‘All right I Have it your own way! There was a parcel, then! But he didn’t ask for a receipt. He asked for five pounds.’
‘And you gave it him?’
‘At the point of a gun, what would you do?’
‘So he had a gun?’
‘He put his hand in his jacket pocket and threatened me. That’s all I know. I didn’t resist. I don’t pretend to be a blinking hero.’
‘You’d probably pretend very badly,’ put in Darling, excusably. ‘All right, Tomson. Watch your step, that’s all. Not that you need the advice. I’ve had two independent bits of information about you and the things you get up to.’
‘You’ll be a long time putting salt on that bird’s tail,’ said Vardon, grinning, when they left.
‘You wait and see,’ retorted Darling. ‘Now I know he’s up to something fishy I’ll soon be able to pull him in, and when I do he’d better come clean. I’ll bet he’s got no alibi for Miss Faintley’s murder.’
‘What was the other information you told him you had?’
‘Oh, merely corroborative evidence that Miss Faintley did have some connexion with him. Came from a chap I know pretty well – one of the masters at the school. Doesn’t give any clue to the murder, worse luck, but it makes Mandsell’s story quite credible. She did have some connexion with Tomson, and a fishy connexion, too. She’d taken parcels to him from Hagford before, and got a smack across the chops for her pains!’
‘Sounds as if she was married to him!’
‘The aunt would have known that, I should think! But it argues a queer situation between shopkeeper and customer, all the same!’
Chapter Five
DETECTIVE-INSPECTOR DARLING
‘… and now let us take a walk a little way out of the town.’
the brothers grimm – The Dog and the Sparrow
« ^ »
But, in spite of these words, Detective-Inspector Darling was dissatisfied. Crime, in Kindleford, was of the dull, unrewarding kind. Offensive parking of cars on the wrong side of the High Street on Wednesdays and Fridays – Friday was market day in Kindleford – petty larceny in which the culprit (bone-headed, in the detective-inspector’s opinion) was only too easily distinguishable; an occasional misinterpretation of the licensing laws, were all the grist which had ever come to his mill until the extraordinary death, on holiday, of this obscure, inoffensive (so far as he knew or was concerned), little-known, unattractive school-marm.
He was not an unduly ambitious officer, but he had often longed for a case which would make headlines in the big newspapers. He had often longed for a case of murder. It had come his way, but for all the good it did him it might as well never have happened, he considered. The murder, although it was the murder of one of Kindleford’s residents, had had the tactlessness to take place in another county. His co-operation was vital to the police of that county, but instead of being in a position to take fingerprints, photograph the body, make brilliant deductions from the medical evidence and arrest the wrongdoer in a flood of limelight, the only thing he could do was to badger, respectively, a rather elderly lady, aunt to the deceased Miss Faintley, a young, impecunious, obviously innocent author and a miserable little rat of a shopkeeper, who had probably told him already everything he knew. He decided to leave the aunt alone and to concentrate first on Mandsell.
The author seemed pleased with life and welcomed him cordially, although a fountain-pen in his hand and an ink-smudge on his nose indicated that he was busy with composition.
‘I’ve sold a short story,’ he said, ‘and do you know what I’ve based it on?’
‘I couldn’t begin to guess, sir, unless on the tale of Miss Faintley’s mysterious parcel. And that being so —’
‘I’ve told you all I know,’ said Mandsell hastily, ‘so I didn’t see why I shouldn’t make use of the idea. It couldn’t possibly matter to anyone else.’
‘I’m not so sure of that, sir. After all, the fact remains that you accepted this parcel from Hagford, delivered it to Tomson in Miss Faintley’s name, did not get a receipt, and then we learn of the death of Miss Faintley, to whom the parcel was addressed.’
‘You can’t say it was the result of what I did… her death, you know. She was killed on holiday. There’s nothing on earth to connect her death with the parcel.’
‘Not necessarily, sir, I agree, but, so far as we can see, these parcels were a bit of a mystery. You wouldn’t care to hazard a guess what was in the one you carried?’
‘I haven’t a clue. I wish I had. I’m pretty sure it was wooden – it was very firm, you know, not just brown paper and string – and I know it was rather like a photograph, but that’s as much as I can tell you.’
‘You acted very rashly, sir, in deciding to undertake this little commission. Tomson is by way of being a marked man.’
‘Yes, but I couldn’t know that. What I did was more or less as a joke.’
‘Very likely, sir. We are quite prepared to accept that explanation. But now, sir, this walk you took on a very wet, unpleasant evening.’
‘Yes, I was worried. I was rather exercised in my mind about my royalties.’
‘In other words, you were on the rocks, sir. That’s what we understand from your landlady. Then, suddenly, on the following day, you found yourself in a position to pay her four pounds.’
Mandsell, who had not thought fit to disclose this fact, looked apprehensive.
‘Well, that wasn’t very much, was it?’ he said belligerently.
‘You wouldn’t care to tell me how you came into the possession of the four pounds, sir?’ The Inspector’s voice was persuasive but his eye was keen.
‘I didn’t steal it, if that’s what you mean!’
‘Of course I don’t mean that, sir. We know where it came from, and you would do better to trust us. Now, about you and Miss Faintley and the telephone conversation. Haven’t you any idea at all as to the identity of the gentleman that walked away down Park Road just before you arrived at the telephone-box?’
‘Not a clue. It was raining hard, you know, and, as I think I told you, his coat-collar was pulled right up and his hat right down. I’d hardly have recognized him if he’d been my best friend.’
‘You knew all about Tomson, at the drapery shop, of course, sir?’
‘Never saw him in my life until I handed in that parcel. Had to remember where the shop was, as a matter of fact.’
‘We’ve had our eye on him for some time. We think he may be a receiver of stolen goods.’
‘I thought he might be, too, but it wasn’t any business of mine. I simply collected the parcel and handed it over.’
‘Thus carrying out the wishes of an unknown voice on the telephone… and in a public call-box at that?’
‘I know it sounds silly, but it seemed a good idea at the time.’
‘The gentlemen who get those kind of good ideas, sir, are apt to end up in trouble. Now, sir, I suggest that we are not being frank with one another. If I lay my cards on the table I shall expect to see your hand, too. I have reason to believe that you were bribed by Tomson to forget all about getting a receipt for Miss Faintley’s parcel.’
‘He gave me five pounds, and I took it. It wasn’t as though I knew the first thing about Miss Faintley or where to contact her,’ said Mandsell, giving way at last, ‘but I did not take the money as a bribe. I shall pay it back.’
‘Well, sir, as to that, we must take your word for it. But if you should decide to give us a little more information, well, I don’t mind saying we could do with it. This is a funny kind of business, and those that help the authorities won’t find reason to regret it. Could I have the name and address of your publishers, sir?’