‘Quite the reverse, Sergeant,’ answered Miss Crush, pulling open the sideboard door. ‘I was about to offer you a sherry.’
‘Never touch it, thank you, ma’am.’
‘Something stronger, perhaps?’
‘No, ma’am. I don’t get on with spirits.’ He paused. ‘Of the alcoholic sort, that is.’
Strathmore’s mouth formed stiffly into the shape of a smile. ‘Spirits. Ah ha! You’re a sharp one, Sergeant, very sharp.’
Cribb smiled back. It was the confident smile of a man in control. These people would laugh at any quip he made, however excruciating, because they wanted his co-operation over the matter of Brand. It would be dereliction of duty not to press his advantage. ‘Not sharp enough, I’m afraid, sir.’
Strathmore pricked up the eyebrow that was not holding his monocle in place. ‘What do you mean by that, Sergeant?’
‘Well, sir, a detective should know what’s going on. When I walked in here just now I had not the slightest suspicion that you were under the table. Dr Probert’s table I could understand, but not Miss Crush’s.’
‘Ah. You mean that I was present at the seance which took place at Richmond, but you had not connected me with this good lady’s house?’
‘Exactly.’
‘The explanation is quite simple,’ said Strathmore. ‘Dr Probert’s party was the first opportunity one had of seeing young Brand at the table and one was sufficiently impressed by the phenomena he produced to make further investigations. Miss Crush most kindly proposed a visit to her house to examine the scene of the previous seance, where the spirit hand was alleged to have materialised. Only when we have eliminated every possibility of trickery and deception can we begin to take a medium seriously, you see.’
‘And have you discovered anything suspicious?’
‘Nothing at all. The table is perfectly in order, as was Dr Probert’s. One hesitates to say it, but I think we may have found-’
‘A second Home, sir?’
‘It would be premature to say as much as that, Sergeant. It is sufficient for the moment to state that one has found nothing to suggest that Mr Brand is fraudulent. And that, I may say, is remarkable. You would be surprised how blatant the deceptions are that the majority of so-called mediums practise on the public. I have myself seen an apparition materialise in a drawing-room two streets away from here which when one unexpectedly turned up the gas was all too tangibly revealed as a young woman dressed in a cheesecloth shift with-pardon my explicit language, Miss Crush-the unmistakable outlines of a corset underneath.’
‘The hussy!’ whispered Miss Crush.
‘So you see that my Society has to be unceasingly vigilant,’ said Strathmore, folding his arms.
‘I expect you made a full inspection of Dr Probert’s house,’ said Cribb.
‘Not the whole of the house, Sergeant. Merely the room where the seance took place.’
‘I see. Dr Probert didn’t show you his picture-gallery, then?’
‘He most certainly did not.’ It was difficult to tell from Strathmore’s emphasis whether he was scandalised at the suggestion that he might be interested in looking at Dr Probert’s naked ladies, or whether he thought the question sought to implicate him in the theft of the Etty.
‘But I expect you stayed behind after Mr Brand had left?’
insisted Cribb.
‘Of course. It was my duty as an investigator to look under the table.’
‘I stayed afterwards, too,’ said Miss Crush. ‘I was far too excited by what I had seen to go home immediately. Miss Alice Probert arranged for some cocoa to be served, as a nightcap, she said. It had a very calming effect on the nerves.’
‘I drink it myself, ma’am. So Mr Brand left the house at what time, would you say?’
‘Half past ten,’ said Strathmore. ‘I keep a meticulous record of every seance I attend. He had a hansom waiting for him.’
‘At what time did you leave, sir?’
‘It was twenty minutes to twelve. I left a few minutes after Miss Crush. Mr Nye, Miss Probert’s fiance, had very decently gone out to call carriages for us.’
Cribb turned to Miss Crush. ‘So Mr Brand left at least an hour before you did, ma’am, and when you got home you discovered that your vase was missing. Now do you understand why I must put some questions to him?’
CHAPTER 4
To the promised land; join those who, Thursday next,
Meant to meet Shakespeare;
The notices outside the Store Street Hall in Bedford Square were persuasively worded: THE WORLD BEHIND THE VEIL
A Public Address and Lantern Show upon the Revelations of the Life to Come vouchsafed in recent years to such celebrated mediums as Mr D. D. Home, Mr Stainton Moses, Miss Florence Cook and the Speaker himself, Professor Eustace Quayle, in which Genuine Spirit Photographs will be projected on to a screen Eight Feet Square, and introducing the remarkable young medium, Mr Peter Brand, whose seances at a number of distinguished houses in London of recent weeks have been attended by the most sensational phenomena.
Seating for 600 persons.
Admission Threepence. Gallery Twopence.
Thursday November 12th, 1885, at 7.30 p.m.
Inside, as the converted and the curious assembled, a harmonium was playing Who are these, like stars appearing, and towards the back of the hall Constable Thackeray was reporting confidentially to Sergeant Cribb on the results of his visits to police stations in Richmond and Belgravia.
‘I might say, Sarge, that I got a pretty cool reception at both places. The local blokes think they was perfectly capable of catching the thief, and I don’t blame ’em.’
‘Nor I,’ said Cribb, ‘but the plain fact is that we’re accountable to Jowett, and if I were you I wouldn’t question the whys and wherefores of it. He’s in thick with Dr Probert, and Probert wants it handled by the Yard and that’s the end of it. He’s coming tonight, by the way.’
‘Dr Probert?’
‘Inspector Jowett. Better get your feet off the seat in front and try to look a credit to the Force. Did you get anything of interest from B Division?’
Thackeray took out his notebook and consulted it discreetly under cover of his overcoat. ‘October 31st. Theft of Royal Worcester vase, Hereafter House, 92, Eaton Square, Belgravia. Property of Miss Laetitia Crush.’
Cribb raised an eyebrow. ‘Lettie, eh? Suits her. Carry on.’
‘Estimated value thirty pounds,’ continued Thackeray. ‘Japanese in style, made by one James Hadley-’
‘Cut the description,’ ordered Cribb. ‘What about the means of entry?’
‘A glass pane nine inches by eleven was broken in the rear door,’ read Thackeray. ‘It appears to have been accomplished with a brick which was found nearby. The glass fell on to a piece of coconut matting, and the servants heard nothing.’
‘Clumsy, even so,’ said Cribb.
‘Yes, Sarge, particularly as there was a window with a broken sashcord not ten yards away. He could have got through there, easy.’
‘What about the Richmond job?’ said Cribb. ‘How does the method of entry compare?’
‘Oh, that was uncommon crude as well, Sarge.’ Thackeray thumbed the pages of his notebook to check the damage inflicted on Dr Probert’s property. ‘The felon made a number of unsuccessful attempts to prise the bars off the pantry-window with a pick-handle before seizing on the notion of using it in conjunction with a thong. He made a shocking mess of the pantry, climbing in, too. Knocked over a tin of Bath Olivers and scattered a packet of pearl barley all over the floor. We’re not exactly dealing with a Charlie Peace, Sarge. That’s what so infuriates the bobbies on the spot. They reckon they could run the man to ground in a matter of hours, given the chance. It’s obviously someone who knew the nights when Miss Crush was out at Dr Probert’s, and Dr Probert was giving his lecture at University College Hospital. A dabbler in this table-tapping nonsense and a pretty poor hand as a burglar.’