The Riddle at Gipsy's Mile (An Angela Marchmont Mystery 4) (19 page)

‘
They
’
ve found a witness who saw Lita at Charing Cross station on Wednesday the 7th of September
—
and she was with a young man of Chinese appearance who had an educated English accent.
’

‘
Indeed?
’
remarked Willis.
‘
Who is this witness?
’

‘
A com
mercial fellow,
’
said Jameson.
‘
He says he was standing behind a girl in a blue coat and hat in the queue for the cloak room. He remembers it as being that day in particular because it happened to be his birthday, and he was in a hurry to catch his train.
However, as it turned out, he missed it because the girl in front of him was dithering with her luggage, and searching through her purse for spare change. Then the Chinese man turned up and spoke to her, and she looked at him in surprise and asked him wha
t
he was doing there. The commercial chap says she called him Jacky or Johnny, but he can
’
t remember which. Then the two of them began arguing, at which point our witness lost patience and asked them to do it elsewhere as he wanted to deposit his bags and
c
atch his train. They glared at him but went outside. He judged the pair of them to be no better than they ought to be and thought no more of the matter until he read the story in the newspapers.
’

‘
Did he happen to hear what they were rowing about?
’

Jameson
shook his head.

‘
Apparently not,
’
he said.
‘
He just assumed it was a tiff between two people of a kind with whom he was not accustomed to mix. I gather those were his words
—
or something like them.
’

‘
So, then,
’
said the sergeant.
‘
She was last seen alive o
n the afternoon of Wednesday the 7th of September at Charing Cross station.
’

‘
And then was discovered dead in a ditch just outside Littlechurch two days later,
’
said Jameson.
‘
I wonder what exactly happened in those two days.
’

‘
It looks as though we shall
have to have another word with young Master Chang, then,
’
said Sergeant Willis.

‘
It does indeed,
’
said Jameson grimly.
‘
Let
’
s go and see if he
’
s at home, shall we?
’

The arrest of Johnny Chang on suspicion of murdering a dance hostess at the notor
ious Copernicus Club created a great sensation in the newspapers over the next few days. Johnny had denied everything vehemently, and had done his best to resist arrest. However, the incontrovertible fact of his having been seen with Lita at Charing Cross
station on the date in question, together with his lack of an alibi for the two days following, gave the police quite sufficient grounds to overpower him and take him to the station for questioning. Further damning evidence was discovered when the club
’
s
p
remises were searched and the police found several packets of arsenic, which Johnny claimed had been bought for the purposes of getting rid of rats. Whether that were true or not, the presence of the poison was quite enough to keep him in prison for the p
r
esent, and to allow the police to charge him formally with the murder of Lita de Marquez. Meanwhile, the Copernicus Club was shut down until further notice, since there was nobody left to run it.

Angela put down her newspaper and stared thoughtfully out of
the window, although she saw nothing of what was going on in the street below. Instead she was thinking about the case. It looked as though it had reached the most predictable of conclusions. Lita de Marquez had rejected her lover, and he had taken it ba
d
ly and murdered her. It was an old, old story, but none the less pitiful for that. How many times had the same thing happened throughout the course of history? It was certainly the most obvious solution, and yet
—
and yet
—
Angela was uncomfortable. Several a
s
pects of the case still puzzled her, and she wanted to talk about it with someone, but Inspector Jameson was very busy at present and could not be reached by telephone
—
even supposing he was willing to talk about it now that an arrest had been made.

Fortuna
tely, she was rescued by Freddy Pilkington-Soames, who came to gloat over his cleverness at having solved the case, as he claimed.

‘
Oughtn
’
t you to be reporting on the opening of a new civic building or something?
’
said Angela after they had exchanged gree
tings.

‘
No,
’
said Freddy airily.
‘
They sent me to listen to another speech by that old chump Rowbotham. Fortunately, having already attended one of his speeches I happen to know that he tends to drivel on interminably, so I took down his first few sentence
s just to be on the safe side, and then came out. No doubt he will still be prattling away when I get back and I can take down his closing remarks and applaud politely with the rest of the audience, without having to listen to all the rot in the middle.
’

‘
But what shall you do if he
’
s already finished by the time you get back?
’
said Angela.

‘
Then I shall just use my notes from the last speech of his that I attended,
’
said Freddy.
‘
Or perhaps I
’
ll invent something of my own. Of course, there
’
s always St. Joh
n,
’
he went on, as a thought struck him.
‘
He was there, listening avidly, and will probably be able to recite it word for word. Yes, I think I shall ask him.
’

‘
Sit down and tell me all about what has been happening in the Lita de Marquez case,
’
said Angela
, and poured him some coffee, which Marthe had just brought in.
‘
I gather you have wormed your way into Inspector Jameson
’
s confidence by finding him a useful witness.
’

‘
Yes, it was rather a
coup
on my part, wasn
’
t it?
’
said Freddy, trying and failing to l
ook modest.
‘
It was entirely thanks to me that the police found out about the liaison between Lita and Johnny Chang. I expect I
’
ll get a medal of some sort.
’

‘
But do you think they have got the right man?
’

‘
Of course. Who else could it have been?
’

‘
Why, I don
’
t know,
’
said Angela,
‘
but I have been reading the story in the newspapers this morning and there is something that doesn
’
t seem quite right to me.
’

‘
What do you mean?
’

‘
I
’
m not quite sure,
’
said Angela.
‘
It
’
s just that
—’
she paused to consider,
then went on,
‘
I
’
m not convinced by the method of the murder. She was poisoned with arsenic, the police said.
’

‘
Yes,
’
put in Freddy,
‘
and they found enormous quantities of the stuff at the Copernicus Club.
’

‘
Oh yes, I don
’
t doubt for a moment that Johnny
Chang was easily able to get hold of the poison, but the whole thing seems a bit
—
I don
’
t know
—
awkward.
’

‘
You
’
re not explaining yourself very well,
’
said Freddy.

‘
I
’
m not, am I?
’
said Angela.
‘
Very well, then, let
’
s think about it from Johnny
’
s point of view. Let
’
s say that Lita has tired of him and has decided to leave the club and go down to Kent for reasons of her own. She goes to Charing Cross and drops her suitcase in the cloak room, and prepares to catch her train. At that moment, she is
accosted by Johnny, who has followed her to the station
—’

‘
Just a minute,
’
interrupted Freddy.
‘
How do we know they weren
’
t going to leave together?
’

‘
Why, because of what the man behind them in the queue said. He said Lita was surprised to see Johnny and
asked him what he was doing there. That doesn
’
t sound as though they were planning to go away together, does it?
’

‘
No,
’
admitted Freddy,
‘
but supposing they made it up after they left the cloak room, and decided to go down to Kent together. That
’
s possible
, isn
’
t it?
’

‘
It is, yes,
’
said Angela,
‘
but in that case why on earth was he carrying a packet of arsenic about with him? And why has nobody at the Kent end reported seeing an English woman in company with a Chinese man? It
’
s unusual enough to attract att
ention in a place like that. And,
’
she went on,
‘
more importantly, where did he get the car?
’

‘
Which car?
’

‘
The car he used to get rid of her body, of course,
’
said Angela.
‘
Lita was found in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. Johnny certainly couldn
’
t have
carried her there by himself on foot.
’

‘
Perhaps they walked there and then he killed her,
’
suggested Freddy, then corrected himself.
‘
No, of course that wouldn
’
t work, not if he was planning to give her arsenic.
’

‘
No,
’
agreed Angela.
‘
Surely the poisoning
must have taken place in a house or a hotel. And there must have been a car, or a truck, or a wagon, or something that could carry a woman
’
s body.
’

‘
I see what you mean,
’
said Freddy thoughtfully.
‘
It is a little tricky.
’

‘
Yes, it is,
’
said Angela.
‘
As I
see it, if the police want the charges to stand up they will have to find convincing answers to the following questions
—
one: why was Johnny Chang carrying arsenic around with him? Two: where did he give Lita the poison, and how? And three: what kind of ve
h
icle did he use to dispose of the body, and where did he get it? Remember, too, that when she was given the arsenic she would have been very sick indeed. Somebody will have had to clean that up.
’

Freddy wrinkled his nose in distaste.

‘
I assume the Kent pol
ice have been dealing with the inquiries at that end,
’
he said.
‘
They will know what to look for.
’

‘
Why was she going to Kent?
’
said Angela suddenly.
‘
We still don
’
t know, but I have the feeling it might turn out to be rather important. And the police have
still not tracked down the man Lew, who came looking for Lita after she disappeared.
’

‘
Perhaps he has nothing to do with the case.
’

‘
Perhaps. He said he needed to find her urgently, though.
’

‘
He was probably from the Home and Colonial, coming to dun her f
or a back payment,
’
said Freddy.
‘
At any rate, if he has any connection with the case, he may come forward now that her name has been in all the papers.
’

‘
He
’
s not likely to do that if he
’
s the one who killed her,
’
said Angela.

‘
I think you
’
re making thing
s too complicated, Angela,
’
said Freddy.
‘
I know you like a mystery, but I don
’
t think there is one in this instance. I dare say that in the next few days the police will find all the evidence they need to hang Johnny Chang for the murder of Lita de Marqu
e
z.
’

‘
I hope for his sake they do,
’
said Angela.
‘
I should hate them to hang him without it.
’

‘
Yes,
’
agreed Freddy soberly.
‘
A jury isn
’
t likely to look too kindly on his association with a white girl. People can be rather odd about things like that.
’

He de
parted shortly afterwards, for he judged that Mr. Rowbotham would shortly be nearing the end of his speech and he wanted to catch his friend St. John and find out what had been said.

‘
I shall call again next time I have a
succè
s é
clatant
to report,
’
he sai
d.
‘
At the rate I am going it will probably be tomorrow,
’
he added, and left.

Angela returned to gazing out of the window.
Was
she making things too complicated, she wondered? The case certainly seemed straightforward enough, but it remained to be s
een whether a jury would find Johnny Chang guilty even if there were no concrete evidence.