by L. A. Nisula
~ * ~ * ~
I arrived at Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital fifteen minutes before I would have been expected. When I gave my name at the reception desk, a constable who had been leaning against the wall having a cup of tea straightened and tried to hide the teacup behind his back. “If you’d come this way, miss. It will only take a moment.”
I followed him through the hallways and up a flight of stairs into one of the wards. “She is not badly injured, but she is unconscious. The doctor says she was drugged and should come out of it; then he’ll be able to see how her memory is. But if there’s any family, we thought we should try to find them as quickly as possible.”
“I understand. Of course, I do give out a lot of business cards.” I was running through every one I had handed out in the last weeks.
“Here she is. Take your time.”
But I didn’t need time. I immediately recognized the pale woman asleep on the bed. “That’s Miss Emma Crawford. I’ll give you her address; her landlady might know who you should contact. But first you need to tell Inspector Wainwright. The shop she works in is the victim in one of his cases, and he’s been working on her disappearance.”
The constable scribbled in his notebook and was out of the room almost before I’d finished speaking. I wondered if he’d want to speak to me again, to find out the details of the cases Inspector Wainwright was busy with or at least their location, so I sat down in the hardback chair near the foot of the bed to wait.
Chapter 14
I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG I WAS WAITING THERE. It’s very boring sitting in a quiet room when you can’t do anything. I spent a fair bit of time wishing I’d planned better and brought the socks I was knitting or a book to read, but of course I hadn’t planned on waiting. I counted irregularities in the plain white wallpaper; then I think I dozed a bit. It seemed like hours, but I’m sure it wasn’t that long. It was long enough for the nurse to bring me a cup of weak tea and a plate of biscuits. It was the same nurse who had been on duty when I’d arrived, so I knew I hadn’t been there as long as it seemed. Since she’d been nice enough to bring them, I sipped the tea and nibbled on the biscuits, and decided that, if the police did need me, they’d had plenty of time to find me, and I wasn’t hard to locate anyway. I was just deciding what to do with my plate and cup when I heard movement from the bed. I put them on the chair and went to the bedside.
“Miss Crawford?”
She opened her eyes and closed them again at once. “I know you.”
“Miss Pengear. We met at the shop.”
She nodded but didn’t open her eyes.
“You’re at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. I’m going to get the doctor, all right?”
She nodded again.
I hurried into the hallway and looked for anyone official-looking. The nurse heard my footsteps and came around the corner. “Is something wrong, miss?”
“Miss Crawford, in there, the young lady in there, she’s awake.”
The little furrow between her brows smoothed. “I’ll get the doctor then. Just a moment.” She was gone before I could answer.
I went back into Miss Crawford’s room. I didn’t think she was in any danger, but it didn’t hurt to be careful now that she’d been found. I moved the plate and cup to the floor and brought the chair closer to the head of the bed. Miss Crawford opened her eyes a sliver when the chair creaked.
“The doctor’s on his way. How are you feeling?”
“A little better. I might try to sit up.”
The nurse returned before I could decide if encouraging her was a good thing or not, with the doctor on her heels. I moved into the hallway to let him do whatever he was going to. The examination didn’t take very long, though, and when the nurse left to get something for Miss Crawford to eat, I could see Miss Crawford was sitting up in bed and looking a bit better than she had been.
The doctor stood up and arranged the blankets around her. “The drug seems to be wearing off, Miss Crawford. It’s very nice to have a name for you. Now, have a little bite to eat, and I’ll check on you after you’ve finished. I’ve had Scotland Yard called. A police inspector is on his way to find out what you remember. As soon as he’s gone, you can rest. I think you’ll be able to go home tomorrow.”
I peered in around the door. “Which policeman?”
The doctor looked up, surprised I was still there, no doubt. “The one in charge of her case. His name was―was–”
“Inspector Wainwright?”
He smiled. “That was it. They said he’d be here soon to talk to her.”
Miss Crawford gave me a nervous look. She didn’t want to talk to him, and I didn’t think she’d even met him at Kleinmans'. “Is it all right if I sit with her?”
The doctor turned back to Miss Crawford. She gave him a small nod. He turned back to me. “Just don’t tire her out.”
I caught his coat sleeve as he passed me and whispered, “Make certain you impress that upon the inspector when he gets here.”
“He’s that type, then? All right. I’ll have a nurse in here with him when he questions her.”
It was better than nothing, I supposed. I pulled the chair closer to Miss Crawford’s bedside.
“Is he as bad as all that?”
“I didn’t mean for you to hear that. Inspector Wainwright is a very conscientious detective, but he can be a bit abrupt.” I was trying to phrase it in the nicest way possible to avoid scaring her.
“I don’t think I can deal with abrupt right now.”
“I can stay if you’d like.”
She nodded.
The silence dragged on for a few minutes, then Miss Crawford turned towards me. “How did you end up here? Why didn’t they call my landlady or something?”
“The only identification they could find on you was my card in your pocket. They were hoping I’d know who you were, and, of course, I did.”
She nodded. “How long was I gone?”
“About a week.”
“Oh. It seemed longer.”
She stared at the edge of the pillowcase. I let her think until it seemed she needed a distraction then asked, “How did you end up with my card in your pocket?”
“I picked it up from Miss Kleinman’s desk. I’ve been thinking of leaving the shop. It’s so boring just sitting around all day adding numbers, and then having to be so polite to all the customers, even when they’re idiots or don’t pay their bills. I thought I might like doing what you do, and I thought I might try to get in touch with you outside of the shop and see if it was something I could manage.”
“It’s a good thing you had it. They must not have thought it was important enough to get rid of. We can talk about typing when you’re feeling better if you’d like.”
Before we could say anything else, the doctor came back, leading Inspector Wainwright to us. “Now you will have to wait until the nurse can sit with you. She’s settling a new patient in, but it will just be a moment.”
I could see Inspector Wainwright didn’t want a nurse or to wait a moment, and Miss Crawford certainly did not need him any crankier than he already was. Besides, I didn’t like to turn down an opportunity to get answers. “I can stay with them.”
“Miss Pengear...”
“Would you rather have me or wait for the nurse? Miss Crawford is still unwell, and I’m sure she needs her rest. But if you’d rather spend time waiting for the nurse instead of having me here...” I picked up my handbag and stood up. Miss Crawford yawned. The doctor went to her bedside and took her pulse then felt her forehead. That seemed to be enough for Inspector Wainwright.
“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
I grabbed the chair I had been sitting in and moved it so Inspector Wainwright would have room beside the bed, but I was still close enough to grab Miss Crawford’s hand if needed. It also meant that I had claimed the only chair in the room, leaving Inspector Wainwright nowhere to sit. Of course, a gentleman would have offered me the chair anyway, but it was always best to assume Inspec
tor Wainwright wouldn’t be gentlemanly.
Inspector Wainwright didn’t bother to glare at me, just stood by the side of the bed and loomed over Miss Crawford. “What do you know about where you’ve been for the past nine days?”
“Not very much. It was dark. There was a bed and a chair and not much else. I think I slept a lot, so they must have kept me drugged.”
“And do you remember anything about who they were?”
“I think there was at least one man and one woman. I could hear voices outside the room, but they never came in when I was awake, only when I was asleep. They left trays of food, that sort of thing. I don’t think I’d recognize either voice, though. I was half-drugged most of the time, and I think they were downstairs most of the time. Honestly, I almost thought I recognized their voices a few times, but I'm sure that was all in my head.”
“Were you kept in one location or moved?”
“One location, I think, unless they had the same sort of room in each. It wouldn’t have been hard, there was so little in the room.”
“You were reported missing on Thursday. When is the last time you remember being free?”
“Tuesday night. I had gone out to dinner at a pub, and I wasn’t feeling well, so my friend, Miss Eaton, put me in a cab home. The last thing I remember was sitting in the cab, and I think I passed out. When I came to, I was in the room.”
“Was the cab waiting by the pub, or did your friend hail it?”
“She hailed it, I think. It was passing on the street, and she went to get it.”
“I will need you to describe everything you did on Tuesday.”
“I was at my job most of the day. Nothing very interesting happened. Do you need me to go over that?”
Inspector Wainwright looked ready to say yes, but Miss Crawford stifled a yawn, so he said, “That has been covered. I will need to see how your story fits with the others later, but for now we can move on.”
“Directly after work, I went to dinner with two friends from work, Miss Eaton and Miss Henderson.”
“Whose idea was that?”
“I think it was Miss Henderson’s. She didn’t want to fix anything. And Miss Eaton had heard good things about the fish and chips there, so that’s where we went. The White Oak.”
“And was there anything unusual about this?”
“Not at all. We sometimes go out to eat if one of us doesn’t want to cook or doesn’t have anything in the cupboard. It’s no fun going by yourself.”
“And this was your normal group?”
“Oh, we all go at different times. Mr. Garver was going to come, but he dropped out at the last minute. I’m not sure why.”
“How did you get to the pub?”
“We shared a cab. It wasn’t expensive when we split it three ways.”
“Were you followed?”
“I wouldn’t think so, but I wasn’t looking. Why would anyone follow me?”
“Why would anyone kidnap you?”
She started pleating the bedsheet again. “I have no idea.”
Inspector Wainwright pressed on. “So you arrived at the pub, then what?”
“We ordered our food and got our table.”
“Who ordered? Who chose the table?”
“We were all having fish and chips, so I ordered. Miss Eaton and Miss Henderson went to secure the table.”
“Did you notice anyone unusual?”
“No, but I wasn’t looking for anyone.”
I leaned forward. “Miss Eaton mentioned a young man.” I didn't want Inspector Wainwright to know I'd been questioning Effie behind his back. Letting him think it was gossip from the shop was marginally better.
Inspector Wainwright managed to glare at me without looking up from his notes.
“That wasn’t anything, though. He came over and started chatting me up. It was after Miss Henderson left, I think. He came over and started flirting, and I told him to go, and he went. I think his friends put him up to it.”
“Did you see his friends?”
I hadn’t thought Inspector Wainwright could get any more irritated with me, but somehow he managed to glare at me in a way that I felt through all my clothes and my corset.
“Oh no, I didn’t want to look. I was afraid he’d think I was really interested or trying to encourage him if I looked. Miss Eaton was facing that way. She might have seen.”
Inspector Wainwright broke in before I could ask anything else. “What did he look like?”
“Thin. Brown hair. A weak sort of face, but I’m not sure why I think that.”
“Was he anyone you had seen before? A customer? A neighbor?”
“No, and he didn’t act like he knew me.”
“Then what happened?”
“The food came and we ate. That was before the man. Then Miss Henderson had to go home because she was going to wait for the neighbor’s aunt to come so she could let her into the building. Miss Eaton said she was in the mood for something sweet, so I went to the bar and got us tea and sticky toffee pudding. It was while we were eating that that the man came and flirted. We were talking about the insurance man and speculating about why he was there when I started feeling dizzy. Miss Eaton offered to see me home. I didn’t want to put her out because she had been saying how she was tired and had to be at work early to finish something or other, so I told her I’d be fine if I took a cab home. My landlady is very nice and if the driver needed to get her to help me in, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. The last thing I remember is stumbling into a cab, and then I woke up in a dark room.”
“What do you remember about it?” Inspector Wainwright was all business, not pausing for her to compose herself. I reached over and grabbed her hand.
“It was dark. I couldn’t hear anything really. There was traffic so I knew I was in the city, but no sounds I could recognize. I couldn’t even hear that very well.”
“What kind of room?”
“I don’t know. I was cuffed to the bed so I couldn’t move very far. There was a wood floor. And it was more than three steps in any direction since I never felt a wall. That’s all I know.”
“And your captors?”
“I never saw them and never heard them except as a buzz through the door when they were talking. They left food when I was asleep.” She slid her hand out of mine and flexed her fingers. “There was one incident.”
Inspector Wainwright looked up from his notes. “Go on.”
“They gave me the drug again, but it must have been a smaller dose since I was conscious. Then I could feel them put my hand in something cold and damp.”
Inspector Wainwright consulted the folder he was holding but didn’t speak. I leaned over to get a look at the page. “It says they found plaster under your nails.”
Inspector Wainwright turned the rest of the doctor’s report away from me.
“That could have been it.”
“Why do you think they would make a cast of your hand?”
“Miss Pengear, may I remind you that I am the one asking the questions? As you said, I do not have much time with this witness tonight, and I would like to be able to make some progress on the case.”
“Of course, Inspector.” I sat back in my chair. I half-expected Inspector Wainwright to ask more about the cast, but he changed topics completely.
“What were the circumstances of your release?”
“I really have no idea. I was in the dark room, and they had left me something to drink. I started to feel dizzy and was wondering if I’d been poisoned, but it was the same feeling I’d had at the pub. Then I don’t remember anything until I woke up here. Can I ask how I was found?”
Inspector Wainwright didn’t look up from his writing. “Unconscious on a park bench outside of Saint Paul’s. One of the caretakers brought you here. He did not have anything useful to say.”
“It was very kind of him, though. Do you know his name?”
Inspector Wainwright opened his mouth, then glanced at me out of the corner of hi
s eye. “It does not seem relevant.”
“I’d like to thank him.”
When Inspector Wainwright didn’t answer, I said, “I’m sure we can just ask anyone who works there. I would think it would be the sort of story that would travel. And I’m sure they’d all like to know you’re all right.”
“Maybe I should visit there when I’m feeling a bit more myself.”
Inspector Wainwright cleared his throat, trying to remind us who was in charge. When he had our attention, he asked, “What do you know about the robbery?”
“Robbery? What robbery? Has my flat been broken into?”
I wanted to poke Inspector Wainwright in the back, preferably with something thin and sharp, but I understood why he’d asked so abruptly. He wanted to see if she knew more than she should about the robbery that had occurred while she was being held captive. I was tempted to have a pencil from my purse ready in case he asked about the murder in an equally tactless way.
“Kleinman and Co. was broken into last Wednesday, and again on Friday, and on Saturday.”
“Oh, how awful. Was anyone hurt?”
I knew I should have given Inspector Wainwright a chance to answer in his own way, but I didn’t want him to bludgeon her over the head with the news, not when she was groggy and ill. “I’m afraid Mr. Morris was attacked by the robbers.”
“Oh, is he all right?”
I shook my head.
“You mean... Oh dear.” She sank back in the pillows. “Do you think it was the same people?”
“That is what I am trying to determine, if Miss Pengear would let me do my job.”
“Sorry.”
“I’m sure. Miss Crawford, do you have your key to the shop?”
“It would be in my coat pocket. The right one.”
Inspector Wainwright went to the coat rack where Miss Crawford’s clothes were hanging and checked the pockets. He pulled out a ring of keys. “One of these?”
Miss Crawford nodded. Inspector Wainwright brought her the keyring, and she slid the keys around until she found the right one. “That’s it.”
Inspector Wainwright took the ring from her and examined the clasp. “This does not seem to have been opened recently. Can the keys be removed any other way?”
