The Enemy Within

by Edward Marston

  ‘How did he sound when he reported the crime?’

  ‘He was as calm and collected as usual, Joe. You can’t shock someone who lives the kind of life my brother does. He sees desperate people every day. It’s part of his mission.’ The car turned a corner and began to slow down. ‘Here we are,’ said Marmion. ‘It’s obvious that word has got out.’

  There was a sizeable crowd outside the hostel and they were pleased to see a uniformed policeman there, holding them back. Summoned by Raymond, an ambulance was waiting nearby to remove the body once it had been examined by the pathologist. When the car stopped, the detectives got out. They didn’t need to show their warrant cards to the policeman because he recognised them at once and let them through.

  ‘That’s the virtue of having our photographs in the newspapers,’ said Keedy.

  ‘I’m never entirely happy about that, Joe. I prefer anonymity.’

  ‘I’d rather let the villains know who we are.’

  As the detectives entered the building, Raymond and Lily Marmion came over to them and there was an exchange of greetings. After kissing his sister-in-law, Marmion shook his brother’s hand warmly.

  ‘I’m sorry that this is not a social call.’

  ‘So am I,’ said Raymond.

  ‘Where is everybody?’

  ‘Staff and visitors are all in the dining room. Nobody who was in the building at the time I discovered the body has been allowed to leave.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said Marmion. ‘Sergeant …’

  ‘Yes, sir?’

  ‘Start taking statements, please.’

  ‘I’ll show you where the dining room is,’ said Lily, leading him down a corridor. ‘As you can imagine, everybody is badly shaken up.’

  ‘Lily is right,’ said her husband. ‘The staff can cope with any emergency but the people we save from the streets are usually frail and vulnerable. In addition, some of them have mental problems. They’ve been devastated by what happened.’

  ‘I’d like to see the body.’

  ‘It’s in the bathroom.’

  ‘Has anything been touched or moved?’

  ‘Nothing at all,’ said Raymond with a smile. ‘When your brother is a detective inspector, you do tend to pick up a few tips.’

  ‘I’m glad I actually have some use.’

  They went along one corridor then turned into another on the right. At the end were the men’s bathrooms. To stop anyone entering the one where he’d made the grim discovery, Raymond had put a couple of large chairs in the way. A sign pinned to the door was unequivocal – KEEP OUT.

  ‘I never thought we’d meet because of a murder,’ said Raymond.

  ‘Neither did I – it’s rather convenient.’

  ‘Convenient?’

  ‘You’ll save us so much time,’ said Marmion. ‘You’ve already done that by reporting the crime as soon as you stumbled on it. Also, you’re highly articulate. That’s an enormous help. Many of the people we deal with aren’t. If they find a corpse, they lose their nerve completely and simply jabber at you.’ He waited while Raymond moved the chairs out of the way. ‘Right,’ he continued, ‘let’s take a look at him, shall we?’

  Marmion went into the bathroom while his brother lingered in the open doorway. The body had been left in the bath with the head lolling against the enamel. Marmion bent over to inspect the wounds without touching them. He then felt in the man’s jacket and trouser pockets but all he found was a dirty handkerchief.

  ‘Did he have any money when you found him, Raymond?’

  ‘There was a wallet in his coat but I’ve no idea what was in it.’

  ‘The chances are that it was taken by the killer.’

  ‘Is that the motive, then – easy pickings?’

  ‘Hardly!’ said Marmion with a wry smile. ‘Only a very stupid thief would rob a man who was unlikely to have anything valuable about him. No, my guess is that he was murdered for a very different reason.’

  ‘We wondered if it was an act of vengeance. That escaped prisoner we read about had vowed to kill Ben Croft. What was his name … Hubbard?’

  ‘Wally Hubbard – but I can tell you now that he was definitely not the killer.’

  Raymond was amazed. ‘Are you certain of that?’

  ‘I’d put my life savings on it. He’d have no cause whatsoever to kill this man.’

  ‘But isn’t that why he broke out of prison? He hates Ben Croft.’

  ‘There’s one small problem, Raymond.’

  ‘Is there?’

  ‘The murder victim is not Croft. We interviewed him at the time his house was burnt down. There are similarities, I grant you,’ he went on, looking down at the body, ‘but they’re only superficial. What I can state categorically is that this man is not Ben Croft. So Wally Hubbard would have no motive to murder him.’

  Hallam Beavis had been upset by the warning about Hubbard but, as time went by, he became less and less worried that he might get a surprise visit from the man. Though he’d been Croft’s boss at one time, he’d not been in touch with him for several weeks and, in view of what happened subsequently, had been very grateful. Beavis stopped taking the elementary precautions he’d adopted in the wake of Keedy’s visit. He ventured out alone and felt no sense of threat. It encouraged him to believe that he was perfectly safe. Part of his Sunday morning ritual was to take his dog for a walk in the park. The animal, a frisky cocker spaniel, loved to race to and fro across the grass. Beavis had taken an old tennis ball with him and threw it for the dog to retrieve. The two of them enjoyed the game for some while until Beavis felt the need of a rest. Leaving the dog to scamper off into the trees, he lowered himself onto a park bench.

  Within seconds, he had company. Someone came out of the bushes to sit very close beside him and put a restraining hand on his knee. Wally Hubbard’s voice was low but filled with menace.

  ‘We need to talk about Ben Croft,’ he said.

  The sensational development meant that a press conference was quickly arranged. Marmion and Keedy briefed the superintendent beforehand. The inspector passed on the pathologist’s immediate response when he first examined the body while the sergeant gave a summary of all the statements he’d taken.

  ‘The folly of a snap judgement was shown once more, sir,’ said Marmion. ‘You were too hasty in assuming that Croft was the victim and Hubbard the killer.’

  ‘And you were wrong on both counts,’ added Keedy.

  ‘Anybody could have made the same mistake,’ said Chatfield, spikily.

  ‘We didn’t, sir.’

  ‘According to the identity papers you found, the victim was Croft so, to some degree, I’m exonerated.’

  ‘There was something worth noting about that, sir,’ said Marmion. ‘When my brother found the briefcase, its flap was open. The only things inside were the papers, yet when they first found the man in a shop doorway the briefcase was obviously full and he was clutching it as if it contained all his worldly goods. Raymond, my brother, said that he even took it into the bathroom with him.’

  ‘But not on this occasion, it seems,’ said Chatfield.

  ‘We can’t be certain of that.’

  ‘It was found on his bed, man.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean he left it there, sir.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Keedy. ‘It could have gone into the bathroom with him and been emptied by the killer after he’d garrotted his victim. Having taken out what he came after, he could have left it on the bed and slipped out of the building.’

  ‘You’re making too many wild guesses, Sergeant,’ said Chatfield.

  ‘It’s a theory I share with the inspector.’

  ‘What I need are answers to the questions that will inevitably be fired at me. Who is the man? Why was he murdered? Why was he carrying papers that gave his name as Ben Croft? And how did the killer get into the building so easily?’

  ‘There’s another question to add,’ said Marmion.

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘How did he
know that his target was staying at the hostel?’

  ‘None of this is a great help to your brother,’ said Chatfield. ‘The one thing that attracts people to a Salvation Army hostel is that it’s a clean, decent and safe environment. Murder is a bad advertisement for them.’

  ‘That’s the least of Raymond’s concerns. He’s preoccupied with calming the other people staying there and making sure that nothing like this happens again. Would you like me to sit beside you at the conference, sir?’

  Chatfield was curt. ‘No, I wouldn’t.’

  ‘But my brother is a key person in this enquiry. How often does that happen?’

  ‘We’ve never had a case like it before,’ said Keedy. ‘It’s unique. The press will make a great deal of the fact that two brothers are involved.’

  ‘It’s purely accidental, Sergeant.’

  ‘They’ll want to hear from the inspector directly.’

  ‘What they’ll want even more is some indication of progress, so the two of you can now get back out there to find the evidence we need.’

  ‘Before we can do that,’ said Marmion, ‘we’ll need additional detectives.’

  ‘There are none available.’

  ‘Take them off less urgent investigations.’

  ‘We’re already at full stretch.’

  ‘Then you might as well tell the press that we have very little chance of a successful resolution because we are under-resourced. We’re still hunting for Wally Hubbard, remember. The murder is a parallel investigation. It remains to be seen if the two of them are actually linked in some way. To do that, we need more men.’

  Chatfield was adamant. ‘I’m unable to spare them.’

  ‘Then I must ask your permission to speak to the commissioner.’

  ‘Keep him out of this.’

  ‘It’s way beyond my capability to do that,’ said Marmion. ‘You know how sensitive he is about the way we’re portrayed in the press. What happened at the hostel will be front-page news. He’ll want an explanation.’

  ‘Then he’ll get it from me,’ insisted Chatfield.

  ‘I’d like to have a word with him myself, Superintendent.’

  ‘No – permission is refused. You are not to go over my head.’

  ‘Then we’re hampered from the start,’ Keedy pointed out.

  ‘You have a team of excellent detectives, Sergeant. Deploy them wisely and you are bound to reap the benefit in terms of evidence. Assign fewer men to the search for Hubbard and divert the others to the murder enquiry. It’s as simple as that.’

  Keedy was about to answer back but a glance from Marmion silenced him. They were on the point of leaving the superintendent’s office when there was a tap on the door. It was opened immediately and Sir Edward Henry swept into the room.

  ‘Excuse me for interrupting,’ he said, ‘but I’d like to know more about this appalling business at a Salvation Army hostel. It demands a robust response from us. I’m sure that you appreciate that, Superintendent. Additional detectives must be brought into action at once.’

  ‘Yes, Sir Edward,’ said Chatfield, deferentially, ‘I was saying the very same thing myself only a moment ago. I’ll draft in more men immediately.’

  Marmion was impassive. ‘Thank you for responding to our plea, sir.’

  ‘This is an emergency, Inspector. You’ll get all the help you need.’

  Keedy had to control the urge to laugh.

  The atmosphere at the hostel had undergone a complete change. Calm had been replaced by naked fear. Certainty had become doubt. Men who’d slept in the same dormitory as the victim were badly shaken by the realisation that a stranger could enter the building without apparent difficulty and commit murder. It made them restive. Loud arguments broke out. One grizzled old man rounded on the person who’d slept in the bed next to David.

  ‘It could have been you,’ he said, accusingly.

  ‘Shut yer gob!’

  ‘You were the last in here for breakfast.’

  ‘So what?’ demanded the other, a thickset man with a mottled pate.

  ‘You were alone in there with David.’

  ‘No, I wasn’t.’

  ‘I bet it was you who killed him.’

  ‘That’s a bleeding lie.’

  ‘I saw you eyeing that briefcase of his.’

  ‘I never touched it.’

  ‘Well, I say you did. You strangled David to get it.’

  ‘You’re asking for it!’

  Smarting at the accusation, he threw himself at the old man and there was a violent scuffle. They had to be dragged apart but they continued to snarl at each other across the room. When the incident was reported to Raymond Marmion, he went into the dining room at once and spoke to all of them, stressing the importance of remaining calm and helping the police in every way. The shouting stopped but the undercurrent of anxiety was still palpable. It would never be entirely removed until the crime was finally solved.

  Raymond adjourned to his office and his wife joined him to ask what had caused all the commotion. He told her about the brawl.

  ‘That’s very worrying,’ she said. ‘They’ve got on so well until now.’

  ‘They’re starting to suspect each other, Lily. I’ll have to make sure they’re never left alone.’

  ‘I thought things would improve when the body was taken away.’

  ‘The opposite has happened – they’ve become tetchy and aggressive.’

  ‘I still feel jangled myself,’ she admitted.

  ‘We need to brace ourselves. Harvey said that the press would soon be here like a swarm of angry bees. Let me do the talking when they come.’

  ‘I’m so glad that your brother is in charge of the case, Raymond.’

  ‘Yes, we see so little of him as a rule. It’s a pity it takes a murder on the premises to get him here.’

  ‘I haven’t had time to ask him about Ellen and the children.’

  ‘He’s not paying us a social call, Lily.’

  ‘I wonder if Paul is still causing trouble.’

  ‘We have enough trouble of our own at the moment,’ he said with a grimace. ‘Let’s forget about Paul until we’ve sorted everything out here.’ A noise from the street made him go to the window. ‘The band is forming up. They’ll be off fairly soon. Even when we have a crisis, we have to make our presence felt on a Sunday.’

  He was about to turn away when he saw a car drawing up outside. He heaved a sigh of relief when his brother emerged from the rear of the vehicle and stood to admire the band. Raymond went quickly out of the building to greet him.

  ‘I’m so glad to see you again, Harvey,’ he said as they shook hands.

  ‘How is everything going?’

  ‘Not very well – we had a fight earlier on.’

  ‘Have they started accusing each other?’ Raymond nodded. ‘Joe Keedy has ruled them out as suspects. When he took individual statements, he said that it was clear that none of them could possibly have been involved.’

  ‘It hasn’t stopped arguments breaking out.’

  ‘What steps have you taken to control them?’

  ‘I gave them a stern warning. If anybody starts a fight again, they’ll be back out on the streets. That brought them to heel.’

  The band was now in marching order and their leader took up his position. After giving them instructions, he started them off with their favoured processional, ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. Brass instruments predominating and bass drum booming, they set off confidently. Marmion watched them until they turned a corner and were out of sight. He and his brother then went into the building and headed for Raymond’s office. Lily was still there. After giving her a kiss and embrace, Marmion explained what was happening.

  ‘We’ve deployed our men to knock on doors in the vicinity,’ he said. ‘It may just be that, earlier this morning, someone saw suspicious activity outside here.’

  ‘This is the East End,’ said his brother with a wry smile. ‘There’s always suspicious activity here.’<
br />
  ‘Somebody must have come in by the back door,’ said Lily.

  ‘But it was locked, my love.’

  ‘It was unlocked when you discovered the body. You went and checked.’

  ‘That’s how the killer made his escape.’

  ‘But how did he get in here in the first place?’

  ‘I think I know the answer to that,’ said Marmion, thoughtfully. ‘He didn’t need to sneak in at the back because he walked in through the front door.’

  ‘Somebody would have seen him,’ she pointed out.

  ‘They might have seen him, Lily, but they wouldn’t have challenged him.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘The answer came to me when I was watching the band. No disrespect to either of you but, when you put on that uniform, you do tend to look the same.’

  ‘That’s intentional,’ said Raymond. ‘We’re instantly recognisable as Salvationists and we wear our uniform with a sense of honour.’

  ‘I fancy that somebody wore it as a disguise,’ said Marmion. ‘That would explain how he could walk in here almost unnoticed. When the man you knew as David was alone in the dormitory, he wouldn’t have looked twice at someone in uniform. He’d have been off guard.’

  Lily was aghast. ‘Are you saying that the killer is one of us?’

  ‘Not at all – he only pretended to join the Army for a short while. Instead of bringing salvation, however, he was here to squeeze the life out of his victim and steal something from his briefcase. I’m glad I arrived when the band was outside,’ he continued. ‘They helped me to guess what must have happened.’

  CHAPTER TEN

  After serving breakfast to her landlady on a tray, Maisie Rogers felt that she’d done her good deed for the day. Neighbours soon arrived to keep Mrs Donovan company and to take care of her so Maisie was able to go for a stroll in the morning sunshine with a clear conscience. She did not get far. When she reached the end of the street, a car drew up alongside her. Felix Browne opened the passenger door and beckoned her in. When she climbed in beside him, he drove off.

  ‘Good morning, Mr Browne.’