Chapter 14 #2
“Not financially, perhaps, though I imagine he’d lose opportunities to invest knowledgeably. By the by,” Alec added parenthetically, “he may resent your having utilised his expertise to make a fortune he can’t hope to match. But I was going to suggest he’d lose in status, in closeness to the boss.”
“You may have something there,” Arbuckle said slowly. “Tarnation, I’ve wondered.… Not close to the boss so much as close to Gloria? You see what I’m getting at? I’ve wondered if Crawford hadn’t set his sights on my girl.”
“Or—forgive me—her money. I don’t mean to suggest your daughter is not attractive in herself, but your wealth must be an added attraction.”
“Brother, you’ve said a mouthful. If I had a sawbuck for every fortune-hunter I’ve seen off…! I can spot ’em at a hundred yards. Petrie isn’t one. Crawford … waal, I gotta admit Crawford could be.”
“Whether the attraction’s money or love, he’d see his chance of winning Miss Arbuckle going down the drain when Petrie came along,” Alec observed. “What made you think he had hopes?”
“Little things. Lately, this business of suddenly he’s so keen on history and the countryside. I had a hunch that was just because of Gloria’s interest.” He stopped, looking appalled. “Aw, jeez!”
Alec had no difficulty following his train of thought.
“You said he’d taken to spending his weekends exploring the countryside.
He had every opportunity to find a deserted cottage such as Petrie describes, and to learn the back lanes.
And another point: London and Hereford are in opposite directions from Malvern, yet Petrie came across you stranded by the roadside when you were on your way from one and he from the other. ”
“He was aiming for his parents’ place,” Arbuckle said dubiously, “not Great Malvern, like us. I gotta say I was a mite puzzled seeing the Malvern Hills first getting closer, then further away. Still and all, you gotta go round, not over, and these lanes of yours twist and turn like a rattler.”
“The kidnapping had to have been arranged in advance for a certain place, though there might have been some leeway as to time.”
Petrie loped in, the ring of keys dangling from his forefinger clinking like castanets. “I say, that tool-chest has the whole caboodle, sparking plugs, inner tubes, hand pump, patching kit, fan-belt, even lamp glasses. Just about anything you could need—except hose.”
“That doesn’t prove anything,” Arbuckle growled.
“No,” Alec agreed, “it’s just another possibly significant fact to add to the pile. Petrie, can you pinpoint on the map the exact spot where the kidnapping took place? Just there? You’re sure? That’s quite a way off the direct route from Hereford to Great Malvern, isn’t it?”
“Miles. It was a pretty good choice, come to think of it, with all hayfields around, already mowed and stacked so no farmer was likely to come along. It looks as if Crawford’s our man, doesn’t it? I never did quite cotton to him.”
“Why not?”
Brow furrowed, Petrie thought. “He was an oily, smug sort of b … chap,” he said slowly, “not exactly pudgy, just sort of too well-fed-looking, like an old maid’s cat, but that’s hardly … No, by Jove, I have it. I never nailed it down before. It was the way he looked at Gloria!”
“Mr. Arbuckle has just told me he suspected Crawford had ambitions in that direction.”
Surging to his feet, Petrie pounded with his fist on the desk. “By Jove, if the bounder has laid a finger on her…!”
Alec laid a calming hand on his arm. “We must hope he’s chiefly motivated by money.”
“I can’t believe it.” Arbuckle shook his head. “Sure, things look real bad for Crawford, but I just don’t believe he’d do a low-down, lousy thing like this.”
“As I said, sir, we don’t have anything like proof.” Alec had few doubts that he was on the right track, but he would see things clearer after a good night’s sleep.
Part of a night’s sleep, he corrected himself, glancing at the brass clock on the mantelpiece.
“I want to know more about his movements these past few weeks,” he went on, noting that Arbuckle looked as exhausted as he felt, “and just what you’ve said to him about the kidnapping, but that can wait until the morning. ”
“I have to go to Lunnon to collect the dough, but I’ll come by on my way. I would’ve anyways, to see if Miss Dalrymple’s back. I’ll be off, now, and see you in the morning.”
“Will you see Crawford in the meantime?”
“At breakfast, probably, before he goes off to Oxford.”
“Don’t say anything to him,” Alec warned. “Not a word of our suspicions, and try not to alter your manner to him.”
He and Petrie went out to the hall to see the American off. Ernest appeared from nowhere with an umbrella and accompanied the small, somehow crumpled figure down the steps to his motor.
The rain was belting down. Was Daisy out in it somewhere?
Consulting Pearson’s list, Alec said, “You’ve got the first watch, Petrie.”
“The drawing-room, I should think. There are French windows. If she comes and sees the light, she’ll be able to get in easily. I say, Fletcher, I don’t want you to think I’m not frightfully cut up about Daisy going missing. It’s just that Gloria.…” Words failed him.
“I know.” Walking with him to the drawing-room, Alec wondered if Petrie could possibly be feeling the same agony of apprehension.
“Look here, I imagine you’re known at most of the garages hereabouts?
I’d like you to go in the morning and make enquiries at any Crawford might have made his way to that day. ”
“Right-ho, old chap.” Petrie opened a door and flicked on a light switch. “If no one’s heard of him, we’ll know for sure, won’t we?”
“It would be awfully hard for him to argue his way out of it,” Alec agreed grimly, following him into a long room in which the finest furniture of two centuries melded into a harmonious elegance.
He waved at floor-length blue brocade drapery on the far wall.
“Is that the French windows? I’ll draw the curtains back and make sure they’re unlocked.
” Opening the curtains, he reached for the handle.
“They’re locked, sir.” The footman came in behind them, bearing the tray of decanters and glasses. “The key’s in this here drawer. There you are. Will you be wanting another night-cap, sir?”
“Not for me, thanks, but you might leave it here. Mr. Petrie’s staying up. Is the front door bolted and barred?”
“Yes, sir, but it’s a Yale lock, the kind you can open without a key from inside.”
“Good. You can show me the way to my room, then, if you will, and go to bed yourself. Oh, here’s the schedule, Petrie. You’ll wake Bincombe in an hour or so.”
“Right-ho. Sleep well, old man. I must admit I’m dashed glad you turned up.”
He held out his hand, and Alec was shaking it when from the corner of his eye he saw the handle of the French window move. As he strode towards it, it opened, and over the threshold tottered a tatterdemalion mudlark.
“Alec, thank heaven!” croaked Daisy, and fell into his arms.
He picked her up and sat down on the nearest sofa with her on his lap, holding her tight, disregarding completely the effect on himself, the sofa, and the Aubusson carpet.
Streams of murky water ran from her bedraggled hair and torn clothes. Her face, turned up to his, was scratched and daubed with mud. As he kissed her chilly lips, all he was conscious of was the joyful singing in his heart.
Daisy snuggled against Alec’s chest and felt safe for the first time in hours. She could have happily stayed there for just as many hours to compensate, but the reason for her struggling on to Fairacres, resisting the appeal of shelter in barn or haystack, still stood. She was safe. Gloria was not.
Reluctantly she raised her head from Alec’s shoulder, and saw Phillip’s anxious face.
“Phil, she’s all right.” Daisy felt it was most improper to be cuddled on Alec’s knee with Phillip, and the footman behind him, looking on, but she wasn’t going to move until she absolutely had to. “They’ve got her in the witch’s cottage in Cooper’s Wood.”
“Little Baswell? By Jove, we ought to have thought of it! Right-oh, I’m off.”
“Don’t be an ass, Petrie,” Alec said sharply. “You said there are four bruisers, at least. It’ll take all of us.”
“Me too!” said the footman, all agog. “I knowed there were something up. I knowed it!”
“You too, lad. The two of you go and roust out Bincombe and Pearson, and ask Miss Fotheringay to come and take care of Daisy. Try not to wake her cousins.” As they rushed out, he looked down at her and smiled. “A hot bath is called for, I’d say. Is there anything else we need to know, sweetheart?”
“Not that I can think of. She’s in the upstairs room on the right. At least she was until we escaped through the roof, and I don’t expect they have another room secured. She couldn’t get out that way without help. You see, I.…”
“I see you went rushing into danger when you were supposed to be merely asking questions, without even the elementary precaution of telephoning your whereabouts first!”
“The only public ’phone was out of order,” Daisy said indignantly. “And I did take precautions. I hid my bike—I hope we can find it—and borrowed a dog for camouflage.”
“A dog!” Alec laughed and hugged her. “My darling idiot.”
“There speaks a townsman. The wood is far too overgrown for cycling, and the day far too sultry to walk for pleasure, but dogs always have to be walked. They wouldn’t have suspected a thing if Tuffet hadn’t gone snooping around the side of the house.”
“And you snooped after? Just as I thought. The wood’s very overgrown, is it?”
“Even the ride. There’s a path of sorts trampled through the thickets, though the beginning of it may be hard to find if they’ve bothered to conceal it. But Phillip will find it. He knows the wood well, he’ll be able to lead you straight to the cottage.”
“Good.”
“You’d never find it otherwise. They have the windows well covered so no light escapes, and they don’t let Gloria have a light at all. Poor Gloria! I hope they didn’t hurt her when they caught her. She didn’t follow me up the tree, you see. I suppose she must have panicked.”
“Maybe she just doesn’t know how to climb trees. Not everyone is as resourceful as you, sweetheart.”
“Oh Alec, I do like it when you call me sweetheart!”
He responded in a most satisfactory fashion, but their kiss was interrupted when Lucy swept into the drawing-room. She was as elegant as ever in fawn silk pyjamas and matching dressing-gown, even with her hair in a towelling bandeau.
“Daisy darling, what have you been up to? Too, too squalid! You’d better come along and have a bath.”
Reluctantly slipping down from Alec’s lap, Daisy reeled. He caught her up.
“I’ll carry her,” he said to Lucy.
On the landing they met the men. Phillip was still in evening dress but carrying boots, Ernest in his livery, Binkie and Tommy apparently dressed in whatever had come first to hand.
“Well done, Daisy!” said Tommy softly, grinning.
“I’ll join you in a minute,” Alec told them. “Don’t forget electric torches, one each if possible. Have we another motor? Five would be a squeeze in mine.”
“I’ll get the Lagonda out. It’s bigger than Bincombe’s Alvis.”
“Ask Bill Truscott to go with you,” Daisy advised, thinking of the four roughs they would be facing. “Tell him it’s by my request.”
“Good idea,” said Phillip. “He’s a good chap. Take care of yourself, old bean. Come on, fellows.”
Alec carried Daisy to the bathroom where Lucy was already running a steaming bath. He deposited her on a chair and stood for a moment gazing down at her, shaking his head.
“Squalid is the word. Straight to bed and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Right-oh, Chief,” said Daisy. “Alec, you will take care, won’t you?”
“You can count on it, love,” he assured her with a grin. “The last thing I want is to meet your mother for the first time sporting a black eye!”