Francis Durbridge - Send for Paul Temple Again!

Accompanied by Mulroy, who was still trying to pump him, Temple took the lift down to the private bar in the basement. He drank a large glass of whisky, refused a second, and made his uncertain way along endless corridors and upstairs until he came into the entrance hall once again.

A little knot of reporters had already gathered there, and among them was Rex Bryant, of the Evening Post , who had been considerably involved in one of Temple’s earlier cases. He caught sight of the novelist and came over to him eagerly. After various mutual inquiries, Rex Bryant said, ‘Well, now, what about a story on this Rex affair?’ Temple shook his head.

‘I’m sorry to say you’re probably just as wise about it as I am,’ he confessed.

‘Then tell me if that story’s true about your being called in on the case. Are you really going to work on it?’

‘That rather depends,’ murmured Temple.

‘On what?’

‘Well, you’ve heard of actors appearing by kind permission of some management or other?’

‘Yes, of course, but what—’

‘I’, explained Temple, ‘also take on a case by kind permission of a lady who’s waiting for me outside in a car.’ He turned to go. ‘Give me a ring a bit later on, Bryant, and I’ll help you if I can.’

He found Steve sitting in the car outside with a tiny worried frown corrugating her forehead.

‘Are you sure there’s nothing seriously wrong, darling?’ she asked as he opened the door of the car and got in beside her.

‘Nothing wrong with me,’ he replied. ‘But Sir Ernest Cranbury has had a nasty heart attack, and I’m afraid…’

She guessed the rest.

‘Have they told his wife?’ was her next question.

‘Sir Ernest, so they tell me, is a bachelor who lived in a nice flat just off Park Lane,’ explained Temple.

Steve nodded thoughtfully, started the car, and they set off along upper Regent Street.

As they waited for the traffic lights to change, Steve said, ‘It must have been a dreadful shock to everybody in the studio.’

‘Frightful,’ nodded Temple. ‘We didn’t know what the devil to do. It was all so sudden. No doubt if we’d had to answer a question on how to deal with just such an emergency, we should have given long and plausible replies, but when the event was beneath our noses it was quite a different kettle of fish!’

‘What did the doctor say?’

Temple shrugged.

‘There was nothing much for him to add to what we’d guessed. There’ll be an inquest, of course.’

Steve nodded thoughtfully and released the clutch as the lights changed.

‘Do you think it was heart failure, just over-excitement?’ she asked presently, trying to make her voice sound as casual as possible.

Temple did not speak for a few seconds. Then he said thoughtfully, ‘No, I don’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because just before he passed out he said to me, “I want to tell you about Rex”,’ replied Temple unemotionally, thinking he might as well enlighten Steve now, for she would be certain to hear or read his evidence at the inquest. She took it with comparative calm.

‘Rex…’ she murmured thoughtfully, pulling up again at another set of lights. ‘What do you think he could have meant?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about that. There was something else too that rather intrigued me.’

He began to fumble in his coat pocket, then leaned forward and switched on the overhead light in the car.

‘We had to search Sir Ernest’s pockets to try and find his address. Inside his wallet there was this piece of paper – it dropped on the floor. No one else noticed it, so I – er – naturally…’

‘Naturally,’ smiled Steve. The lights were still against her, so she took the paper and looked at it quickly.

‘There’s nothing on it,’ she said.

‘Look in the corner – it’s written rather faintly in pencil.’

She held the paper closer and read, ‘Mrs. Trevelyan.’

He took the paper and nodded. Steve suddenly sat bolt upright.

‘Paul, that was the name you told me about, the one on the visiting-card and in the diary belonging to Norma Rice.’

‘Exactly. Hi—look out, the lights have changed!’

The car shot forward again, and they travelled for about two hundred yards without speaking. Then Temple happened to look through the side window and noticed a large black saloon edging dangerously near them and moving at a fair speed.

‘By Timothy, he seems to be in a hurry!’ commented Temple as the car came almost level. With a sudden impulse he switched off the roof light.

Quite suddenly, the overtaking car seemed to lurch towards them. Temple grabbed the hand-brake as Steve swerved to avoid the passing car. There was a scraping of metal and a slight bump as Temple’s car hit a lamp standard a glancing blow. The black saloon roared away down Regent Street, swung into a side turning, and was lost.

Steve sat for a moment trying to regain her composure. ‘He nearly forced us into that shop window,’ she said breathlessly. Temple nodded.

‘It was done deliberately, no doubt about that.’ He was debating in his mind whether to give chase to the black saloon, but the arrival of a constable forestalled that. Temple briefly gave him particulars, but on an impulse refrained from giving the number of the saloon, of which he had caught a fleeting glimpse. For one he was not quite certain, for another he thought he might like to follow up this clue himself. Unfortunately, neither he nor Steve had been able to recognise the man who was driving – he had worn a hat pulled well down, and his overcoat collar was turned up round his ears. After making one or two notes, the constable allowed them to proceed.

‘Why did you hesitate when he asked you the number?’ said Steve, as she changed gear.

‘Because,’ he answered softly, ‘I think I saw it. I wouldn’t be quite certain, but it looked like DVC629.’

‘Can’t you have it traced?’ asked Steve eagerly.

‘I didn’t want an official job made of it, in case I happened to be wrong. What’s more, number plates can be changed pretty quickly. And then again…’

‘Yes?’

‘Well, supposing this business has got something to do with Rex?’

‘With Rex!’ echoed Steve, completely staggered. ‘But it can’t have.’

‘But supposing it has!’ insisted her husband.

‘Well?’

‘Well – would you still want me to trace that car number?’

Steve suddenly swung round, a determined light in her eye.

‘Yes!’ she replied in a definite tone. ‘Yes, I would. Forget that promise if you really want to.’

Temple slapped his right fist into his left palm. ‘Okay, Mrs. Temple! If that’s how you feel, pull up for a minute and we’ll change places.’

She did so. Then a thought seemed to strike him as he caught sight of a telephone-box, and he asked Steve to wait while he made a call. When he returned he looked very pleased with himself.

‘All right, darling, we’re all set. Hold on to that precarious hat of yours, and off we go.’

‘But, Paul, where—?’

He smiled.

‘To a little pub in Limehouse known as the “Twisted Keys”.’ He noted her expression. ‘It’s all right, darling, it’s not such a dive as all that. They’ve even got a saloon bar!’

However, the Twisted Keys certainly did not look very inviting from the outside when they arrived there, though Steve could find little fault with the saloon bar, which had obviously been modernised.

‘I take it we’re supposed to be meeting somebody here,’ said Steve, as she settled in a corner with a pink gin.

Temple looked round cautiously.

‘Yes, an old friend of mine named Spider Williams. He specialises in car jobs – knows who’s out on the road and what they’re up to. If ever a car gets stolen, trust Spider to hear about it in next to no time. I told him to ’phone his pals and let me know if he heard anything about a Milford saloon – gave him the number, of course, though that may not mean much.’