A Murder is Arranged

by Basil Thomson

  He had just reached the rank of superintendent when he heard a shout and the grinding of brakes: a big car skidded sideways and stopped dead, blocking the traffic: a huddled object looking like a bundle of old clothes was lying in the roadway entangled with the spring and the front axle. He was the first to reach the spot and direct the removal of the man, who had been knocked down, to the pavement, and to summon a doctor and an ambulance while he kept the crowd back and inquired into the cause of the accident. The driver of the car protested that it had not been his fault: he said that the old man had dashed off the pavement without looking to right or left to see whether it was safe to cross—“just dashed across as if the devil was after him, as you might say.”

  The usual particulars went down in the notebook; the car was got into the nearest side street. A crowd had assembled round the policeman; another crowd round the doctor who was examining the injured man. P.C. Richardson had to stride through it and move it back from the prostrate body. While he was doing this a woman said, “I was quite close to him, officer: he was running over to where you were standing. I heard him say, ‘Very well, then, I’ll call a policeman’—just like that—and then off he ran, right in front of the car, poor old man!”

  “Who did he say it to?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone with him. In fact, I wasn’t taking any particular notice till I heard them words.”

  Richardson addressed his next question to the crowd at large. “Did any of you see him before the accident happened? Was there someone with him?” There was no reply; these were all people who had stopped on their way at the sight of a growing crowd and the thrill of an accident. Richardson took the woman’s name and address down in his notebook; she might have to be called as a witness at the inquest.

  The doctor was kneeling over his patient. He looked up when Richardson asked him what the injuries were.

  “He’s unconscious and I can’t get his name, but he’s alive. We ought to get him along to the hospital as quick as we can.”

  “Right, sir; the ambulance ought to be here in less than a minute.”

  At this moment the crowd gave way and the ambulance was wheeled up to the curb. Willing hands lifted the body gently onto the canvas, and with Richardson at its side it was wheeled off to the Middlesex Hospital. The hospital porter rang a bell to the accident ward and the ambulance drew up at the door, but in that brief journey the passenger had ceased to be a “case” but had taken a longer journey and become a “body.” His destination was not the accident ward, but the mortuary. Here P.C. Richardson’s work began. The body was carried to a vacant slab; it was that of an old man between sixty and seventy, poorly but respectably dressed, such as may be found by the thousand in London shops. The first thing to do was to search the pockets for any address that might lead to identification—a letter, an addressed envelope, a business card—but there was nothing. A pencil, a bunch of keys, and a slip of paper represented the whole contents of the pockets. The underclothing, which was none too clean, bore a laundry mark and that was all. The slip of paper was the only clue; it bore the address Arthur Harris, 7 Wigmore Street. The hospital telephone was put at Richardson’s service, and he rang up the police station to report the accident and obtain leave to visit the address and establish the identity. The house was but a step from the hospital. A butler opened the door and told him that Mr. Arthur Harris lived there and that he would convey any message if he would be good enough to say what the business was; but Richardson was quite undaunted by the apparent opulence of the surroundings and said firmly that he had come for a personal and private interview with Mr. Arthur Harris.

  “Is it a case of dangerous driving?” murmured the butler in concern. “Because if so I think you’d better see the young gentleman in the smoking room without letting the whole house know about it.”

  “Very well, the smoking room will do.” He was shown into a luxurious room on the ground floor—a den apparently sacred to the father and son. Richardson had not long to wait. Apparently Mr. Harris’s ordinary gait in descending stairs was to take four or five steps at a bound. He was a little breathless, not because of the exercise, but because the visit of a uniformed constable boded ill for a young man who considered that all public roads were intended for speed trials. He was a thin, weedy kind of youth, who looked as if late hours and cocktails disagreed with him. His pale cheeks assorted ill with his rather gaudy plus fours.

  “You wanted to see me, constable?”

  “Yes, sir. An old man was knocked over by a car in Baker Street this afternoon.”

  “It wasn’t me, constable. I haven’t been in Baker Street today. I can show you my journey on the map and bring a witness to prove it.”

  “That is not the point, sir. In the old man’s pocket we have found this paper. It has your name and address. He was an old man approaching seventy, with a short grey beard and a bald head. He looked more like a shopkeeper than anything else. Perhaps as he was carrying your address you may be able to identify him.”

  Young Harris’s expression showed his relief, but he shook his head and said that he could make no suggestion as to who would be likely to carry his address in his pocket.

  “Had you an appointment with anyone this evening?”

  “No. If I had I should tell you at once.”

  “Then, sir, I’m afraid I must ask you to come with me to Middlesex Hospital and see whether you can recognize him.”

  “Right, constable! I’ll do anything you ask me to, but I can tell you beforehand that I shan’t be able to recognize anyone of that description. Wait a second while I get my hat and coat.”

  Richardson watched him narrowly when they entered the mortuary together and thought that his complexion changed from white to green as he came within sight of the body, but he ascribed the change to the surroundings of the grisly building in which derelict human bodies are laid out like the wares in a fishmonger’s shop. He looked fixedly at the body for many seconds and then shook his head.

  “You’ve never seen him before, sir?”

  “No; never.”

  “And you can’t imagine why he should have your address in his pocket?”

  “No, I can’t, unless, of course, he’d looked up likely addresses in the directory for new customers.”

  When Harris had taken himself off in a taxi, Richardson went to the secretary’s office to find out what was the ordinary routine about the funeral, seeing that the deceased had never been admitted to the hospital as a patient. He was talking to the secretary when the porter came in with another man—a slight young man of about thirty with a fair moustache and a fresh complexion. He was accompanied by a depressed, middle-aged woman in a black bugled bonnet and draggled skirt, which seems to be the uniform of the London charwoman. The man looked like an office clerk of some kind, one of those voluble clerks who do all the talking.

  The porter announced him. “This gentleman has heard that his uncle has met with an accident this afternoon and been brought to the accident ward.”

  The secretary referred to a list. “What age was your uncle, sir?”

  “Close on seventy. He was to have met me this afternoon at the corner of Portman Square and Wigmore Street, but he didn’t come.”

  The charwoman broke in, “You see, sir, I’d just slipped over to the Crown and Anchor for a glass, and I heard them talking about an old gentleman being knocked down by a car in Baker Street, and he was taken away to the hospital, and Mr. Bloak he said, ‘Was it your old gent?’ and I said, ‘It couldn’t have been ’im; he’s so careful of the crossings,’ and ’e said, ‘Well, they’re saying it was ’im.’ And it’s the truth I’m telling you; I didn’t stop to finish me glass. I fair ran across to the shop to see whether he was in, and I couldn’t get any answer to the bell. I was coming away again when up comes Mr. ’Erbert ’ere and I told him and we come along together.”

  “Had he a beard?” interrupted the secretary.

  “Yes,” said the young man, “a
grey beard.”

  The secretary made a sign to Richardson, who came forward. “If you’ll both come with me, sir, perhaps you’ll be able to identify the body of the gentleman who was knocked down by a car this afternoon.”

  “The body? Do you mean to say that he’s dead? My God!”

  “I can’t say whether he’s the gentleman you are looking for, but if you’ll come with me—” The secretary heaved a sigh of relief when the three left him to his work. A man of few words, he did not suffer talkers gladly.

  The sight of the body lying on its slate slab was a shock. Richardson pulled out his notebook and asked whether they recognized the body.

  “Yes, that is my uncle. His name was John Catchpool of 37 High Street, Marylebone—an antique shop. Poor old man! To be knocked down like that and sent to his Maker without any warning. Terrible, isn’t it? Why, only yesterday we were talking—”

  The charwoman began to whimper, “’E was a hard master at times, but one can’t help crying to see him lying on a ’ard stone like that and to think what good all ’is money’ll be to ’im where ’e’s gone.”

  The young man patted her on the shoulder. “You go home, Eliza. I’ll see to everything.”

  She went off sniffing audibly. Richardson followed her to the door and took her name and address. Returning to the man, he said, “Now I should like your name and address.”

  “Yes, of course. There’s no mystery about me. My name is Herbert Reece of 28 Great Russell Street, W.C.1. That’s where I lodge.”

  “Occupation?”

  “Well, I worked for my uncle looking after his outdoor business, his loans and houses and so on.”

  “You said he kept an antique shop.”

  “Quite right; so he did, but he had many other irons in the fire—house property, loans, insurance work, every kind of thing. Kept me busy, I can tell you.”

  “Loans? Was he a registered moneylender?”

  “He was, and he could drive a hard bargain, you can take my word for that.” He glanced at the body as if to assure himself that life was extinct and sank his voice to a confidential undertone. “Between you and me, many people would have called him a miser. With all that money and no one to look after him but that woman who came in in the mornings, living over the shop in a single room; I’ve often wondered that he didn’t have burglars in, but he’d have put up a fight for it if I knew him.”

  “Was he married?”

  “Ah! There you’re treading on delicate ground. He was married all right and his wife’s alive, but they didn’t get on and they separated years ago.”

  “Do you know her address?”

  “Of course I do. She was living in one of his flats in Sussex Square and rent free, mind you. She got that out of him when the solicitor drew up the separation, but I don’t mind telling you that there was no love lost between them—particularly these last few weeks.”

  “At any rate we ought to go and break the news to her. What’s her number in Sussex Square?”

  “No. 17; second floor, but mind you, the news won’t take much breaking. The old man was trying to get her to turn out and go into another flat not quite so good. That was at the bottom of the row these last few weeks, and I tell you that what with an angry uncle and a spiteful aunt and poor Herbert carrying messages between the two, omitting the swear words, of course, he hasn’t had what you’d call a rosy time.”

  Richardson was busy writing his notes. “Well, now, Mr. Reece, I think I’ll go with you to see your aunt.”

  “Right you are; we’ll get it over.”

  As they went Richardson said, “It was a lucky chance that you met that woman and she knew where to come to.”

  “Well, it wasn’t altogether chance. You see, my uncle and I had arranged to meet at the corner of Portman Square and Wigmore Street at five-thirty, and as he didn’t turn up and I’d been there for close on half an hour I went on to his shop to find him, but it was all locked up and I could get no answer to the bell, so I thought he’d gone on without me. To tell you the truth, I didn’t want to be mixed up in the job we were going to do—to make things unpleasant for a young man by telling his father what he’d been up to—so I was kind of relieved to think he’d gone without me. I went on to the young man’s house and walked up and down waiting for my uncle to come out, but he didn’t come, so I went back to the shop once more and there I met Eliza.”

  “We shouldn’t have known who he was if you hadn’t come.”

  “Hadn’t he anything in his pocket to show who he was?”

  “Nothing. The only paper on him was the address of a Mr. Arthur Harris in Wigmore Street.”

  “Well, that’s where he was going—that’s the man we were going to see together—the one I was telling you about. He owed my uncle money and he either couldn’t or wouldn’t pay up, so my uncle meant to get something out of him, or tell his father.”

  Richardson stopped dead, “Do you mean to say that Arthur Harris knew your uncle?”

  “Of course he did.”

  “How many times had he seen him?”

  “Three or four certainly; perhaps more.”

  “Ah!” grunted Richardson with Scottish caution. He said little more on their walk, for he had ample material for thought.

  Published by Dean Street Press 2016

  All Rights Reserved

  First published in 1937 by Eldon Press as A Murder Arranged

  Cover by DSP

  Introduction © 2016 Martin Edwards

  ISBN 978 1 911095 82 8

  www.deanstreetpress.co.uk