The Toff and the Great Illusion
Page 19
Charmion said, softly: “Georgina thought that her mother was being blackmailed by my brother. She knew of you because you had helped the man Marchant. She had cards like yours printed, she sent telegrams, she telephoned, all in your name. And she completely deceived me, Rollison, I thought it was you, and I had to try to get you off the scent, I wanted to protect – my wife.” He glanced at the woman, then looked back at Rollison. “What you didn’t know was that my fortune was lost, soon after I went to prison – it was no one’s fault, just bad investments.”
Rollison stared, with a sudden flash of understanding.
“You see?” murmured Charmion. “My wife”—again he looked at her—“was importuned by Blanding, who lost his head over her. But he is an upright man”—Charmion sneered—“and nothing short of marriage would suit him. So she married him and fleeced him, and built up my fortune again. Her daughter knew what she was doing but put it down to blackmail. I had to divert your attention. I began months ago, when first I thought you were getting curious, after getting reports at Dartmoor. And – it wasn’t you, it was Georgina!”
Rollison said: “Nice work, Georgina!”
She had grown desperate, of course, suspecting the real truth at last, had known she must find a way of introducing him to the affair, had chosen the telephone call and the mystifying story; but afterwards the situation had got too much for her, for Charmion had learned that she was approaching the Toff and had started to work on her.
Nothing was left unexplained.
Charmion said, slowly: “I should have waited for a dark night and shot you, Rollison, as I’d once planned to do. But I knew your methods, I was afraid of what information you might leave behind. I thought you suspected the truth. The other was more fitting, too. I wanted you accused of Hilda Brent’s murder, to hear the sordid details brought out in court. I planned that you should have too much on your mind to worry about the Blandings and Georgina.”
“You were thorough,” Rollison admitted, “revenge on Hilda and on me, and your fortune rebuilt. A man and a girl suffering the torment of the damned meant nothing to you, but the framing failed, you had to improvise and began to lose your grip.”
“The police should never have let you go!” rasped Charmion. “Nor would they have done had I been able to get at that taxi-driver and stop his mouth! But I haven’t lost, Rollison. You’re going to die in any case.”
“The flat will be quite a shambles, won’t it?” asked the Toff.
He heard a shout from the next room, and at first thought that Jolly had arrived. But it was the woman with the mop of grey hair, who shouted again. Someone swore at her, a woman whose voice was thick and hoarse. The door opened and the speaker appeared; her face was raddled, there were dark bags beneath her eyes, which glittered with an unholy light.
Rollison believed that she had always thought herself to be Charmion’s wife; but now she had overheard the truth.
She screamed: “Charmion! Look what you’ve done to me, look what you’ve done!” She raised her scraggy hands, then uttered on a lower note: “I hate you, Charmion, you and this – this Jezebel!”
She turned and flung herself at the other woman, and so complete was the surprise that the automatic was sent to the floor. The beautiful face of the younger woman was suddenly scarred by weals, oozing blood, scratched deep into her cheeks. And as they fought, Charmion swung towards the Toff, who reached him and struck him with his sound hand, still holding his gun. He turned as the other door opened and Dr. Race appeared – to stop short when he saw the gun in Rollison’s hand.
“Stop the women!” ordered Rollison.
Race moved to obey, dazedly – and while he was trying, while the drug-ridden dupe of Charmion was taking the revenge which put so perfect a finishing touch to the fantastic case, while the woman with the mop of hair began to moan and cry in the doorway, there was a hammering on the passage door and Jolly’s voice was raised.
Rollison, more biddable now that it was all over, although somewhat restive because he was in bed, looked at Grice on the following morning. The Superintendent had just read back to him a statement which he had dictated after the shambles at the Putney flat.
Fast upon Jolly’s arrival the police had come; by then, the woman who had known a living death yet come to life again in so great a fury, had lost consciousness. It was known that she had believed herself the wife of Charmion and had heard the truth when the Toff had spoken. Of the beauty who was known as Lady Blanding there had been only a shivering, bleeding wreck, who had broken down completely. She had been arrested with Charmion.
Charmion’s brother and his wife had also been arrested; they had been caught on their way to a house at Barking, where Fifi’s Joe had been found, uninjured – used, like Fifi, to add more realism to the Great Illusion. There had been a tearful reunion between him and Fifi.
“And that’s all?” said Grice, slowly.
The Toff raised his eyebrows.
“Aren’t you ever satisfied? If you want more—”he shrugged—“but perhaps I did forget one or two details. For instance, why I told Charmion that I thought Blanding was in it, not his ‘wife’; I wanted him to think, right to the end, that I had been hoodwinked and that I believed in his reformation. Had I mentioned the woman he would have seen through it – he missed very little.” Rollison took a cigarette from a bedside table, then asked: “What did Race have to say?”
“He was in it for what he could get – he started by blackmailing Lady Blanding.” Grice smiled, crookedly. “I still find myself thinking of her as that.”
“Don’t we all?” asked Rollison, and added slowly: “She angled for me to go to see Georgina, of course, to find out just what I had learned.” He paused. “I missed some fairly obvious things, you know. The association between the younger Charmion and Blanding’s own daughter – the younger Charmion traded on what he knew about the stepmother to wrong the daughter. I should have seen that as evidence that the Blandings and Charmion were connected. Georgina, of course, was at school at the time of the trial and the genuine marriage. Then she began to understand.” He drew on his cigarette. “Well, we shouldn’t grumble now. Fifi’s happy – by the way, she’s taking Hilda’s children, and—”
Grice smiled: “You’re seeing that they won’t be in need!”
Rollison shrugged and asked: “How is Georgina?”
“Better than she was,” said Grice.
“I wish there could be something more cheerful for her to come back to,” said Rollison. “At least, Blanding will do all he can to help her. I like that man. The only thing I’d like to know,” added the Toff, “is whether Georgina did hear that conversation at the Savoy, and decide that it would be the best way of attracting me, or whether she thought of it before?”
“You won’t worry her with that, surely?” asked Grice.
“No,” said Rollison, “but all the same I’d like to know. Teddy Marchant is supposed to have insisted that she should tell me, but she might have taken his name in vain. It’s ten thousand pities about Teddy. I think Blanding was right in one respect, Georgina was fond of him.”
“It seems so,” said Grice, who left soon afterwards.
Later in the day, Jolly tapped softly on the door; Rollison was awake, and reading from Browning, a sedative of which he could never have enough. Diana, who had been telephoned and told what had happened, had given him the copy he was reading.
There was an air of suppressed excitement about Jolly.
“Are you—” he began.
“I am,” said the Toff.
“Oh, fine!” cried another voice, and a man came storming in, a fair-haired, ragged, anxious-faced man whose uniform was singed and whose right hand was heavily bandaged. “Rolly,” he said urgently, “I’ve been trying to see Georgina – you know, Georgina Scott – but they won’t let me in. Someone mentioned your name – what’s the matter with her?” He was on tenterhooks as he stared down at Rollison, his good hand raised.
Rollison drew a deep, wondering breath.
“Teddy, you oaf! I thought you—”
“I had a spot of luck,” said Teddy Marchant, off-handedly. “But never mind that, what about Georgina?”
“She’ll be all right, now,” said Rollison, happily. “But you’ve a job on your hands, Teddy. D’you feel like tackling it?”
“For Georgina, I’d—” began Teddy, and then broke off, a little abashed. “Well, you know what I mean.”
“I do,” admitted the Toff. “Teddy, sit down, and I’ll tell you a story – but before I start, tell me this: were you with Georgina in the Savoy a few days ago, when a man mentioned my name?”
“Was I?” Teddy stared, blankly. “No.”
Rollison chuckled.
“You’ve certainly got a job on your hands; Georgina has a mind and uses it!” He grew more sober. “Make some tea, Jolly, will you?” he asked, and then settled down to tell Marchant all that was necessary, feeling much happier for Georgina.
Weeks later, he learned that even Blanding had not known how his ‘wife’ was cheating him, that a fortune in money and jewels and stocks and shares had been surreptitiously stolen or transferred to her, to replace what Charmion had lost.
“Had Georgina told me,” Rollison said to Jolly, “we would have approached it from a different angle. Instead, she hoped my name alone would be enough to frighten them.”
“And wasn’t it, sir?” asked Jolly.
Series Information
Published or to be published by
House of Stratus
Dates given are those of first publication
Alternative titles in brackets
‘The Baron’ (47 titles) (writing as Anthony Morton)
‘Department ‘Z’’ (28 titles)
‘Dr. Palfrey Novels’ (34 titles)
‘Gideon of Scotland Yard’ (22 titles)
‘Inspector West’ (43 titles)
‘Sexton Blake’ (5 titles)
‘The Toff’ (59 titles)
along with:
The Masters of Bow Street
This epic novel embraces the story of the Bow Street Runners and the Marine Police, forerunners of the modern police force, who were founded by novelist Henry Fielding in 1748. They were the earliest detective force operating from the courts to enforce the decisions of magistrates. John Creasey’s account also gives a fascinating insight into family life of the time and the struggle between crime and justice, and ends with the establishment of the Metropolitan Police after the passing of Peel’s Act in 1829.
‘The Baron’ Series
These Titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels
Meet the Baron (The Man in the Blue Mask) (1937)
The Baron Returns (The Return of the Blue Mask) (1937)
The Baron Again (Salute Blue Mask) (1938)
The Baron at Bay (Blue Mask at Bay) (1938)
Alias the Baron (Alias Blue Mask) (1939)
The Baron at Large (Challenge Blue Mask!) (1939)
Versus the Baron (Blue Mask Strikes Again) (1940)
Call for the Baron (Blue Mask Victorious) (1940)
The Baron Comes Back (1943)
A Case for the Baron (1945)
Reward for the Baron (1945)
Career for the Baron (1946)
Blood Diamond (The Baron and the Beggar) (1947)
Blame the Baron (1948)
A Rope for the Baron (1948)
Books for the Baron (1949)
Cry for the Baron (1950)
Trap the Baron (1950)
Attack the Baron (1951)
Shadow the Baron (1951)
Warn the Baron (1952)
The Baron Goes East (1953)
The Baron in France (1953)
Danger for the Baron (1953)
The Baron Goes Fast (1954)
Nest-Egg for the Baron (Deaf, Dumb and Blonde) (1954)
Help from the Baron (1955)
Hide the Baron (1956)
The Double Frame (Frame the Baron) (1957)
Blood Red (Red Eye for the Baron) (1958)
If Anything Happens to Hester (Black for the Baron) (1959)
Salute for the Baron (1960)
The Baron Branches Out (A Branch for the Baron) (1961)
The Baron and the Stolen Legacy (Bad for the Baron) (1962)
A Sword for the Baron (The Baron and the Mogul Swords) (1963)
The Baron on Board (The Mask of Sumi) (1964)
The Baron and the Chinese Puzzle (1964)
Sport for the Baron (1966)
Affair for the Baron (1967)
The Baron and the Missing Old Masters (1968)
The Baron and the Unfinished Portrait (1969)
Last Laugh for the Baron (1970)
The Baron Goes A-Buying (1971)
The Baron and the Arrogant Artist (1972)
Burgle the Baron (1973)
The Baron - King Maker (1975)
Love for the Baron (1979)
Doctor Palfrey Novels
These Titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels
Traitor’s Doom (1942)
The Legion of the Lost (1943)
The Valley of Fear (The Perilous Country) (1943)
Dangerous Quest (1944)
Death in the Rising Sun (1945)
The Hounds of Vengeance (1945)
Shadow of Doom (1946)
The House of the Bears (1946)
Dark Harvest (1947)
The Wings of Peace (1948)
The Sons of Satan (1948)
The Dawn of Darkness (1949)
The League of Light (1949)
The Man Who Shook the World (1950)
The Prophet of Fire (1951)
The Children of Hate (The Killers of Innocence; The Children of Despair) (1952)
The Touch of Death (1954)
The Mists of Fear (1955)
The Flood (1956)
The Plague of Silence (1958)
Dry Spell (The Drought) (1959)
The Terror (1962)
The Depths (1963)
The Sleep (1964)
The Inferno (1965)
The Famine (1967)
The Blight (1968)
The Oasis (1970)
The Smog (1970)
The Unbegotten (1971)
The Insulators (1972)
The Voiceless Ones (1973)
The Thunder-Maker (1976)
The Whirlwind (1979)
Gideon Series
(Writing as JJ Marric)
These Titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels
Gideon’s Day (Gideon of Scotland Yard) (1955)
Seven Days to Death (Gideon’s Week) (1956)
Gideon’s Night (1957)
A Backwards Jump (Gideon’s Month) (1958)
Thugs and Economies (Gideon’s Staff) (1959)
Gideon Combats Influence (Gideon’s Risk) (1960)
Gideon’s Fire (1961)
A Conference for Assassins (Gideon’s March) (1962)
Travelling Crimes (Gideon’s Ride) (1963)
An Uncivilised Election (Gideon’s Vote) (1964)
Criminal Imports (Gideon’s Lot) (1965)
To Nail a Serial Killer (Gideon’s Badge) (1966)
From Murder to a Cathedral (Gideon’s Wrath) (1967)
Gideon’s River (1968)
Darkness and Confusion (Gideon’s Power) (1969)
Sport, Heat & Scotland Yard (Gideon’s Sport) (1970)
Gideon’s Art (1971)
No Relaxation at Scotland Yard (Gideon’s Men) (1972)
Impartiality Against the Mob (Gideon’s Press) (1973)
Not Hidden by the Fog (Gideon’s Fog) (1975)
Good and Justice (Gideon’s Drive) (1976)
Vigilantes & Biscuits (Gideon’s Force) (1978)
Inspector West Series
These Titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels
Inspector West Takes Charge (1942)
Go Away to Murder (Inspector West Leaves Town) (1943)
An Apostle of Gloom (Inspector West At Home) (1944)
Inspector West Regrets (1945)
Holiday for Inspector West (1946)
Battle for Inspector West (1948)
The Case Against Paul Raeburn (Triumph for Inspector West) (1948)
Inspector West Kicks Off (Sport for Inspector West) (1949)
Inspector West Alone (1950)
Inspector West Cries Wolf (The Creepers) (1950)
The Figure in the Dusk (A Case for Inspector West) (1951)
The Dissemblers (Puzzle for Inspector West) (1951)
The Case of the Acid Throwers (The Blind Spot; Inspector West at Bay) (1952)
Give a Man a Gun (A Gun for Inspector West) (1953)
Send Inspector West (1953)
So Young, So Cold, So Fair (A Beauty for Inspector West; The Beauty Queen Killer) (1954)
Murder Makes Haste (Inspector West Makes Haste; The Gelignite Gang; Night of the Watchman) (1955)
Murder: One, Two, Three (Two for Inspector West) (1955)
Death of a Postman (Parcels for Inspector West) (1956)
Death of an Assassin (A Prince for Inspector West) (1956)
Hit and Run (Accident for Inspector West) (1957)
The Trouble at Saxby’s (Find Inspector West; Doorway to Death) (1957)
Murder, London - New York (1958)
Strike for Death (The Killing Strike) (1958)
Death of a Racehorse (1959)
The Case of the Innocent Victims (1959)
Murder on the Line (1960)
Death in Cold Print (1961)
The Scene of the Crime (1961)
Policeman’s Dread (1962)
Hang the Little Man (1963)
Look Three Ways at Murder (1964)
Murder, London - Australia (1965)
Murder, London - South Africa (1966)
The Executioners (1967)
So Young to Burn (1968)
Murder, London - Miami (1969)
A Part for a Policeman (1970)
Alibi for Inspector West (1971)
A Splinter of Glass (1972)
The Theft of Magna Carta (1973)