Walter’s line is: pay me, and I keep quiet. Stop the payments and I blow the gaff. I am so damned hard up that I don’t really care a curse whether I go to prison or not, but you will be for it, my lad! The miserable Denny pays up: all his savings go—the proceeds of the smuggling business, and he has to go on paying Walter out of his modest pension.
Meanwhile the Admiral (now living in Cornwall), in the course of his energetic enquiries, has at last got upon the track of the old Hong Kong business. A man called Arthur Holland, who, under cover of a vague export business, does a certain amount of secret enquiry in China (he is probably .mixed up with Chinese post-war politics), gives him some useful information. The Admiral is beginning to suspect that (a) Walter is alive, (b) Walter was concerned in his disgrace, (c) Denny had something to do with it also.
Walter is now becoming bolder. He has grown a beard and changed his appearance, and one day he turns up on Denny’s doorstep. Denny must now keep him and establish him firmly in his new personality as Mr. X. If not—up goes the monkey!
Denny is harried from pillar to post. He knows (from what Walter has told him in moments of expansiveness), however, that there is one person in England whom “Mr. X” does not want to meet, and that is Mr. Mount. Mr. Mount knows enough about “Mr. X” as Mr. X to make any place too hot to hold him. Denny consults Crockford, discovers that Mount has taken a living at Lingham and takes a house in the same neighbourhood. Walter, returning from a trip abroad, finds that Denny has fled to sanctuary. He tries to dislodge Denny, but Denny sits tight.
But now a new source of trouble begins. Denny writes in agitation to Walter. He has heard from the Admiral. The Admiral—after all these years!—is most tiresomely starting to ask questions about that dead-and-buried business in Hong Kong. He looks as though he really suspected something. Denny is doing his best to be amiable and noncommittal, but it is all dreadfully difficult.
Walter feels that a little spying ought to be done. He hunts up his former mistress, Mrs. Mount, over whom he still exerts great influence, and makes her go as French maid to his sister, under the name of Célie Blanc. She is to find out what she can about who comes to the house and what the Admiral is doing, and to act as liaison between Walter and Elma. For the Admiral, suspecting that Elma knows where Walter is, is beginning to keep her under strict control and supervise her correspondence.
To Elma, of course, Walter is the poor, wronged boy who never gets a chance. She is anxious to get him his money, by fair means or foul. As the scheme to prove the death was a failure, she now wants to make over her own share of the money to him. Fortunately, Holland has fallen desperately in love with her sulky beauty. Though temperamentally disinclined to marriage, she is keen to marry Holland to get the money. The Admiral has a pretty shrewd idea of this, and therefore tries to oppose the marriage. Elma, of course, does not confide in Holland—he is a tool of the Admiral’s. Everybody is in a conspiracy to keep dear Walter out of his own. She therefore breaks off open correspondence with Walter, and treats the Admiral with the contempt he deserves.
Holland has been told by the Admiral that if he marries Elma, she will probably send all her money to this scamp of a brother. But Holland, being in love, says he wants Elma, not her money. The Admiral says: “You won’t get my consent.” Holland replies: “I don’t care.” But Elma does care. The control of the money is what she is marrying him for. The situation drags on. Elma alternates between encouraging Holland and rebuffing him. If she seems too affectionate he will urge marriage without the Admiral’s consent; if she appears too mercenary he may get put off altogether. As he is the only man whom she has much opportunity of meeting nowadays, and no other suitor seems forthcoming, she must keep him on the lead if possible.
Mrs. Mount is a weak sort of woman, still infatuated by Walter. I think she knows him to be Fitzgerald all right, but supposes, like Elma, that he has been deeply wronged. Walter is quite cocksure that she is completely under his thumb, and, as a bait, has promised to marry her if she succeeds in helping him to get the money.
Very well, then. The Admiral comes to the conclusion that the one person who really can help him to find Walter and disentangle the Chinese business is Denny. Making one of his lightning decisions, he takes Rundel Croft, and carries the whole family off there, bag and baggage.
This is dreadfully disconcerting to Walter, and Mrs. Mount is appalled when she finds herself—not only in the same village as, but actually next door to, her former husband. (I don’t think Walter mentioned to Mrs. Mount where her husband was living—why should he?—and by the time Mrs. Mount has been able to tell Walter where they are going, the move has taken place. Or it is just possible that Mrs. Mount did know, but deliberately didn’t tell Walter at first, because she was bitten with the idea of getting a sight of her two boys. Perhaps this latter idea makes the thing more credible and more suitable to Mrs. Mount’s weakly emotional character.)
The Vicar, of course, sees and recognises his wife, and is greatly shocked. He has an interview with her in private, in which he regains a good deal of his old influence over her, as a priest, at least, if not as a man. He asks her kindly about Walter (whom he, of course, knows only as X)—is she still living with him? She has never asked for a divorce and he, the Vicar, would never think of divorcing her on his own account, as it is against his principles. To him, she is always his wife; if she asks for divorce, he will not let his religious convictions stand in her way. She is touched by his real consideration for her, and admits that X has behaved badly to her, but that she now has hopes that he may marry her after all, if his “affairs” can be put right. Mrs. Mount (always readily accessible to the latest influence) becomes very much troubled after this interview. Moreover, from what she hears at the Admiral’s, she begins to fear that she is being mixed up in something much more wicked and dangerous than the restitution of a persecuted man to his “rights.” After all, she can by this time have few illusions as to Walter’s personal character. She works herself up to going to the Vicar again, and telling him what she knows of the story, under the seal of confession.
The Vicar is stern with her. It is absurd to suppose that he can give her absolution. She is not repentant—she is merely frightened. She is deceiving her employer and engaging in a conspiracy to defeat the ends of justice. Her duty is to break with Walter and make a clean breast of everything to the Admiral.
Mrs. Mount characteristically does neither one thing nor the other. She won’t go on with it and she daren’t tell the Admiral—she simply leaves Rundel Croft, merely telling Walter that her husband has recognised her and that the situation is impossible. Walter is annoyed, but recognises that she is no longer to be trusted. He tells her not to be a fool. Why shouldn’t Elma marry Holland? Nothing more is contemplated. He gets out of her an exact description of the Admiral’s house and the Vicarage, etc.
Two weeks later, Walter hears from Denny. The Admiral is getting dangerously near to the truth. “Old friends” have been visiting him: something has been discovered. The Admiral must be silenced.
Walter agrees. His plan is to:
(a) Kill the Admiral.
(b) Manufacture proof of his (Walter’s) death at some period subsequent to old Fitzgerald’s death.
(c) Let Elma inherit Walter’s share of the money under Walter’s will of 1915.
He and Denny will then be safe, and all the money will be, to all intents and purposes, in Walter’s hands. If Denny is good, he shall get a share of it. Walter then gets Denny to convey a letter to Elma. He says he has found means to obtain a hold over the Admiral and force him into giving consent to Elma’s marriage with Holland. She is to say nothing of this to Holland (who might high-mindedly object to these methods), but she is to tell Holland that she is ready to marry him, Admiral or no Admiral. Holland is to get a special licence, and she will come up to town to marry him on the morning of August 10th.
The plan is then laid to murder the Admiral, steal the compromising papers, and thus
leave everything happy and comfortable all round.
The Murder
1. Holland comes down unexpectedly by the eight-fifty to see the Admiral. He is worried by the idea that he will injure Elma’s prospects by marrying her, and wants to give the Admiral a final chance of consenting before it is too late. He rings up from the Lord Marshall and is answered by Mrs. Emery. He hears that Elma and the Admiral are out to dinner and will probably not be back till pretty late. This is tiresome, but he must do what he can. He will stay the night and make one more effort to see the Admiral but, if not, he will simply go up to town next morning and carry out his plan. He dines at the Lord Marshall and then goes out for a walk; while doing so he is seen by Denny.
2. Denny has told the Admiral that he has found out something the Admiral would like to know about Walter and the Chinese business. He has got hold of a man who knows something. This man is “in trouble” and cannot appear openly, but if the Admiral will come down after dinner to an old deserted boat-house near Fernton Bridge, Denny and “the man” will meet him there. The rendezvous is fixed for 11.15 sharp. The Admiral swallows the bait eagerly. Walter (through Denny) has told Elma about all this, though to her, of course, “the man” is the mysterious person who has got “the hold” over the Admiral and is going to squeeze the consent to the marriage out of him. The Admiral, equally of course, thinks Elma is quite in the dark about it all.
3. The plan for the murder is this: Denny is to go on foot to the old boat-house, meet the Admiral at 11.15 and hold him in talk. Meantime, Walter goes to the Lord Marshall, arriving about 11.15. There, with his beard and family resemblance to his uncle the Admiral, he will easily be mistaken for him in the dim light. He is to leave some sort of message. (When Walter hears from Denny that Holland is in Whynmouth, they seize on this circumstance. Walter is to ask for him, suggesting that Holland may be involved in the business if anything goes wrong with their plans.) Thus they will establish the fact that the Admiral intended to travel by the 11.25 train. Walter will then take Denny’s car to Fernton Bridge (about three minutes by car) and, while Denny holds up the Admiral, Walter will bash him savagely about the head with a blunt instrument. The body is then to be taken to the level crossing, which is the kind worked by a lever from the signal-box. All this should not take more than about seven minutes (say, one minute for the bashing, three minutes from boat-house to car, three minutes to level crossing—this allows him to drive at only thirty-five miles an hour over one and a quarter of a mile or thereabouts—he could really go much faster for that brief distance). At about 11.22 they will carry the body on to the down line, through the side wickets, trusting to the darkness. At 11.24 the down express is due to pass through, not stopping at Whynmouth. With any luck it will smash up the Admiral and the conclusion will be drawn that he met his death by accident, through passing the level crossing through the wickets as a short cut from the Lord Marshall to the UP platform (see Map).
Walter will then go on to Rundel Croft to see Elma, who is expecting him. He will explain that the meeting has taken place, and that, in consequence of what has transpired, the Admiral has gone up to town, but that, before going, he has given consent to the marriage. Walter will then hand Elma the typewritten consent, which he has forged for the purpose. Elma is to carry on and marry Holland at once, since Walter needs money desperately and there is no time to be lost.
4. This beautiful plan goes wrong. What actually happens is this. Mrs. Mount, who, what with the Vicar and one thing and another, has begun to suspect Walter of worse things than she ever thought him capable of, has started to do a little detecting on her own account. I think she probably intercepts some communication from Denny referring to the date and time of the meeting of the Admiral. She is living in London either with Walter or in some place selected by him. She discovers (a) that Walter has no genuine intention of ever marrying her, having made other arrangements, and (b) that there is a plan to do away with the Admiral that same night. She determines to warn the Admiral. There is no train she can catch (the 8.50 has gone and the express doesn’t stop at Whynmouth), so she hires a car and starts out for Lingham.
She does not go straight to Rundel Croft, preferring not to face Walter, who may be there (she does not know details of the plot). She will try to get hold of the Vicar and warn him. In the village she directs the chauffeur to stop at the Vicarage gate and wait for her. She will not be many minutes. She reaches the Vicarage at 10.40. (N.B.—This is earlier than the constable said in Chapter VI, but he only said about 10.45.) She does not like to ring the bell (the boys! the servants!)—perhaps the Vicar is down the garden having his bed-time pipe (she remembers his habits). She creeps down to the summer-house. Nobody there—only the Vicar’s hat and Peter’s knife on the table. She wonders what to do. Shall she throw stones at the Vicar’s bedroom window? (But which is it?) Or shall she take the boat and go boldly across to Rundel Croft? She is playing with the open knife, and it occurs to her that if she has to face Walter on her own it may be a useful weapon. Suddenly she hears the unmistakable noise of oars in the rowlocks. She hurries down to the boat-house and in the summer dusk sees the Admiral starting off down the river. He must be going to the fatal rendezvous! In the summer-house she has snatched up what she thinks is her black calf-skin bag, but is really the Vicar’s hat. She pulls the Vicar’s boat in by the rope at the stern, but, owing to the strong stream and the stiffness of the new painter, has some difficulty in unhitching the painter from the mooring-post. She therefore cuts the painter with Peter’s knife, and I think that at this point she drops the knife into the river, to be subsequently found. She gets the rowlocks into place and starts off in pursuit of the Admiral, who by this time is well away down the river. (She may try to hail him, but the Admiral will probably pay no attention—or she may be afraid of causing a disturbance. The boys! the servants!)
5. The Coat. The Admiral has decided to go by river to the meeting. To get the car out means making a racket, and he does not walk because he has a game leg as a result of the War. (This will make it O.K. about his not being supposed capable of walking to Whynmouth in the time, by the way.) He waits in the boat-house till Elma is well out of the way and reflects that he had better take a coat with him, since he will get hot rowing and the interview in the old boat-house may be a long one. He goes up to the house and fetches the coat, and returning re-locks the french window. He then gets the boat out. He reckons that with the tide setting strongly down the river, he will make Fernton Bridge well within the half-hour, being a vigorous old boy at the oars.
6. Mrs. Mount is not able to make such good time down the river as he does. She used to boat in the old days with the Vicar, but she is out of practice. Actually, the Admiral makes Fernton Bridge in twenty-five minutes, arriving at 11.10, to find Denny waiting for him. Mrs. Mount arrives five minutes later. She sees the boat but no Admiral. She moors at the rotten old raft and creeping round the boat-house, which is derelict and water-logged, sees Denny and the Admiral behind it. Now, Denny has the grimmest doubts about Walter. He thinks it quite likely that Walter may do him in, as well as the Admiral. He has therefore come armed with a knife—a relic of Chinese days, no doubt. Mrs. Mount calls out to the Admiral: “Take care, Admiral! They mean to murder you.” The Admiral (who has the grimmest doubts about Denny!) turns menacingly on Denny. Denny loses his silly head, whips out the knife and stabs the Admiral. Mrs. Mount shrieks and collapses.
7. At this distressing moment, enter Walter, having carried out his part of the programme. He is aghast to find the Admiral dead, with a wound in him which by no stretch of imagination could be inflicted by a railway engine—and Mrs. Mount having hysterics in the background! He is furious with both Mrs. Mount and Denny. They wrangle in angry whispers. Denny says he couldn’t help it. Walter says he is a blasted idiot. Denny says, couldn’t they go on and carry out the plan—perhaps the dagger-wound won’t be noticed in the general mess-up. While they waste time in recriminations and in subduing Mrs. Mount�
�who is showing every disposition to scream and attract people on the road—a distant roar and rumble is heard, and the 11.24 thunders over the railway bridge. It is too late. The only other train that night is the 11.25 and there is no time to do anything about that.
8. Now what are they to do? Here they are with two boats, a car, a woman and a corpse. The easiest thing would be to let the Admiral float peacefully out to sea, but, with the tide running as it is, he would be down at the harbour in half an hour. Somebody would find him—and then there would be enquiries at Rundel Croft, and it is urgently necessary that Walter should go up there and collect the papers. Then, too, the search would at once be made up-river; blood and footprints would be discovered at Fernton Bridge. Much better to suggest that the crime was committed elsewhere. The Vicar’s boat—the Vicar’s hat—why not take the whole caboodle back to Rundel Croft and leave the Vicar to explain things as best he can? Walter will take the car to the house and get the papers and leave the forged permit-to-marry. Mrs. Mount and the miserable Denny must get the boats back as best they can, stream or no stream.
9. “By the way,” says Walter, “how did Mrs. Mount get here?” After a certain amount of harrying and bullying he gets the story out of her. Damn it! That chauffeur must be got rid of! Here they are—it is already twelve o’clock (for there has been a good deal of argument). No time to lose. Walter returns to the car and drives along to the Vicarage. The car has gone! This is puzzling and tiresome, but it is all the more imperative to make haste. He returns over Fernton Bridge and drives to Rundel Croft, concealing the car somewhere off the road. Here he gets in through the french window with Elma’s key, goes into the study and starts hunting for the papers.
The Floating Admiral (Detection Club) Page 27
