Patricia Wentworth - The Catherine Wheel

“What’s going on?”

From just inside the linen-room Luke White tipped him an impudent nod. There was enough drink in him to give him a kind of swaggering bravado.

“What’s going on? Why me, when I ought to be dead! Shakes you up a bit, doesn’t it? Here today and gone tomorrow and back again before anyone wants you!”

Castell erupted suddenly into English again.

“Why hadn’t you the sense to leave Eily alone? There are ten thousand girls-what does it matter which one you have?”

Jacob Taverner came into the group of people and looked from one to the other-at Castell on the floor jerking at his handcuffed wrists-at Annie Castell, at Mildred and Geoffrey Taverner-at Miss Silver, Frank Abbott, Luke White with Jeremy Taverner gripping his elbows from behind. He saw the open linen-room door, the candle burning on the shelf, the gap in the wall. He said in a curious quiet voice,

“So you’ve found it. That’s what I came down here to look for.” Then, on a rising tone, “Who knew about it? This man of course, and Castell-but they wouldn’t give it away. Who else?” His small bright eyes went from one to the other, came to rest upon Mildred and Geoffrey. “Was it one of you-or perhaps both? Matthew’s grandchildren. He came next to my father, and he was a builder too. I always thought he’d be the most likely to know. Why didn’t you tell me? I’d have seen you didn’t lose by it. Why did you wait until you’d brought the police into it?”

Miss Silver coughed. She looked at Geoffrey and said,

“Yes, why, Mr. Taverner?”

The words were clear and emphatic. If they had been stones thrown in Luke White’s face they could not have had a more startling effect. He gave a kind of shout in which the only word distinguishable was Geoffrey Taverner’s name.

“Him- him !” Now the words came pouring out. “You, Mr. blank Geoffrey Taverner! Give us away, would you-call in the police on us and save your skin? But you’ll not get away with it-not while I’ve a tongue in my head! If anyone’s turning King’s evidence, it’s going to be me, not you, and you can put that in your pipe and smoke it! And if anyone’s going to swing for Al Miller, it’s going to be you, not me-do you hear? I never laid a finger on him, and no one can prove I did!”

Geoffrey Taverner stood his ground with some courage.

“The man’s mad,” he said. “1 don’t know what he’s talking about.”

With a sudden wrench Luke White had twisted free. He came at Geoffrey with a spring and took him by the throat. The two went down together, with Mildred Taverner screaming and the police rushing in.

Pulled off and handcuffed, with Geoffrey getting up greenish pale and holding his throat, Luke White was aware of two voices coming through the buzz of talk about him. Castell was cursing him for a fool, and Mildred Taverner was weeping on a high, shrill note and saying over and over again,

“But it wasn’t Geoffrey who told them-he never told them anything! You didn’t, did you, Geoffrey? It was Miss Silver- Miss Silver- Miss Silver !”

Luke White fell to cursing too.

Much later that evening Frank Abbott came into the lounge and found Miss Silver alone there. Castell and Luke White had been removed under arrest. Geoffrey Taverner had been taken to Ledlington police station for questioning. Mildred had gone to bed with a hot-water bottle, and when last visited had been found to be sleeping. Mrs. Bridling was with Annie Castell, and John Higgins with Eily. Jacob Taverner had made a statement to the police and had retired to his room. Jeremy and Jane were no doubt somewhere together. There were two stalwart police constables on the premises. There really seemed to be no further grounds for anxiety.

Frank took a chair and stretched himself out comfortably.

“Well, I suppose you want to know all about everything?”

Miss Silver coughed.

“Undoubtedly.”

His smile had a spice of malice.

“If there’s anything you don’t already know!”

“My dear Frank!”

She sat there very alert and composed, knitting briskly. Little Josephine’s knickers were approaching completion.

“Well, we’ve done our job all right. The Chief will be pleased, and I shall get some of his best Advice to Rising Police Officers on the Importance of not getting Wind in the Head.”

He received a benignant smile.

“It will not do you any harm.”

He laughed.

“I suppose not. Now, for your information. The stair runs down beside the open one and comes into the shore passage not a dozen feet from the other cellar entrance. It’s all very ingenious. They used a dummy chimney-flue for part of the way, and just before you go through into the shore passage there’s a concealed cellar full of stuff. That’s where Luke White had Eily, and that’s where they stored their contraband. There’s a lot of stuff that looks like heroin and other assorted drugs which have been smuggled in and not distributed. And, all ready to go over, there was as pretty a collection of jewelry as anyone could wish for. They’ve identified the Laleham stuff and the haul from the smash and grab raid in Bond Street, but there’s still a lot to go through. There’s no doubt this has been a main clearing-house, and I don’t mind betting my boots that Geoffrey Taverner was in it up to his neck. A commercial traveller’s job could be a very convenient screen.”

Miss Silver gazed at him enquiringly.

“Geoffrey Taverner was in it?” she said, repeating his words with some additional emphasis.

He nodded.

“You’re too quick. He had cyanide on him-he was dead before we got him to the station.”

Miss Silver sighed.

“It will be a terrible shock to his sister.”

“Not so great a shock as seeing him stand his trial for murder and be hanged at the end of it. Castell swears it was Geoffrey who planned and carried out Al Miller’s murder. You were right about the motive. Albert knew about the passage and was threatening to go to the police if he didn’t get a handsome rake-off. Castell says Geoffrey stabbed him. Luke White says he changed clothes with Albert and impersonated him, not because he knew anything about a plot to bump him off-how could we think that he would be a party to anything like that? All he thought was Albert was going to be shipped off out of harm’s way for a nice little holiday in France. And after he had made his way back here, of course he had to be in hiding and nobody told him anything-only that the police were after the passage and he’d got to skip over to France with the next run… Florence Duke? Oh, yes, they’d been married and separated, but he’d never set eyes on her from the time he walked out of the inn as Al Miller. It was very stupid of her to commit suicide, because, beyond telling him a bit about the passage years ago, she’d nothing to do with any of it, and it wasn’t her business. That’s going to be his line of defence, and he’ll get a slick lawyer to put it over for him. I’m afraid there isn’t an earthly chance of pinning poor Florence Duke’s murder on to him, but I shall be very much surprised if a jury doesn’t find that he was up to his neck in the conspiracy to murder Al Miller, every detail of which must have been most carefully thought out and planned beforehand.”

Miss Silver said, “I have no doubt of it.”

He nodded.

“Well, as I said, Castell swears Geoffrey Taverner did the actual stabbing, and if Geoffrey were alive, no doubt he would say it was Castell. Both of them were only just across the passage from that very convenient back stair which comes down on the far side of Castell’s office. When last seen alive Al Miller was being hustled into that office through the door which opens from the lounge. He was then more than half drunk. This was about ten o’clock. At a guess I should say Castell kept him there, and kept him drunk. Remember, he said he had been drinking downstairs with Luke White till round about eleven. This, of course, wasn’t true, because Luke was impersonating Albert at the Wiltons’ in Thread Street, but I think it’s pretty well certain that Castell was down in his office plying Albert with drink. He may have slipped upstairs about eleven and pretended to go to bed, in which case Geoffrey could have gone down and kept an eye on Albert. They had to give time for everyone in the house to be asleep, and they had to give time for Luke to establish his alibi. Then, right in the middle of their arrangements, John Higgins cropped up. He had heard from Mrs. Bridling of Eily’s scene with Luke, and naturally enough he came out here hot-foot to try and get her to come away. As you know, they compromised on her going to sleep with Jane Heron. But meanwhile Castell had overheard their conversation, and it gave him a bright idea.”