‘Sir Wilfred’s hoping to get away this morning.’ Her tone was accusing. ‘He wants to drive down to the country this afternoon with his family.’
Quelling an impulse to remark that it was all right for some — and a temptation to wonder aloud where the assistant commissioner had obtained the petrol for such an expedition — Sinclair had instead gained swift admission to the inner sanctum where, just as Miss Ellis had hinted, he found Bennett impatiently awaiting his arrival.
‘I won’t take up too much of your time, sir, but there are one or two items you might care to glance at. A V-2 came down in Stepney last night and the firemen had hardly left when the looters started picking through the rubble. Luckily our fellows were waiting for them. They nabbed half a dozen. They’ll be up in court this morning.’
‘Excellent.’ Bennett rubbed his hands.
‘And there was a murder over in Paddington. It happened the night before but wasn’t reported till yesterday. A private detective called Quill was the victim. I gather he was an unsavoury character. There’ll be more on that later.’
While he was speaking, the chief inspector had passed the typed sheets he was carrying across the desk and his superior scanned them in silence for a few moments.
‘And what are your plans for Christmas, Angus?’ Bennett looked up over the top of his spectacles.
‘I was hoping to join the Maddens down in Highfield for a couple of days. They’ve very kindly invited me. But I don’t like to leave London with this Ash business still hanging. I want to be on call.’
With a grunt, the assistant commissioner passed the report back to him.
‘So there’s been no more progress on that front?’
‘None as we speak. That photograph of him we published has drawn no response as yet and we’ve pretty well checked all hotels and boarding houses in the capital. There’s no trace of a Raymond Ash here, so I’ve ordered the hunt to be extended nationwide. Of course the fact that it’s Christmas doesn’t help. We’re already short-staffed and our men need some time off. But I don’t dare let up. He won’t.’
The chief inspector sat brooding.
‘This is probably the last major case I’ll ever handle, and I’d hate it to end in failure. But every day that passes means he’s slipping a little further from our grasp.’
Bennett coughed.
‘Well, now, I wouldn’t …’ he began, then stopped as the noise of argument sounded from the outer office. Miss Ellis’s voice could be heard raised in indignation.
‘Now just one moment…’
Before either man could react, the door was flung open and Lily Poole stumbled in.
‘Good God!’ Sinclair stared at her, speechless.
‘What on earth-?’
Out of uniform, wearing a coat of singular design, and with a woollen cap tugged down over her ears, the young policewoman was barely recognizable.
‘Sir …’ Lily gasped out the word as she came to a halt and from habit stood to attention. ‘Sir …’
It was the only word she managed to utter. Hard on her heels, Miss Ellis appeared brandishing an object wrapped in greaseproof paper in both hands, red in the face and furious.
‘Sir, I don’t know who this young woman is or how she got up here but she forced her way in … sir, I’m sorry …’
‘Calm down, Miss Ellis, calm down …’
Seeing his secretary’s distress, Bennett rose from behind his desk, patting the air with his hands to soothe her.
‘What’s that you’ve got there?’
‘I don’t know, sir.’ Miss Ellis’s throat had turned red and swollen like a turkey cock’s. ‘This young woman just dumped it on my desk.’
‘Remove it if you would.’ Bennett spoke gently. ‘I’ll deal with this.’
He waited until she had gone out, shutting the door behind her, then turned to Lily.
‘Now who are you, miss? And what the devil are you doing here?’
‘Sir, this is Officer Poole.’ Sinclair found his tongue at
last.
‘Officer Poole …!’ Bennett gazed at her in seeming wonder. Then, with a shake of his head, he resumed his seat.
‘Explain yourself, Constable.’ Sinclair had risen to his feet. He confronted the young woman. ‘What do you mean by bursting in like this?’ He gestured at her attire. ‘You’re not even on duty.’
‘Sir, I’m sorry, sir, but I had to speak to you right away.’ Overcome by what she’d done, Lily had been temporarily struck dumb. ‘I tried ringing you from Paddington but they said you hadn’t got in yet, and then I tried Inspector Styles but his desk didn’t answer so I thought I’d better come down to the Yard myself, but when I got here I found you were in with the assistant commissioner and I didn’t know how long you’d be.’ She paused to take breath. ‘But I knew this was something you had to know and right away so I-’
‘Had to know? What did I have to know?’ Sinclair glared at her. The sight of Bennett, whom he was able to glimpse out of the corner of his eye, trying not to smile, only lent fuel to his anger.
‘What this bloke was doing that was topped over in Paddington two nights ago, a private detective called Quill-’
‘I know all about Quill.’ The chief inspector’s bark made Lily jump. ‘It’s in the crime report.’
‘Yes, sir, but not what he was doing before he was topped. I know ’cos I got it from his tart only half an hour ago and she hadn’t been interviewed yet…’
Lily stopped, realizing what she’d just said. Sinclair’s gaze had hardened.
‘Are you telling me you’ve interfered with a CID investigation?’
Lily stood abashed.
‘Have you taken leave of your senses, Constable-?’
‘Chief Inspector …’ Bennett coughed theatrically. ‘I’m sure a reprimand is in order, but let’s hear what this officer has to say, shall we?’
He turned to Lily, who was still standing to attention.
‘I trust you didn’t force your way in here without good reason. Just what is it you have to tell us?’
Lily took a deep breath. ‘Sir, Molly Minter — she was Quill’s tart — she told me he’d been on a job these past few weeks, being paid good money, too, looking for a girl which this client of his wanted found. She knew he was due to meet this bloke that had hired him soon and that he was going to try and get some more money out of him.’
‘And why do we have to know that?’ Bennett frowned. ‘Why is it so important?’
‘Because it wasn’t just any girl he was looking for, sir.’ Lily looked from Bennett to the chief inspector and back again. ‘It was a Polish girl.’
25
‘I’m not sure this is very wise of me, Will,’ Madden confessed as they stood together beneath the station awning, taking shelter from the snow that had started falling again a few minutes earlier. ‘It seemed a better idea last night. If this girl doesn’t know about Rosa being murdered, she won’t thank me for telling her now.’
‘She’ll have to know some time, sir.’ Stackpole offered his verdict. ‘And if you don’t tell her, then it’ll be some policeman knocking on her door, and she might like that even less.’
‘We’re sure it’s her, are we?’ Madden blew on his fingers. ‘The same girl who was on the train with Rosa?’
‘No question, sir. Not to my mind. I talked twice to Bob Leonard. He said she came to Liphook, this Eva Belka, about six months ago with a lady from London. A Mrs Spencer. I’ve spoken to all the bobbies, as far down the line as Petersfield, and none of them has a Polish lass registered who fits the description except Bob. And she definitely went up to London about a month ago, this Eva Belka did. Took the train, I mean. I asked Bob to check and he had a word with the station-master there, who confirmed it. He said he spoke to Mrs Spencer herself that day and another lady. They’d brought the girl to the station and they wanted to be sure she’d reach Waterloo in time to make her connection. And the station-master remembers she had a basket with her as well as a suitcase, which is what that pilot told you.’