THE WHODUNIT COLLECTION: British Murder Mysteries (15 Novels in One Volume)
clear too that you were not in love with him. Why had you married? There had been compulsion of some kind and the cheques were concerned or you wouldn't have been so eager to get them away. They were proof of someone's guilt. I should say that when we searched Greye-Stratton's house we did not come across a single thing that had reference to even the smallest banking transaction. Clearly all bankbooks, pocket-books, and so on had been taken away or destroyed.
"I thought I saw the outlines of the scheme. Errol had forged his father's name and that had been used as a lever to induce you to consent to the marriage. The part not according to the programme was that Ling wanted you to live with him, either because he had fallen in love with you or because he thought that it would be easier to lift the fortune if he was your acknowledged husband."
"The murder?" she said eagerly. "You have not spoken of that?"
"Do you mind if I smoke?" he asked. "I can think better with a pipe. Thank you. No, I haven't dealt with the murder yet. I was just coming to that. Here's a point I haven't spoken about. Perhaps you can help me though I don't attach much importance to it. A woman had visited him twice during the last year. Was that you?"
"It was I," she admitted.
He remained silent.
'' I did not like asking him to see me," she went on. "It wasn't pleasant. I asked him to do something for my brother. It was after I had made my final appeal to him that he promised to think over it. It was a week or two before his death that he sent, under cover to me, a packet addressed to my brother. It contained the forged cheques and a curt note that that was all he might ever expect."
"I thought so," said Menzies. "That explains how Ling got those dead cheques. There was an abusive letter written by Errol to your father of which we found the charred remains in the grate. Whether through that letter or some other letter or threats made in person the old man went in fear of his life."
Peggy shivered.
"By all the laws of probability Errol was the murderer. Even on the line of reasoning I have indicated he was the most likely man. Mind you, even yet I am not sure. The motive of the crime is clear enough and any one of the gang may have tired of waiting. It is possible and a likely thing considering the characters of the persons concerned that his sense of grievance was deliberately worked upon to fan into flame the fierce hatred he nourished against his father. I'll own I held that theory strongly for a while. Later I abandoned it. He may have been an accessory, he may even have been in the house at the time that the murder took place; he certainly knew who was the murderer."
The tense look on Peggy's features was relaxed. She drew a long breath of relief.
"That is my opinion," resumed the detective, "and I'll tell you why. Mr. Hallett's call at Linstone Terrace Gardens could not have been foreseen. He was admitted and knocked out. Likely enough, if the man who had hit him had had all his wits about him he would have finished the job. Anyway, subsequent events showed that the gang believed that he had caught a glimpse of the murderer's features and that as an awkward witness he must be intimidated or kept out of the way.
"Remember that Errol was only a tool in this conspiracy a stool-pigeon. The rest of the gang would have been pleased to see him out of the way so long as they were safe themselves. If I know anything of Gwennie Lyne and Ling they would easily have arranged that if he had killed Greye-Stratton he should have been the scapegoat."
"That is to say," put in Hallett, who had been listening with an eagerness no less intense than that of the girl, "that if it had been Errol who opened the door to me they would not have worried whether I should recognise him again or not. They would have let him take his own risk?"
"You get it," said Menzies. "One of the master brains was concerned. It certainly wasn't Gwennie Lyne the person you saw was a man. Of the known folk mixed up in this business that leaves Ling and Dago Sam. Sam we'll put aside for the moment. Who was the person who was most concerned in the successful carrying out of the original coup whose safety or danger affected the pockets of the rest?" He half closed his eyes as though he were weary of laying down the course of the case and went on drowsily. "That singles out the man who had married Miss Greye- Stratton Stewart Reader Ling. If he was arrested for the killing where do the rest of 'em stand?" He answered his own question. "The show was busted."
"I'm not saying that Treasury counsel would follow the line I'm laying down if we ever get Ling in the dock. There's more than one thing that bears me out, however. A thread of cloth was found near the dead man which corresponds to a suit that Ling was wearing on at least one occasion. You, Mr. Hallett, took off him one or two things of importance, among them Mr. Greye-Stratton's missing pistol the pistol with which probably the murder was committed."
He roused himself and tapped his pipe on the fender. "Now I promised you I'd lay down my hand a thing I've not done to outsiders before a case was completed for twenty years. I have done it because I believe it will remove any scruples you may have in clearing up some matters. Miss Greye-Stratton I may be wrong but I don't think so has probably been actuated by an idea that her brother had committed a big crime and a desire to save him from the consequences."
She looked up gravely. "I thought," she murmured in a low voice so low that she was scarcely audible "that he might have shot my father in a fit of passion."
"I guessed there was something of that sort in your mind." He sat suddenly upright and slapped his thigh. "What a maundering old fool I am. Here I've been talking my head off and I've clean forgot to say what I really meant to. Do you know, Miss Greye-Stratton, you're not married at all. Ling was married before he met you."
Jimmie Hallett's face surged a vivid scarlet with emotion and he felt his heart pumping like a steam piston. He stole a look at the girl as she scrutinised the detective in wide-eyed amazement. Her eyes became detached for a moment and met his. Then the flush of colour into her cheeks rivalled his.
"Not married," she repeated.
"I told you I was your fairy godfather," chuckled Menzies.
Chapter XXVII
"That's perfectly true," he said. "He was tied up tight to an actress in New York five years since. I gather the little woman doesn't quite know what sort of a crook he is. There was a letter from her in your pocket this morning, Mr. Hallett. I guess you either hadn't the time or curiosity to read it. I sent a cable to New York and the answer was brought out from the Yard to me here. He's a married man, O. K., and if we didn't have this other thing up against him we could pull him for bigamy. The move smells of Gwennie Lyne. She wasn't going to put her pal's hooks into the money bags unless she'd got a collar and chain on him. If the part of the bridegroom had been played by a single man she might have had to whistle for her share of the plunder. But a man who was already married couldn't put the double cross on her."
Jimmie's spirits had unaccountably risen to the wildest exuberance. He clasped a hand down on Menzies' shoulder with a force that caused the other to wince.
"You garrulous old sinner," he exclaimed. "I take it all back. Consider yourself staked to the best dinner that this little old village can produce the minute you say you've got an evening."
"You take what back?" demanded Peggy, more for the sake of covering a certain confusion than from any curiosity. Jimmie's face grew hot as he remembered the handcuffs.
"There was a little academic discussion this morning on a point of professional ethics," said Menzies.
"Hardly academic," laughed Jimmie. "I should call it a practical demonstration."
"We differed, anyhow. But I'm being switched off my line. I'm just making clear Miss Greye-Stratton that you've got no family ties now to prevent you speaking out. I want you to tell me everything you know. Will you be as frank with me as I with you?"
The brief wave of happiness that had come to her with the knowledge that she was not tied to Ling was followed