The Man in the Queue ag-1

by Josephine Tey

  "Bert Sorrell wasn't anything to me, but he 'ad to be killed and I killed 'im, see? That's all."

  "Did you know Sorrell?"

  "Yes."

  "How long have you known him?"

  Something in that question made her hesitate. "Some time," she said.

  "Had he wronged you somehow?"

  But her tight mouth shut still more tightly. Barker looked at her rather helplessly, and then Grant could see him turning on the other tack.

  "Well, I'm very sorry, Mrs. Wallis," he said, as if the interview were ended, "but we can't put any belief in your story. It has all the appearance of a cock-and-bull yarn. You've been thinking too much about the affair. People do that, you know, quite often, and then they begin to imagine that they did the thing themselves. The best thing you can do is to go home and think no more about it."

  As Barker had expected, that got her. A faint alarm appeared on her red face. Then her shrewd black eyes went to Grant and examined him. "I don't know who you may be," she said to Barker, "but Inspector Grant believes me all right."

  "This is Superintendent Barker," Grant said, "and my chief. You'll have to tell the superintendent a lot more than that, Mrs. Wallis, before he can believe you."

  She recognized the rebuff, and before she had recovered Barker said again, "Why did you kill Sorrell? Unless you give us an adequate reason, I'm afraid we can't believe you. There's nothing at all to connect you with the murder except that little scar. I expect it's that little scar that has set you thinking about all this, isn't it, now?"

  "Not it!" she said. "D'you think I'm crazy? Well, I'm not. I did it all right, and I've told you how I did it exactly. Isn't that enough?"

  "Oh, no, you could quite easily have made up the tale of how you did it. We've got to have proof."

  "Well, I've got the sheath of the knife at home," she said in sudden triumph. "There's your proof for you."

  "I'm afraid that's no good either," Barker said, with a very good imitation of regret. "Any one could have the sheath of the knife. You'll have to give a reason for killing Sorrell before we'll even begin to believe you."

  "Well," she said sullenly after a long silence, "if you must 'ave it, I killed 'im because 'e was going to shoot my Rosie."

  "Who is Rosie?"

  "My daughter."

  "Why should he shoot your daughter?"

  "Because she wouldn't have anything to do with the likes of 'im."

  "Does your daughter live with you?"

  "No."

  "Then perhaps you'll let me have her address."

  "No; you can't have 'er address. She's gone abroad."

  "But if she has gone abroad, how could Sorrell be able to harm her?"

  "She hadn't gone abroad when I killed Bert Sorrell."

  "Then — " began Barker. But Grant interrupted him.

  "Mrs. Wallis," he said slowly, "is Ray Marcable your daughter?"

  The woman was on her feet with a swiftness amazing in a person of her bulk. Her tight mouth was suddenly slack, and inarticulate sounds came from her throat.

  "Sit down," said Grant gently, and pushed her back into her chair — "sit down and tell us all about it. Take your time."

  "'Ow did you know?" she asked, when she had recovered herself. "'Ow could you know?"

  Grant ignored the question. "What made you think that Sorrell intended harm to your daughter?"

  "Because I met 'im one day in the street. I 'adn't seen 'im for years, and I said some-thing about Rosie going to America. And 'e said, 'So am I. And I didn't like that, be-cause I knew 'e was a nuisance to Rosie. And then 'e smiled kind of queer at me and said, 'At least, it isn't certain. Either we're both going or neither of us is going. An' I said, 'What do you mean? Rosie's going for sure. She's got a contract and she can't break it. And he said, 'She has a previous contract with me. Do you think she'll keep to that too? And I said not to be foolish. Boy-and-girl affairs were best forgotten, I said. And 'e just smiled again, that horrid queer way, and said, 'Well, wherever she's goin' we're goin' together. And 'e went away."

  "When was that?" Grant asked.

  "It was three weeks today — the Friday before I killed 'im."

  The day after Sorrell had received the little parcel at Mrs. Everett's. "All right. Go on.

  "Well, I went 'ome and thought about it. I kept seeing 'is face. It had a bad grey kind of look in spite of its bein' so pleasant and all that. And I began to be sure that he meant to do Rosie in."

  "Had your daughter been engaged to him?"

  "Well, 'e said so. It was a boy-and-girl affair. They'd known each other ever since they were kids. Of course, Rosie wouldn't dream of marrying 'im now."

  "All right. Go on."

  "Well, I thought the only place 'e would be able to see 'er would be the theatre. You see, I went round specially to tell Rosie about it — I didn't see 'er very often — but she didn't seem to worry. She just said. 'Oh, Bert always talked through his hat anyway, and anyhow I don't see him any more. She 'ad such a lot of other things to think of, she wasn't worried. But I was, I tell you. I went that night and stood on the opposite side of the street, watching the people coming to the queues. But 'e didn't come. And I went to the matinee on Saturday and again in the evening, but 'e didn't come. And again on Monday night, and on Tuesday afternoon. And then on Tuesday night I saw 'im come alone, and I went and stood behind 'im in the queue at the pit door. After a while I saw a bulge in 'is right-'and coat pocket, and I felt it and it was hard. I was sure then that it was a revolver and that he was going to do Rosie in. So I just waited till the queue moved tight, like I said, and stuck the knife in 'im. He didn't make a sound. You'd think he didn't know anything had happened. And then I shoved in front, like I told you."

  "Was Sorrell alone?"

  "Yes."

  "Who was standing alongside him?"

  "For a while there was a dark young gentleman, very good-looking. And then an-other man came to talk to Bert, and pushed the young gentleman back next me."

  "And who was behind you?"

  "The lady and gentleman who gave evidence at the inquest."

  "How is Rosie Markham your daughter?"

  "Well, you see, my 'usband was a sailor — that's 'ow I got the knife from Spain — brought me lots of things, 'e did. But when Rosie was little, 'e got drowned; and 'is sister, who was very well married to Markham, offered to take 'er and bring 'er up as their own, 'cause they had no kids. So I let 'er go. And they brought 'er up proper, I'll say that for them. A real lady, my Rosie is. I went out charring for years, but since Rosie got money she bought what they call an annuity for me, and I live on that mostly now."

  "How did your daughter know Sorrell?"

  "The aunt that brought Bert up used to live next door to the Markhams, and Bert and Rosie went to the same school. They were very friendly then, of course. Then the aunt died when Bert was at the War."

  "But it was after the War that they got engaged, surely?"

  "They weren't what you would call engaged. They just had a notion for each other. Rosie was on tour in The Green Sunshade then, and they used to see each other when she was in town or near it."

  "But Sorrell considered himself engaged?"

  "Perhaps. Lots of men would like to be engaged to Rosie. As if Rosie would think of the likes of him!"

  "But they kept up some kind of acquaintance?"

  "Oh, yes, she let 'im come to see 'er at 'er flat sometimes, but she wouldn't go out with him, or anything like that. And she didn't 'ave 'im very often. I don't think she 'ad the heart to send him away for good, you see. She was letting 'im down gently, I think. But I'm not sure about all that, you know. I didn't go to see Rosie often myself. Not that she wasn't nice to me, but it wasn't fair on 'er. She didn't want a common old woman like me round, and 'er hobnobbin' with lords and things."

  "Why did you not tell the police at once that Sorrell was threatening your daughter?"

  "I thought about it, and then I thought, in the first place, I 'ad
n't any proof. Judging by the way you treated me today, I should think I was right. And in the second place, even supposing the police shut 'im up, they couldn't shut 'im up for good. He would just do 'er in when he came out. And I couldn't be always round watching 'im. So I thought it best to do it when I could. I 'ad that little knife, and I thought that would be a good way. I don't know anything about pistols and things."

  "Tell me, Mrs. Wallis, did your daughter ever see that dagger?"

  "No."

  "Are you quite sure? Think a little."

  "Yes; she did. I'm telling you a lie. When she was quite big, before she left school, they had a play of Shakespeare that had a dagger in it. I don't remember the name of it."

  "Macbeth?" suggested Grant.

  "Yes; that was it. And she was the heroine. She was always wonderful at acting, you know. Even when she was a little thing she was a fairy in a school pantomime. And I always went to see 'er. And when they were playing that thing Macbeth, I gave 'er a loan of the little dagger 'er father 'ad brought from Spain. Just for luck, you know. She gave it back to me when the play was over. But she kept the luck, all right. All 'er life she's been lucky. It was just luck that made Ladds see 'er when she was on tour, so that 'e told Barron about 'er, and Barron gave 'er an interview. That's 'ow she got 'er name — Ray Marcable. All the time she was dancing and singing and what not for him 'e kept saying, 'Remarkable! and so Rosie took that for 'er name. It's the same initials as 'er own — at least, as 'er adopted name, see?"

  There was a silence. Both Barker, who had been wordless for some time, and Grant seemed to be temporarily at a loss. Only the fat woman with the red face seemed to be completely at her ease.

  "There's one thing you must remember," she said. "Rosie's name must be kept out of this. Not a word about Rosie. You can say that I killed 'im because of 'im threatening my daughter, who is abroad."

  "I'm sorry, Mrs. Wallis, I can't hold out any hope of that. Miss Marcable's name is sure to come out."

  "But it mustn't!" she said. "It mustn't! It'll spoil it all if she's dragged into it. Think of the scandal and the talk. Surely you gentlemen are clever enough to think of a way of avoiding that?"

  "I'm afraid not, Mrs. Wallis. We would if we could, but it won't be possible if your story is true."

  "Oh, well," she said, with surprising equanimity, considering her former vehemence, "I don't suppose it will make such a very great difference to Rosie. Rosie is the greatest actress in Britain at the present time, and 'er position is too good for any-thing like that to spoil it. Only you must hang me before she comes back from America."

  "It is a little too soon to talk of hanging," Barker said, with a faint smile. "Have you got the key of your house with you?"

  "Yes; why?"

  "If you hand it over to me, I'll send a man down to verify your story of the sheath of the knife. Where can he find it?"

  "It's at the very bottom of the top left-hand drawer of the chest of drawers, in a box that had a scent-bottle in."

  Barker called in a man, and gave him the key and the instructions. "And see you leave everything as you get it," Mrs. Wallis said tartly to the emissary.

  When the man had gone, Grant pushed a piece of paper across his desk to her and ex-tended a pen. "Will you write your name and address there?" he said.

  She took the pen in her left hand, and rather laboriously wrote what he had asked.

  "You remember when I went to see you before the inquest?"

  "Yes."

  "You weren't left-handed then."

  "I can use either hand for most things. There's a name for it, but I forget what it is. But when I'm doing anything very special, I use my left. Rosie, she's left-handed too. And so was my father."

  "Why didn't you come before and tell us this story?" Barker asked.

  "I didn't think you would get any one unless you got me. But when I saw in the paper that the police had a good case, and all that, I thought something would have to be done. And then today I went to the court to have a look at 'im." So she had been in that crowded court today without Grant having seen her! "'E didn't look bad even if he was foreign-looking. And 'e looked very ill. So I just went 'ome and cleared up and come along."

  "I see," said Grant, and raised his eye-brows at his chief. The superintendent summoned a man, and said, "Mrs. Wallis will wait in the next room for the moment, and you will keep her company. If there is anything you want, just ask Simpson for it, Mrs. Wallis." And the door closed behind her tight black satin figure.

  18 — Conclusion

  "Well," said Barker, after a moment's silence, "I'll never talk to you about your flair again, Grant. Do you think she's mad?"

  "If logic carried to excess is madness, then she is," Grant said.

  "But she seems to have no feelings on the subject at all — either for herself or for Sorrell."

  "No. Perhaps she is crazy."

  "There's no chance of its not being true? It's a far less believable story in my eyes than the Lamont one."

  "Oh, yes, it's true," Grant said. "There's not a doubt of it. It seems strange to you only because you haven't lived with the case as I have. The whole thing falls into place now — Sorrell's suicide, the gift of the money to Lamont, the booking of the pas-sage, the brooch. I was a fool not to have seen that the initials might as well have been R. M. But I was obsessed by the Ratcliffe women at the time. Not that reading the initials the other way would have helped me too much, if Mrs. Wallis hadn't turned up with her confession. Still, I ought to have connected it with Ray Marcable. On the very first day of the investigations, I went down to the Woffington to have a talk with the doorkeeper, and I saw Ray Marcable then, and she gave me tea. Over tea I de-scribed the dagger to her — the description was going to the Press that evening. She looked so startled that I was almost certain that she had seen something like that before. But there wasn't any way of making her tell if she didn't want to, so I left it, and from beginning to end of the case there has been nothing to connect her with it until now. Sorrell must have intended to go to America as soon as he knew that she was going. Poor devil! She might be Ray Marcable to the rest of the world, and a very big star, but he never got over thinking of her as Rosie Markham. That was his tragedy. She, of course, isn't a bit like that. It's a long time since Ray Marcable thought of herself as Rosie Markham. I expect she made it definite that there was nothing doing when she returned the brooch he had had made for her. A brooch like that wouldn't have meant anything to Ray Marcable. He had really meant to go to America till the Thursday evening, when he got the parcel Mrs. Everett talked about. That was the brooch, and that evidently tore it. She may have announced her intention of marrying Lacing, for all I know. You saw that he had gone out on the same boat with her? Sorrell must have made up his mind then that he would shoot her and commit suicide. The Woffington pit isn't the best place for shots at the stage with a revolver, but I expect he counted on the fuss there would be at the end. It isn't so very long since I saw half the pit in the orchestra at the end of a last night at the Arena. Or perhaps he meant to do it as she was leaving the theatre after the show. I don't know. He could have done it in the afternoon quite easily — he and Lamont went to the stalls — but he didn't. I don't think he wanted his friends to know if there was the remotest chance that they mightn't. You see, he tried to fit things so that they would take it for granted that he was on his way to America. That explains the lack of clues. Neither Mrs. Everett nor Lamont would connect the suicide of an unknown man who had killed Ray Marcable with the man they thought was on the Queen of Arabia. He probably forgot that meeting in the street with Mrs. Wallis, or didn't think that his secret thoughts had been so obvious to her. When you come to think of it, it was rather cute of her to spot what he intended. Of course, she had the clue — she knew about Ray. But she was the only one who would be able to connect him with Ray Marcable. Ray Marcable never went anywhere with him, of course. He tried to do the best he could for his friend by handing over his wad, w
ith instructions, as Lamont said, that it wasn't to be opened till the Thursday. Do you think Sorrell thought there was a chance that his friend would never know what had become of him, or do you think he didn't care so long as the deed was well over before they found out?"

  "Search me!" said Barker. "I don't think he was too sane either."

  "No," said Grant, considering, "I don't think Sorrell was crazy. It's just what Lamont said about him — he thought for a long time about something, and then did exactly what he intended. The only thing he didn't reckon with was Mrs. Wallis — and you'll admit she isn't the kind of quantity you'd expect to find butting around in an ordinary crowd. He couldn't have been a bad sort, Sorrel. Even to the last he kept up the jape about going to America. His packing was perfect — but Lamont was packing at the same time, and probably in and out of the room all the time. He hadn't a single letter or photograph of Ray Marcable. He must have made a clean sweep when he made up his mind what he was going to do. Only, he forgot the brooch. It fell out of a pocket, as I told you."

  "Do you think Ray Marcable suspected the truth?"

  "No; I don't think so."

  "Why not?"

  "Because Ray Marcable is one of the most self-absorbed people in this era. In any case, she remembered the dagger from my description of it, but she had no reason to connect the man who was murdered with Sorrell, and therefore wouldn't connect her mother with the affair at all. The Yard didn't know Sorrell's identity until Monday, and that was the day she left for the States. I shall be very much surprised if she knows, even yet, that the dead man was Sorrell. I shouldn't think she reads much in the Press but the gossip column, and America isn't interested in the queue murder."

  "Then there's a shock in store for her," said Barker sorrowfully.

  "There is," said Grant grimly. "And at least there is a pleasant one in store for Lamont, and I'm glad of it. I have made a complete fool of myself over this case, but I'm happier just now than I have been since I hauled him into the boat from the loch."

  "You're a marvel, Grant. With a case like that I should have been as pleased as Punch and all over myself. It isn't canny. If you're ever fired from the force, you can set up as something in the second-sight line at five bob a time."