The Hog's Back Mystery (9 page)

“The most of the day. From half-past twelve to half-past six, as I'm a sinner. She wasn't here long before she was wanting time off. Different to other people who 'ave to do their work steady and not go gadding about as if they weren't being paid for their time.”

“Well,” said French consolingly, “it might have been better for her if she had stayed at home. When did she come here?”

“Saturday three weeks,” the girl returned after thought. “The General was took ill on the Friday, and on Saturday they sent for a nurse.”

“And how is he?”

“Pretty bad, but they think he'll pull through now.”

“By the way, what's his name?”

“Hazzard. Brigadier-General Sir Ormsby Hazzard, C.M.G., D.S.O., no less.”

“Ah, of course,” said French, though he had never heard the name before. “Now tell me, when did Nurse Nankivel disappear?”

“Sunday week.” French felt a further little thrill of interest. “On Sunday week she went out after lunch. It was her day out, I suppose, though after the Thursday anybody'd 'ave thought she wouldn't 'ave wanted another day so soon.” She gave a contemptuous sniff. “She went out after lunch and she just didn't come back. Nice way to leave 'er ladyship! She was up all that afternoon and evening with the General, and then next morning she rang up the nursing-'ome for another nurse.”

“And you never heard anything more of Nurse Nankivel?”

“Never another word.”

“And who applied to Scotland Yard?”

“Ask me an easier one. 'Ow should I know? The next thing was this Inspector Tanner was 'ere and asking every kind of fool question that came into his head.”

“Like me?” said French.

The girl looked at him sulkily, as if not sure whether this was a joke.

“I suppose you know your own business best,” she answered at length.

“I hope so,” said French, “but I'm not always sure. Well, miss, I'm much obliged for what you've told me. I'll say good-bye for the present.” He smiled, raised his hat, and left her looking sulkily puzzled, as if this was the strangest specimen of a policeman she had ever seen.

As he took a bus to the Yard French was keenly delighted with this new development. There could now be little doubt as to what had happened at Farnham. Earle and this nurse had gone off together. On the Thursday they had met to complete their plans, and on the Sunday they had put them into effect. Now that he had identified the woman, proof should not be hard to get, and proof once obtained, his case would be done.

Though he could not refrain from putting the questions he had to Brigadier-General Sir Ormsby Hazzard's unpleasant servant, French was in hopes that no investigation would be necessary in so far as the nurse was concerned. Tanner was in charge of the case, and French knew Tanner. If Tanner had gone into the affair there would be nothing left for anyone else. He would know everything that there was to know.

It was with an eager spring in his steps that French ran up the stairs to Tanner's room. Once again his luck was in. Tanner was seated writing at his desk.

“Hullo, old son. What brings you here?” he greeted French, glancing up from his work. “Thought you were down at Farnham?”

“I was down at Farnham,” French admitted. “I came up when I found you were sneaking my case.”

“I like that,” said Tanner, sitting back and putting down his pen. “I wouldn't touch your childish little case with a barge pole. What's bitten you?”

“Ever heard the name of Nankivel?” French asked, striding up and down in pleasurable excitement. “Oh you have, have you? Well, she's mine.”

“Good Lord!” Tanner looked shocked. “And what about Mrs. French?”

“On Sunday evening, the 9th instant,” French went on, ignoring this question, “Dr. James Earle of St. Kilda, Hampton Common, near Farnham, disappeared. On Sunday evening, the 9th instant, Nurse Nankivel, employed at 129B Bryanston Square, disappeared. On Thursday, the 6th instant, three days earlier, Dr. James Earle and Nurse Nankivel had a long and more or less secret interview at Staines. Now do you know what's bitten me?”

“Good Lord!” said Tanner again. “I say, French, that's very interesting.”

“Of course it's interesting! Isn't it my story?”

Tanner took a cigarette-case from his pocket and held it out. “Tell me,” he invited.

“The very words I was going to use to you.” French produced a lighter, operated it without result, cursed and struck a match. “There's never any petrol in this confounded thing,” he remarked, continuing oblivious of Tanner's enquiry as to why he didn't occasionally fill it. “It's you who must tell the story, Tanner. I've finished mine. It's about the nurse we want to know. What happened about her?”

“I don't think this interest in the nurse is seemly for a married man,” Tanner said severely. “However, I'll tell you all I know: it isn't much.” He turned and took a loose-leaf cover from a shelf, turning to page 1. “Her name,” he went on, “is Helen Nankivel and she comes from Cornwall, some little village near Redruth. She is aged 30, and trained in the usual way—details herein. Two years ago she went on the staff of Sister Austin's nursing-home at 25 St. George's Terrace, Redhill Road, Chelsea. She's a good nurse, competent at her job, no fool, liked by her patients and the staff. There was no trouble with her; no ‘undesirable acquaintances', to give Miss Austin's phrase; a nurse with a future, if you understand me; the last nurse in the world to go and make a break with an elderly doctor. She nursed in the home at times, but was generally out on jobs. Miss Austin, in fact, looked upon her as one of her best nurses, and she was sent to important cases.”

French chuckled. This was Tanner. He had known that if Tanner was in charge, the spadework would all be done.

“On Tuesday morning, a week ago to-day,” resumed Tanner, “a 'phone came through from the nursing-home to say that one of their nurses had disappeared, and they would like a man. I wasn't doing more than six or eight jobs at the time, so was sent. I saw Miss Austin, who seems a good enough sort of woman, and she told me that on Saturday, the 24th of last month, Saturday three weeks, a 'phone had come in from Dr. Clark—address and qualifications herein—saying that General Hazzard, of 129B Bryanston Square, was ill, and to send a nurse at once. It happened that the Nankivel had just returned from a case, and she was sent. They had the usual reports, and everything seemed to be going swimmingly. I've seen Dr. Clark, and he was satisfied with her in every way.”

“A paragon,” French suggested.

“In brief, a paragon,” Tanner agreed. “All the same, there appears to have been something not entirely right about the woman. Some curious little incidents happened, which aren't very easy to explain. The first occurred five days after she went there. On that day something upset her. Up till then she had seemed slightly depressed or anxious; nothing remarkable; but from then she was undoubtedly a good deal worried. I tried, of course, to find out what had upset her, and I came to the conclusion it must have been a letter: at least, I couldn't find anything else. She had had a letter that day, the housemaid thinks. Unfortunately the girl's not sure. I had a look for the letter, but couldn't find it.”

“Did that depression continue till she disappeared?”

“No,” said Tanner, “it didn't. On Thursday week, 6th instant, she obtained leave of absence to attend to urgent private business. She left the house about 12.30 and returned about 6.30. I didn't know where she had gone, but you tell me it was to meet Dr. Earle at Staines. That meeting cured her, or partially cured her, at all events. Lady Hazzard told me she noticed that after it a great deal of the depression and worry seemed to have gone, but instead the Nankivel was excited. She seemed to be on edge, expecting something to happen. Of course Lady Hazzard may have been talking through her hat, but that's how it seemed to her. This state of excitement continued till the nurse left after lunch on Sunday week: that is, left for the last time.”

French took another cigarette.

“It doesn't seem so hard to account for that,” he suggested. “She and Earle are in love. On that first day she gets a letter from him suggesting a mutual disappearance to a more salubrious clime. She hasn't made up her mind and it worries her. On the Thursday she meets him at Staines and they fix it up. Her main anxiety is therefore gone, though there still remains the excitement of the affair to look forward to.”

Tanner nodded. “You may be right,” he admitted. “I didn't think of that, but of course I didn't know about this Dr. Earle. Another small point. On the Wednesday afternoon, about six, the parlourmaid thought, the nurse was called to the 'phone. It was a man's voice, so the parlourmaid said—a quite poisonous woman, by the way. She evidently tried to listen, but all she heard was the Nankivel saying: ‘Well, I'll arrange it somehow. Twelve-thirty.' Obviously the appointment for next day. No doubt you could now trace if the caller was Earle.”

“No doubt.”

“A couple more points,” Tanner went on. “One day earlier in the week before she disappeared—the maid couldn't remember which day, but thought it was Tuesday—the nurse received an official-looking business letter. The maid didn't know what was in it, but she thinks it must have been something of importance, as nurse seemed very eager to get it. Of course that may be only the girl's talk. Then on the Saturday evening, just before dinner, a telegram came for her. You might get a trace of that, particularly if it was from Earle about Sunday.”

“I might,” agreed French. “You haven't gone into any of these things?”

“No. I put out a description and the chief thought we'd give it a chance first. I suppose you'll do it now?”

“I suppose so. We'd better see the chief, hadn't we?”

“Right. But it'll be you all the same.”

French ground out the stub of his cigarette. “Let's see that I've got all that straight first,” he said. “This woman goes to nurse in Bryanston Square. She is in a slightly depressed frame of mind on arrival, and this persists for five days, when she becomes seriously worried, as the result, so you believe, but you have not proved, of a letter. On the Tuesday a business letter comes for her and she claims it with a great deal of interest. On the Wednesday evening she receives a telephone message, presumably from Dr. Earle, to which she replies: ‘Twelve-thirty. I'll arrange it somehow.' On the Thursday she spends the afternoon with Earle at Staines. On the Saturday evening she gets a telegram, and on the Sunday both she and Earle disappear. That right?”

“That seems to be the sequence of events,” Tanner admitted.

“And what do you make of it?”

“What you make of it, I think. I imagine we're investigating the completion of plans for a departure in company for another and more congenial sphere.”

French nodded. “There's motive for it so far as he was concerned. Unhappy at home: wife uncongenial and running after another man and all that. Come along and let's see the chief and I'll get started.”

Ten minutes later Tanner was officially relieved of further participation in the case, and his folio was handed over to French.

Chapter IX

Farnham Again

French was tired as, after a call at the Yard to see if anything had come in, he made his way home. The last two days had seen real progress in his case, and he was correspondingly pleased. Though he did not fail to note that his results were chiefly due to his own skill and pertinacity, he had also to admit to a certain element of luck. Certainly his clues had worked out well. Without finding that bit of the parking ticket he did not see how he could ever have traced the nurse. Again, had she not taken a taxi from Paddington he might have lost the trail. Had he known that she was a nurse, he could no doubt have got on her track, but he had not known this important fact. French indeed felt very well satisfied as to the ways things were going.

There could be little doubt, he thought, that Earle and this woman had decided to throw in their lot together and start life anew in fresh surroundings. The doctor's decision to do so he could readily understand. His professional career was over, and what he probably most desired was peace and a congenial companion, neither of which he appeared to have at his home. The woman's motives also were fairly obvious. She would doubtless want security. A nurse's life is both hard and precarious. If she were to fall ill she would have nothing to look forward to. The settlement of a reasonable sum on her by Earle—an almost certain condition of any agreement between them—would mean security, or as much security as is obtainable in this life. And in the nature of things she was unlikely to lose very many years of her freedom. At the longest, Earle could scarcely survive her own middle age. She had, in fact, much to gain and little to lose by the arrangement.

But likely as this theory was, it had not been proved, and until either it or some other had been placed beyond question, the case was not over for French. However, a very few more enquiries and he believed it would be complete.

Next morning accordingly he was early at work. His first call was to the house in Bryanston Square, where he asked to see Lady Hazzard.

He did not expect to learn much from her, and his anticipation was justified. In fact, she told him practically nothing. She had liked Nurse Nankivel, finding her efficient as a nurse, pleasant to speak to, and but little trouble in the house. Her husband, the General, had also liked her.

When the nurse had failed to turn up on the Sunday evening they supposed she had missed a train. Lady Hazzard sat with her husband till the night nurse came on duty. They fully expected that next morning the truant would return. When she did not do so they telephoned to the home and another nurse was immediately sent. They understood that the matron had reported the affair to the police.

All the information Tanner had obtained had apparently come from Gladys, the maid, who had evidently hated the nurse and jealously watched her every movement. French had a long interview with Gladys, but without adding to what he had already learned. He also had a look at the room which Miss Nankivel had occupied, but as Tanner had already searched it, he did not give it much time.

From Bryanston Square French betook himself to the nursing-home in Chelsea. Here Sister Austin, the head of the home, saw him at once. As Tanner had reported, she seemed an efficient and kindly woman. Certainly she was genuinely upset about her missing nurse and asked French anxiously if the Yard had learned anything about her. When French tentatively mentioned the theory that she had gone off with a doctor, the sister ridiculed it. Nurse Nankivel, she said, was not that kind of woman. It was much more likely that some accident had happened to her; in fact, that was the only way Sister Austin could account for her absence.

The sister then repeated what she had told to Tanner. It was what French had expected to hear, and he would not have been disappointed if her testimony had ended there. But as it happened, his systematic enquiries produced something entirely unlooked for. Without in the least appreciating the importance of the question, he asked for a list of the recent cases on which Nurse Nankivel had been engaged.

“Her last case,” the sister replied, “was rather a long one; she was at it for twelve weeks. A very nice place it was, at Compton, near Guildford. That was with a Mr. Frazer. He died.”

A sudden thrill shot through French. Compton! Frazer! This was a bit of all right! Things were working in better than he could have hoped. In his enquiries at St. Kilda he had learnt that Earle had been called in as consultant in this very case. This was how he and the nurse had met. Doubtless they had been attracted to one another, and doubtless had had more interviews than at their patient's bedside. No more suitable country for clandestine assignations could have been conceived than that in which these two people found themselves, with its thick, almost impenetrable woods and its comparatively sparse population.

“That interests me a good deal,” French remarked. “It happens that the doctor with whom it is suggested she went away was a consultant in that case.”

The sister was shocked. She had not believed there could be anything in the police theory, and now here was something very like confirmation.

“I couldn't have believed it,” she declared. “It just shows. You never know”; with which rather cryptic remark the interview closed.

It would now be necessary to try for evidence that Earle and the nurse had been in secret communication during Frazer's illness. That meant a return to Farnham. But French decided that before he left Town he would do what he could to trace the two messages, telephone and telegraph, which Nurse Nankivel had received.

He began with a visit to one of the Post Office departmental offices, where he asked for Mr. Jordan. Jordan was a little man whom French had got to know over a case of burglary in which the tracing of a certain message had become an essential feature of the prosecution. It had turned out that he lived near French, and they had kept up the acquaintance, dropping in to see one another occasionally in the evenings. Before taking on his present job Jordan had spent some years in the postal service of India, and French loved to hear him describing his Eastern experiences.

“Hullo, French,” said the little man. “Haven't seen you for a month of Sundays. What have you been doing with yourself?”

“What do you think?” French returned, taking the one chair available in the tiny office. “As usual working myself to death.”

“I know,” Jordan chuckled, “killing yourself careering round the best bits of the Continent on the pretence of following up some poor devil that you've got your knife into. How's Miriam?”

Miriam was French's ancient and feeble fox terrier, whose decease from senile decay was believed to be impending.

“Fine,” said French; “but as a matter of fact I didn't come in to talk dogs. I want you to do me a favour, Jordan.”

Jordan rose and made a little bow. “Honoured, I'm sure,” he declared. “Whence this unusual politeness?”

“Pearls before swine, I know,” French admitted. “What I want is to trace a telegram delivered to a certain nurse in Bryanston Square,” and he gave the details. “Also a telephone message to the same lady. It occurred to me that you might be able to help me.”

“Marvellous!” cried the little man, throwing up his hands. “These Scotland Yard men at work! How sound their methods! How subtle their proceedings! They succeed every time,
if
only they can find the man who knows and get him to do the work.”

“Naturally; that's what people like you are for.”

“I know. For the public the work: for you the sitting back and taking the credit.” The little man continued making jibing remarks as he ran rapidly through a book of reference. Then he picked up his telephone and gave some cabalistic direction. A pause, then: “Could you put me through to Mr. Hinckston?…Oh, Hinckston, I recognise your voice. Jordan speaking. No; Jordan.…Yes. Look here, Hinckston.…No, don't cut me off. Curse it, they've cut me o— Oh, Hinckston, I've got an inspector here from Scotland Yard making confidential enquiries. He wants to trace a telegram,” and the details followed. “Thanks very much. No, I'll hold on if you can get it soon. You can't? Well, you'll ring up?…In a few minutes? Good. Thanks very much.”

“You'll have time to talk about Miriam after all,” Jordan remarked, turning to French. “What's this new tale of blood and horror you're on to now? I never knew anyone with such morbid tastes.”

“It's what I call a ‘thin air' case,” said French. “At 8.40 on a Sunday evening a peaceable elderly gentleman is seated over his drawing-room fire, all settled down comfy for the evening and deep in his
Observer
. Three minutes later he has gone.”

“Gone where?”

“Not gone where. Just gone. Vanished. Become thin air, whatever that is. Never heard of from that day to this.”

Jordan whistled. “Earle?” he suggested, with a knowing look. “I read about it?”

French nodded.

“Skedaddled with the nurse, eh?”

French shrugged. This was putting two and two together too rapidly even for him.

“Nothing doing?” Jordan went on. “But I bet you know all about it all the same, you slippery old humbug. Why, I wouldn't mind betting—” The telephone bell cut short his remark.

“Yes; speaking. Oh, you've got it, have you? Good man. Then repeat, will you, Hinckston, and I'll take it down. Will you confirm to Inspector French, the Yard? Good.”

He began writing. French, looking over his shoulder, grew better pleased with every word that came into being.

“Bless you, my son,” he apostrophised. “You're the goods.”

The message had been handed in at Seale Post Office and ran:

“T
o
N
urse
H
elen
N
ankivel
, 129
b
B
ryanston
S
quare
, W.
i
.

“Reference our conversation. Very urgent. Be at new by-pass bridge, Hog's Back, at six to-morrow, Sunday. Will meet you there. Don't fail. J
ames
E
arle
.”

“I said you knew all about it,” Jordan declared, ringing off.

“I'm learning,” French admitted, once again hiding his satisfaction. “Now what about that telephone call?”

This did not seem to be so attractive a proposition. Jordan hemmed and hawed, apparently unwilling to admit there was anything he couldn't do. At last, however, he came down to brass tacks.

“Unless you know the exchange from which the message was sent, I'm afraid you'll not get it. If you've any hint of the sender, try the exchange he'd be likely to use. You might get it there, but I'll not answer for it.”

With this French had to be content. He got up. “You did that well, Jordan. I do like to come here and learn how business really ought to be carried on. When are you looking in?”

“I'll wait till Miriam goes the way of all flesh, I think. You come to me instead.”

French departed with genial blasphemy, and after lunch and a visit to the Yard, he took an afternoon train to Farnham.

That evening he invited Superintendent Sheaf to dine with him at his hotel, and during the meal he reported the results of his London activities. Sheaf was obviously impressed, though he said but little. Indeed, his final question, “What are you going on with now?” was his longest single contribution to the conversation.

French had noted several lines of enquiry, and next morning he set to work on the first. He went to the post office at Seale, and showing the postmistress the copy of the Earle-Nankivel telegram, he asked if she remembered its transmission.

The postmistress remembered it very well, partly because she knew Dr. Earle, but also because of the unusual way in which she had received the message. It had not, she explained, been handed in over the counter in the customary manner. The postman had brought it. He had found it in a pillar-box near the Hampton Common cross-roads when making the usual five-o'clock collection. The message, written on the proper form, was in the box, together with the money for its despatch. This method of sending telegrams was not unknown, but it was unusual enough to fix the matter in her mind.

French saw, however, that it was reasonable enough under the circumstances. From Earle's house to the post office was a matter of perhaps two miles, while the pillar-box was within five minutes' walk of his gates. Theoretically, of course, there was no absolute proof that Earle was the sender, for the simple reason that he had not actually been seen putting the paper into the box. But the thing had to be judged in harmony with the other factors of the case, and French had no doubt that Earle was his man.

It was easy also to understand why Earle should have sent a telegram in this way rather than telephone the message to the post office or even direct to the nurse. Earle's telephone was situated in his hall, and if any of the members of his household were about, he could not have kept his message secret.

From the post office French rode to the telephone exchange. Here his rather wonderful luck held. When he showed his authority and gave the Hazzards' number in Bryanston Square, the operator was able immediately to turn up the number from which the call had come. A note of the trunk call had been kept for revenue purposes, and the bill on which it would eventually find a place would be sent to St. Kilda. The operator, moreover, had recognised Earle's voice, he having attended her during a long illness.

Here, then, was the desired proof that the message had come from Earle. The discovery conveyed no fresh information—French had not doubted the call was Earle's, but its proof was a step further in the case he was so satisfactorily building up.

French looked at his watch. Quarter-past eleven. Campion's was the next name on his list and he wondered whether he would find the doctor if he were to ride over to the Red Cottage. He put through a call from the exchange, and the answer being that Campion was out, but was expected home for lunch, he once again mounted the sergeant's bicycle.