John Creasey - Inspector West At Home

“You mean you knew that Mrs Cox had been murdered,” Roger said.

“Yes.”

“Listen, Lois,” said Roger. “I’ve tried to help you and I’ve given you ample time to think this over. I’ve used my influence at Scotland Yard to save you from being officially questioned, all this on the assumption that there was a strictly personal reason why Pickerell and Malone were able to force you to work for them.”

“I didn’t say it was,” said Lois.

In the other room, probably close to the door, were Mark and Tennant. Janet sat at the foot of the bed.

As he looked at the girl, Roger wondered whether he would not have been wiser to have left this to Mark; probably she was more frightened of him because he was a policeman.

“What Roger means,” Janet said, “is that since he knows this he can’t stop the other police from questioning you much longer. You’d be much wiser to tell him what’s worrying you. He’ll help, you know, and the police aren’t ogres. They’ll take into account the fact that you’ve had such a bad time.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Lois said.

“I don’t want to have to send for a colleague,” Roger said. “If you tell me the whole truth I’ll do everything I can to make sure that they don’t hear every detail. I really shouldn’t make such an offer, but I’ll keep my word if you’ll tell me what you know.”

She said : “You won’t. You’re like all policemen, as soon as I’ve told you, you’ll use it against me.” She stopped, drawing in a deep breath.

“You think I’ll charge you,” Roger said. “I won’t. I’ll give you this firm undertaking — if what you tell me means that you ought to be charged and arrested, I’ll have Mark Less- ing and Bill Tennant get you away from here.”

The girl’s eyes were clouded as she looked at him, but Roger thought there was a glimmer of expression in them, as if hope were being reborn.

“I — I don’t believe you,” she said, but her tone suggested that she wanted to.

“You should, dear,” Janet said.

Lois swung round on Roger.

“I knew you’d worm it out of me. I knew someone would have to know, but — oh, don’t lie to me ! Don’t try to pretend that it doesn’t matter, that the police won’t take any action. Let me know the worst. I can’t bear the suspense any longer !”

Roger could hardly wait for her to go on :

“I — I’ve worked for Malone,” she said. “I knew he was a thief, and dealt in stolen goods. Do you see that?” She held up her hand, where the single diamond scintillated in the bright light. Her face was drawn and almost haggard. “I always said it was my mother’s. It wasn’t, I stole it from a shop after a fire. I don’t know what came over me, I—”

She paused, then said in a steadier voice :

“But what’s the use of lying? The jeweller’s shop had caught fire. I happened to be passing, and this was almost at my feet. I picked it up and put it on. The fire engines were making a terrible noise, there were flares over the building, it was a devil’s light and all the fire in the world seemed to be in that diamond. I told myself that I would give it up the next day, that I only wanted to wear it for a few hours, but I knew I was lying to myself, I knew I meant to keep it!”

She paused again but neither of the others interrupted her.

She went on : “I didn’t know that a man had seen me. It was Benny Cox, the man who owned the house where I lodged. He didn’t tell me at first but a few days afterwards he started admiring the ring, and I realised that he knew where I’d got it. I thought he meant to try to bargain for his silence — he was a beast of a man, always with different women. Instead, he told Malone.”

“ Ah! ” exclaimed Roger.

She did not seem to hear him.

“Cox worked for Malone although I didn’t know it then. Malone came to see me. You — you know what he’s like. He frightened me. I was so scared that I don’t think I could have refused him anything. He didn’t stay long, just said that if I wanted nothing said about the diamond I must do whatever Benny Cox told me to. I’d got the job with the Displaced Persons’ Society, and we have regular collections of jewellery for the funds. It was easy to keep valuables at the office. Benny was always bringing me things, sometimes jewellery wrapped up in paper, sometimes furs, oh, dozens, hundreds of different things! I hid them among our collection of cheap jewellery. There was always another helper with me, of course, and several times — on Benny’s instructions — I handed a trinket to the police, to make out that I was being honest. The only thing I’d taken was the diamond, I wasn’t given payment for what I did. I stayed at New Street and Benny made no approaches to me. He wouldn’t talk about Malone although I knew he worked for him. Then a year ago, Malone came again. He told me that someone was looking for a girl who could speak languages. I know French, Dutch and Flemish, that’s why I got the job. Pickerell was the manager, but I didn’t know for a long time that he was also involved. I thought it was a spy organisation, but soon I found that it wasn’t. I had to take messages to different people and sometimes to Malone. I knew that there was a lot of stealing. I had to take packages to different men, sometimes to jewellers. I realised that the Society was used as a distributing office. Mrs Cartier didn’t know, only Pickerell did.

“Then I met Bill,” Lois went on simply. “Soon I moved away from Battersea and no one raised any objections. It — it became just part of ordinary business. I didn’t think of it as crime for months on end, until — until they started to send me with the money to your bank. They didn’t tell me what I was really doing, you were known only as “West” and I didn’t realise that you were a policeman until Malone came one day and I overheard what he said to Pickerell. But — what could I do?”

“Nothing,” Roger said, quietly.

She stared at him. “Nothing ? You have the nerve to stand there and say “nothing”! I could have told you what was happening, gone to the police-station and made them understand it, I shouldn’t have cared what happened to me. Sometimes I thought that it would be a relief to get it all over and to come out of prison after serving my sentence knowing that there was nothing hanging over my head. But — there was Bill. And I couldn’t screw myself up to it, I just went on and on, until that day when you came in.”

She fumbled with her handbag and to Roger’s surprise she took out a cigarette-case. Her fingers were trembling. He saw several little tablets in the case — or rather — their reflection in the mirror; Janet could not see them.

Roger snapped : “Don’t be a fool!”

She swung away, making Janet stumble, and put her hand to her lips, but Roger knocked it away. The tablets flew across the room and struck against the far wail. Lois stood staring at him, wide-eyed.

“I — I don’t want to live !” she gasped.

Roger was looking into her face when the door burst open and Tennant strode in.

“What are you doing to her?” he demanded in a harsh voice. “You told me you wouldn’t do anything.”

Roger said, without looking over his shoulder :

“She has tried to kill herself, because she doesn’t think you’ll be interested in her when you know that she has mixed with thieves and rogues.”

“I don’t care what she’s done!” Tennant snapped.

“Do you mean that?” demanded Roger.

“Of course I mean it,” said Tennant, fiercely.

Janet caught Roger’s eye. He squeezed Lois’s shoulders and spoke without smiling.

“If the worst comes to the worst you might be sent to prison for six months. By telling everything you know, you’ll almost certainly be given a suspended sentence, and you’ll have paid for what you’ve done by giving information about the others. And you haven’t been so very wicked, you know.”