John Creasey - Inspector West At Home

Only when he was back in Abbott’s office did he realise that his anxiety about Malone’s actions had, for once, been unjustified.

Then he told Abbott about Mortimer Oliphant.

CHAPTER 20

Janet Delivers News of Importance

“WHAT DO you suggest we do, West?” asked Abbott.

“I don’t think we should act too quickly, do you?” Roger said. Abbott shook his head. “We’ve this list of names to investigate and when we’ve interviewed each man we should have a better idea of what it’s all about.”

Abbott looked surprised.

“The disposal of stolen goods, surely ?”

“Only that?” asked Roger.

“Do you think there’s something else?”

“They’ve gone pretty far for simple fencing,” Roger pointed out. “I think we ought to keep an open mind.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Theorising isn’t going to help much, but Pickerell wouldn’t keep tablets of cyanide of potassium handy because he was afraid of being picked up for trafficking in looted goods.”

“No,” admitted Abbott, “I had missed the significance of that.”

“And I think it knocks out the more straightforward crimes,” Roger went on. “It could be espionage very carefully hidden.”

“You’ve no hard and fast ideas?”

“I wish I had. All I feel is that it’s something of exceptional size. Malone’s gang, Oliphant, the Society — suggesting something which had been working for nearly three years — the murder of Joe Leech and, probably, that of Mrs Cox — add these things together and you have a formidable business, which no ordinary motive will account for.”

Abbott pressed the tips of his thin fingers together, admitting :

“I am inclined to agree.”

“And, of course, the Society is of primary importance,”, Roger said. “I wish I were more sure of Mrs Cartier. Perhaps she got in touch with me for some ulterior motive of her own and hasn’t told me all the truth. Have you had reports on her and her husband ?”

“Yes,” said Abbott. He pushed a file across. “Read the reports — there’s no hurry.”

The office, on the third floor of the Yard, was very quiet as Roger read through the report on Mrs Cartier. She was of French birth but had become a naturalised Englishwoman in 1946 — the year before her marriage to Sylvester Cartier. Daughter of a wealthy Lyons merchant, she had been educated in England for several years. She had been one of the first to offer hospitality to refugees from the iron curtain countries. According to the report, she had first thought of the League of European Relief when she had been approached by some East Germans of the professional classes. There were many cases of hardship. She had helped them and then extended her activities. The Society had been in being for a little more than a year and it had a great deal in its favour. Wealthy Europeans in England and on the Continent had contributed towards the funds. Apparently Mrs Cartier did most of the canvassing for money herself. There was nothing surprising in the fact that she obtained good results — most men would have found the way from their hearts to their pockets after a visit from Mrs Sylvester Cartier!

There was nothing beyond that and the fact that she had married Sylvester Cartier in 1947.

The second report, on her husband, was much more brief. Cartier had inherited a large fortune from his father, and Roger suddenly realised why the name was so familiar. Cartier ’ s Food Products, of course! They were known everywhere — the name was almost as familiar as Heinz, Chef or Brand. He felt annoyed with himself for having missed it.

Educated at Eton and Balliol, a dilettante, a collector of objets d ’ art and antique furniture, Cartier appeared to have lived a life of leisured ease. He was on the directors’ board of Carrier ’ s Food Products but apparently took little active interest in the company’s affairs. He had been prominent in polo circles, had travelled widely, had a much-renowned library, dabbled in philately, was a member of three exclusive clubs. ‘Correct’ was the word to apply to Sylvester Cartier; no man’s record could have been more in keeping with his elegant appearance. He always wintered in France. He had a house at Weybridge — Roger remembered seeing that in the telephone directory — as well as a flat in London under his wife’s name, and a large country house in Dorset.

Roger finished and looked up.

“There isn’t much to glean from those, is there?”

“Not a great deal about either of them,” said Abbott. “What the report doesn’t say is that Cartier has always mildly disapproved of his wife’s activities.”

Roger shrugged. “He would probably think that helping refugees was for the common people. Who are the family solicitors?”

Abbott smiled bleakly. “Not Oliphant! Rogerson, Keene, Keen and Rogerson, of Grays Inn Fields. Quite irreproachable.”

“Yes, I know.” Roger stood up and began to pace the office.

“They’re both so irreproachable that it seems almost too good to be true and yet I can’t help feeling that I am spreading suspicions too widely. Mrs Cartier might have meant everything she said. If Malone had the slightest suspicion that she was one of his employers, he wouldn’t have treated her so roughly. We’d better concentrate on the list of names and addresses.”

“Yes,” said Abbott. “Especially Oliphant.”

“Will you leave him to me?” Roger asked.

“To you?” asked Abbott, slowly, and then more briskly. “Yes, perhaps that’s wise, West. You won’t encourage Lessing or this friend of Miss Randall’s to do too much off their own bat, will you ?”

Roger smiled. “They’ll be good, I assure you !”

Two taxis passed him but were occupied. It would not take him twenty minutes to walk to the Legge Hotel, yet the fact that he could not get a cab annoyed him, and he thought longingly of his car. There was a garage at the hotel; it might be a good idea to go to Chelsea and drive to Buckingham Palace Gate.

Where was that taxi-driver, Dixon ?

Roger had telephoned the house several times, but Morgan’s man had nothing to report. He had asked Cornish, earlier in the day, to try to trace the man; no news meant that Cornish had failed. Dixon had followed Carder’s Daimler; the fact that he had not returned was peculiar.

He reached the hotel and told the others what had happened but was still preoccupied. There was no answer when he called Bell Street, but just before he went to bed the telephone rang. It was an apologetic Cornish who hoped he hadn’t brought Roger out of bed.

“Oh, no,” said Roger. “Have you found that cabby for me?”

“You mean Dixon?” said Cornish. “No, I haven’t, Roger. In fact, I meant to tell you earlier in the day that I was put on to another job and couldn’t follow it up myself. I did find out that he worked from a small Peckham garage, and I’ve just had a word with the night duty foreman. He says that Dixon hasn’t been home since yesterday morning. His wife had called only a few minutes before I did.”

“That’s odd,” Roger said.

“Yes,” Cornish dropped that subject and went on : “I’ve been with Smith of AZ Division most of the day, trying to find Malone and Pickerell. We haven’t had any luck. Malone’s reputation is worse than I thought it was. I should keep my eyes open, if I were you.”

“I’ve just about sized him up,” Roger said.

“I hoped you would. How are things?”

“I suppose I shouldn’t grumble,” Roger said.

Cornish rang off and Roger returned to the lounge. He stood in front of the fireplace with his hands deep in his trousers pockets. Mark contemplated him with a frown of concentration on his forehead. Janet had gone to bed and Tennant was pretending to be immersed in an evening paper.