Partners in Crime (8 page)

‘Greengrocers,’ said Tuppence in a low voice as the door closed behind the imperturbable Inspector, ‘butchers, fishermen, detectives. I was right, wasn’t I? He knew.’

Tommy, who had been busy at the sideboard, approached her with a large glass.

‘Drink this.’

‘What is it? Brandy?’

‘No, it’s a large cocktail–suitable for a triumphant McCarty. Yes, Marriot’s right all round–that was the way of it. A bold finesse for game and rubber.’

Tuppence nodded.

‘But he finessed the wrong way round.’

‘And so,’ said Tommy, ‘exit the King.’

The buzzer on Mr Blunt’s desk–International Detective Agency, Manager, Theodore Blunt–uttered its warning call. Tommy and Tuppence both flew to their respective peepholes which commanded a view of the outer office. There it was Albert’s business to delay the prospective client with various artistic devices.

‘I will see, sir,’ he was saying. ‘But I’m afraid Mr Blunt is very busy just at present. He is engaged with Scotland Yard on the phone just now.’

‘I’ll wait,’ said the visitor. ‘I haven’t got a card with me, but my name is Gabriel Stavansson.’

The client was a magnificent specimen of manhood, standing over six foot high. His face was bronzed and weather beaten, and the extraordinary blue of his eyes made an almost startling contrast to the brown skin.

Tommy swiftly made up his mind. He put on his hat, picked up some gloves and opened the door. He paused on the threshold.

‘This gentleman is waiting to see you, Mr Blunt,’ said Albert.

A quick frown passed over Tommy’s face. He took out his watch.

‘I am due at the Duke’s at a quarter to eleven,’ he said. Then he looked keenly at the visitor. ‘I can give you a few minutes if you will come this way.’

The latter followed him obediently into the inner office, where Tuppence was sitting demurely with pad and pencil.

‘My confidential secretary, Miss Robinson,’ said Tommy. ‘Now, sir, perhaps you will state your business? Beyond the fact that it is urgent, that you came here in a taxi, and that you have lately been in the Arctic–or possibly the Antarctic, I know nothing.’

The visitor stared at him in amazement.

‘But this is marvellous,’ he cried. ‘I thought detectives only did such things in books! Your office boy did not even give you my name!’

Tommy sighed deprecatingly.

‘Tut, tut, all that was very easy,’ he said. ‘The rays of the midnight sun within the Arctic circle have a peculiar action upon the skin–the actinic rays have certain properties. I am writing a little monograph on the subject shortly. But all this is wide of the point. What is it that has brought you to me in such distress of mind?’

‘To begin with, Mr Blunt, my name is Gabriel Stavansson –’

‘Ah! of course,’ said Tommy. ‘The well-known explorer. You have recently returned from the region of the North Pole, I believe?’

‘I landed in England three days ago. A friend who was cruising in northern waters brought me back on his yacht. Otherwise I should not have got back for another fortnight. Now I must tell you, Mr Blunt, that before I started on this last expedition two years ago, I had the great good fortune to become engaged to Mrs Maurice Leigh Gordon –’

Tommy interrupted.

‘Mrs Leigh Gordon was, before her marriage –?’

‘The Honourable Hermione Crane, second daughter of Lord Lanchester,’ reeled off Tuppence glibly.

Tommy threw her a glance of admiration.

‘Her first husband was killed in the war,’ added Tuppence.

Gabriel Stavansson nodded.

‘That is quite correct. As I was saying, Hermione and I became engaged. I offered, of course, to give up this expedition, but she wouldn’t hear of such a thing–bless her! She’s the right kind of woman for an explorer’s wife. Well, my first thought on landing was to see Hermione. I sent a telegram from Southampton, and rushed up to town by the first train. I knew that she was living for the time being with an aunt of hers, Lady Susan Clonray, in Pont Street, and I went straight there. To my great disappointment, I found that Hermy was away visiting some friends in Northumberland. Lady Susan was quite nice about it, after getting over her first surprise at seeing me. As I told you, I wasn’t expected for another fortnight. She said Hermy would be returning in a few days’ time. Then I asked for her address, but the old woman hummed and hawed–said Hermy was staying at one or two different places and that she wasn’t quite sure what order she was taking them in. I may as well tell you, Mr Blunt, that Lady Susan and I have never got on very well. She’s one of those fat women with double chins. I loathe fat women–always have–fat women and fat dogs are an abomination unto the Lord–and unfortunately they so often go together! It’s an idiosyncrasy of mine, I know–but there it is–I never can get on with a fat woman.’

‘Fashion agrees with you, Mr Stavansson,’ said Tommy dryly. ‘And every one has their own pet aversion–that of the late Lord Roberts was cats.’

‘Mind you, I’m not saying that Lady Susan isn’t a perfectly charming woman–she may be, but I’ve never taken to her. I’ve always felt, deep down, that she disapproved of our engagement, and I feel sure that she would influence Hermy against me if that were possible. I’m telling you this for what it’s worth. Count it out as prejudice if you like. Well, to go on with my story, I’m the kind of obstinate brute who likes his own way. I didn’t leave Pont Street until I’d got out of her the names and addresses of the people Hermy was likely to be staying with. Then I took the mail train north.’

‘You are, I perceive, a man of action, Mr Stavansson,’ said Tommy, smiling.

‘The thing came upon me like a bombshell. Mr Blunt, none of these people had seen a sign of Hermy. Of the three houses, only one had been expecting her–Lady Susan must have made a bloomer over the other two–and she had put off her visit there at the last moment by telegram. I returned post haste to London, of course, and went straight to Lady Susan. I will do her the justice to say that she seemed upset. She admitted that she had no idea where Hermy could be. All the same, she strongly negatived any idea of going to the police. She pointed out that Hermy was not a silly young girl, but an independent woman who had always been in the habit of making her own plans. She was probably carrying out some idea of her own.

‘I thought it quite likely that Hermy didn’t want to report all her movements to Lady Susan. But I was still worried. I had that queer feeling one gets when something is wrong. I was just leaving when a telegram was brought to Lady Susan. She read it with an expression of relief and handed it to me. It ran as follows: ‘
Changed my plans. Just off to Monte Carlo for a week.–Hermy
.’

Tommy held out his hand.

‘You have got the telegram with you?’

‘No, I haven’t. But it was handed in at Maldon, Surrey. I noticed that at the time, because it struck me as odd. What should Hermy be doing at Maldon. She’d no friends there that I had ever heard of.’

‘You didn’t think of rushing off to Monte Carlo in the same way that you had rushed north?’

‘I thought of it, of course. But I decided against it. You see, Mr Blunt, whilst Lady Susan seemed quite satisfied by that telegram, I wasn’t. It struck me as odd that she should always telegraph, not write. A line or two in her own handwriting would have set all my fears at rest. But anyone can sign a telegram “Hermy.” The more I thought it over, the more uneasy I got. In the end I went down to Maldon. That was yesterday afternoon. It’s a fair-sized place–good links there and all that–two hotels. I inquired everywhere I could think of, but there wasn’t a sign that Hermy had ever been there. Coming back in the train I read your advertisement and I thought I’d put it up to you. If Hermy has really gone off to Monte Carlo, I don’t want to set the police on her track and make a scandal, but I’m not going to be sent off on a wild goose chase myself. I stay here in London, in case–in case there’s been foul play of any kind.’

Tommy nodded thoughtfully.

‘What do you suspect exactly?’

‘I don’t know. But I feel there’s something wrong.’

With a quick movement, Stavansson took a case from his pocket and laid it open before them.

‘That is Hermione,’ he said. ‘I will leave it with you.’

The photograph represented a tall, willowy woman, no longer in her first youth, but with a charming frank smile and lovely eyes.

‘Now, Mr Stavansson,’ said Tommy, ‘there is nothing you have omitted to tell me?’

‘Nothing whatever.’

‘No detail, however small?’

‘I don’t think so.’

Tommy sighed.

‘That makes the task harder,’ he observed. ‘You must often have noticed, Mr Stavansson, in reading of crime, how one small detail is all the great detective needs to set him on the track. I may say that this case presents some unusual features. I have, I think, partially solved it already, but time will show.’

He picked up a violin which lay on the table and drew the bow once or twice across the strings. Tuppence ground her teeth, and even the explorer blenched. The performer laid the instrument down again.

‘A few chords from Mosgovskensky,’ he murmured. ‘Leave me your address, Mr Stavansson, and I will report progress to you.’

As the visitor left the office, Tuppence grabbed the violin, and putting it in the cupboard turned the key in the lock.

‘If you must be Sherlock Holmes,’ she observed, ‘I’ll get you a nice little syringe and a bottle labelled cocaine, but for God’s sake leave that violin alone. If that nice explorer man hadn’t been as simple as a child, he’d have seen through you. Are you going on with the Sherlock Holmes touch?’

‘I flatter myself that I have carried it through very well so far,’ said Tommy with some complacence. ‘The deductions were good, weren’t they? I had to risk the taxi. After all, it’s the only sensible way of getting to this place.’

‘It’s lucky I had just read the bit about his engagement in this morning’s
Daily Mirror
,’ remarked Tuppence.

‘Yes, that looked well for the efficiency of Blunt’s Brilliant Detectives. This is decidedly a Sherlock Holmes case. Even you cannot have failed to notice the similarity between it and the disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax.’

‘Do you expect to find Mrs Leigh Gordon’s body in a coffin?’

‘Logically, history should repeat itself. Actually–well, what do you think?’

‘Well,’ said Tuppence. ‘The most obvious explanation seems to be that for some reason or other, Hermy, as he calls her, is afraid to meet her fiancé, and that Lady Susan is backing her up. In fact, to put it bluntly, she’s come a cropper of some kind, and has got the wind up about it.’

‘That occurred to me also,’ said Tommy. ‘But I thought we’d better make pretty certain before suggesting that explanation to a man like Stavansson. What about a run down to Maldon, old thing? And it would do no harm to take some golf clubs with us.’

Tuppence agreeing, the International Detective Agency was left in the charge of Albert.

Maldon, though a well-known residential place, did not cover a large area. Tommy and Tuppence, making every possible inquiry that ingenuity could suggest, nevertheless drew a complete blank. It was as they were returning to London that a brilliant idea occurred to Tuppence.

‘Tommy, why did they put Maldon, Surrey, on the telegram?’

‘Because Maldon is in Surrey, idiot.’

‘Idiot yourself–I don’t mean that. If you get a telegram from–Hastings, say, or Torquay, they don’t put the county after it. But from Richmond, they do put Richmond, Surrey. That’s because there are two Richmonds.’

Tommy, who was driving, slowed up.

‘Tuppence,’ he said affectionately, ‘your idea is not so dusty. Let us make inquiries at yonder post office.’

They drew up before a small building in the middle of a village street. A very few minutes sufficed to elicit the information that there were two Maldons. Maldon, Surrey, and Maldon, Sussex, the latter, a tiny hamlet but possessed of a telegraph office.

‘That’s it,’ said Tuppence excitedly. ‘Stavansson knew Maldon was in Surrey, so he hardly looked at the word beginning with S after Maldon.’

‘Tomorrow,’ said Tommy, ‘we’ll have a look at Maldon, Sussex.’

Maldon, Sussex, was a very different proposition to its Surrey namesake. It was four miles from a railway station, possessed two public houses, two small shops, a post and telegraph office combined with a sweet and picture postcard business, and about seven small cottages. Tuppence took on the shops whilst Tommy betook himself to the Cock and Sparrow. They met half an hour later.

‘Well?’ said Tuppence.

‘Quite good beer,’ said Tommy, ‘but no information.’

‘You’d better try the King’s Head,’ said Tuppence. ‘I’m going back to the post office. There’s a sour old woman there, but I heard them yell to her that dinner was ready.’

She returned to the place and began examining postcards. A fresh-faced girl, still munching, came out of the back room.

‘I’d like these, please,’ said Tuppence. ‘And do you mind waiting whilst I just look over these comic ones?’

She sorted through a packet, talking as she did so.

‘I’m ever so disappointed you couldn’t tell me my sister’s address. She’s staying near here and I’ve lost her letter. Leigh Gordon, her name is.’

The girl shook her head.

‘I don’t remember it. And we don’t get many letters through here either–so I probably should if I’d seen it on a letter. Apart from the Grange, there isn’t many big houses round about.’

‘What is the Grange?’ asked Tuppence. ‘Who does it belong to?’

‘Dr Horriston has it. It’s turned into a nursing home now. Nerve cases mostly, I believe. Ladies that come down for rest cures, and all that sort of thing. Well, it’s quiet enough down here, heaven knows.’ She giggled.

Tuppence hastily selected a few cards and paid for them.

‘That’s Doctor Horriston’s car coming along now,’ exclaimed the girl.

Tuppence hurried to the shop door. A small two-seater was passing. At the wheel was a tall dark man with a neat black beard and a powerful unpleasant face. The car went straight on down the street. Tuppence saw Tommy crossing the road towards her.

‘Tommy, I believe I’ve got it. Doctor Horriston’s nursing home.’

‘I heard about it at the King’s Head, and I thought there might be something in it. But if she’s had a nervous breakdown or anything of that sort, her aunt and her friends would know about it surely.’

‘Ye-es. I didn’t mean that. Tommy, did you see that man in the two-seater?’

‘Unpleasant-looking brute, yes.’

‘That was Doctor Horriston.’

Tommy whistled.

‘Shifty looking beggar. What do you say about it, Tuppence? Shall we go and have a look at the Grange?’