Chapter Nineteen #3
“You’re welcome to it. So, everything was running along smoothly, I take it. Why Patrick’s travels?”
“Everything ran smoothly because the American government wasn’t putting enough money into enforcement.
It stands to reason, as half of them probably enjoy a good whisky as much as anyone.
Then last year, President Coolidge talked them into voting more money for the Prohibition people and more ships for the Coast Guard.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Anglo-American Liquor Treaty? ”
“Yes.”
“That made things more difficult, too, especially as they’ll impound British ships outside the new twelve-mile limit.
Even before the change, when it was three miles, they took the Tomoka five miles offshore.
Well, to cut a long story short, they started intercepting our ship-to-shore messages.
I approached a certain brilliant cryptographer of my acquaintance—being very familiar with certain parts of the Continent, I was able to be of some assistance to our government during the War—and he provided me with a suitable code—”
“Not Dr. Popkin, by any chance?”
Jessup looked at him suspiciously. “What my friend did was not against the law, even in America, I believe.”
“No, no, it’s just that I’ve had cause in the past to ask for his help.”
“As a matter of fact, it was Dr. Popkin. He gave me what I needed. My customer didn’t want the information sent in the post, for fear of its being intercepted. My son, having missed the War, was eager for adventure. Et voilà.”
“Patrick went ashore in America to deliver the code in person?”
“Since that was the point of the whole exercise … He met an agent of our customer, not the man himself. He’s a banker with political ambitions and steers clear of personal involvement.”
“Will you give me his name?”
“I will not.”
Alec nodded. “Or that of his agent?”
“No. In any case, Patrick is fairly sure all the names he was given while in America were aliases, so they would be useless to you.”
For the moment, Alec let the question lie. He doubted the principal’s name would be helpful, but any others, real or aliases, though meaningless to him, would be worth trying on the New York police.
“I assume the business is profitable.”
“Very. Enough to risk losing a cargo now and then, though we’ve been lucky in that respect.”
“Yet you were not interested in hearing whatever business proposition Castellano had to set before you,” Alec said sceptically.
Jessup was clearly perturbed by the return to the subject of the murder, but he quickly recovered.
“After his behaviour to Moira, it was out of the question. But if you want a more businesslike reason, we are a small family firm. Taking on more American business would seriously stretch our resources.”
“I’d have thought with such an unpleasant character hanging about, you’d at least want to know what he was after. You could have arranged to meet him in the garden, so that there was no chance of his encountering your wife again.”
“I dare say I could have. I didn’t.”
“Or perhaps you sent Aidan in your place.”
“Certainly not.”
“Why did Aidan leave so suddenly last night?”
Shaken, Jessup said, “He … It wasn’t sudden. He’d been planning the trip for some time. He always goes about this time of year.”
“And it was so urgent, he left within an hour of his brother’s return?”
“He … I don’t know. I wasn’t watching the clock.”
Alec let a moment’s silence point out the irrelevance of this statement. Then he snapped out, “Where did he go?”
“North!” Jessup took out a silk handkerchief and wiped his forehead. “To see customers in the North.”
“Which city? Where did he take the train to?”
“What does it matter? He wasn’t going to stay there. He has to travel all over the place.”
“Which city?”
“I don’t know. York, I think. I’m not sure.”
Anywhere but York, then, Alec thought. He had been hoping he wouldn’t have to arrest any of his next-door neighbours, but if he didn’t, after this interrogation, he’d never be able to face them again.
Momentarily, his mind wandered. How long did he have to live in his great-uncle Walsall’s house to satisfy the terms of the will?
He couldn’t remember Pearson specifying a term.
Alarmed by his silence, Jessup said, “Perhaps it was Newcastle.”
Alec wondered whether, if he maintained a ominous silence, Jessup would gradually run through all the major northern cities he could think of except Aidan’s destination.
It wouldn’t do to underestimate him, though.
He wasn’t so rattled that he wouldn’t catch on quickly and throw the actual place into the list.
“Give me the names of customers he has to visit.”
“Aidan took the records of their names and addresses with him.”
“Mr. Jessup, I find it quite impossible to believe that you don’t remember the names, at least, of customers sufficiently valuable to warrant one of the firm’s principals travelling hundreds of miles to call on them at their homes.”
“That’s Aidan’s side of the business. I deal mostly with our suppliers. I dare say I can remember one or two names if I put my mind to it.”
“Please do so.”
He came up with four surnames, all of such banality that they probably encompassed several thousand families in the northern counties alone.
Besides the Dalton already mentioned by Mrs. Jessup, there were a Fisher, a Richardson, and a Parsons.
Alec thought he was telling the truth, if not the whole truth, but it wasn’t much help.
He could only hope Ernie Piper’s search of the files would be more fruitful.
“Why are you so anxious to keep Aidan’s whereabouts from me?”
“I’m not!” Jessup blustered defensively. “Why should I?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. Anyone would think you didn’t care whether we caught a vicious murderer who killed as close to your home and family as to mine.”
“Aidan is not a vicious murderer!”
“In that case, he may have vital information that will lead us to the right man—if we get it in time.”
“I don’t know where he is.”
“All right, you don’t know where he is. Let’s see if he mentioned where he was going to his brother as they passed in the doorway. Ross, escort Mr. Jessup upstairs, please, and bring Mr. Patrick down.”