McQueen's Agency

by Reynolds, Maureen

  ‘I think that’s all, Miss McQueen. Thank you for all your help.’

  When the two men were back in the car, Charlie asked the Constable what he thought. Dave Williams was pleased to be asked for his input and he gave it some thought. ‘Well, Sir, I think the girl is telling the truth. It’s a strange story if you ask me but that’s why I think it’s true.’

  Charlie said, ‘I agree. Now let’s go and interview Joe Lamont.’

  The car swished through deep puddles and they almost missed the opening to Cliff Top House. It was Charlie who noticed the small sign and the driver had to reverse the car.

  ‘Not a very wide drive, is it sir?’

  Charlie said it wasn’t. The view wasn’t good today because of the wet weather but the house was impressive.

  ‘Must be lots of money to be made in the antique business,’ said Charlie, stepping out of the car and dodging the puddles in the courtyard.

  Joe came out of the kitchen door and said to come in. The kitchen was warm but there was no welcoming cup of tea here. They sat on the wooden chairs around a large table.

  Charlie asked about the boating accident.

  Joe leaned back in his seat and lit a cigarette. ‘It was an accident. Lena and I had had a row that morning and she was upset. She went onto the boat to get away from the house, as she often did when we fell out over some trivial matter.’

  ‘What happened to your workman, Mike? Did he pull the rack on top of himself?’

  ‘He must have. I think he stretched too far and the rack tumbled on top of him.’

  Charlie changed tactics. ‘How did you manage to get on board when you had taken all those sleeping pills?’

  Joe didn’t hesitate. ‘I took them before I went to see Lena. Then I must have passed out.’

  ‘Do you normally take such a large dose of barbiturates? The hospital had to pump out your stomach or else you could have died. Was that intentional? Were you trying to kill yourself?’

  Joe tried to laugh. ‘No, not at all. I must have taken more than I meant to. It was an accident.’

  ‘Seems there were a lot of accidents that day. What if I tell you that I have a witness who tells me your wife was planning to put you and the witness overboard and pretend the two bodies were your wife and her brother? And that she was planning to run away to start a new life with her brother … away from someone called Nelly?’

  Joe’s face went white. However, he recovered quite well.

  ‘If that witness is Molly McQueen then she’s a liar. I never liked her. Lena thought she had stolen her key, she couldn’t find it. Lena was really upset at that.’

  Charlie stood up. ‘Thank you for your time, Sir. We’ll be in touch.’

  Outside, he asked PC Williams what his impressions were.

  ‘Well, he’s certainly not grieving for his wife or her brother.’

  Charlie had thought the same thing.

  ‘Now let’s go and see Christie, the man who raised the alarm. He’ll be in the sheds, which I think are over there.’

  Christie had been waiting all morning for the police to arrive. When he saw them approaching the sheds, he went out.

  Before Charlie could speak, Christie handed him a sheet of paper. ‘I think you should read this letter first,’ he said.

  33

  Charlie and PC Williams sat in two luxurious armchairs in Nelly Marten’s lounge. The first floor flat in Magdelen Road had a large window with a panoramic view of the river and the Tay Bridge.

  The room was furnished with good taste. The expensive furniture and curtains and the paintings on the wall spoke of wealth.

  Nelly sat opposite them and Charlie thought she was one of the plainest women he had ever met. She was wearing a black dress, which did nothing for her complexion and her dark hair, which was sprinkled with grey, had a coarse look. The one and only bright spot about her was the red necklace she wore. It sparkled in the light and Charlie thought something so vulgar must be a cheap piece of jewellery.

  She seemed composed but her eyes looked red, as if she had been crying. ‘What can I do for you?’

  Charlie handed her the letter. She put on her spectacles and began to read it. Afterwards, she placed it on the low coffee table in front of her.

  ‘Did you write that letter?’ asked Charlie.

  Nelly sighed and gazed out of the window. ‘It would be stupid of me to deny it, wouldn’t it? But I’m really sorry I did. It’s brought nothing but grief. I thought it would bring Kenneth to me but it’s led to his death.’ She took a small hankie from her pocket and dabbed at her eyes.

  ‘Can you tell us the background to its contents?’ Charlie settled back in his chair. He had an idea the story would take some time. ‘You mention Lizzy and Benjamin. Who are they?’

  Nelly gave a deep sigh.

  ‘The story goes back years and years, when Lena and I were children. She was my sister. I think I always resented her because she was beautiful with blonde hair and she took after our mother, while I inherited my father’s looks.

  ‘In 1925, our mother died. She was Scottish but my father was born in Holland, and was a distant cousin of my late husband, Hans Marten. They were in business together, along with a Jewish family called Rosenberg, who were diamond and jewel merchants, as well as antique dealers. Their business was in Rotterdam.

  ‘In 1930, my father remarried another Scottish woman; a widow with a sixteen-year-old son. That son was called Joe Lamont and, because of our Scottish connections, we were all educated in Edinburgh.

  ‘Then Hitler came to power and the Jewish people became afraid because they had heard about the restrictions on their businesses and on travel. Mr Rosenberg decided to sell out his share of the business to Hans, just as a temporary measure until Hitler and his cohorts fell from power.

  ‘The Rosenbergs had a son called Benjamin; a lovely gentle lad who was a writer and a poet. Lena had gone to work for them as a secretary where she fell in love with Ben. He didn’t want anything to do with her. In fact, he told me once that she repulsed him. She must have overheard because she looked shattered that day.

  ‘Then Ben went off to university where he met Lizzy, another dreamy, gentle soul and they were married in 1939. Lena was incandescent with rage and she said she would sort him out somehow.

  ‘Kenneth, or to give him his real name, Kurt Deitrich, also worked with the firm and had always been in love with Lena. I think she got engaged to him to spite Ben. She knew I was in love with him but Lena never loved anyone but herself. Although Kurt had a German name he was a Dutch citizen as his great grandfather had settled in the Netherlands.

  ‘At the end of 1939, the Jews were being rounded up and Hans and my father made a plan to get the Rosenbergs away to Britain. The Rosenbergs owned a seaside house on the French/Belgian border and they managed to get there. By now Lizzy was expecting a baby but she was a delicate creature and was ill most of the time.

  ‘By this time, I was married to Hans. He was much older than me but we had a fairly happy marriage until he died just after the war ended. Joe’s mother had also died in 1939.

  ‘Hans knew a ship’s captain. They were great friends and went on regular fishing trips together. He asked him if he could get the Rosenberg family to Britain and he agreed. It was decided that Joe and Kenneth would go and take them over on the ship but Lena announced that she wanted to go as well.

  ‘So they all set off from Rotterdam one night and made their way to the town where the family were staying. Hans had emptied their house of all the valuables because he didn’t want the Nazis to confiscate everything. They owned some fabulous jewels and diamonds as well as beautiful antique furniture and paintings. Their house was a real treasure trove.

  ‘The jewels were all in a strongbox and Lena demanded that she should look after it. I was wary of her motives so, before she left, I took out the most valuable things and just left some of the diamonds and other less valuable jewellery.’

  Her hand went to her neck and
she stroked the red glass necklace.

  ‘Well, it all went wrong. The British army had landed in France and were in retreat and all hell broke loose. Kenneth and Joe reached the town all right but when they got there a neighbour told them the Rosenbergs had been rounded up by the Germans and taken away. She said they hadn’t come back.

  ‘Kenneth tried to make some enquiries in the town but time was against them so they had to come over to Britain on their own. Joe said the best plan was to pretend to get married to Lena and pass Kenneth off as Lena’s brother. It was just a marriage of convenience because Kenneth and Lena had been living together as a cohabiting couple. Kenneth and Joe tried to find out what happened to the Rosenbergs after the war and it turned out that Lizzy had died on route to the concentration camp. Mr and Mrs Rosenberg were separated from Ben and he was put into a work party. He never saw his parents again and died a couple of years later. Kenneth found a survivor from Auschwitz, who had worked with Ben. He told him the whole tragic story but said he died of a broken heart.’

  She stopped talking and gazed out the window at the peaceful scene beyond, her mind back in those terrible days.

  ‘One day, just after the end of the war, Lena came here in tears. She said her relationship with Kenneth had broken down and he had told her he no longer loved her. She then said she wished she hadn’t betrayed Ben because he might have married her once Lizzy had died.

  ‘I was shocked. We had all thought it was a tragic turn of events that had led the Rosenbergs to their deaths and here was Lena, saying she was the one who had informed the Germans about their whereabouts.

  ‘Well, I decided my turn had come to marry Kenneth after all these years and I announced our engagement. I thought that Lena couldn’t open her mouth and protest. What I didn’t realise was Kenneth’s reaction to my proposal. He was shocked and that’s why I sent the letter; to let him know what Lena had done. Lena was always mentally fragile but she became worse as the years went on and Kenneth was afraid that she was becoming deranged. I didn’t know the full story of his attraction to Molly. I guessed a bit of it but I didn’t realise how much.’

  She stood up. ‘That’s the whole sordid story and I’m really sorry for my part in it. I should have kept quiet about Lena but, as I said earlier, I really resented her.’ Her hand went up to the necklace again. ‘I wear this all the time. I wanted Lena to see it every time I came to the house. I never wanted her to forget what she had done.’

  Charlie asked, ‘Isn’t it a glass necklace?’

  Nelly laughed but it wasn’t a humorous sound. ‘This was Ben’s wedding gift to Lizzy. A necklace of perfectly matched rubies.’ She undid the clasp and put it on the coffee table.

  ‘But you’re right … by wearing it I’ve managed to make it look cheap and it’s just red glass as you say. One thing I will say is that something happened on that journey that changed all their lives forever. I never found out what but I do know Kenneth was never the same with Lena after that.’ Charlie thanked her and the two policemen emerged into the street. Nelly was standing at the window. She looked a pathetic sight.

  ‘Well, what do you make of that, Sir?’ said PC Williams.

  Charlie was quiet for a moment then he said, ‘I remember when I was at school we all went to see a play; a tragedy full of death and mayhem. That’s what this story sounds like. People’s lives wasted in the search for love, revenge, money and power.’

  ‘Where do we go from here, Sir?’

  ‘We’re going back to see Joe Lamont. If he won’t answer our questions then I’ll take him to the station and see how he likes it there. Telling us this whole sorry affair was the result of a domestic tiff!’

  Joe was sitting in the sheds. He had just come back from the hospital. Mike was in a good deal of pain and it would take ages for his broken leg to heal.

  Joe clenched his hands into two fists. If Lena had still been alive he would have lost his temper with her. She had deliberately pushed the rack onto Mike as he tried to stop her from dragging him into the boat. Mike had told him he must have been groggy from the pills and he had seen her half carrying Joe aboard the boat.

  Memories, he thought, and all of them bad.

  He was still sitting there when Christie arrived, carrying a clipboard. It looked as if business was going on as usual.

  ‘How’s Mike?’ he asked.

  Joe said he was as well as could be expected. ‘Do you know, Christie, Mike saved my life a few years ago.’

  Christie was surprised by this statement but he stayed silent.

  ‘I was fishing one evening in the river. Not here, but further upstream, nearer Perth. I slipped in the water and my waders filled up. I almost drowned. Mike had been fishing as well, and he jumped in and pulled me out. He was just out of the army after the War and was in a job he hated, so I asked him to join the firm and he’s been here ever since. Oh, I know he doesn’t have a great way with women, he doesn’t know how to handle them, but he’s been a good friend to me.’

  Christie said, ‘What will happen to the business now, Joe? Will you continue to run it?’

  Joe gave a hollow sounding laugh. ‘I expect Nelly will take over. She’s always been the boss but she’s been more of a silent partner. She inherited the business from her husband Hans.

  ‘Maybe I’ll stay on. It all depends on how well Mike does. If he wants to stay on then I will as well.’

  The two men were still sitting there when the policemen arrived.

  ‘I’ve got some more questions that need answering, Mr Lamont,’ said Charlie.

  Joe nodded. He seemed a different man from the one who had been interviewed the day before.

  ‘First of all, we have talked to Mrs Marten and she has told us all about the Rosenberg family and how you, Kenneth and Lena all came to Britain.’

  Joe gave a deep sigh and slumped down in his chair.

  ‘Yes, she phoned me. It happened so long ago. Yes, the story Nelly told you is true. We went to get the Rosenbergs out of France but they had been taken away by the German SS officers.

  ‘Because I was a British subject I had to escape as well and the other two joined me. I remembered this place from my childhood, it belonged to my grandfather. My mother always told me she had inherited it and that it would be mine one day. So we decided to come here. We had to keep our heads down and try not to attract much notice but after the war ended, Nelly came up with the idea of an antique business.

  ‘When my mother was seventeen she gave birth to an illegitimate son called Kenneth Drummond. He died when he was six months old but I found his birth certificate amongst my mother’s effects when she died. So we thought up the idea of Lena and I pretending to be married and passing Kurt off as her brother Kenneth. My mother had married my father, Arthur Lamont, but he disappeared. She later found out he was dead and when she met Wilhelm Marten in a hotel in Dundee, they fell in love and got married. Because Nelly’s husband was a second cousin of her father, she didn’t have to change her name when she married.

  ‘That’s how I went to Holland with her and became stepbrother to Nelly and Lena. The business did very well, mostly because of the furniture and paintings from the Rosenberg house, plus all the jewellery. Nelly’s husband, Hans, had taken it over legally and, in the eyes of the law, it all belonged to him. Of course, it was all supposed to go back to the Rosenbergs after the war but they all perished in Auschwitz.’

  Joe looked at Charlie. ‘And that’s the whole story. Everything would have gone on as before if Nelly hadn’t made that stupid proposal to Kenneth.’

  But Charlie knew there was more. ‘Tell me about the wound on your wife’s arm.’

  Joe looked astonished. ‘How did you know about that?’

  ‘Never mind how, just tell us how she came to have such a bad, septic wound.’

  ‘It was all so stupid. Lena and I were at the docks one day, at the shipping office when this man appeared. “How are you keeping?” he said. Lena looked at him and asked “Do I kno
w you?” The man, who looked as if he was a seaman, said he had worked on the boat that brought us all over here, in 1940.

  ‘Well I thought Lena would faint, she went white. I told her to just say hello and thank him. I don’t think he was trying to be anything other than friendly but she ran after him and I heard her ask him to meet her that night at the docks. She wanted to repay his kindness but she had to go to the bank to get some money.

  ‘She said afterwards that he had tripped and fallen into the water; that she had had nothing to do with it. The next morning she was back at the shipping office when she saw this old man and his dog sniffing about, she said, and asking questions about his disappearance.

  ‘Well, Lena being the way she was, followed him. She told us afterwards that she kept following him and tried to stop him going on about the sailor. One day, she followed him to a graveyard and saw that the man’s name was Harry Hawkins. She got it onto her head that this Harry Hawkins had told this old man everything; She said she just wanted to stop him poking his nose in, but the man’s dog went for her and gave her a very nasty bite.

  ‘Of course, she wouldn’t go to the doctor to see about it and began treating it herself and cleaning the wound with Dettol.’

  Charlie was puzzled. ‘But your wife had her arm in a plaster. How could the dog have bitten her?’

  For the first time, Joe laughed. ‘Oh yes, her plaster. She went around telling everyone that someone had tried to murder her. The truth was she fell down the stairs and sprained her arm, but she went around telling everyone, including Kenneth, that her arm was broken. She would never have told me but I caught her one morning winding the bandage around her arm. It was never a plaster but a thick white bandage. She always wore long-sleeved dresses to hide it. When it suited her, she removed the bandage and her arm was perfectly all right. She liked to think she was the injured party here and even hired that McQueen woman to come and work for her. Well, it backfired, didn’t it? Kenneth fell in love with her and Lena was furious. I was suspicious of Molly McQueen. I couldn’t understand what game Lena was playing because I knew her arm was all right so I asked Mike to check up on her but as usual Mike’s macho way with women spoiled our chances of discovering that agency woman’s motives. He even stole a handbag from a stranger on the ferry. He said he thought it was Molly and seemingly they both looked similar, at least from the back.’