by M C Beaton
Rudfern looked at him quizzically. “And that’s it?”
“Yes, but all the same – ”
“Have you talked to Dunwiddy about this?”
“No, but we’re going to.”
He studied them for some minutes and then unexpectedly quoted King Lear. “Sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.”
Silence.
Maggie wanted to say, “We’d better be going, then.” Somewhere out there was a safe and normal world and she wanted to return to it.
But Rudfern suddenly started speaking again. “I had planned to wait a couple or more years and then leave the country. Get a nice villa somewhere sunny with a view of the sea, but she couldn’t wait.”
“Gloria? Your daughter?” asked Fell.
“Who else? She’d married a rich man and the marriage had come unstuck. But she’d had a taste of high living and she wanted it back. I loved her. My wife had died and she was all I had. I would have given her the world. But I’d always been an honest copper and had no intention of changing when I got the news that a trainload of currency was going to be passing through Buss. I got a bit tight one evening at the Rotary club and told this Colonel Wakeham all about it.”
“You said a military man had planned it all,” said Fell miserably. “So the colonel was a crook.”
“That old buffer? No. But he liked crosswords and detective stories and so he began, as a joke, to map out the perfect robbery. He wrote down copious notes and gave them to me.”
“I still didn’t think about doing anything about it when Tarry Briggs was brought in for questioning over an armed robbery at a building society in the High Street. I lied and said I had proof that he’d done it. He said he wanted to do a deal and would only talk to me. I switched off the tape recorder and then I was alone in the interview room with him. I thought he was going to give me a tip-off of some other burglaries or put his hands up to more and do a deal that way, but it turned out he knew about the Post Office money. He said it could be taken easily. He said he could recruit three others. If I took part, I would get the lion’s share.”
“He must have known you could be corrupted,” said Fell.
“No, he didn’t. He was desperate not to go to prison again. But I had the colonel’s plan. And who would ever suspect me? But I still felt I couldn’t do it. I said he was mad and left him. He was being held in the cells overnight. Unfortunately, I went home to Gloria and Gloria had found the colonel’s robbery plan in my suit pocket.”
The thunder rumbled, but farther away now.
“She went on all night about how this was our chance. I owed it to her. I would be in charge of the investigation. Nothing could go wrong. I pointed out that with such a sum stolen, Scotland Yard would become involved. She shrugged and said as long as I made sure no clues were left and the robbery took place quickly and efficiently, then we had nothing to worry about.”
“But didn’t my…I mean didn’t the colonel guess you had been behind it? That is if it followed his plan.”
“Silly old man. Afterwards, he kept shaking his head and saying, “Bless my soul. What a coincidence.” Never suspected me for a minute. Remember, I was in charge of the investigation. I saw that the charges against Tarry Briggs were dropped. He grinned and said he’d get the others together. He got Johnny Tremp for a start.”
Fell could not restrain himself. “Johnny Tremp! But we were told he had won the lottery.”
“He never had much in the way of brains,” said Rudfern. “He figured out if he gave the local paper the story of his supposed win, he could begin to spend. I said, why the hell didn’t he get out of the country, but he said he’d never been out of England and didn’t intend to start now.”
“But the lottery people must have seen the story and realized he was lying,” said Maggie.
“No, it was only in the local paper and they missed it. That surprised me. I was sure they would have a cuttings agency and that someone would spot it, but with so many lottery winners twice a week, it went unnoticed.”
“And the others?” asked Fell.
“Myself. It was part of the deal that I should put on a mask and take part. Then there were two local villains, Snotty Dug-gan and Harry Finn. When I started the planning, I realized it was simple, just like a police operation. Then that fool, Tarry, had to lose his cool and beat that guard to death. Snotty and Harry, along with every local villain, were pulled in for questioning, but we had all fixed up alibis.
“Snotty and Harry disappeared, God knows where. Tarry legged it to Spain, but fortunately for me, at that time we had no extradition treaty with Spain and by the time we did, he was dead.
“That brings me to your father.”
“What about him?” asked Fell.
“He kept calling round at the police station and making a nuisance of himself. He said his name had been blackened. I told Gloria I was sure he suspected me, but she had become as hard as iron. She had turned into a monster. She wanted to begin digging into the money as soon as possible.
“I forced her to wait until I was retired and warned her to go carefully.”
“Andy Briggs, Tarry Briggs’s son, the one that was killed,” said Fell. “He called on us, saying he knew that my father had been part of the robbery.”
“He came here first,” said Rudfern. “Gloria told me to get rid of him until she thought what to do. He thought Dolphin had been in on the robbery. I didn’t correct him. He was ranting and raving and making accusations all over the palce. I said to give me a day to work things out. God, what a relief when the bastard was murdered. Then you pair started poking your noses in and Gloria freaked. She remembered Dolphin had suspected something. I think she had become unhinged. When I read of the burglary on your place, I taxed her with it, and she said she had masqueraded as a postman and broken in and searched your place to see if you had anything hidden away.”
Maggie hugged her wet body and shivered, remembering the slashed furniture. It had been the work of an insane woman.
“She began to say we had to get rid of you.”
“So you did have some of that Semtex from the raid?” said Fell.
“No, I had no reason to take it. Gloria went to Johnny Tremp. He said he would fix it. He had the criminal connections, and if you’ve got the money, you can get your hands on anything in this country. When that attempt failed, Johnny threatened Gloria. He said she was overreacting. She was to shut up and sit quiet.”
“Someone pushed me in the river and tried to drown me,” said Fell. “Was that your daughter?”
“I don’t know, I can’t see why. Can you swim?”
“No.”
“Well, she wouldn’t know that. Probably some drunk or some of the jolly youth of Buss zonked out on Ecstasy pills.”
Fell then asked the question Maggie dreaded. “Why are you telling us all this now?”
Rudfern relapsed into silence. Maggie wondered if she could dash to the window and unlock it.
Then he said, half to himself, “I had good days in the police force. I had a good record. I liked the camaraderie. But after the robbery, there was only Gloria, getting more and more unhinged. And down at the station, well, I knew there were mutters that I hadn’t worked hard enough on the case. I retired. I bought this house. I began to become increasingly frightened of Gloria. What a silly, stupid thing to have done. I haven’t had a day’s peace since the robbery.”
Fell got up very slowly and walked to the window. He gently raised the blind and then unlocked the French window. He held out his hand to Maggie. “Come along.”
She scrambled to join him. He put an arm around her.
“We’ll need to take this to Dunwiddy,” said Fell.
Rudfern looked at them, his eyes old and sad. “Do what you have to. I’m sick of the whole thing.”
♦
The rain outside was coming down in sheets. Hand in hand, Maggie and Fell ran round the side of the house. Fell suddenly seized Maggie an
d drew her back into the shrubbery.
“Gloria,” whispered Fell.
They waited until they saw Gloria Lewis get out of her car, unfurl an umbrella and hurry to the house. They waited, huddled together, until they heard her go in and shut the door behind her.
“Now!” hissed Fell. “Let’s run for it!”
They darted across to the car. Maggie unlocked it and they got in. “Let’s go home first and dry out and then we’ll contact Dunwiddy,” said Fell.
Maggie drove off with a hideous grinding of gears. “I’m so frightened,” she said, “I’ve practically forgotten how to drive.”
“Just get us home.” Fell shivered. “I was terrified he was going to shoot us.”
Once safely inside their home, they went upstairs. Maggie took out two large bath-sheets. “We’d better get dried and changed and go straight to the police station.”
Fell went into his room and stripped off. He rubbed himself down briskly and then put on clean clothes.
“Ready, Maggie?” he called.
No reply.
He went into her room. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, naked. She was shaking and tears were rolling down her face.
“Oh, Maggie,” said Fell, sitting down beside her and gathering her in his arms. “It’s all over. We’ll go to the police, and…oh, please don’t cry.”
He kissed her eyes and then he kissed her lips. It was a warm and comforting sensation, so he kissed her again…and again. The surge of passion that shook him was electrifying. He was suddenly aware of her naked body, of the weight of her breasts against his chest.
“Why, Maggie,” he said, his voice full of wonder. “Maggie!”
She gave a choked little sob and collapsed back onto the bed, pulling him on top of her. Her eyes without the shield of her heavy glasses looked wide and vulnerable.
After ten minutes of rising passion and kissing and caressing, Fell whispered, “Maggie, I’ve never before. I mean, I’m…”
“I know,” said Maggie. “Take your clothes off and come to me.”
♦
Fell awoke, a smile on his lips. His arm under Maggie’s body was getting cramped. He eased it out and then he realized it was daylight outside and that they had both fallen asleep after more passionate lovemaking than he had ever even dreamt of.
“Maggie,” he said, “wake up. The police. We’ve got to go to the police!”
Maggie blinked, then she was suddenly full awake. “Oh, Fell, what are they going to say to us? How on earth are we going to explain why we didn’t go to them immediately? Rud-fern and Gloria will have fled.”
Fell looked at the clock beside the bed. “It’s only six o’clock. We could lie and say we went to see Rudfern in the middle of the night.”
“Maybe we’ll just tell them we were too frightened to approach them in case they wouldn’t believe us,” said Maggie.
“We’ll try that. But we’ve got to go.”
Maggie wound her arms around him and kissed him, and his reaction was so passionate that it was another twenty minutes before they both crawled groggily out of bed.
After they were dressed and were hurrying down the stairs, Fell stopped abruptly and swung round. “Is it all right – about last night, I mean?”
“Oh, yes, yes.”
They stared at each other for a long moment, two ordinary people made in a brief moment extraordinary by the force of their love for each other.
They set the burglar alarm and went outside. It was a cool, windy day with great puffy clouds sailing across a blue sky.
At the police station, they were told that it was Inspector Dunwiddy’s day off. But when Fell started saying that he knew who had committed the train robbery and that the thieves might even now be getting away, the desk sergeant had them put into an interviewing room and phoned Dunwiddy.
When the inspector arrived, Fell told him rapidly everything they had found out from Rudfern. When he had finished, Dunwiddy said, “You pair wait right here. I’ll need a statement from you and I’ll need you to explain why you delayed coming here to tell me this.”
An hour dragged past. The day outside darkened and rain patterned against the window of the interviewing room.
At last Fell said, “I’m cold and this is ridiculous. Let’s go home. We can have a meal and be comfortable and wait for Dunwiddy there.”
“I think they might try to stop us going,” said Maggie.
“We’ll see.” He took Maggie’s hand and they walked out of the interviewing room and down a long corridor. When they got to the door leading out to the front area, Fell pressed the buzzer to release the door lock and they walked through.
“Where are you going?” demanded the desk sergeant.
“We’ll be at home,” said Fell. “Inspector Dunwiddy can find us there.”
“You were told to wait here.”
“We haven’t been charged and we’re not running away,” said Fell calmly. “You know where to find us.”
The phone on the desk rang before the sergeant could say anything further and so they just walked out.
“He’ll be so angry,” moaned Maggie.
“He’s angry with us anyway,” commented Fell airily. He stretched his arms up to the rainy sky and laughed. “I feel marvellous. Look at it this way. If it hadn’t been for us, he wouldn’t have found out anything at all.”
“Let’s hope he feels that way,” said Maggie, unlocking the car.
♦
But they grew increasingly nervous as the day dragged on with no sign of Dunwiddy. All Fell wanted to do was to take Maggie upstairs and make love to her again.
It was evening before the doorbell rang, making them both jump. A policeman and a policewoman stood on the step. “You’re to come with us to the station,” said the policeman.
He waited while they both got their coats, coats they had not worn all that dandelion summer. In the car, Fell asked, “What’s been going on?”
“The inspector will tell you,” said the policeman.
Maggie and Fell were ushered back into the interviewing room. They sat huddled in their coats. “You need a new coat,” said Fell, eyeing the shabby black number Maggie was wearing.
The door opened and Dunwiddy came in, followed by a detective and a policewoman. The policewoman put a tape in a machine on the wall, and Dunwiddy sat down and said, “Interview with Mr. Fellworth Dolphin and Miss Margaret Partlett beginning at” – he looked at his watch – “twenty-one hours fifty.”
Fell and Maggie sat down opposite Dunwiddy, who was flanked by his detective. The policewoman took a chair in the corner.
“Now,” said Dunwiddy, “begin at the beginning again.”
And so Fell did, repeating everything that Rudfern had told him, except for the bit about Andy Briggs.
When he had finished, Dunwiddy said, “Now will you explain why you delayed until early this morning to let us know this?”
“We were afraid,” lied Fell. “Rudfern was one of you. We had no real proof. We sat up all night wondering what to do. Look at it from our point of view. It was his word against ours.”
“You’re forgetting about Johnny Tremp. We pulled him in. We checked with the lottery people. He never won anything. He thought Gloria Lewis had shopped him and so he told us the lot. Rudfern is dead.”
“What!” exclaimed Maggie and Fell in unison.
“It appears that he shot himself with an old service revolver. We’re still investigating that in case his daughter shot him and made it look like suicide, but we’re pretty sure it is. He left a note saying he was sick of the whole thing. That’s all he said. ‘I’m sick of the whole thing’.”
Maggie took Fell’s hand in her own. She had turned quite white. An old service revolver could mean that the inspector shot himself with Andy Briggs’s gun, and if he had, then her fingerprints and Fell’s would be on it.
In a quavering voice, she said, “Your forensic men will find more than one set of fingerprints on it if his daugh
ter shot him.”
Dunwiddy sighed. “A preliminary investigation shows there is only one set of prints on that gun.”
Colour flooded Maggie’s face.
“And where is Gloria Lewis?” she asked.
“Gone, thanks to you pair. We’re watching all the ports and airports. You could have charges laid against you for impeding the police in their inquiries.”
“What!” demanded Fell wrathfully. “You do that and we’ll go to the press about how it was us, on our own, who solved your case.”
“Are you threatening me?” roared Dunwiddy.
“Why not?” demanded Fell. “You were threatening us.”
“We’ll discuss this later,” said the inspector. “You will wait here until your statements are typed up. Then you will both sign them and hold yourself in readiness for further questioning. You are not to leave Buss.”
“Was any of the money recovered?” asked Fell.
“We found a lot of it in Johnny Tremp’s house. Of course, over the years, he had changed the notes. We also found a small quantity of Semtex.”
“What about Rudfern’s house?”
“Nothing there. If there ever was anything, then Gloria Lewis took it with her.”
Dunwiddy terminated the interview. Fell and Maggie were left alone. “Don’t say anything,” Fell whispered. “They might be listening.”
“Fell…,” began Maggie.
“What?”
She looked down and muttered, “Nothing.”
Fell studied her for a few moments, a smile curving his lips as he remembered the night before. Then he realized that even in the height of his passion, he had never mentioned love.
He looked around the dingy interviewing room. Then he pushed back his chair and got down on one knee.
He took Maggie’s hand in his. “Margaret Partlett,” he said. “I love you and want to marry you as soon as possible. What do you say?”
Maggie’s face as she looked at him seemed to be lit up from within. “Oh, yes,” she said. “I think I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you.”
Fell stood up and held out his arms. Maggie rose and went into them.
The door opened and a policewoman bearing a tray with tea and biscuits stood for a moment watching the passionately embracing couple. Then she withdrew, still carrying the tray, and quietly closed the door behind her.
