Death in the Stocks (15 page)

Giles, who had been inquiring of Antonia half laughingly, half-anxiously, whether she was reconciled to Mesurier, turned his head, and said: 'You must remember the name of the ship, surely?'

'There's no must about it,' replied Roger. 'I can forget much more important things than that. Though I don't say it won't come back to me. Very often things do, and, what's more, things that happened years and years ago.'

'That'll be useful,' remarked Kenneth, lighting a cigarette. 'What a fool you were to tell us what your assumed name was! You could have forgotten that, too.'

'Oh no, I couldn't,' Roger contradicted with sudden bitterness. 'If you'd ever been called Fisher for years on end, you wouldn't forget it either.'

'I've just had a horrible thought,' said Antonia suddenly. 'Are you married?'

'It doesn't matter if he is,' snapped Kenneth. 'The mere fact of his being alive has ditched the whole thing.'

'Not absolutely,' Antonia answered. 'After all, he's bound to die ages before you, because he's nearly forty now. Only if he's got hordes of children it all becomes a complete washout.'

'You needn't worry about that,' said Roger, 'because I'm not married. I've done a lot of silly things in my time, but I never let anyone marry me.'

'Wonderful!' mocked Kenneth. 'One can so readily picture the eager queue of maidens -'

'Now, don't try to be witty,' besought Roger. 'It's a very unrestful habit. All I want is a quiet life, but how I'm going to get it with you being clever and policemen dancing in and out like -'

'And all I wanted,' Kenneth struck in savagely, 'was for you to remain decently interred!'

'Antipathy, Mr Vereker? Or are you making the discovery that the acquisition of a large fortune is not a matter of such indifference as you would have had us believe?'

There was a note of irony in the Superintendent's level voice, and at the sound of it Kenneth turned, not put out of countenance, but alert, and with his sullen ill-humour gone in a flash. His eyes held a challenge, his elf-smile reappeared. ''A hit, a very palpable hit!' And yet, my friend-the-Superintendent, you would suspect me more if I didn't seem to care whether I inherited Arnold's fortune or not.'

'Perhaps,' Hannasyde acknowledged. 'But you should consider whether perhaps I may not suspect you of assuming a greater degree of annoyance than you really feel, on purpose to throw dust in my eyes.' He paused, and then, as Kenneth did not immediately answer him, added gently: ''Another hit. What say you?''

Kenneth laughed, and said with a good deal of delight: ''A touch, a touch, I do confess.' You know, I'm beginning to like you quite a lot.'

'I might return that compliment, if it occurs to you to stop trying to hoodwink me. You are fond of quoting from Hamlet (though not always sure of your source), so I will give you one more line to digest: 'Take care that you don't become as a woodcock to your own springe'.'

'Ah, 'justly killed with mine own treachery!' I'll take such care - Osric - that I won't let this conversation alter my attitude by so much as a hair's-breath.'

Roger leaned sideways in his chair to say confidentially to Giles: 'It's getting a bit too high-brow for me. Is his name Osric? I thought you said it was Harrington.'

'There is such a thing as being too clever, Mr Vereker.'

'I'll take your word for it. But I am only being honest. Didn't you come here tonight to see how I was reacting to the prodigal's return?'

Hannasyde smiled faintly. Antonia, watching him, said dispassionately: ''They bleed on both sides.' I hoped I'd be able to get that one off sooner or later.'

This sally seemed to complete Roger's bewilderment. He had been trying to follow the dialogue, but he gave it up at that point, and shut his eyes.

'You're not being exactly helpful, Kenneth,' said his cousin.

'Why should I be? I don't want the murderer to be unmasked - unless it was Roger, of course. I approve of him.'

Roger opened his eyes again. 'Now, that's a very sensible remark,' he said. 'I don't mean the bit about me, but the rest of it. I don't want to know either, and if we don't, what's it got to do with anyone else? That's what I complain about in policemen. Always poking their noses into other people's business.'

'You can't blame them for that,' said Antonia reasonably. 'They pretty well have to. But it does seem to me much more important at the moment to decide what's to be done about you. It's all very well for you to say you can't advance any money, Giles, but you needn't think we're going to let Roger wear all Kenneth's clothes while you sit on the cash.'

'No,' Roger said, his interest reviving. 'Because I don't like any of his shirts, for one thing.'

Antonia at once took up the cudgels on behalf of her brother's taste, and since the argument showed signs of developing swiftly into an abstract discussion on sartorial matters, Hannasyde apparently judged it wisest to go away. The Verekers paid very little attention to his departure, but Giles escorted him to the front door, and said that he had all his sympathy.

'Thanks,' returned Hannasyde. 'Was Roger Vereker deported, by any chance?'

'Probably,' said Giles, with perfect equanimity. 'At all events, he's been cast up penniless on our hands.'

Hannasyde looked at him under his brows. 'Are you acting for him, Mr Carrington?'

'Not if I know it,' answered Giles.

A few moments later, having sped the Superintendent on his way, he returned to the studio to find that the argument had been interrupted by Violet, who throughout Hannasyde's visit had sat quietly at the other end of the room, turning over the leaves of a magazine. 'I held my tongue while that man was here,' she was saying. 'But I really was shocked at the way you went on, Kenneth. It's so silly of you, and childish. We know you didn't kill your half-brother, but you're simply asking for trouble, talking as you did. And I must say I don't think it's particularly nice of you, or sporting, to be so unkind to Mr Vereker.'

'Don't bother about me,' said Roger. 'I don't mind him, as long as he doesn't start sticking knives into me.'

'I think that's extremely generous of you, Mr Vereker,' said Violet. 'And whatever Kenneth may say, I hope you'll believe that I at least don't share his feelings.' She picked up her hat and gloves and held out her hand. 'I'm going now. Good-bye - and please don't pay any attention to Kenneth or Tony.'

'Aren't you going to kiss him?' inquired Antonia ruthlessly.

'Shut up!' said Kenneth, an edge to his voice. 'I'll see you home, Violet.'

They had barely left the studio when Roger remarked with sudden and unexpected shrewdness: 'I'll tell you what she is: she's a gold-digger. I've met lots of them. He'd better not marry her.'

Antonia regarded him for the first time with a friendly eye. 'Yes, she is a gold-digger, and I'll bet anything she's trying to vamp you so that you'll do something handsome for Kenneth.'

'Well, I shan't,' said Roger simply. 'Not,' he added, 'that I've got much chance to do anything for anybody so far, even myself. When can I have some money, Giles?'

'I'll get on to Gordon Truelove tomorrow,' replied Giles. 'He's the other executor. I don't think you ever knew him.'

'No, and I don't want to,' said Roger. 'All I want is some money, and I don't see why I can't have it.'

'You can,' said Giles. 'I'll let you know as soon as I've had a word with Truelove.'

'Come and have tea,' invited Antonia. 'Kenneth's taking Violet out to a matinee.'

'He needn't do that,' said Roger. 'Just ring me up.'

Giles paid no heed to this somewhat tactless suggestion. He was looking at Antonia. 'Do you want me to, Tony?'

She raised her candid eyes to his face. 'Yes, I do,' she answered.

So Giles Carrington, making vague excuses to his suspicious and somewhat incensed parent, left the office shortly after half past three next day, drove himself to Chelsea, and arrived at his cousin's flat just as Superintendent Hannasyde was preparing to mount the stairs to the front door. 'Hullo, what brings you here again so soon?' he inquired. 'Have you discovered a startling new development?'

'Yes,' said Hannasyde, 'I have.'

Chapter Fifteen

The smile vanished from Giles Carrington's eyes, but it was in the same lazy, rather humorous voice that he said: 'That sounds exciting. What has happened?'

They began to walk up the stairs together. The Superintendent said with a twinkle: 'Don't worry, neither of your clients is implicated in the new developments.'

'I'm glad of that,' replied Giles, pressing the front door bell. 'Roger was in England at the time of the murder. Is that it?'

'Yes,' said Hannasyde. 'That is it.'

'Poor old Roger!' remarked Giles. 'I rather suspected he was when he forgot the name of his ship.'

Hannasyde bent an accusing stare on him. 'You're as bad as the rest of them,' he said severely. 'The instant you set eyes on Roger Vereker you not only suspected that he'd been in England some time longer than he admitted, but you were pretty sure also that he was the shabby stranger who visited Arnold Vereker that Saturday. Isn't that true?'

'Not quite,' said Giles. 'I suspected it several hours before I set eyes on him. As soon as I heard he had turned up, in fact. Good afternoon, Murgatroyd. Miss Tony in?'

'Oh yes, she's expecting you, sir,' said Murgatroyd, holding the door wide. 'But what call you've got to bring the police back again I'm sure I don't know. Seems as though we can't call the place our own these days. They're both in the studio, Mr Giles.'

Giles Carrington nodded, and walked across the little hall, followed by the Superintendent. In the studio Roger Vereker was apparently working some problem out on scraps of paper, critically but not unamiably watched by his half-sister, who sat with her chin in her hands, looking over his calculations. She glanced up quickly as the door opened, and, when she saw Giles, smiled in her confiding way. 'Hullo!' she said. 'Roper's trying to work out a System. I think it's all rot myself.'

'Long may you continue to think so,' said Giles.

Antonia perceived Superintendent Hannasyde, and raised her brows. 'I didn't know you were coming too,' she said. 'I rather wish you hadn't, because, to tell you the truth, I'm getting awfully sick of the Family Crime. However, come in if you must.'

'I'm afraid I'll have to,' answered Hannasyde, closing the door. 'I want to ask your half-brother a few questions.'

Roger, who had started violently at the sight of him, said: 'It's no good anyone asking me questions, because I'm very busy at the moment. As a matter of fact, I was hoping for a quiet afternoon, now we've got rid of Kenneth.'

A rough sketch in pastels, propped on the mantelpiece, caught Giles's attention. 'Good Lord, that's clever!' he said involuntarily. 'Kenneth's?'

'I don't see anything clever in it at all,' said Roger. 'In fact, if I weren't a very easy-going man, I might be quite annoyed by it.'

'Yes,' said Giles. 'I - I should think you might.'

'Moreover, it isn't anything like me,' pursued Roger. 'Can't be, because Kenneth had to tell me who it was meant to be.'

'He's caught the look, hasn't he?' said Antonia. 'He did it this morning. After saying portrait painting's a debased art, too. It is good, isn't it?'

'Wicked!' said Giles, under his breath. 'Really, it's indecent, Tony!'

Hannasyde, who had been also looking in considerable astonishment at the sketch, overheard this, and found himself in complete agreement, and wondered whether it was fanciful to feel convinced that the man who could perpetrate so merciless a portrait would be capable of anything, even murder. He transferred his gaze from it to the original, and said without preamble: 'You informed me last night, Mr Vereker, that you landed in England two days ago.'

'I daresay I did,' admitted Roger. 'One way and another there was a lot of chatter going on last night, and I don't remember all I said. But I won't want to start an argument, so have it your own way.'

'Do you still adhere to that statement?'

'Why shouldn't I?' said Roger cautiously.

'Principally because it is untrue,' replied the Superintendent, with disconcerting directness.

'I object to that,' said Roger. 'That's a very damaging thing to say, and if you think that just because you're a detective you can go round giving people the lie you'll find you're mistaken.' He paused, and reflected for a moment. 'Well, as a matter of fact, you probably won't,' he said gloomily, 'because it seems to me there's no limit to what the police can get away with in this country.'

'There is a limit,' said Hannasyde, 'but your cousin is here to see that I don't overstep it. Your name, Mr Vereker, does not figure on the lists of passengers on board any vessel arriving from South America two days ago.'

'Well, that's a very extraordinary thing,' said Roger, 'But when I said I landed two days ago, I didn't say I landed from South America.'

'You said that you had come from Buenos Aires,' Hannasyde reminded him.

'That's true enough,' agreed Roger. 'So I did. Of course, if I'd known you were interested I could have told you the whole story. The fact of the matter is, I got off at Lisbon.'

'What on earth for?' demanded Antonia.

'There was a man I wanted to see,' said Roger vaguely. 'About a dog, I should think,' said Antonia, with considerable scorn.

'No, it wasn't about a dog. It was about a lot of parrots,' said Roger, improvising cleverly.

'You got off at Lisbon to see a man about a lot of parrots?' repeated the Superintendent.

'That's right,' nodded Roger. 'Amazon parrots. Not those grey ones with pink tails, but green ones. The sort that screech.' The story began to grip him; warming to the theme, he continued: 'Thought I could do a deal. You'd be surprised at the demand there is for parrots in Portugal.'

'I should,' interpolated Hannasyde grimly.

'Anyone would be,' said Roger. 'I was myself. But there it is. The idea was to ship a lot over to this man I was telling you about. The only trouble was we couldn't come to terms, so the best thing for me to do was to see him in person.'

'I trust you arrived at an agreement,' said Hannasyde, with heavy sarcasm.

'Well, no,' said Roger, ever fertile. 'We didn't, and the whole thing is more or less in abeyance, because he wanted to buy the parrots in bulk, which is ridiculous, of course. However, now I've come into money I shan't bother any more about it.'

'I say, what a shame Kenneth's missing all this!' said Antonia. 'Where are the parrots supposed to be?'

'Round about the Amazon,' said Roger. 'You have to catch them.'

'Yes, I can just see you penetrating into forests and laying snares for parrots. You are an ass!'

'Well, I shouldn't do that myself. I should employ people,' said Roger. 'Of course, if the business grew, and I daresay it would, the idea was to start a farm and breed them the same way that people breed silver foxes and things. Properly managed there might be a lot of money in it, because if the purchaser has to pay ten pounds for a parrot (and very often a good parrot costs more than that), you can see for yourself that the profit per parrot is pretty considerable.' He decided that the parrots had served their turn, and jettisoned them. 'But, as I say, I've given up thinking about it now that I've come into money. They're really beside the point.'

'I agree with you,' said Hannasyde. 'I have ascertained, Mr Vereker, that you were a passenger on board the SS Pride of London, which docked at Liverpool on 16th June — the day before that on which your brother was murdered.'

Roger leaned back in his chair. 'Well, if you've ascertained it, that's that,' he observed. 'It's silly to argue points like that with detectives, so I'll tell you right away that the parrots were just a little joke of mine.'

'I am aware of that,' replied Hannasyde. 'We shall get on better and faster if you don't make any more jokes.'

'A lot of people think that speed is the curse of the age,' said Roger. 'I can't say I'm keen on it myself. Mind you, I'm not at all sure there isn't something in the parrot scheme. The more I think of it the more I think there might be. Supposing people started trimming hats with parrot-feathers, for instance?'

'Mr Vereker, I am not quite fool enough to believe that you are the fool you pretend to be. Shall we abandon the subject of parrots?'

'Just as you like,' said Roger amiably.

'You admit that you landed in Liverpool on Friday, 16th June?'

'If you've been nosing round the shipping agents, there's no point in asking me whether I admit it or not. It's a great pity you've been so inquisitive, because you're bound to waste a lot of time trying to make out I murdered Arnold, and I can tell you at the start I didn't.'

'If you are so sure that I shall be wasting my time, Mr Vereker, why did you try to conceal the fact that you were in England on the 17th June?'

'Now that's what I call a damned silly question,' said Roger. 'It's obvious that if it was known that I was in England then I should have had the police after me like a pack of bloodhounds. Well, what I mean is, look at the way you're behaving now! Not that I blame you, because naturally you're bound to do it. But that's just it. I turn up one day, broke to the wide, and Arnold gets himself murdered the day after. I should be a bigger fool than any I've ever met with if I didn't see who was going to be suspected once that leaked out. I don't like unpleasantness, and I don't like policemen. What's more, I find all this sort of thing very exhausting, because I'm not one of these people who always want to be using their brains, trying to remember a lot of unimportant details. It makes my head ache. All I want is peace and quiet.'

'Nevertheless, Mr Vereker, I must ask you to cast your mind back to the day you landed, and tell me just what you did.'

Roger sighed, but he seemed to be more or less resigned to the necessity of answering, and said in a weary voice: 'Well, I came to London. Naturally. What else should I do?'

'On the Friday?'

'If you've been making a lot of inquiries, you must know as well as I do that we didn't dock till late,' said Roger.

'Certainly I know it, but you could still have journeyed to London that day.'

'Well, I didn't. I don't like night travel. Never did. Some people sleep better on a train than anywhere. All I can say is, I don't.'

'When did you come to London, then?'

'Next day, of course. But it's no use asking me what time the train got in, because I don't remember. I had lunch on it.'

'And when you arrived in London, what did you do?'

Roger thought this over for a moment, and then asked: 'Do you know what I did?'

'I am asking you,' replied Hannasyde.

'I know you are, and that's just the trouble. The point is, if I know just how much you know, it'll save a great deal of bother. I mean, it's no use my telling you I went to the Zoo if you're going to prove I spent the day in the British Museum. At the same time, I don't want to tell you anything I needn't. You see my difficulty?'

Giles Carrington interposed before Hannasyde could reply: 'May I give you a piece of advice, Roger?'

'Anybody can do whatever they like as far as I'm concerned,' said Roger. 'Mind you, I don't particularly want your advice, because as far as I can see you're hand in glove with this Superintendent Osric - no, not Osric, but, anyway, whatever his name is.'