The Milliner's Hat Mystery (24 page)

“As a matter of fact he did.”

“Now, Mr Thelusson, you are in the unauthorized possession of dangerous drugs and are liable to prosecution, but if you show yourself ready to help the authorities a prosecution need not necessarily follow. I need not disguise from you that the people we want to get at are Mrs Pearson and her little gang. I shall recommend you to my colleagues as a useful informant. Personally, I am engaged in hunting down the murderer of Pitt. Do you know of anyone in this band of drug traffickers who had a motive for getting rid of Pitt?”

“Frankly, I can't say I do. You know, of course, of the case of Miss Hellier. I believe that Mrs Pearson was badly frightened over that case, thinking that she would be dragged into it as purveyor of the drugs, but I don't think that Pitt's share in the drug traffic was known to many people. He was so clever.”

“Well, thank you, Mr Thelusson. That's all that I have to ask you now.”

“So I have to sit here wondering when the axe will fall on me. It's not a pleasant position for a businessman to be in.”

“I can well understand that, and I'm afraid I can say nothing at this juncture to relieve your anxiety. I must leave you now to get on with other pressing work.”

On reaching the Yard, Vincent found that Sergeant Walker had already returned from his visit to the garage in Hampstead.

“Well, what about that speedometer?”

“It's all right; the record of the last run had been left untouched; it would just have accounted for a run to Oldbury and back, but the car had no mud on it except a little on the underside of the wings.”

“Of course, he would have cleaned off the mud. Now I've discovered that Pitt had promised that chauffeur two thousand pounds and was leaving the country without paying it. That gives us a motive for the crime.”

“But if the chauffeur waylaid Pitt and killed and robbed him, what can he have done with the money, because he got the cheque out of Thelusson to pay for that garage?”

“Oh, I think that he's taking no risks, he's afraid to change any of the notes for fear that they may be traced. Besides establishing a motive for the crime I think I've found a closer connection between Alice Dodds and Green; the only note that has come to light out of the sum which Pitt withdrew from his bank was changed by Alice Dodds. I wish to heaven that woman would get well enough to be questioned.”

“Have you seen the doctor's report upon her this morning? It was pretty bad.”

“Yes, it was; there's some doubt as to whether she'll recover. I'm wondering if that accounts for the purchase of that garage by Arthur Green.”

“You mean that he doesn't intend to bolt out of the country?”

“According to Thelusson's story he had some young woman who had taken to drugs and whom he wanted to rescue by taking her abroad. I think you'd better slip down to Hampshire and find out what you can on the spot. We are going to have difficulty in bringing this crime home if he is the guilty person. There comes a moment in every case when one has to rely upon luck and I think that that moment has come. I feel quite sure that Green knew that his master intended to leave the country on that Saturday morning. You get off to Hampshire as quick as you can. I'm going round again to that garage where Pitt hired the car.”

On arriving at the garage in Bloomsbury, Vincent sought out the proprietor.

“Have you got your car back from Newquay yet?” he asked.

“No, not yet, but I know it's safe down there so I'm not worrying.”

“You told me when I was here before that after you had let out that car another garagist came in and told you that they had been to him first. What was he like?”

“He was a youngish man, pretty ordinary looking, of about my height but stouter built than I am. He had a very gruff sort of voice and was what I should call a grouser.”

“Can you remember what questions he asked you?”

“He asked me very particularly what car I was lending them.”

“Did you show it to him?”

“I did and he looked it well over. Then he said: ‘Oh well, that's a smarter car than I could have lent them.'”

“Can you remember whether he asked you at what time they wanted to take the car?”

“Yes, he asked me that, and though I didn't see what business it was of his, I told him that they wanted it at eight o'clock. He made some excuse about being so inquisitive and said: ‘Oh, I couldn't have got them the kind they wanted in time.' I can't remember any more that he said.”

“I may want you to pick him out from a dozen men a little later,” said Vincent. “I hope you've got a good memory for faces.”

“Pretty good, I fancy.”

When Vincent got back to his office table he found cause to remember what he had said to Walker—that there comes a time in every case when one has to rely upon luck. Lying on his table was a note from the telephone room.

“For Chief Inspector Vincent from Inspector Collins of Hampstead. The woman Alice Dodds is now lucid, though still very ill. The doctor certifies that she is fit to reply to questions.”

Carrying the message with him, Vincent set out for the hospital.

W
HEN
V
INCENT ARRIVED
at the Cottage Hospital the police doctor from Hampstead met him in the corridor.

“I must explain why you find me here. The woman Alice Dodds is extremely ill and not likely to recover. Besides being a drug addict she is in an advanced stage of cardiac disease, and knowing that you had important questions to put to her, I thought that I had better be within call. She is now conscious and her mind seems to be clearer than it has been at any time since she was brought here, so now is your moment for putting questions to her.”

“You think that she cannot recover?”

“Yes, I doubt whether she will last out the day; she is beyond all medical help. If you will follow me into the ward I'll introduce you to the nursing Sister.”

Vincent would have found it difficult to recognize the patient if she had not been pointed out to him.

He shook hands with the Sister, who warned him not to say anything to excite the patient if he could help it.

“She keeps asking for a person named Arthur Green,” said the Sister, “but she is unable to indicate where he can be found.”

“I can soon find Arthur Green,” said Vincent. “Has she said why she is so anxious to see him?”

“She is quite conscious that she is dying and she wants to give him something—some paper I gather that it is.”

“It is important that I should be present when she hands over this paper. I suppose that this can be arranged.”

The Sister looked round the ward. “I could put you behind that screen so that you could hear what passes between them.”

“Very well, then I will ask the matron superintendent to allow me to use her telephone before I see Alice Dodds.”

He asked the matron to put through a call to the police station at Alton, and in a very few minutes the connection was made.

“Is that the superintendent at Alton?”

“Who is speaking?”

“Chief Inspector Vincent from Scotland Yard. I want to speak to Sergeant Walker from the Yard if you know where to find him.”

“He's in the office at this moment. If you'll hold on I'll call him to the phone.”

Vincent felt immensely relieved when he heard the voice he knew. He asked: “Have you located Arthur Green yet?”

“Yes, I have; but I haven't had time to see him yet; I've only just arrived. Luckily the local police knew where to find him.”

“I want you to bring him back to London as soon as you can. You can tell him that Alice Dodds is dying in hospital and keeps asking for him. That ought to make him come willingly.”

“Very good. I'll get hold of him at once. Where shall I bring him to?”

“To the Cottage Hospital at Hampstead. I shall be there.”

“Very good, but I can't be up in Town in much under two hours.”

“That will bring us to about seven o'clock. That will do all right. You can be as lavish as you like in taking taxis because every minute counts.”

“Very good. I'll start off at once.”

Vincent returned to the ward and approached the Sister.

“Is the woman still conscious?”

“Yes.”

“Then I can speak to her now.”

The Sister surrendered her chair by the bedside to Vincent and took her stand behind him to watch the patient.

Vincent bent over the pillow and asked softly: “You wish to see Arthur Green?”

“Yes,” she said faintly.

“I've sent for him. He will be here in an hour or so. You know Arthur Green well?”

“Yes, very well,” she murmured with the ghost of a smile.

“In fact he wanted to take you out of the country and make you well.”

“But there was his mother; he had to get her settled first.”

The Sister looked warningly at Vincent.

“I've only one more question to ask,” he said. “Arthur Green gave you a ten-pound note not long ago.”

“Yes.”

Vincent rose and patted the wasted hand of the patient. “That's all I wanted to ask, Sister.”

On leaving the hospital he told the Matron that he would return in time to meet his sergeant and Arthur Green. He had nearly two hours to dispose of—time to go back to the Yard and put through a call to Newquay and exchange news with his friend Goron. It took some little time to put the call through but in the end he learned that Goron was actually in the police office and would be summoned to the telephone.

After the usual greetings that French officials consider essential, Goron came to business.

“I have brought those two women to reason. They will cross to France tomorrow.”

“Then shall I not see you again?” asked Vincent. “Oh yes. I shall bring them with their female escort up to London by the nine o'clock train which gets in early tomorrow morning. Then I can spend a short time with you before taking them across; we shall have quite a lot to discuss. How are you getting on with your end of the case?”

“I am on the right trail, I feel sure, but my difficulty is to get proof of what I know to be the truth. I will meet your train tomorrow morning and you will come back to breakfast with me.”

Vincent had plenty of occupation in writing up his report of the case while he was waiting. He left again for the hospital in good time.

It was seven o'clock when Walker arrived with his man—more than an hour after the hour when visitors are turned out. As Vincent had expected, Green was in a sullen mood. He had been persuaded to come against his will. By arrangement with the lady superintendent he was taken straight to the bedside of Alice Dodds.

Vincent was already in his place behind the screen. The nurse had told him that Alice Dodds refused to be parted from her handbag. Her voice was so weak that from his listening post he could not catch her words, but he was in a position to see what passed. Her lips moved and Green leaned forward to listen. She handed her bag to him; he opened it and took out from it an envelope which he put in his breast pocket.

After a very short exchange of whispered words between the two the Sister intervened and turned both Green and Vincent out of the ward, arranging screens round the bed.

The two men met in the corridor.

“I want that envelope that Alice Dodds has just given to you,” said Vincent firmly.

“I've no doubt you do,” was the surly reply. “You police can't even respect the wishes of a dying woman.”

“Unless you hand over that envelope it will be my duty to arrest you as an accessory to a felony.”

“All very pretty and nice, but you can't scare me with your legal police terms.”

“You refuse then to hand over that envelope?”

“I invite you to come and take it.”

“Very well, then I arrest you as an accessory to a crime. You'll come quietly to the station, or would you prefer me to call a uniformed constable to help me take you there?”

Vincent could see that the other was measuring his chances of using violence and making his escape after delivering a smashing blow in the face. Prudence prevailed, however. “We don't want a row in a hospital,” the man said. “I'll come quietly with you to the station.”

Vincent was taking no chances. Walker was at the other end of the corridor and he signed to him to approach.

“Slip down to the telephone and ask the superintendent to send up a couple of reserve patrols to lend us a hand.”

The show of force had apparently led Green to drop his intention of resistance or escape, for he fell into a sullen silence and accompanied them to the police station. There he was charged with having been in possession of the stolen banknote which he had given to Alice Dodds.

“You think yourselves very clever,” he said; “but Mr Pitt gave me that banknote on the day before he went away.”

The reply was taken down and Vincent proceeded to search him. In the envelope taken from his breast pocket he found a safe deposit receipt for a box deposited with Messrs Wrench and Company.

“Keep this man in custody until we return from Wrench and Co.,” said Vincent. “We shall bring back the box with us.”

Green broke out into noisy protests against what he called interference with his private property, but Vincent replied courteously that provided that all the property in the box proved to be his he had nothing at all to fear.

Walker accompanied Vincent to Wrench's emporium and there, after some delay in convincing the managing director that he must hand over the box in return for an official receipt from the police, they were allowed to take it away. It was a white wood box fortified with iron angle plates.

On arriving back at the police station, Green was asked for the key. He said that he had left it at his home in Hampshire and that in any case the police had no right to open it.