by John Creasey
Mannering found himself thinking of Larraby, and Lorna said: ‘Are we wrong about Josh?’
‘We’ll learn. Out of about ten thousand questions, one emerges as the most significant.’
‘What?’
‘Why all those Adalgo imitations, and who is really behind it? What should the name Lopey mean to us?’
‘Lopey or dopey?’ Lorna asked. ‘Darling, I’ll scream if I don’t get some fresh air.’
‘Don’t scream,’ Mannering said.
She laughed and went out; but he knew she was heavy- hearted, because of Larraby, not for herself or him.
She looked in, five minutes later, with her hat on.
‘I won’t be long.’
‘Don’t go far, and keep your eye on policemen.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘John, do you think it possible that Bristow has always known or suspected the real mystery behind the Adalgo?’
Mannering frowned. ‘It could be. He’s acted like an oaf half the time, and he isn’t one. Also—’
‘He’s seriously suspected you, and he gave up thinking you were still a-Baroning years ago,’ Lorna said. ‘So he doesn’t really think you’ve been cracking cribs for the sake of the loot, darling. He may think – especially if he knows the real reason – that you consider this a just cause for risking a long visit to His Majesty’s rest homes. I mean, how do you spell Lopey? With a ‘z’?’
Mannering said: ‘Well, well, you picked that up fast.’
‘I have a mind,’ said Lorna. ‘I know it’s only a pale imitation of yours, but that idea’s worth thinking about. What would be a sufficient cause?’
‘If I were a secret supporter of the claims of the Adalgo family to the Spanish throne, as advanced by a certain Senor Pedro Lopez—’
‘That’s it,’ said Lorna. ‘You aren’t, are you?’
‘No. I’d weighed this up, and decided it wasn’t a royalist campaign. At first I thought it might be, but when the killings came I ruled that out. This kind of skull-duggery wouldn’t win the Adalgos any support anywhere, it would more likely make them lose some.’
‘Well, think again,’ said Lorna. ‘Where is the Adalgo?’
‘Here.’
‘Where?’
‘In my waistcoat pocket.’
‘Oh, you fool!’ She hurried to the waistcoat which hung beneath a coat, over a chairback. ‘Are you sure—’
‘I feel it every two minutes, for fear of ghosts. Incidentally, the Larraby at Guildford might have been a kind of ghost, Larraby looks four-dimensional. If you mean, don’t I think it s time that diamond wasn’t here—’
‘I do!’
Mannering said: ‘Take it to Bristow, will you? Ask him to have it put away safely, tell him I’ve a feeling that the bad men are worked up about it and they might try to break into Scotland Yard in order to get it. That’ll make him laugh like anything.’
Lorna said: ‘Are you serious?’
‘About taking it, yes. Ask a policeman to go with you – one will be following you, anyhow, you may as well keep him alert with chatty conversation. You might ask Bristow if he’s checked Larraby’s Harrow story, too.’
Lorna took out a wadge of cotton-wool, felt the diamond inside it, laughed a little wildly, and said:
‘Was it here all night?’
‘Yes, I forgot the damned thing. That was almost the last thing I tried to say as I went under. I was ready to suspect even the good doctor.’
‘I hope I never see it again,’ said Lorna. ‘John—’
‘Yes, I love you!’
‘Then help Larraby.’ Lorna turned, and went out.
Mannering dozed; and that was not a thing he liked to boast about after lunch. The newspapers were spread out over the bed, when Lorna looked, and still Mannering dozed. It was nearly three o’clock, and the flat was quiet, little sound came through the window.
A faint noise disturbed Mannering. When he roused himself it was more than faint, it was a voice just outside the door.
‘Mr. Mannering will always see me, my pet, that’s one of the cardinal rules of his life. He knows that I am one of his best friends – and what a friend!’ There was excitement in the caller’s voice, and that cheered Mannering.
Judy opened the door and said:
‘Mr. Forsythe, sir.’
Forsythe strode in, eyes aglow. He stood at the foot of the bed, and then made a clownish face.
‘You have done something for yourself!’
‘The question is, what are you going to do for me?’
‘My dear chap, I’m going to be your right-leg man, as it were,’ declared Forsythe. ‘You do the thinking, I’ll do the acting. This business is going to break all records before it’s over. Bless your heart, I always knew that if I stuck to you like a leech, the day would come when I would stop regretting it.’
Mannering nodded to a chair. Forsythe sat astride it, leaning on the back, took out cigarettes and tossed one to Mannering.
‘Thanks,’ said Mannering. ‘And have you stopped regretting it?’
‘Have I! But you’re an old so-and-so for sitting on dynamite. Even a whisper would have done me a world of good. Background and off the record, you know.’
‘There’s nothing I could have whispered about.’
‘Ha-ha! He hugs his secret to the last!’
‘No secret. I’m prepared to believe I’ve been the world’s blindest bat.’
‘Great Scott and little Hamishes!’ gasped Forsythe. ‘I would never have believed it!’ He got up and stepped towards Mannering. ‘You are serious? You mean it? You didn’t know the truth all along? And I thought you were being really cunning over this. John, I apologise.’
‘You might even tell me what you’re so excited about,’ said Mannering.
‘Oh, yes, I will. The big Adalgo, the little Adalgos and the fakes which would have impersonated the Adalgo. And you really don’t know the story behind it? I’ve got it out of Tring, which reminds me. Beware Tanker, he’s spiteful. He thinks you’re backing Lopez – oh, you do know that Pedro Lopez has been arrested, don’t you?’
‘Pedro Lopey,’ Mannering said softly.
‘Lopay, L-O-P-E-Z. With a Z, old chap. Once warrior-in-chief for the restoration of a Spanish throne. Remember?’
Mannering said: ‘Well, well!’
‘Go on, concentrate,’ urged Forsythe. ‘Of course, Lopez’s English accent is fairly good, few people realise he’s as Spanish as he looks. The accent isn’t surprising, as he’s been in England for ten years and more – and he came here after the first brush between the monarchists in Spain and the people. Remember? Pedro Lopez my dear chap? Firebrand Spanish Royalist. Down with Negrin, down with Giral, down with Franco, down with everyone except the Royal Family and his particular branch of the Spanish Royal Family, too. No truck with the exiled monarch, only the Adalgo branch interested our friend Lopez. He made a song and dance about it – the Adalgo family was really the Royal Family. He once even tried to take the throne for the Duke of Adalgo, and his little game was neady stopped by Franco. I see that the truth’s dawning on you,’ added Forsythe, gently.
So it was not just crime; it went deeper – and he’d rejected the obvious because it was too obvious.’
‘I see a gleam of understanding in the pain-wracked eyes,’ said Forsythe. ‘Can you bear more?’
‘Much more,’ said Mannering, heavily.
‘Stout heart ne’re lost the last battle,’ said Forsythe. ‘It’s really quite simple.’
Mannering said: ‘Yes. Let me have a stab now. It all fits in, but I didn’t want to believe that this was a royalist racket. Oh, I knew the Adalgo belonged originally to the ducal family, who wanted money. I suppose Lopez saw this as the easiest way of getting some. He or someone else of warped
brilliance of mind, thought up a winning idea, once they accepted murder and violence as proper means to the end. The Adalgo was stolen once before, long before the Royal Family recovered it and put it on the market openly. Everyone who owned it ran into trouble. That gave the diamond a legendary value, put a kind of spell on to it, and for some people, increased its cash value.’
‘Why did you first buy it?’ Forsythe asked.
‘I had a notion to find out what would happen.’
‘I won’t tell your wife,’ promised Forsythe. ‘Go on.’
‘While it was missing, other rose-tinted diamonds were cut to resemble it. Lopez, for the Adalgo family, sponsored this faking and imitating, wanting cash and getting plenty above face value for each supposed Adalgo. The copies were sold to various collectors at fantastic prices, and each collector thought he had the real one. As it was known to have been stolen, no one could admit possession of it.’
‘Then the real one turned up,’ Forsythe broke in. ‘No one who had bought a pup dared say so. They unloaded the pups on the undercover market, until you bought the real one. Lopez was after it – just why I don’t know, but possibly old friend greed. He wasn’t quite sure whether yours was the real one, so traced everyone who had a diamond that was blood-brother to the Adalgo, and finally reached you, at last learning that you were the legal owner of the one and only Adalgo. The owners of the other real diamonds boasted, as collectors do, of owning the Adalgo. That made him laugh, I presume. Shall I go on?
‘You deserve to.’
‘Thanks. Lopez made a number of imitations in paste. These he planned to substitute for the real stones, by a series of burglaries about which no one could complain, as each possessed a stolen stone. He did that, until he had all the stones except the genuine antique. Everything was hunkey-dorey until he himself was robbed of them all, some six months ago.’
Mannering rubbed his nose.
‘Too strong for you?’ asked Forsythe, sympathetically.
‘Rub it in,’ said Mannering.
‘There isn’t much more. When Lopez was robbed, he couldn’t do much about it at first. Biter bit. He waited his chance. These stones and fakes were spread about and sold – all under cover. Several of them were lodged with fences or in the collections of people who, knowing they had no legal right to them, began to worry when so much interest was shown. Then the world was told that you had the real McCoy. You found yourself with an embarrassment of riches, so to speak – and small wonder, as they were undercover stuff and the owners were anxious to unload.’ Forsythe rounded his eyes. ‘My, my!’ he exclaimed. ‘What will the police think of the owner of Quinn’s buying doubtful jewels?’
‘I wonder,’ said Mannering, heavily.
‘Well, there’s the story as far as Tring and I know it. Don Lopez is now comfortably in jail, the story is unfolded. Not much doubt of the truth. Why didn’t you want to believe that the Adalgo family was behind it? That must have stuck out a mile.’
Mannering said slowly: ‘I’ve read the family history, and they seem a good crowd. There’s still something we don’t know.’
‘Face-saving,’ murmured Forsythe. ‘Can’t say I blame you. Well, one of Lopez’s boyfriends talked, so all is over – except one little thing, the second parcel of booty-hunters at the Guildford house last night. By the way, the police have pinched Josh Larraby, I’m told.’
‘Yes.’
‘You haven’t any idea who this rival bunch is, I suppose? It’s rather odd, isn’t it, if Larraby’s one of them and you should make a point of befriending Larraby? Odd to the police, I mean.’
Mannering contemplated him in silence,
‘Sorry if you’re sore,’ Forsythe said. ‘I feel as if I’m teaching granny to suck eggs, but—’
‘You are and she needs teaching.’ Mannering laughed. ‘Do you still want to know who the second party was at Bingham Street?’
‘Do I!’
Mannering said: ‘As soon as I can get about on this leg, I’ll tell you.’
‘If you know—’
‘I’m guessing. You wouldn’t want to put guesswork in your newspaper, would you?’ Mannering laughed again; the movement shook him and hurt his knee, but he went on laughing. ‘When Lorna—’
‘Why wait for her?’
‘Sorry. If you can’t see the rest of the story now, you’re as wilful blind as I was. Remember two parties are interested, as was proved last night. Also, remember that we’re told Lopez tried to put the fear of the devil into young Harding and Marjorie, and that Marjorie was kidnapped by Lopez.’
Forsythe said slowly: ‘Hum, yes. The Addels and the Hardings being the second party.’
‘That’s it.’
‘Hardly sensational,’ Forsythe said.
‘It will be,’ Mannering chuckled again.
‘What is funny?’ demanded Forsythe,
‘I am. And you. And Bristow. Well, I can see why Bristow thought I’d been up to the old—er—why he thought I would sink to crime.’ Mannering swallowed hard. ‘Forsythe, take pity on an old crook. Go chasing about and looking for the answer to three questions. Why did Harding Senior offer a jewel for sale and then withdraw it? Why did Paul and Marjorie appear to be so scared of the police, and then why did Paul change his mind? Why, in fact, did they pretend to be the naivest of the naive – is there such a word as naivest?’
‘After today, there is. Third question?’
‘Why was Zara Addel so anxious to prevent the police from seeing a letter written by Bray and found at the shop? If the Adalgo family is in it, the family name of Zara for the daughters is too obvious to miss.’
‘Was she anxious about that letter?’
‘Yes. Bristow doesn’t know – forget to tell him, will you?’
Forsythe said: ‘Don’t you be too sure about Bristow, he stores a lot of stuff in that old noddle of his. Anything else?’
‘Yes. Ask your research people to try to find photographs of pictures of a male member of the Adalgo family. I’ve seen dozens of women, but no men.’
‘Why?’
‘You’ll probably get the answer when you see the picture,’ Mannering said.
Chapter Twenty-one
THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE INSPECTOR
Bristow had a heavy day.
He went to Guildford for conferences with the local police, interviewed Pedro Lopez and the other prisoners until he was dizzy. Only the man with the wrinkled forehead, named Barnes, had talked; whatever qualities the brute of Green Ways lacked, loyalty was not one of them; he wouldn’t say a word. Yet so much could be pieced together, now that Lopez was identified, that it would only be a matter of days before the rest fell into place – except one thing: what action to take with Mannering.
Late in the afternoon, Bristow went into the Assistant-Commissioner’s office.
You’re finding the pace hot, aren’t you?’ greeted Anderson- Kerr.
‘It’s getting pretty fast, sir, some of it outstrips me.’
‘You’ve plenty of time to catch up,’ said the A.C. ‘Finding that Pedro Lopez was at the back of it, is half the job.’
‘In one way, yes. In another I’m not so sure,’ said Bristow. ‘We’ve got to accept one thing: we caught Lopez and the other two because Mannering or his wife sent for the Guildford police after visiting the house. I doubt whether we shall ever get proof, but there it is. I just can’t be sure what Mannering’s up to. I don’t believe he’s blind to the reason for Adalgos by the dozen, or that he’s above lending a hand to the Adalgo family. He’d regard a royalist cause as his, and outside law and order.’
‘Yet you think he shopped Lopez.’
‘We know that Lopez was an Adalgo royalist years ago, we don’t know that he is today,’ said Bristow. ‘We do know that someone else raided Green Ways, presumably to ge
t the diamonds. We also know that Larraby was there. Mannering had shown remarkable friendliness towards Larraby, and so Mannering might be working with Larraby’s crowd – the real instigators of the trouble. I can’t see Mannering starting this affair in the way that he says he did – out of curiosity. If he lied, he knew that the real diamonds which are so much like the Adalgo, had been stolen.’
‘Could he have known?’
‘Mannering’s like most of the big collectors – he learns what’s for sale under cover. Deals running into hundreds of thousands of pounds go on regularly, and we know nothing about them. Let’s get down to cases. We’ve established that Lopez first had the rose-tinted diamonds cut like the Adalgo to get an inflated price for each; that he stole them from their owners, who realised they’d been fooled once they knew Mannering had the real Adalgo, but sat tight. They couldn’t complain, as they bought what they thought was the Adalgo at a time when it was listed as stolen goods. We’ve also established that Mannering went headfirst into the market for the duplicate stones. Surely it’s reasonable to assume that he knew they were stolen – and therefore, to say that he bought stolen goods.’
Anderson-Kerr looked owlish.
‘What about the murder of Bray and the murder of Leverson? Have you any proof that Lopez—’
‘Lopez killed Leverson,’ said Bristow, abruptly. ‘Barnes has talked enough to establish that. Lopez really wanted the real Adalgo, Mannering had it in the window, where it was as safe as anywhere and attracted a lot of attention. After Lopez had stolen the other jewels from Mannering he sent a man to offer the stones to Leverson, sure that Leverson would get in touch with Mannering. Lopez wanted to meet Mannering and force him to give up the Adalgo, but Mrs. Mannering turned up. Afterwards, Leverson recognised Lopez, Barnes is quite sure about that.
‘Lopez killed Leverson after tricking Mrs. Mannering into going away with him – and Mannering went after her, as Lopez hoped he would. Lopez came unstuck because Mannering’s what he is.
‘We also know that Lopez killed P.C. Harris at Mannering’s flat,’ Bristow went on. ‘We don’t know who killed Bray. It’s Bray’s death which brings the Addel women and the Hardings into it. Harding Senior, being a collector in a small way, had one of these pseudo-Adalgo diamonds. He had Spanish interests, too – how deep, I don’t know. I’ve a feeling that Mannering, the Hardings and the Addels have been working together, and that Mannering put us on to Addel & Co. both to save himself, and to fox us. That’s the kind of tortuous trick that would appeal to him.’
