“If anyone keeps the container taken from that safe for twenty minutes without putting it inside a protective box, it will kill everyone within fifty yards of it,” declared the Texan. “I wasn’t fooling you about that. It’s death in a box.”
Bishop came in, looking more massive than ever. He didn’t smile as he looked at Rollison and then at Tex.
“You’ve had all the time I’m going to give you,” he said to Rollison, and looked at the Texan. “Are you William Thomas Brandt ?”
“Bishop,” Rollison interrupted, “I don’t know how much you’ve been told, but a small container has been taken out of this safe, and this man says that it contains a radiation unit which would be deadly to anyone exposed to it. Have you stopped everyone who’s left the farmhouse?” Rollison looked bleak and pale. Tex Brandt, a card in his hand, was like a figure of doom. Bishop looked from one to the other, and said sharply:
“Don’t try to scare me.”
“Anyone exposed to that radiation unit for long will die,” Tex said. “I’m not scaring anyone. I’m terrified of what will happen if we don’t find it and put it back in that safe.”
Bishop said heavily: “No one has left the farmhouse in the past half hour. We’ve allowed everyone to come in, none to go out.”
There was silence which lasted for a long time. Then suddenly Freddie Littleton broke in, bursting into a nervous cackle of a laugh.
“So the Boss has beaten you,” he said, and his voice nearly crackled. “He’s got away with it under your noses! Cops ? I’ve trodden on cleverer things than you !”
The Texan’s hand gripped Rollison with frightening force.
“We’ve got to get that container back,” he said. “If it’s in this house, none of us will live for another week.”
Swift, frightening thoughts flashed into Rollison’s mind. Someone had got into the farmhouse by the apple store-cupboard, had crept across, opened the safe and taken the unit out—but he hadn’t gone out by the back or the front door; they had been too closely watched.
There was only one way he could have gone.
He spoke in a clipped voice:
“Bishop, this is a job for one man. I started it. I have to finish it. There’s a tunnel leading from the house to that copse of trees. If you’ll watch the entrance in that storeroom, I’ll go and seal off the other end.”
“You won’t,” Bishop said, tautly. “You’ll tell us where the other end is.”
“There’s no need to risk your men.”
“You can come, but you’re not going alone.” Bishop snapped orders to several men who were now inside the farmhouse. They went to the tunnel door. Rollison, Bishop,
Tex and three plain-clothes men ran towards the copse. The speed with which the police surrounded the trees was startling. Bishop and Tex kept close to Rollison, and he led them straight to the far end of the tunnel.
The cover was pushed to one side.
The tunnel was empty, except for police who came hurrying through it.
• • • • • •
“He can’t have got away,” Bishop said.
“He got away,” the Texan stated flatly. “Inspector, you have to send out an alarm warning. Everyone, policemen and every newspaper wants to know about this. If that unit was taken on a train or a bus, or on an aircraft, it would kill everyone aboard,”
“Tex, who is the American really after the unit ?” Rollison demanded.
“Abner Crane, if that helps you.”
“What is he like?”
“Good and fat. A big guy, around fifty years old, with watery blue eyes and grey hair, with a bald patch.”
“If he was here in person, he can’t have got far. Would he know how deadly that unit is ?”
“No.”
“Bishop, if you’ll have that description put out, and a cordon flung round the whole area . . . ”
“I’ll fix it by radio,” Bishop said tautly.
“There’s another way we might find this Abner Crane,” Rollison went on. “A lot of things are adding up. Come on, Tex.”
“If you try to leave the farmhouse, I’ll clap handcuffs on you,” Bishop flashed.
“I won’t leave without permission.” Rollison was already near the back door, which was open, and heard voices. The others were in the big front room, and Alan Selby was with them, saying:
“But if it’s been taken away, there’s nothing else to worry about is there?” His voice was shrill with excitement, “We may not get so much money for the farmhouse, but at least there’s no danger. We ought to be shouting for joy, Gillian, not looking scared out of our wits. And you, too, Monty, it’s all over, we’ve got nothing else to worry about.”
“I’ve got plenty to worry about,” said M.M.M.
“Oh, forget it! There are plenty more attractive girls about. Aren’t there, sis?” Selby sounded positively buoyant as he spoke to his sister. “My God, this is the biggest day of my life. For weeks, for months, I’ve been scared out of my wits. It didn’t matter where I went or what I did, someone always knew about it. I didn’t tell you everything, Gillian,” he went on, as Rollison drew nearer. “I tried not to worry you, but it was dreadful. And it’s over ! I could dance a jig.”
Rollison stepped inside. Alan Selby was actually fooling at a little dance, his eyes bright with excitement; he seemed oblivious of M.M.M.’s scowl, of Gillian’s pale face, and of Brandt’s bleakness. The only one who seemed interested and amused was Littleton who stood clapping to a kind of rhythm. Just outside the door was one of Bishop’s men, and in the grounds two dozen police were searching, and others were coming up by car and Black Maria.
“That makes it quite an occasion,” Rollison said coldly. “Did anyone tell you what was in the container?”
“What the hell does it matter what’s in it? It’s out of the farmhouse, and we can breathe freely again.”
“You never made a bigger mistake.”
“Now what’s on your mind?” Selby demanded. “So tired of failure that you have to be smart ?”
“Not so smart as I’d like to be,” said Rollison, “but facts are facts. Someone knew exactly where you were all the time, and was able to spy on you and your sister. Someone worked with the false William Brandt, whose real name is Abner Crane. Someone did a deal with him to get that container. The same someone had to get into the farm, and move Old Smith out of it. Searching for the unit might have taken hours, days or weeks, so the eagerness to buy is easy to understand, but some things made no sense. Two men were killed in cold blood, but Smith, who stood in the way of Gillian selling the farm, wasn’t harmed. So there was someone working with Abner Crane who didn’t want Old Smith dead. Obviously sentiment wasn’t the reason, as the two men had been murdered—and Mome attacked with intent to kill. Why should such killers leave Old Smith unharmed and in possession ?”
Selby had gone very pale.
“Who would kill an old man ?” he demanded.
“Abner Crane and the people he used would kill anyone if it paid ofT,” said Rollison, “but someone wanted Smith alive. We now know that the someone knew where the tunnel was, and was able to get in and out of the farmhouse, after that radiation unit. Who would be in a better position to know about the tunnel than you, Selby?”
“You’re crazy!” Selby cried.
“You know where Crane’s gone, Selby, and where that deadly unit is. Better tell us, quick.”
Gillian was staring at her half-brother, and her eyes were touched with horror. M.M.M. looked very near despair.
“Where is Crane ?” Rollison demanded roughly.
“I’ve never heard of Crane!”
“You know of Crane all right. I’ll stake a fortune that he first came to you about the farm. You agreed to help, then put Old Smith up to refusing to get out, so as to push the price up. You played the double game until suddenly everything became urgent, because Tex Brandt of the F.B.I. was on Crane’s heels.