Chapter Eighteen
EIGHTEEN
Returning home, Alec arrived with Mackinnon just in time to follow the parlour maid into the dining room.
“Tea, please, Elsie,” said Daisy.
“How many for, madam?” the parlour maid enquired pointedly.
Daisy looked at Alec.
“Six,” he said. “Tom may not be back for a while, and Piper certainly won’t.”
“I’ll come and help you carry the tray, miss,” offered Warren. “If that’s all right, sir?”
Elsie looked mollified. Daisy gave Warren a grateful smile. His assistance might serve to avert mutiny in the kitchen.
Alec waved his permission and the two went out.
“Ross?”
“Miss Bennett’s friend exists, sir. I talked to all the servants.
None of ’em’s been there more than a few months, and none of ’em’s planning to stay more’n a few months, but as long as they’ve been there, she’s spent a day or two each month with a Miss Lagerquist. They saw the lady a couple of months ago, in the summer, when she came in a hired car to pick up Miss Bennett for a jaunt in the country.
There was some argument as to was it July or August, but they all agreed it happened. ”
“I don’t suppose you asked whether this is the usual time of the month?”
“I did, and it is, and she told ’em yesterday she wouldn’t be in for lunch or dinner today.”
“Good work,” said Alec, “even if it’s not the answer I’d hoped for. Ardmore?”
“No trouble with Mr. Lambert’s landlady, sir.
She went up to his room with me and pointed out all the stuff he usually takes with him when he goes away for a night or two.
She cleans a couple of times a week, so she’s had a good nose around and knows exactly how many pairs of socks he owns, and how many pairs of under—Begging your pardon, Mrs. Fletcher! And what’s at the laundry, too.”
“All right, we don’t need a list of every item of clothing he possesses! The conclusion is that he didn’t plan his departure.”
“That’s right, sir. He’s never gone off without warning like this before, seemingly. Proper worried about him is Mrs. Hodge.”
“Daisy, you know him best. What do you think would make him dash off without his traps?”
“The slightest hope of getting mixed up in some sort of havey-cavey business where he could use what he fondly imagines to be his undercover skills. I’m worried about him, too, Alec. If the Jessups’ connection with bootlegging isn’t utter piffle, then Lambert was on the scent.”
“It’s not utter piffle,” said Alec. “Mrs. Jessup admitted it.”
“She didn’t!”
“It’s not illegal here, as she pointed out.”
“Then Patrick was in America?”
“He was. She must have realised we had only to ask to see his passport to find that out. Of more immediate use to us, Mr. Irwin gave me Audrey’s sister’s address.
Mackinnon, I’m going to send you to take a statement from her—from Mrs. Aidan, that is.
The children’s nurse, as well. What we need most is Aidan’s whereabouts.
But who knows, it’s always possible one of them will provide some revelation about what happened last night. ”
“Aye, sir.”
“Ring up the Boston police and request a car and driver to take you to the farm. You’d better get going. Goodness only knows how you get to Boston.”
“Mrs. Jessup said it’s two changes. There’s a Bradshaw’s in the drawer of the little table beside the phone,” Daisy told Mackinnon.
The detective sergeant met Elsie and Warren in the doorway and stood back to let them through. He cast a longing glance at the tea trays as he disappeared.
No biscuits, Daisy noticed sadly. She poured a cup and said to Elsie, “Take this to Mr. Mackinnon, at the telephone, please.”
“Yes’m.” Elsie took the cup and saucer and added with a touch of belligerence, “If you please, madam, Mrs. Dobson wants to know how many for dinner.”
“Alec?”
“Just the two of us. Or possibly just Mrs. Fletcher, Elsie. I’ll try to get back in time.
I’m going to see Jessup and Patrick at the shop after all.
Mrs. Jessup pointed out that to keep going in and out of their house will just add grist to the Bennetts’ mill.
Though there will be enough coming and going if Tom gets those warrants… .”
“Couldn’t you just have asked her to let you search?” Daisy handed cups of tea to each of the men.
“Not once Irwin turned up. To ask and be refused would just give warning, give them the opportunity to clear everything up thoroughly.”
“They had time to do that before the body was even found, sir,” said Ardmore.
“True, but in the flurry and scurry of getting Aidan away, they may not have thought of it, and they could hardly do much today, under the eyes of the servants.”
“On the contrary,” said Daisy, “the absence of both Audrey and Aidan and the children would give them the opportunity for a grand turnout of their rooms and the nursery. And what more natural than that Mrs. Jessup should take a look around first to make sure any valuables are safe, and to see what needs doing?”
“Dash it, Daisy, you’re right. We’ll just have to hope they don’t get to it till tomorrow.
Now. Ross, you’ll come with me to Jessup and Sons.
Ardmore, it’s a late night for you. You’ll help Sergeant Tring search next door, and then, if you don’t find out where Aidan took a ticket to, you can be off to St. Pancras to see if we can trace him there.
Mrs. Jessup gave me a photograph of him.
” He handed it over. “Mr. Irwin simply couldn’t think of a reason why she shouldn’t. ”
“He’s about as ordinary-looking as a bloke can get,” said Ardmore in dismay.
“Just do your best. I don’t want to have to ask every big-city force in the North to make enquiries at every car-hire firm near their main stations. We may get his destination at the shop, but I don’t want to wait.”
“Can’t trust ’em to tell the truth anyways,” Warren pointed out.
“What are you going to do about Lambert’s disappearance?” Daisy demanded.
“Circulate a description. Why don’t you write one out for me?”
“Right-oh.” Daisy turned to a fresh page of her notebook, glad that being a journalist meant she always had one available when needed for police business.
It was a pity Lambert had been in England long enough for his very American haircut to have grown out.
He still kept his fair hair cropped very short, but in an English way.
Horn-rimmed glasses, American-cut clothes, and an American accent were pretty distinctive, though.
Unfortunately, the face behind the spectacles was about as ordinary as Aidan’s.
“Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar, nor mark prodigious” to make him either “despised in nativity” or instantly recognisable.
Concentrating, Daisy missed Alec’s instructions to Warren. As she tore off the sheet and slid it across the table to him, Mackinnon came in.
“There’s a train I can catch if I leave right away, Chief, but I willna get to Boston till after nine. They’re booking a room for me and they’ll take me out to the farm. Should I go this evening or wait till tomorrow morning?”
“Farm people generally retire early. Better wait till the morning. It won’t make much odds. When you get to Boston, ring up for the latest developments here.”
“Right, sir.” He turned towards the door, then swung back. “I’ll be forgetting my own head next. Mr. Tring rang up while I was looking up the trains. He says he has the warrants and he’s on his way here.”
“Excellent. I hope he’s springing for a taxi, as you may if you need to. Go catch your train.” As Mackinnon went out, Alec consulted his wristwatch. “Five o’clock. I want to go and see what visibility is like in the garden.”
“The sky’s cleared,” said Daisy. “It’s lighter today than yesterday. By the way, what time did Mr. Whitcomb walk up through the garden yesterday on his way home from work?”
“Who went to the Whitcombs? Number seven.”
“Number seven?” Warren thumbed unhappily through his notebook. “DS Mackinnon and me, sir. Mr. Whitcomb wasn’t there, and we only asked did he mention seeing anything out of the ordinary. We knew we’d have to try again this evening to talk to all the gentlemen as was off at work.”
“I’d forgotten that,” Alec said ruefully. “I need more men! You’re right, Daisy. Even if Whitcomb saw nothing, the time he didn’t see it may help pin things down. Let’s see…. Tom had better—”
The telephone bell rang in the hall.
“Warren.” Alec jerked his thumb towards the door and the eyebrowless detective constable hurried out. “Ardmore, Ross, come outside and we’ll check what can be seen from where.”
They followed Warren out to the hall. Daisy sat on for a moment, wondering why Alec was being so obliging about letting her join their conclaves.
True, she knew the Jessups better than he did, but such was usually the case when she found herself enmeshed in one of his investigations.
In fact, that was almost always why she was involved in the first place.
Yet usually he strove to exclude her. Though she felt she had made one or two helpful suggestions, she found it hard to believe he had suddenly realised the inestimable value of her assistance.
There was no understanding it. With a shrug, she went after the men.
She was just in time to hear Warren call Alec back from the front steps. He stood at the rear of the hall, holding the telephone receiver at the full length of the wire and his arm.
“Sir, it’s DC Piper. He’s talked to three booze sellers, two wholesale, one retail on a large scale.
They all recognised Castellano’s photo and Lambert’s name, though one of ’em tried to deny it.
Castellano came to their houses, not their business places, trying to coerce them into shipping to the U.S.
Then Lambert came along to the business, claiming to represent the U.S.
government and warning them of dire consequences if they did.
Half a mo—What’s that?” he said, stepping back to the telephone under the stairs.