Death in the Stocks: Merely Murder Read online

  ‘That bloody cat, Rose Miller!’ exclaimed Mesurier, flushing. ‘Of course, if you’re going to believe what she says… ! She’s always had her knife into me. It’s a complete lie to say that we quarrelled. Vereker went for me, and I shan’t attempt to deny that he was in a bad temper. In fact, he actually accused me of embezzling. Utterly ridiculous, I need hardly say. As a matter of fact I got into a bit of a mess – I borrowed a little from the firm, just to tide me over. Of course I know I oughtn’t to have done it, but when you’re hard pressed you do silly things. But to say I stole the money is – is positively laughable! I mean, if I’d wanted to do that I shouldn’t be paying it back, which even Vereker admits I am doing. He simply had a down on me –’

  ‘Because he had discovered that you had become engaged to his half-sister?’

  ‘That had nothing to do with him at all!’ Mesurier said quickly. ‘He didn’t care a brass farthing about Tony.’

  ‘He seemed to think it had a great deal to do with him,’ said Hannasyde, a dry note in his voice. ‘He threatened you with exposure, didn’t he?’

  ‘Oh, he threatened me with all sorts of things!’ said Mesurier. ‘I can’t say I took him very seriously, though. I knew perfectly well he wouldn’t prosecute when he’d had time to think it over. I mean, it would be too silly, on the face of it.’

  ‘Would it?’ said Hannasyde. ‘You will admit, I imagine, that if he had prosecuted you for – er – borrowing the firm’s money, your career would have been ruined.’

  ‘I don’t know so much about that,’ Mesurier said uneasily. ‘Of course, it would have been damned unpleasant, but –’

  ‘I am speaking entirely in your interests, Mr Mesurier, when I say that the best thing you can do is to tell me the truth about your movements on Saturday night. Think it over.’

  ‘I don’t need to. You can’t prove it was my car that the bobby thought he saw – and even if it was it certainly wasn’t me driving it.’ He got up. ‘That’s absolutely all I have to say.’

  ‘Then I won’t keep you any longer,’ said Hannasyde. ‘But I still advise you to think it over.’

  By the time the Superintendent left the Shan Hills Mining Company’s premises it was past four o’clock. Awaiting him in the main hall of the building was his subordinate, one Sergeant Hemingway, a cheerful person with a bright eye and a persuasive manner. They went out together to the nearest tea-shop, and, over cups of strong tea, compared notes.

  ‘The trouble is,’ remarked the Sergeant at length, ‘there’s too many people with good motives. I never like that kind of case, Super. Do you remember the Ottershaw murder? Took ten years off my life, that did.’ He prodded one of the buns which the waitress had set before them, and shook his head. ‘Not at my age,’ he said. ‘You ought to be able to have ’em up for foisting that kind of food on the public. Keep me awake all night, that would. Take this young Vereker chap. He’s a new one on me, Super. Make anything of him?’

  ‘No,’ said Hannasyde slowly. ‘Nothing at all yet. He’s a new one on me too. I suspect, a mighty slippery customer.’

  ‘He’s got the biggest motive of the lot, I know that. Here, miss, you take these buns back where they came from, which was the dustbin, I should think, judging from the look of them, and bring me a nice plate of bread-and-butter, there’s a good girl.’

  ‘Sauce!’ said the waitress, tossing her head.

  The Sergeant winked at her, and turned back to Hannasyde. ‘Smart-looking girl, that. Well, now, I’ve got something for you. I went round to this studio, according to your instructions, and got talking to the skivvy there. Regular old cough-drop she is, too. Name of Murgatroyd. Used to be personal maid to the second Mrs Vereker before she was married, and after. Stopped on after Mrs Vereker died, and acted nurse to the kids. You get the layout, Super. She’s the devoted family retainer all right. Well, I did what I could, jollying her along, but she was close as an oyster – Thank you, miss.’ He waited until the waitress had removed herself out of earshot, and then continued: ‘Close as an oyster. Suspicious and wary. But one thing she did say and stuck to.’

  ‘What was it?’

  The Sergeant folded one of the slices of bread-and-butter in half, and put it into his mouth. When it was possible for him to speak intelligibly, he said: ‘She told me that whatever anyone might say to the contrary she was ready to get up and swear her Master Kenneth was safely tucked up in his bed and sleeping like a lamb at midnight on Saturday.’

  ‘Did she really say that?’ inquired Hannasyde, mildly curious.

  ‘I won’t swear to it those were her exact words,’ replied the Sergeant, unabashed. ‘I may have made it a bit more poetic. But that was the gist of it. Now you tell me that the said Master Kenneth admits he was rampaging round town up till four o’clock. Bit of a departmental muddle, Super. Looks like they haven’t got together enough over the question of alibis.’

  ‘I don’t make much of it,’ said Hannasyde. ‘It’s obvious that young Vereker’s position is very weak, and if this Murgatroyd is a devoted old servant, that’s just the sort of gallant attempt to protect him you’d expect her to make.’

  ‘I’m not saying it isn’t, Super. I’ll go so far as to say it is. But what I’ll say is that the old girl’s scared. She’s afraid young Vereker did it. If she was plumb-sure he didn’t she’d have bitten my head off for daring to come round suspecting her darling boy.’

  Hannasyde put down his cup. ‘Look here, did she talk like that or not?’

  ‘She did not,’ said the Sergeant. ‘That’s my point, Super. I figured she would.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Psychology,’ said the Sergeant, vaguely waving his fourth slice of bread-and-butter in the air.

  ‘Cut it out,’ said his superior unkindly. ‘What did you find out about Vereker’s chauffeur?’

  ‘It wasn’t him. You’ll have to rule him out, Super. No good at all. I’ll tell you what he was doing on Saturday.’

  ‘You needn’t bother. Put it in a report. I think I’ll pay a call on Miss Vereker.’

  The Sergeant cocked a wise eyebrow, ‘All on account of Light-fingered Rudolph? She gets a letter from Arnold, spilling the beans about him cooking the accounts, and threatening to ruin him, so down she goes to plead for Rudolph, and when that turns out to be no use, sticks a knife in the cruel half-brother. I haven’t worked out how she got him in the stocks, but from what I can make out about these Verekers that’s just the sort of joke they would pull, and think a proper scream. Myself, I haven’t got that type of humour, but it takes all sorts to make a world. It’s a wonder anyone ever gets out of these tea and bun bazaars, the trouble it is to get the girls to come across with the bill. I’ve been trying to catch Henna’ed Hannah’s eye for the past ten minutes. I know what my job is now, Super. I’ve got to check up on Friend Rudolph.’ He looked shrewdly at his chief, for he had worked with him often before, and knew him. ‘Worried about Rudolph, aren’t you, Super?’

  ‘Yes, I am,’ replied Hannasyde. ‘He fits, and yet he doesn’t fit. See what you can find out, Hemingway.’

  The Sergeant nodded. ‘I will that, sir. But he can’t have done it. Not to my way of thinking. Here, Gladys – Maud – Gwendolyn, whatever your name is – tell me this: Are you standing us this tea?’

  ‘I never did! You haven’t half got a nerve!’ said the waitress, giggling.

  ‘I only asked because you seemed kind of shy of bringing the bill,’ said the Sergeant.

  ‘You are a one!’ said the waitress, greatly diverted.

  Nine

  Murgatroyd, opening the door to Superintendent Hannasyde, stood squarely in the aperture and asked him aggressively what he wanted. He asked if Miss Vereker was in and she said: ‘That’s as may be. Your name, please, and business.’

  His eyes twinkled. ‘My name is Hannasyde, and my business is with Miss Vereker.’

  ‘I know very well what you are,’ said Murgatroyd. ‘I’ve had another of you here to-day, and I’ve had