by L. A. Nisula
“Then I suppose that’s the end of it. I’ll bring it by as soon as the home office releases it to me.”
“Your supervisor said ten percent of the total recovered items?”
“That is standard, yes.”
“And as you have recovered items from five robberies, those would all be considered part of the reward, correct?”
“If they were involved in breaking up the Downing brothers’ gang, then, I suppose...”
“They were.”
Mr. Headly went a bit pale.
Inspector Burrows shuffled a few more papers. “So that would be £8,000?”
I could hear Milly try to stifle a gasp next to me and felt Kate grab Ada’s hand behind my back. I grabbed the arm of the chair and tried to keep still.
Mr. Headly was looking rather green at the thought. “Divided between the four of them, yes, that would be correct.”
“Then I’ll have all the receipts made out and ready for you tomorrow. Unless your company will be providing the one for me to sign when you turn it over?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then I’ll have one ready just in case. Was there anything else?”
“No, no. You said you discussed all of this with the home office?”
“Yes, they were most accommodating. Apparently, there were some very valuable pieces involved.”
“There were. Then I suppose they’ll be waiting for me to authorize the payments.”
“I believe so.”
Mr. Headly left the office, talking under his breath.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” Inspector Burrows said as he followed Mr. Headly out, then he turned to us. He hesitated and seemed to guess my first question. “The body was yet another cousin who handled collections and bears a strong resemblance to Tarkin. Tarkin identified him. He was hiding with the Downing brothers. Whitely figured out who had stolen the earrings, it was an inside job, and followed him to the aviary. He heard the address he gave and broke into the George Street address, then when there wasn’t anything there, tried the Hopp Lane address where he’d seen the bird had crashed, and he surprised the cousin there cleaning out the safe. He’d had to get the information directly from Downing when the bird never showed up. I think that covers it? Did you have any other questions?”
“We’re actually getting two thousand pounds apiece?” Kate asked.
“Yes, that was the figure the main office of the Prescott Insurance Agency gave me.”
“How much did you need for the shop?” I asked.
“That will cover it nicely,” Ada said.
“And inventory, and a few changes we might want to make to the building,” Kate added.
“Well, that has my issues settled,” Milly said. “I haven’t managed to get any of my checks deposited here. I suppose whatever they give will work in a British bank.”
“If it doesn’t, I can complain to Mr. Headly for you,” Inspector Burrows offered.
“I noticed you didn’t introduce us,” I said. “I take it you didn’t think he’d be quite so helpful if he’d known we were the ones who solved it?”
“Oh, I think he’d have been perfectly happy to give you ladies £10 and a pat on the head. Same with the gentleman I talked to at the main office, Mr. Prescott’s son, I believe. By the way, I’d recommend practicing your signature.”
“I was thinking of trying out C. Pengear for a while.”
“An excellent time to do that. I’ll have the checks issued that way, if no one objects.”
Of course, no one did.
“I think we’d better go and have a talk with the Hilliards’ solicitor and let him know we’re making a serious offer,” Ada said and collected up her handbag.
Kate grabbed her hat. “Before I’m missed at the post office, yes. Thank you for arranging all this, Inspector.”
“The company was already offering the reward, I just vouched for your help being essential.”
“I’d better go and let Mr. Radford know we can go away for the weekend if he still wants to. I’ll see you back at the apartment, Cassie.” Milly hurried off before I could ask anything about where Mr. Radford wanted to go for the weekend and if that was really such a good idea.
“And your plans, Miss Pengear?” Inspector Burrows asked.
That was a very good question. “I suppose, considering how things seem to be going back home, I might be staying in London for a while. I’m starting to think it’s the safest place for me.”
“That would be the situation with the murderous fiancé?”
I nodded. “I’ve only been arrested for murder here. No one’s actually tried to make me the victim of one.”
“Well, I hope we’ll meet again, preferably not over a body.”
“I’ve had more than enough bodies for one stay in London.”
“Then if you’re ever in need of a bit of money, I might be able to arrange some clerical work for you here, particularly if you can type. I’ll send word when Prescott’s sends the checks.”
“Thanks.” I collected my gloves and handbag and left to consider what exactly staying in London would involve.
The Inconvenient Inspector
A COUPLE OF WEEKS OF STAYING WITH MILLY in London was reminding me why I hadn’t gone to London with her in the first place. It was also reminding me that, if I planned on staying in London myself, I probably ought to be looking for someplace of my own. A fact which I had been ignoring the last few days while I decided what exactly I was planning on doing. Fortunately, Kate and Ada were providing a bit of distraction by moving themselves, which gave me an excellent excuse to avoid thinking about my own living arrangements, which at the moment involved Milly managing to take up all the space in the main room with her breakfast, something I couldn’t really complain about as they were her rooms. I had learned the best thing to do was to find an excuse to go out that wouldn’t lead to her offering to come along.
“Were you done with the newspapers, Milly?” Milly had been collecting newspapers from the time she’d been a murder suspect, I assumed so she could choose the most lurid ones to send home to her mother, but several of them were from before her arrest and quite a few from after didn’t mention the case at all. While it had been an important case for us, it hadn’t been important news for the rest of London.
Milly didn’t bother to look up from her tea. “I was going to read an article in one of them.”
“Which?”
Milly made a random sort of gesture that I took to mean she didn’t really know.
“Then I’m going to take some of the older ones over to Kate.”
“Was she looking for something to read? I think there are some newer ones somewhere.”
At least Milly was trying. “She’s moving and wanted something to wrap some tools in.”
“To the new shop?” Milly actually looked up from her tea. “Good for her. Henry and I were thinking of moving to Glasgow.”
I ignored the last bit and hoped she’d forget about it before either of them could make any plans. As she went back to her breakfast, that seemed hopeful. I looked at the stack of newspapers and pulled out two that I remembered reading, which meant I had probably ironed the first and last sheets. It was the best compromise I’d found between having inky fingers or spending more time ironing pages than reading them. At least if I could handle the first and last page without being covered in ink, I could read most of the paper without worry. It also meant I could use them to wrap the other papers and carry a good-sized stack of them without covering everything with printer’s ink. And hearing I was helping Kate move meant Milly didn’t even attempt to follow me out.
Kate was living in a small flat in a genteel part of London that was quite conveniently located near an Underground station. She had described it to me as a quiet building on a quiet street near a busy part of town. But when I found the address she’d given me, it was anything but quiet. First, there was a small crowd out front that seemed to be made up of every messenger boy and passing p
edestrian in the area. Then there were the nearby shopkeepers, who all seemed to have found something that needed to be done that very moment just outside their front doors. It was quite clear what had attracted all the curiosity. There was a police constable standing on the front step, trying to ignore the questions everyone around him was asking.
I made my way through the crowd near the door, which parted to make room for me once they realized I might be going inside and allow them a glimpse of what was going on there. The policeman wasn’t so accommodating. He was quite polite about it all, but not the least bit inclined to let me in. I seemed to encounter nothing but very polite and singularly unhelpful constables. Fortunately, Kate seemed to have been expecting me. At least she opened the door, slipped out from behind him, and motioned for me to come inside.
“Oh, Cassie, I am glad you’ve come. At least you’ve had some experience with UNREASONABLE POLICEMEN.” The last was yelled into the hallway.
There weren’t many things I’d had experience with since I’d come to England, and most of them were in some way related to murder investigations. I was just thinking how sincerely I was hoping I’d misheard and she needed my vast experience with tea services or London bookshops when a second constable came to the door and looked at the crowd. “Miss Ferris?”
“That’s me,” Kate said quickly.
“I’m supposed to fetch you in for questioning.”
Kate grabbed my arm. “Come along, Cassie. You might hear something useful.”
As I wasn’t sure what was going on, I doubted I would recognize something useful, but I was there, and I didn’t fancy standing out on the street waiting for another invitation in, and I certainly wasn’t leaving without knowing what was going on, so I followed Kate inside.
There were no other policemen in the entryway, so I didn’t think whatever crime they were looking into had happened there. In my short time in London, I was becoming quite good at recognizing crime scenes, better than I wanted to be. Besides, if it had, I would have thought Kate would already be telling me about it. There was nothing particularly suggestive in the entryway. On my right, by the door, was a hat stand and a table with stacks of mail on it. Nearby was a staircase leading up to the apartments. Under the stairs was what looked to have been a coat closet at one point and was now a half-finished telephone cabinet. I suspected Kate had something to do with that. What I did not see was any evidence of a crime or any reason for there to be policemen about.
I was going to ask Kate for an explanation but the second constable started speaking again. “The inspector wanted to question you next. If you would come through.”
“Come on, Cassie. You might as well hear this.”
“I’m not sure...” The constable looked as if he were trying to find some polite way to keep me in the entryway, but Kate had already started down the short hallway to the ground-floor apartment, so I followed her, and the policeman seemed to think getting Kate to her questioning was more important than figuring out what to do with me. At least he didn’t finish his protest and followed along quietly.
“They’re in Mrs. Albright’s flat,” Kate said as I caught up to her. “They’ve set themselves up in the kitchen. More chairs.”
I nodded as if that made perfect sense to me and followed her through a neat sitting room to the kitchen, which was small but better equipped than most I’d seen so far in London, not that Milly’s was one to judge anything by. There was a tall, dark-haired man seated at the table with the look of someone who had been taken away from something far more important and wasn’t pleased about it. I assumed he was the inspector. Seated across from him was a woman older than me and Kate who looked as if she were humoring the inspector at the moment, but was on the verge of throwing him out.
The constable spoke up. “Inspector Wainwright, I brought Miss Ferris.”
The inspector looked up. “Very well, Constable Kittering. If you would show Mrs. Albright out.” He paused. “Which is she?”
Kate folded her arms and didn’t answer. Constable Kittering gave her a moment to cooperate then pointed.
“Very well. Take the other one with you as well.”
This time Kate spoke up. “Miss Pengear is staying to listen.” She gave him a moment to start protesting, then cut him off before he could get any recognizable words out by saying, “You aren’t going to say I can’t have another lady present while you accuse me of murder, are you?”
So that was why she thought I might hear something useful. I’d had far too many murder investigations for one trip already, and it was quite tempting to let the constable remove me, but Kate seemed to want me to stay, so I stayed.
The inspector almost rolled his eyes, but he didn’t protest again, merely pointed to the chair across from him. “If you would sit there.”
Kate obliged. I put my bundle of newspapers on the floor then took the chair next to hers and waited to hear what exactly was going on.
The inspector glared at me as I made myself comfortable. I ignored him until he finally gave up and turned his attention to Kate. “Full name.”
“Catherine Anne Ferris.”
“Address.”
Kate rolled her eyes but answered, “334 Paddington Street, flat D.” I took that to mean she didn’t want him bothering Ada at their new place if he didn’t have to.
“And where were you yesterday between three o’clock and six-twenty in the afternoon?”
Very specific times, I noticed. Six-twenty must have been when the body was found, giving them the absolute latest time the victim could have been killed. So what about three? Less specific. I didn’t think Scotland Yard could determine a time of death so certainly or so quickly, particularly if yesterday was the day they’d died, so it had to be the last time someone had seen them. That made sense with the time too, more vague, someone remembered seeing the victim but didn’t know it would be important so didn’t note it. Unlike finding a body, which I had learned was quite memorable. I listened to Kate’s answer.
“I was at the aviary tinkering shop in the City all afternoon, then I met someone for dinner at a pub.”
“Anyone who can confirm that?”
“Several co-workers.”
“And they went with you to the pub?”
“No.” She seemed to realize he wouldn’t be satisfied with that and added, “I went with Adeline Shepherd.”
“And how long were you there?”
“Until well after seven o’clock.”
“And where is the pub?”
“Mayfair.”
Apparently, that was enough of a location for him. At least he didn’t ask for an address. Instead he asked, “Have you ever been to Fairholt Lane?”
“Not so far as I know. I could have passed it at some point, I suppose. I certainly don’t remember every street I walk down.”
“But not yesterday.”
“Not unless it’s in Mayfair or the City.”
Inspector Wainwright scribbled silently in his notebook for long enough that I was starting to think he’d finished, then he took something out of the back of his notebook and put it on the table. “Do you recognize this handwriting?”
We both leaned in to look. It was a scrap of cheap paper of the sort commonly used for notes in offices. Written on it in a very clear hand was “334 Paddington St” in blue ink.
Kate shook her head. “It doesn’t look familiar.”
The inspector took back the piece of paper and replaced it in his notebook. “You said you were at the tinkering shop all afternoon, so you do not know who was here yesterday afternoon?”
“No, I suppose not.”
“What about for Mr. Fowler in flat C?” It seemed a random sort of thing to be asking, particularly as Kate had already said she was out.
“I suppose he’s still in Portsmouth, but as I wasn’t here, I couldn’t be certain he didn’t come home early and leave again.”
“And Mr. Dobson in flat B?”
“I didn’t see him, but h
e’s normally at his office until five and has dinner out, so he’s never back before seven.”
“And the landlady, Mrs. Albright? You can’t be certain she was here either?” I had the impression this was what he really wanted to know.
I could tell Kate wanted to be able to give her landlady an alibi, but couldn’t. “She was here when I left and was planning on spending the rest of the day sorting out the things that we used to keep in the coat closet.”
“And what time was that?”
“I took the morning off to do some packing, so we had lunch together.”
“And you left directly after you ate?”
“More or less.”
“So it wouldn’t have been much later than, say, one o’clock?”
Kate nodded. “More or less. It could have been one-thirty.” I suspected that was stretching the truth quite thin. I suspected the inspector thought the same.
“But not as late as two?”
Kate considered that for a moment, but apparently that pulled the truth just a little too far. “I doubt it.”
“Very well. So Mrs. Albright’s whereabouts are uncertain after one,” he looked up, “or one-thirty yesterday afternoon.”
Kate didn’t answer. The inspector sat quietly writing in his notebook, probably hoping one of us would decide to break the silence and say something we wouldn’t otherwise. It didn’t work and he eventually closed his notebook and got to his feet. “I’ll be back later when the other tenants have returned. If you think of anything else of importance, you can tell me then.”
When he’d left the room, Kate turned to me. “You can see why I was so glad to see you. He thinks Mrs. Albright is a killer. And that’s just not possible. I’ve known her for years now, and there’s no way she could have killed someone. And I don’t think she left the building yesterday anyway. There was too much stuff to put away from the closet. And you’ve gotten quite good at dealing with policemen, so I was hoping you could see your way to helping out a bit.”
I hadn’t intended to get involved beyond providing support for Kate and her landlady, I really hadn’t. But something about the way the detective was handling the whole case, so certain that he had the correct answer, made me want to prove him wrong, both about Mrs. Albright and about Paddington Street. And as he had asked quite a few questions about Mrs. Albright but almost none about any of the other tenants, I didn’t think Kate was imagining things as worse than they were. I supposed it couldn’t hurt to see what exactly he was basing his accusations on. I followed him out into the entryway and found him near the coat rack sorting out his things. At least he would stand still long enough to get his hat. “Why are you so interested in Mrs. Albright?”
