hear it and suppose it had been answered.

“It must have given him a shock when he heard Trevor, in the course of his fooling, pluck the guitar string. It was that scrap of evidence, by the way, when you remembered it, Jay, that set me wondering if Grove had left his instrument in the theatre and not gone to Canonbury. A moment later he heard the stage-door slam and thought, as Mr. Jay and Miss Dunne and Jobbins did, that Trevor had gone. But Trevor had sneaked back and was himself hiding and dodging about the auditorium. He saw Miss Bracey during his activities. Later, he tells us, he caught sight of Harry Grove and began to stalk him like one of his comic-strip heroes. We have the odd picture of Grove stealing to the broom-cupboard to collect his guitar, flitting like a shadow down a side passage, leaving the instrument ready to hand near the front foyer. Inadvertently, perhaps, causing it to emit that twanging sound.”

Peregrine gave a short ejaculation but when Alleyn looked at him said: “No. Go on. Go on.”

“Having dumped the guitar Grove returned to the stairway from the stage to the circle, climbed it and waited for midnight in the upper box. And, throughout this performance, Trevor peeped, followed, listened, spied.

“At midnight Jobbins left his post under the treasure and went downstairs to ring Police and Fire. Grove darted to the wall panel, opened it, used his torch and manipulated the combination. There had been a lot of talk about the lock after the safe was installed and before the treasure was put into it. At that time it was not guarded and I think he may have done a bit of experimenting, after hours, on the possible ‘glove’ combination.”

Winter Meyer knocked on his forehead and groaned. Marcus Knight said: “Oh God!”

“He opened the safe, removed the display-stand with its contents and I think only then realized he had engaged the switch that operates the front doors and the interior lighting. At that moment Trevor, who had stolen quite close (just as he did to me when I looked at the safe), said— It is his favourite noise at the moment— ‘
Z-z-z-z-yock. Slash
.’

“It must have given Grove a nightmarish jolt. He turned, saw the boy standing there in the darkened circle and bolted into the foyer clutching his loot. Only to find Jobbins rushing upstairs at him. He pushed the dolphin pedestal over and down. As Jobbins fell, Trevor came out of the circle and saw it all. Trevor is still not quite clear here but he thinks he screamed. He knows Grove made for him and he remembers plunging down the central steps in the circle. Grove caught him at the bottom. Trevor says—and this may be true—that he snatched the display-stand and threw it overboard before Grove could recover it. The last thing he remembers now is Grove’s face close to his own. It was the sight of it this morning, near to him, in association with the single twang effected by my colleague, Inspector Fox, who was modestly concealed behind a screen, that bridged the gap in Trevor’s memory.”

“
A faint perfume
,” Peregrine said loudly, “
and a most melodious twang
.”

“That’s Aubrey, isn’t it?” Alleyn asked. “But shouldn’t it be a
curious
perfume? Or not?”

Peregrine stared at him. “It is,” he said, “and it should. You’re dead right and why the hell it’s eluded me I cannot imagine. I heard it, you know, when Jobbins was hunting the boy.”

Emily said: “And, of course, it’s a single plangent note that brings down the curtain on
The Cherry Orchard
.”

“You see, Emily?” said Peregrine.

“I see,” she said.

“What the hell
is
all this?” Knight asked plaintively.

“I’ll get on with it,” Alleyn said. “After a brief struggle Grove, now desperate, rids himself of Trevor by precipitating him into the stalls. He hears Hawkins at the stagedoor and once again bolts into the circle foyer. He knows Hawkins will come straight through to the front and he hasn’t time to retrieve his guitar, get the key, unlock, unbolt and unbar the pass-door. There lies the body, dressed in his own outlandish coat. He strips off the coat, takes the scarf from the pocket to protect his own clothes and re-enters the darkened circle, to all intents and purposes Jobbins. Hawkins, now in the stalls, sees him, addresses him as Jobbins, and is told to make the tea. He goes backstage. Grove has time, now, to bundle the body back into the coat, fetch his guitar and let himself out. He drives to Chelsea and gets there fully equipped to be the life and soul of Miss Meade’s party.”

“And he
was
, you know,” Destiny said. “He
was
.”

She clasped her hands, raised them to her face and began to weep. Knight gave an inarticulate cry and went to her.

“Never mind, my darling,” he said. “Never mind. We must rise above. We must forget.”

Mr. Cohducis cleared his throat. Destiny threw him a glance that was madly eloquent of some ineffable generalization. He avoided it.

“The motive,” Alleyn said, “was, of course, theft. Harry Grove knew a great deal about Mrs. Constantia Guzmann. He knew that if the treasure was stolen she would give a fortune under the counter for it.”

Knight, who was kissing Destiny’s hands, groaned slightly and shuddered.

“But I think he knew more about her than that,” Alleyn went on. “She was a guest of Mr. Conducis’s six years ago in the
Kalliope
, when the yacht was wrecked off Cape St. Vincent. At that time, six years ago, Grove was going through a bad patch and taking any jobs he could get. Lorry-driving. Waiter in a strip-joint. And steward.”

He turned to Mr. Conducis. “I was about to ask you yesterday when Grove himself interrupted us: was he a steward on board the
Kalliope
?”

Nobody looked at Mr. Conducis.

“Yes,” he said.

“How did that come about?”

“He brought himself to my notice. His father was a distant and unsatisfactory connection of mine. I considered this to be no reason for employing him but he satisfied me of his usefulness.”

“And he sold you the glove and documents?”

“Yes.”

“For thirty pounds?”

“I have already said so.”

Marcus Knight, whose manner towards Mr. Conducis had been an extraordinary blend of hauteur and embarrassment, now said loudly: “I don’t believe it.”

“You don’t believe what, Mr. Knight?” Alleyn asked.

“That he was aboard that—vessel.”

“You were scarcely there long enough to notice,” Mr. Conducis said coldly.

“I was there long enough—” Marcus began on a high note, and dried. “But no matter,” he said. “No matter.”

Alleyn stood up and so did everybody else except Mr. Conducis.

“I won’t keep you any longer,” Alleyn said. “I would like to say how sorry I am that this has happened and how much I hope your play and your theatre will ride out the storm. I’m sure they will. I’m taking an unorthodox line when I tell you that Grove has said he will not contest the accusations of assault. He will, he states, admit to taking the treasure, overturning the bronze dolphin and struggling with the boy. He will plead that these were instinctive, self-protective actions committed without intention to kill. This defense, if adhered to, will mean a short trial with little evidence being called and, I think, not a great deal of publicity.”

Little Meyer said: “Why’s he taking that line? Why isn’t he going all out for an acquittal?”

“I asked him that. He said he was suddenly sick of the whole thing. And he added,” Alleyn said with a curious twist in his voice, “that he thought it would work out better that way for William Shakespeare, Mr. Peregrine Jay and The Dolphin.”

He saw then the eyes of all the company had filled with tears.

When they had gone he turned back to Mr. Conducis. “You said, sir, that you had something you wished to tell me.”

“I have something I wish to ask you. Has he said anything about me?”

“A little. He said you owed each other nothing.”

“I will pay for his defense. Let him know that.”

“Very well.”

“Anything else?”

“He said that as far as he is concerned — this was his phrase — he would keep the glove over his knuckles and I could tell you so. He asked me to give you this.”

Alleyn gave Mr. Conducis an envelope. He was about to put it in his pocket but changed his mind opened it and read the short message it contained. He held out the paper to Alleyn.

“
It seems
,” Alleyn read, “
that we are both the victims of irresistible impulse. Which leads me to the ludicrous notion that you will, as they say, ‘understand.’ You needn’t worry. I’m bored with it all and intend to drop it
.”

Down below someone whistled, crossed the foyer and slammed the front doors. The Dolphin was very quiet.

“He clung to the raft,” said Mr. Conducis, “and tried to climb aboard it. He would have overturned it. I smashed his knuckles with the writing-desk and thought I’d drowned him. His hands were gloved. They curled and opened and slid away in their own blood. Nobody saw. He has blackmailed me ever since.”

“They are not cancelling,” said Winter Meyer, giving the box-office plans a smart slap. “And there’s very little publicity. I can’t understand it.”

“Could it be the hand of Conducis?”

“Could be, dear boy. Could be. Power,” said little Meyer, “corrupts, didn’t somebody say? It may do: but it comes in handy, dear boy, it comes in handy.”

He ran upstairs to his office and could be heard singing.

“All the same,” Peregrine said to Emily, “I hope it’s
not
the hand of Conducis. I hope it’s The Dolphin. And us. You know,” he went on, “I’m sure he stayed behind to unburden himself to Alleyn.”

“What of?”

“Who can tell! I’ve got a feeling it was something to do with his yacht. He’s behaved so very oddly whenever it came up.”

“Perhaps,” Emily speculated idly, “you reminded him of it. That morning.”

“I? How?”

“Oh,” she said vaguely, “people drowning, you know, or nearly drowning, or hanging on to bits of wreckage. Perhaps he was glad he rescued you. Or something.”

“You never know,” Peregrine said.

He put his arm round her and she leaned against him. They had become engaged and were happy.

They looked round them at the upsidedown cupids, the caryatids, the portrait of Mr. Adolphus Ruby, now prominently displayed, and the graceful double flight of stairs. The bronze dolphins were gone and where the safe had been was a montage of the Grafton portrait overlaid by Kean, Garrick, Siddons, Irving and the present great Shakespeareans, all very excitingly treated by Jeremy Jones.

“If you belong to the theatre,” Peregrine said, “you belong utterly.”

They went out to the portico.

Here they found an enormous Daimler and a chauffeur. It was like a recurrent symbol in a time play and for a moment Peregrine felt as if Mr. Conducis had called again to take him to Drury Place.

“Is that Dessy’s car?” Emily said.

But it wasn’t Destiny Meade in the back seat. It was an enormous and definitively hideous lady flashing with diamonds, lapped in mink and topped with feathers.

She tapped on the glass and beckoned.

When Peregrine approached, she let down the window and, in a deep voice, addressed him.

“You can perhaps assizt me. I have this morning arrived from America. I vish to inquire about the Shakespearean Religs. I am Mrs. Constantia Guzmann.”

The End