‘Weak points? What do you mean. That system was foolproof. I saw to that myself.’
‘Mrs. Havenith insisted on switching it off in her room and slept with the window open.’
Wilbur Havenith ground his teeth and crossed to Cairncross, seized him by the lapels, dragged him to his feet, and thrust his face in his.
‘And you allowed that? You phoney, you fool.…’
‘I couldn’t prevent her. She wanted her own way and if she didn’t get it she raised the roof.…’
‘How did this fellow Blunt get to know? Was he allowed the run of the house, as well as spying through the windows?’
Cairncross made choking noises.
‘He couldn’t have got into the house and examined the whole circuit. I don’t know where he got the information.’
‘Where is your copy of the plan of the system, Mr. Cairncross?’ said Littlejohn.
‘In my desk in my flat under lock and key.’
Wilbur Havenith turned on Cairncross noisily.
‘Littlejohn tells us this guy was the top housebreaker in Europe and always planned his jobs meticulously. Hasn’t it struck you that he went over your flat? The lock on your desk must have been just a toy to him. Why didn’t you put the plan in the bank?’
‘How was I to know he was a top-ranking crook?’
‘That’s what you’re paid for.’
Littlejohn interrupted the fracas.
‘You mentioned Blunt’s having the run of the house, Mr. Havenith. He had the next best thing to that. His wife was engaged as a temporary maid here and gave him plenty of information about the place. She didn’t think her husband was a crook. He told her he was a private inquiry agent, engaged by you to spy on your wife and Mr. Leo.’
Havenith chuckled mirthlessly.
‘That was clever of him. I never heard of Blunt till just now. But I got all the information I require from Morgan and his wife.…’
He was just working himself to a fury against Leo when Littlejohn interrupted him again.
‘You can settle this between you when the police have gone. Meanwhile, let me finish our business. My colleague and I have other work waiting for us at Scotland Yard.’
Havenith shrugged his shoulders, bit the end off a cigar and lit it.
‘Go on then.’
‘On the night he was murdered Blunt decided to finish his job and take the diamonds. He watched Mrs. Havenith and Leo leave the house with their friends. Then he entered and took the necklace. Mrs. Havenith was holding a quiet little theatre party prior to leaving for the country. She only wore the necklace on special occasions and this night it was left in the safe. I think Blunt must have obtained this private information from his wife. He didn’t allow for the fact that Mrs. Havenith either had a headache or was bored with the idea of the party. However, she and Leo didn’t even go to the theatre, but turned about and came home. Their return brought Cairncross to the house where Blunt was still operating and he found himself trapped.’
‘Why wasn’t he detained and handed over to the police, then?’
‘Blunt must have made a bolt for it, and got away. Cairncross must have been in a dilemma. If he pursued Blunt, he’d have to leave examining the safe and jewellery until he returned to the house. He chose the right thing, I think. He pursued Blunt and left the diamonds until afterwards.’
Cairncross couldn’t contain himself any longer. He was almost weeping with rage.
‘I told you, I’d always had my eye on Blunt. As soon as Mrs. Havenith and Mr. Leo left the house I went up to her room, closed the window and switched on the alarm.’
‘Wait a minute, Cairncross,’ said Littlejohn. ‘Are you sure you did it right away?’
Cairncross was impatient.
‘I let Mrs. Havenith and party get away and then I did it.’
‘You gave Blunt time to get in the bedroom apparently. How else could he have got in?’
‘There are other places if you know where to go.…’
Wilbur Havenith almost shouted his head off.
‘But he got in, didn’t he? And he grabbed the diamonds. Get on with it, Littlejohn. No use arguing with Cairncross. He’s only making excuses for himself.’
‘I was thinking that myself. We haven’t got a film showing all the details of the events that night, but I guess that Blunt escaped by the way he came, through the window in Mrs. Havenith’s room. And Leo was there with her at the time.…’
Leo, hitherto obviously afraid of something which he didn’t wish his father to hear about, had remained silent throughout the interview, now suddenly sprang to life. The blood rushed to his cheeks and he jumped to his feet and faced his father.
‘It’s a lie. I was in my own room.’
Wilbur Havenith didn’t lose his temper this time. He turned to Leo and spoke in a voice which made his son cringe.
‘You needn’t lie, Leo. I know all about it. Julie has confessed everything. Down on her knees. Weeping buckets full… She’s leaving for Texas with me in the morning and you’re coming with us. That is, if the English police don’t want you. I’ve a few knots to untie for you and Julie. She’s packing already upstairs.’
‘We’ll want Mr. Leo, sir. We need his help in our investigations. When I was interrupted, I was saying that we didn’t know all the details of what happened on the night that Blunt was murdered. But we do know that he hurried away with the diamonds and took a taxi at Tolham Station. The driver is outside ready to confirm that. And the other two taximen present.…’
Treadwell, open-mouthed and wide-eyed at what was going on, prodded Monk with his elbow. Monk seemed so little interested in it all that he looked ready to fall asleep. Now and then he swallowed air and belched to ease the pain in his stomach.
‘That’s us, Vic,’ said Treadwell and Monk nodded wearily.
‘These two taximen will confirm that Blunt was followed in their vehicles by Cairncross and Leo. The two followed Blunt for different reasons. Cairncross, to his credit, was after the diamonds.…’
‘What did I tell you? I was only doing my duty.…’
‘Hold it!’ shouted Wilbur Havenith.
‘… What Cairncross was proposing to do when he recovered them, I don’t know.…’
‘Blunt hit me on the jaw as he went out. I’d that to settle with him too. I was.…’
‘I said, hold it! Go on, Littlejohn.’
‘… Blunt was on his way to a house called Mountjoy in Hampstead. It belonged to a German called Kaltbad, who, we suspect, was a fence used by Blunt. He was returning home to Germany the following morning and he and Blunt met at Mountjoy for their last deal: the diamonds. The house was empty and Blunt apparently thought he’d shaken off any pursuers he might have had and was going to trade his loot with Kaltbad. But it didn’t turn out that way, did it, Cairncross?’
‘I don’t know anything about it.’
‘You and Leo were there. You met in the garden of Mountjoy, but you had different reasons in mind. You’ve explained your reason, Cairncross. You were there to recover the necklace. Leo had a different motive. He thought Blunt was a private detective paid by his father to report on the behaviour of Leo and his stepmother.…’
‘That’s right,’ shouted Cairncross. ‘He thought Blunt was a private eye. He’d seen him peeping through the window at the flats. When he told me what he thought I didn’t enlighten him. I didn’t want him messing about in my investigation. Leo was scared stiff of what Blunt was going to report to his father and when Blunt disturbed him and Mrs. Havenith in her bedroom he was sure. I’m certain that he intended to kill Blunt if he got a chance.’
‘You liar! You’re not pinning Blunt’s murder on me.…’
And before anyone could restrain him, Leo hurled himself at Cairncross with such force that they both fell struggling to the floor.
As the confusion of arms and legs heaved across the room, Treadwell and Monk watched the contest like spectators at a wrestling match on television. Treadwell’s ar
ms moved spasmodically as though he himself was in the match. Wilbur Havenith watched it all with calm disgust.
‘Littlejohn and Cromwell tore the combatants apart.
‘Finish your tale, Chief Superintendent,’ said Havenith, senior.
‘Just a question to Cairncross, please … What happened between Blunt and Kaltbad that night?’
‘Why ask me? I’m not admitting that I was there.’
‘We know that you were there. We’ve also found Kaltbad’s body. Did you shoot him?’
Cairncross had been busy mopping the blood from his mouth and rubbing the facial injuries inflicted on him by Leo. Now he forgot his wounds.
‘I didn’t do it. Neither did Leo. It was Blunt who shot him.’
‘Tell us about it … Where were you when it happened?’
There was a pause punctuated by Treadwell’s asthmatic breathing and Monk’s digestive struggles.
‘They were both in a small room at the back and were talking when we first saw them through the window. There was one light on. The back door was loose and we crept in to hear what was going on. They seemed to be angry with one another about Kaltbad’s price. Then Blunt produced the diamonds from his side pocket. It was as much as I could do not to rush in and take them both on and get the necklace back. But Kaltbad pulled out a revolver and flourished it. He was real nasty about it. He said something to Blunt I couldn’t catch and Blunt said out loud “That’s blackmail”, and up flew his leg and he kicked the gun from Kaltbad’s hand. I never saw anything so quick. They both rushed for the gun and there was a struggle and a shot and there was Kaltbad stretched out dead on the floor.’
‘And then?’
‘Blunt pocketed the necklace and the gun and then he dragged the body to the hall and opened a door which we could see led to the cellar. We saw it all. We were behind the kitchen door and thought that at any minute Blunt would see us. But he was too busy. He went out in the garden and we followed him carefully. He’d got the gun, you see, and we didn’t want… Well, he went to a shed in the back garden and came out with a spade, went back to the house and we could hear him dragging the body down the cellar steps. He buried it under the coal.…’
‘How did you know it was under the coal?’
‘I just guessed it. We didn’t go down.…’
‘No. You saved that for another visit. The one which Inspector Hassock interrupted and you struck him unconscious. You went back to spy out the land and see if Blunt had hidden the diamonds along with the body. You shouldn’t have tied the Inspector up with a medical knot. You might just as well have signed your name across Kaltbad’s face. You almost killed Hassock and then left him to rot in the cellar.’
Cairncross was ready to protest, but caught Wilbur Havenith’s eye and dried up.
Littlejohn turned to Leo.
‘Have you anything to say about all this. What were you doing while Blunt buried the body?’
‘We both waited. I didn’t intend to kill him. Just make a deal. I didn’t know he had the diamonds until he produced the necklace and Cairncross told me what they were. I wanted to give up and go home. I was wet through and getting my death of cold. We waited to see what happened. Cairncross said he’d take an opportunity of jumping Blunt and get the diamonds back. In the end he came up from the cellar and he still had the spade and, believe it or not, he went to replace it in the shed.…’
Cairncross turned on Leo in a fury again.
‘Don’t tell him anything more. He’s trying to trap us. He wants to pin a murder on us. We won’t say anything more without our solicitor.…’
Leo paused. ‘Yes. That’s right. We want a lawyer before we say anything more.’
Wilbur Havenith slowly moved across to Leo and seized him by the collar and shook him.
‘You’ll finish it or I’ll kill you. You little rat. Get on with your story.…’
Leo sagged and made sobbing noises.
‘I didn’t kill Blunt. Cairncross jumped him as he crossed to the shed. They struggled in the dark and pouring rain and Blunt hit Cairncross, who kept shouting to me to come and help. Blunt went in the shed and we could hear him putting back the spade as though his life depended on it. Then he came out and hit Cairncross again and ran. Cairncross ran after him and when I caught up with them Blunt was stretched out at the front gate and Cairncross was searching in his pockets. He’d hit Blunt with a truncheon.
‘The diamonds weren’t there. Cairncross said he’d only given Blunt a tap on the head. He’d soon come round and we’d better go back and hunt for the diamonds. I said I couldn’t and wouldn’t. We were arguing when a drunk staggered in the gateway and we couldn’t get rid of him. Cairncross was getting ready to hit him as well, when a police patrol car passed. We both made off through the back garden and we walked to an all-night garage in Hampstead village where we got a car home.’
Cairncross looked trapped and completely exhausted.
‘You know, Leo,’ he said. ‘That’s all a pack of lies to save your own skin. You know you killed Blunt because you thought he would tell your father what a little swine you were and how you’d behaved with your own stepmother.’
‘But I’d no motive after you told me he was just a thief after the diamonds. Why should I kill him?’
‘Take them both away, Littlejohn. Book them both for murder. I never want to see either of them again.’
Wilbur Havenith said it slowly and with bitter hate.
Littlejohn gave Cromwell a significant look.
‘By the way, sir,’ Cromwell said to old Havenith,’ I have something for you.…’
He took out the necklace and handed it over.
‘We found it in a bag of fertiliser where Blunt hid it.’
Cairncross stared at the diamonds and then at Wilbur Havenith. He looked frightened to death.
The pale autumn sunlight struck the diamonds which shone and sparkled like something alive. They seemed to dominate the room.
‘I never want to see those again, either,’ Wilbur Havenith said and he walked briskly from the room.
Cairncross and Leo were both eventually charged with manslaughter and lied and bickered their ways through the trial. They were each sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Julie, disowned and divorced by Wilbur Havenith, married a film producer.
A Note on the Author
Gorge Bellairs is a pen name of Harold Blundell (1902–1985), a crime writer born in Lancashire. Blundell was a prolific writer who published over 50 crime and mystery novels in his life, most of them featuring the detective Inspector Littlejohn.
Blundell also wrote regularly for the Manchester Guardian.
Discover books by George Bellairs published by Bloomsbury Reader at
www.bloomsbury.com/GeorgeBellairs
Death Before Breakfast
Death on the Last Train
Devious Murder
Murder Adrift
For copyright reasons, any images not belonging to the original author have been removed from this book. The text has not been changed, and may still contain references to missing images.
This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Reader
Bloomsbury Reader is a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP
First published in Great Britain in 1973 by John Gifford Limited
Copyright © 1973 George Bellairs
All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The moral right of the author is asserted.
eISBN: 9781448214488
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