The chief inspector paused, either to catch his breath or to reflect on his own words.
‘It’s not surprising, after all,’ he went on. We know he’s disguised himself in the past. That was mentioned in the report Duval sent us. What puzzles me is why — why put himself to so much trouble? He’ll have to go back to his lodgings at some point and he won’t want to be seen dressed up as a soldier boy. Could it be because he’s feeling more exposed since we published that picture of him?’
The question was clearly rhetoricaclass="underline" he continued without pause.
‘There’s not much more to tell. Only a riddle to ponder. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but the men I sent over came on something odd when they searched his room, an item Mrs Cully said wasn’t there when she went through it. It was a first-aid kit of the kind air-raid wardens carry around with them in their satchels. They’ve become war surplus; I’m told you can buy them at any of these markets that have sprung up. The one in Ash’s room had been torn open and there was a dressing missing.’
‘A dressing?’
‘A bandage and so forth. They found the empty packet it had been in. I wondered if he’d been injured. Could he have got into a fight with Quill the other night? There was no indication of it at the scene.’
Sinclair paused, perhaps hoping Madden might offer some suggestion, but when he remained silent he went on:
‘I had word from Styles not long ago. He and Grace aren’t far from Liphook. But it’s slow going. There’s a lot of snow on the roads. I haven’t heard from Petersfield again, but I dare say the men they sent will get there eventually. Once everyone’s assembled we can have another council of war. You can tell Mrs Spencer that. Say nothing’s decided as yet. I don’t want to drag this young woman up to London unnecessarily.’
‘A bandage, you say …?’ As though in a trance, Madden had been staring at his own reflection in the window-pane.
‘That’s right.’ It took the chief inspector a few seconds to realize what his old colleague was referring to. ‘A dressing from the first-aid kit. Why …?’
‘There was a man with his eye bandaged up on the train this morning. An army officer.’
Sinclair grunted. At first he seemed unsure how to respond.
‘I take it you didn’t recognize him?’ he finally asked.
‘Oh, no. In fact, I hardly looked at his face. He got off the train behind me and I gave him a hand down.’
The chief inspector cleared his throat. Though his old partner’s powers of recollection never ceased to amaze him, his ability to retrieve even the most trivial details from the well of memory, he felt bound in this instance to question the assumption he seemed to be making.
‘Aren’t you rather leaping to conclusions, John? After all, a wounded soldier is hardly a rarity these days.’
‘It wasn’t that. It was something else.’ Madden spoke in a dead voice. ‘I remember it now. He didn’t return a salute. Two, in fact.’
‘I’m sorry …?
‘A pair of privates walked by as he got off the train and saluted him. He looked right through them. No real officer would do that. You respond automatically. It’s drilled into you. I should know — I was one myself.’
Sinclair allowed a few seconds to pass.
‘Very well. Let’s say for argument’s sake that you’re right. Why the elaborate disguise?’
‘If it was Ash, he would have travelled on that line often, working as a salesman. Perhaps he was afraid of being recognized by one of the ticket collectors. He must know by now that his description’s been circulated, that every policeman in the country is looking for him.’
‘You’re suggesting Quill gave him the information, then? That he knows where the girl’s living?’
Madden said nothing. For the past few minutes he had been watching the light fade on the snow outside.
‘But that means he arrived in Liphook this morning, when you did, yet there’s been no sign of him. What’s he been doing all day?’
‘I don’t know, Angus. I don’t even know if it was Ash. But he may have been waiting for dark.’
He broke off to call out loudly over his shoulder.
‘Bess …! Bess …! Can you get in here?’
When he spoke again it was to the chief inspector.
‘Look, we can’t take the risk. I’m going to lock up the house. If you can reach Billy tell him to hurry.’
‘Wait a minute, John-’
‘No, I can’t, Angus, not now.’ He heard the sound of Bess’s heavy steps approaching. ‘There’s no time.’
31
She burst in.
‘John-?’
‘Ash may be here in Liphook.’ He saw her gasp. ‘I’m worried about Mrs Spencer and her son. How far away is the Hodges’ cottage?’
‘About a quarter of a mile.’
‘Have they a telephone?’
She shook her head. But Mary won’t be back for at least an hour. Mrs H will want to serve them tea.’
‘I’m going to lock up the house. How many doors are there?’
‘Let me see.’ She had taken in the situation at once. Her voice was steady. ‘ from the kitchen and the front door there are two others at either end of the house. You can reach them by the passage. They may be already locked. Mary’s careful about that.’
‘I’ll check them. You fetch Eva. Get her down here.’
They parted at once, Bess heading for the hall where the stairs were, while Madden ran down the passage in the opposite direction to the end of the house, where he found a study with a door giving on to the garden. It was locked, as Bess had said, but he spent a minute shifting a heavy table across the floor and planting it in front of the door to provide an additional barrier.
Running back he stopped at the kitchen, where he first made sure of the door, turning the key in it twice, then switched off the lights. The window above the sink offered a good view of the yard, and he stood there for a few seconds scanning the white-blanketed cobbles outside. The tracks Mrs Spencer and her son had left in the pristine surface were easy to follow: they went from the door to the end of the line of stalls at the back of the yard before disappearing around the corner. His breathing became easier when he realized they were the only footmarks to be seen.
Back in the corridor he stopped in the hall to check the front door. It was locked, but he noticed it also had a bolt higher up and he slid that into its slot. The light on the landing above had been switched on and he could hear Bess’s voice urging Eva to hurry. His own destination was now the room at the other end of the passage, which he reached within a few seconds, only to find it filled with unwanted furniture that obstructed his path to the door which was at the side of the house. Having picked his way there, he discovered it was locked, but took the same precaution as he had in the study, this time choosing a bookcase that was standing nearby as a further barrier. Given the cluttered state of the floor, the task was an awkward one, and it was several minutes before he was able to manoeuvre the heavy oak piece into place.
His job done, he hurried back, and when he came to the hall he found that the light on the landing above had been switched off, a sign that Bess and Eva must have come down. But before joining them in the sitting-room, he stopped off again at the kitchen — he wanted to make a further inspection of the yard — and as he entered the room he heard a low rustling noise he could not place at first until he realized it was coming from the saucepan Bess had been stirring earlier: the liquid inside had come to the boil. Stopping by the stove, he paused long enough to shift the heavy pot to one side of the range, first drawing on his gloves so that he could grasp the hot handle, then went to the window and looked out.