Clutch of Constables Read online

  Fox said: ‘What’s the form, Mr Alleyn? About that lot down there in the lock? There’s nobody missing?’ He jerked his head at the rubble. ‘Apart from her?’

  ‘The Skipper says not but we’ll have to see them. Look Bert, will you go down there? Ring your local police surgeon. My compliments and he’ll be needed again, with the ambulance and the usual equipment. Give him the story and tell him it’s suspected homicide. Then get yourself aboard the Zodiac. We won’t raise her until we’ve checked and then only when we can muster a closer guard. We’ve got a tough little clutch of villains down there and the big double-barrel himself.’

  ‘I’ll go, then. And if they are all there?’

  ‘Call off the general search and bring the men in to Ramsdyke.’

  ‘See you in a wee while, then,’ Tillottson said.

  Bailey and Thompson went back to the car to fetch their heavy gear and Alleyn and Fox were left together: a tall elegant figure and a large thickset one incongruously moonlit in the wapentake field and scraping like dogs with their forepaws at gravelly rubble.

  ‘This is quite a big case,’ Fox remarked.

  ‘You are the king of meiosis. Take an international triple murderer fresh from his latest kill, and pen him up with his associates in a pleasure craft at the bottom of a lock. Flavour with at least three innocent beings and leave to explode. And you call it quite a big case.’

  ‘I suppose,’ Fox said, disregarding this, ‘it was all done under—’ He stopped short. ‘How do you work it out?’ he said. ‘A put-up job, the whole thing? What?’

  ‘She was blowing up for trouble when we had that last interview. She may have threatened to grass on them. Perhaps, the Jampot saw how she shaped up, and offered to get her away. Or—,’ Alleyn panted as he shifted a largish boulder, ‘or she may simply have bolted. Whichever way it was, she raised a rumpus—screeching and on-going. When that ass Cape flung himself aboard, off she lit in the fog, pursued I don’t mind betting by the Jampot. In a matter of minutes they were over the embankment and into the pit. And that was it.’

  ‘I like that one best.’

  ‘It has a Foljambe smack about it, you think?’

  ‘Suppose,’ Fox said, ‘she’s not here. Suppose she and who-ever-it-was came up here this afternoon and she poked into this excavation and came out again and it collapsed later?’

  ‘No prints to suggest a return. And why did whoever-it-was try to obliterate his own prints?’

  ‘There’s that, of course. And you make out that while the commotion in the Zodiac still continued he went straight back and was all present and correct when that silly chump Cape and the Skipper started counting heads in the saloon?’

  ‘That’s it.’

  They worked for some time in silence.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Fox said presently. ‘I don’t somehow feel too certain she’s here.’

  ‘Don’t you?’ Alleyn said with a change of voice.

  Fox let out an oath and drew back his hand.

  From under a counterpane of soil that might have been withdrawn by a sleeping hand, a foot stuck up, rigid in its well-made American walking shoe.

  The two constables came up the hill, swinging a lantern and carrying shovels. Bailey and Thompson returned with their gear. In a very little while they had uncovered Miss Hewson. Her print dress was up round her neck and contained her arms. Her body and legs clad in their sensible undergarments were shockingly displayed and so was her face: open eyes and open mouth filled with sandy soil and the cheekbones cut about with gravel.

  ‘But not congested,’ Fox said and added loudly: ‘That’s not a suffocated face. Is it?’

  ‘Oh, no,’ Alleyn said. ‘No. Did you expect it would be, Br’er Fox? It’s hopeless but we’ll try artificial respiration.’

  One of the local men took off his helmet and knelt down.

  ‘The old carotid job?’ Fox mused.

  ‘That’s what I expect. We’ll see what the doctor says.’

  Fox made a movement of his head towards the hidden Zodiac.

  ‘Not, of course—him?’

  ‘No. No. And yet—After all, why not? Why not, indeed.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Perhaps better not,’ he said and turned to Bailey and Thompson. ‘The lot,’ he said. ‘Get going.’

  He and Fox moved to where the roof had originally overhung the excavation. Here they looked down on the whole subsidence. Tiny runnels of friable soil trickled and started at their footfall. They found no footprints or traces of obliteration.

  Alleyn said: ‘I think you’d better take over here, Br’er Fox, if you will. Meet the doctor when he comes and when he’s finished bring him down to the lock.’

  As he went down the hill Thompson’s flashlamp blinked and blinked again.

  The River was still misted but when Alleyn looked into the lock, there was the roof of the Zodiac’s wheelhouse, her deck and the tarpaulin cover, the top of a helmet, shoulders, a stomach and a pair of regulation boots.

  Light from the saloon shone on the wet walls of the lock. He could hear voices.

  ‘Hallo,’ he said. The constable looked up and saluted. He was the man who had been on duty by the pub.

  ‘There’s a ladder at the lockhouse, sir,’ he said.

  ‘I’ll drop, thank you.’

  He managed this feat and for what turned out to be the last time, met the Zodiac passengers in the Zodiac saloon.

  IV

  They were in what Fox liked to call déshabillé and looking none the better for it with the exception of Dr Natouche who wore a dressing-gown of sombre grandeur, scarlet kid slippers and a scarf that bore witness as did none of his other garments, to an exotic taste for colour. He was, indeed, himself an exotic, sitting apart at a corner table, upright, black and without expression. Troy would have liked to paint him, Alleyn thought, as he was now. What a pity she couldn’t.

  The Skipper also sat apart, looking watchful. Mr Tillottson was back at his former table and the passengers were in the semi-circular seat under the windows. Hewson at once began a heated protest. His sister! Where was his sister! What was the meaning of all this! Did Alleyn realize that he and his sister were American citizens and as such were entitled to protest to their Ambassador in London? Did he appreciate—

  Alleyn let it run for a minute and then clamped down.

  ‘I think,’ he said, ‘that we do have a rough idea of the situation, Mr Hewson. We’re in touch with the Federal Bureau in New York. They’ve been very helpful.’

  Hewson changed colour, opened his mouth and shut it again.

  Alleyn said: ‘Do you really not know where your sister has gone?’

  ‘I know,’ he said, ‘she’s been real scared by you guys acting like you thought—’ he stopped, got to his feet and looked from Tillottson to Alleyn. ‘Say, what is all this?’ he said. ‘What’s with you guys? What’s happened to Sis?’ He fumbled with his hearing-aid and thrust his deaf ear towards Alleyn. ‘C’mon,’ he said. ‘C’mon. Give, can’t you?’

  Alleyn said clearly, ‘Something very bad, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Like what? Hell, can’t you talk like it makes sense? What’s happened?’ And then, it seemed with flat incredulity, he said: ‘Are you telling me she’s dead? Sis? Dead? Are you telling me that?’

  Lazenby walked over to Hewson and put his arm across his shoulders: ‘Hold hard, old man,’ he fluted. ‘Stick it out, boy. Steady. Steady.’

  Hewson looked at him. ‘You make me sick,’ he said. ‘Christ Almighty, you make me sick to my stomach.’ He turned on Alleyn. ‘Where?’ he said. ‘What was it? What happened?’

  Alleyn told him where she had been found. He listened with his head slanted and his face screwed up as if he still had difficulty in hearing.

  ‘Smothered,’ he said. ‘Smothered, huh?’

  Alleyn said nothing. There was an immense stillness in the saloon as if everybody waited for a climax.

  ‘Why don’t you all say something?’ Hewson suddenly demanded. ‘Sittin
g round like you were dumb-bells. God damn you. Say something.’

  ‘What can we say?’ Caley Bard murmured. ‘There’s nothing we can say.’

  ‘You,’ Hewson said. And as if he had to find some object upon which to focus an undefined misery and resentment he leant forward and shook his finger at Caley Bard. ‘You sit around!’ he stammered. ‘You act like nothing mattered! For Pete’s sake, what sort of a monster do you figure you are?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Caley said.

  ‘Pardon me?’ Hewson shouted angrily with his hand cupped round his ear. ‘What’s that? Pardon?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Caley shouted in return.

  ‘Sorry? Sorry, hell! He says he’s sorry!’

  Pollock intervened. ‘There you are,’ he said. ‘That’s what happens. That’s the way our wonderful police get to work. Scare the daylights out of some poor woman so she scarpers and gets herself smothered in a gravel-pit. All in the day’s work.’

  ‘In our opinion,’ Alleyn said, ‘Miss Hewson was not smothered in the gravel pit. She was buried there.’

  ‘My dear Superintendent—’ Lazenby exclaimed, ‘what do you mean by that? That’s a shocking statement.’

  ‘We think that she was murdered in the same way as Miss Rickerby-Carrick was murdered on Tuesday night and a man called Andropulos was murdered last Saturday. And we think it highly probable that one of you is responsible.’

  ‘Do you know,’ Caley said, ‘I had a strong premonition you were going to say that. But why? Why should you suppose one of us—? I mean we’re a cross-section of middle-class people from four different countries of origin who have never met before. We none of us knew that unfortunate eccentric before she, to speak frankly, bored the pants off us in the Zodiac. With the exception of her brother we’d none of us ever set eyes on Miss Hewson. Earlier tonight, Alleyn, you seemed to be suggesting there was some kind of conspiracy at work among us. All this carry-on about people being overheard muttering together in a side street in Tollardwark. And then you started a line about Miss Rickerby-Carrick having been robbed of a Fabergé bibelot. And what’s the strength of the bit about Pollock and his doodles? I must apologize,’ Caley said with a change of tone. ‘I didn’t mean to address the meeting at such length, but really, Alleyn, when you coolly announce that one of us is a murderer it’s bloody frightening and I for one want to know what it’s all about.’

  Alleyn waited for a little and then said: ‘Yes. Of course. I’m sure you do. Under ordinary conditions it wouldn’t be proper for me to tell you but in several ways this is an extraordinary case and I propose to be a damn’ sight more candid than I dare say I ought to be.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Caley said wryly.

  Alleyn said, ‘Here goes, then. Conspiracy? Yes. We think there is a conspiracy at work in the Zodiac and we think all but one of the passengers is involved. Murder? Yes. We think one of you is a murderer and hope to prove it. His name? Foljambe, alias the Jampot. At present, however, known by the name of another person. And his record? International bad lot with at least five homicides to his discredit.’

  The silence that followed was broken by Pollock. ‘You must be barmy,’ he said.

  ‘Conspiracy,’ Alleyn went on. ‘Briefly, it involves the painting by you, Mr Pollock, of extremely accomplished Constable forgeries. The general idea, we think, went something like this. You made the forgeries. Your young friends on the motorbike, working under Foljambe’s orders, were to plant them about this countryside where Constable once painted. The general principle of “salting” the non-existent mine. The first discovery by Mr and Miss Hewson (if that is their name) in Bagg’s yard was to be given exactly the right amount of publicity. If necessary the circumstances surrounding the lucky find would be authenticated by Bagg himself, by my wife and Miss Rickerby-Carrick and the only other unimplicated passenger. There was to be an immediate bogus hunt throughout the countryside by: a) Mr Lazenby better known in the Antipodes, we incline to believe, as Dinky Dickson: b) Mr and Miss Hewson or Ed and Sally-Lou Moran as the case may be, and c)—ineffable cheek—by you yourself, Mr Pollock, in hot pursuit of your own forgeries.’

  ‘You got to be dreaming,’ said Mr Pollock.

  ‘The result of this treasure-hunt would be—surprise! surprise!—a tidy haul of “Constables” and a general melting away of the conspirators to sell them in the highest market. The whole operation was, we believe, in the nature of a trial run, observed by the key figures and designed for expansion, with appropriate modifications, into world-wide operations.’

  ‘All of this,’ said Lazenby breathlessly, ‘is untrue. It is wickedly and scandalously untrue.’

  ‘Meanwhile,’ Alleyn continued, ‘the terrain would have been thoroughly explored for the subsequent disposal (or we don’t know anything about our Jampot) of hard drugs by means of what is laughingly known in the racket as aerial top-dressing. The collectors would be at large among a swarm of Constable-seekers and would be accepted by the locals, with however marked a degree of exasperation, as such.’

  ‘How do you like this fella? Do we have to sit around and take this?’ Mr Hewson asked of no one in particular.

  ‘You haven’t got much choice, have you?’ Caley Bard said. And to Alleyn: ‘Go on, please.’

  ‘Almost from the first things went askew. I again draw your attention to Mr K. G. Z. Andropulos who was to be a passenger in Cabin 7. He was a bit of wreckage from Greece who had a picture-dealing shop in Soho which may have been intended as a dispersal point for some of the forgeries. He turned nark on Foljambe, madly tried a spot of blackmail, and was murdered, exactly in the same way as the women. By the Jampot himself, about thirty-eight hours before he embarked in the Zodiac.’

  The three men broke into simultaneous ejaculations. Alleyn raised his hand.

  ‘We’ll come to alibis,’ he said, ‘in due course. They have been checked.’

  ‘All I can say,’ Caley said, ‘is Thank God and perhaps I’m being premature, at that.’

  ‘Yes, and perhaps you bloody well are,’ Pollock burst out. ‘Sitting there, like Jacky. How do we know—’

  ‘You don’t,’ Caley said. ‘So shut up.’ He turned to Alleyn. ‘But about this—about Miss Hewson. Why, to begin with, are you so sure there’s been foul play?’

  Alleyn said: ‘We are waiting for an official medical opinion. In the meantime, since we have a doctor among us, I think I shall ask him to describe the post-mortem appearances of suffocation by earth and gravel. As opposed to those following an attack from behind involving abrupt and violent pressure on the carotid arteries.’

  ‘Ah no!’ Caley cried out. ‘Alleyn, I mean—surely!’ He looked at Hewson who leant on the table, his face in his hands. ‘I mean,’ Caley repeated. ‘I mean—well—there are decencies.’

  ‘As far as possible,’ Alleyn rejoined, ‘we try to observe them. Mr Hewson will be asked to identify. He may prefer to know, if he doesn’t know already, what to expect.’

  ‘Know!’ Hewson sobbed behind his fingers. ‘Know. My God, how should I know!’

  ‘You all want to know, I gather, why we believe Miss Hewson was murdered. Our opinion rests to a considerable extent on post-mortem appearances. Dr Natouche?’

  It was a long time since they had heard that voice. He had been there, sitting apart in his splendid gown and scarlet slippers. They had shot uneasy, resentful or curious glances at him but nobody had spoken to him and he had not uttered.

  He said: ‘You have sent for your police consultant. It would be improper for me to give an opinion.’

  ‘Even in the interest of justice?’

  ‘It is not clear to me how justice would be served by my intervention.’

  ‘If you consider for a moment, it may become clear.’

  ‘I think not, Superintendent.’

  ‘Will you at least tell us if you would expect to find a difference between post-mortem appearances in these two cases?’

  A long silence before Dr Natouche said
: ‘Possibly.’

  ‘In the case of an attack on the carotids you would expect to find external post-mortem marks on the areas attacked?’

  ‘Superintendent, I have told you I prefer not to give an opinion. The external appearances from suffocation vary enormously. I have—’ He waited for some seconds and then spoke very strongly. ‘I have never seen a case of death from a murderous assault on the carotids. My opinion would be valueless,’ said Dr Natouche.

  Pollock cried out shrilly: ‘You’d know how to do it, though, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you?’

  Hewson lowered his hands and stared at Natouche.

  ‘Any medical man,’ Natouche said, ‘would know technically, what death by such means involved. I must decline to discuss it.’

  ‘I don’t like this,’ Lazenby said, turning his dark glasses on the doctor. ‘I don’t like this, at all. It’s not honest. It’s not a fair go. You’ve been asked a straight question, Doctor, and you refuse to give a straight answer.’

  ‘On the contrary.’

  ‘Well,’ Alleyn said, ‘let’s take another look at the situation. Before she left the Zodiac, Miss Hewson was in distress. She was heard by the constable on duty at the lock to scream, to break into a hysterical demonstration and to cry out repeatedly: “Let me go. Let me go!” Is that agreed?’

  Hewson said: ‘Sure! Sure, she was hysterical. Sure, she wanted to escape. What sort of deal had she had for Christ’s sake! Police standing her up like she was involved in this phoney art racket. A corpse fished outa The River and everyone talking about homicide. Sure, she was scared. She was real scared. She was desperate. I didn’t want to leave her up here but she acted like crazy and said why couldn’t I let her alone. So I did. I left her right here in the saloon and I went to bed.’

  ‘You were the last then, to go down?’

  ‘Well—the Padre and Stan and I—we went together.’

  ‘And Dr Natouche? Did he go down?’