Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 2: Death in Ecstasy, Vintage Murder, Artists in Crime. Ngaio Marsh

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СКАЧАТЬ Garnette’s books? What books?’

      Mr Ogden looked remarkably sheepish.

      ‘Aw Gee!’ he said. ‘Just something for a rainy day. He loaned ’em to me. He said they were classics. Classics. And how? Boy, they were central-heated.’

      ‘Are they among the lot in brown paper covers, behind the others?’

      ‘You said it.’

      ‘And Claude Wheatley took them away?’

      ‘Sure. He told the maid Garnette had sent him for them. He wanted to keep hold of them because they were rare. I’ll say they were rare! Anyhow, that’s when I last remember anything about books. I suppose Garnette told Claude where they were.’

      ‘Was the Curiosities in your shelves then?’

      ‘Isn’t that what I’m aiming to remember!’ exclaimed Mr Ogden desperately. ‘Lemme think! Next day Claude told me he’d called for Garnette’s books and I said: “Those were the ones in brown-paper overalls,” and he said he’d recognized them by that.’

      ‘The Curiosities was not in a brown paper, then?’

      ‘No, sir. I’d no call to camouflage it. It was respectable.’

      Alleyn laughed.

      ‘Can you remember noticing it that day?’

      ‘Nope.’

      ‘Would you have noticed if it had already gone?’

      ‘Lordy, no!’ said Mr Ogden.

      He stared wildly into space for an appreciable time and then said slowly:

      ‘Not in that way. I wouldn’t have definitely missed it. But in another way I seem to remember not seeing it if you get me. It’s a red book. Seems like I remember not seeing a red book. That sounds crazy, I guess.’

      ‘On the contrary, this is all extremely interesting,’ said Alleyn.

      ‘Yeah? Well, here’s hoping it doesn’t interest you in Sam J. Ogden. Maybe Raveenje will recall me showing him the book. Or maybe one of the rest will. That,’ added Mr Ogden with a naîve smile, ‘is just why I thought I’d better come clean.’

      ‘Do you incline to think somebody took the book that evening, Mr Ogden?’

      ‘What the hell? I haven’t a notion when it was lifted.’

      ‘Have any of the Initiates been to see you since then?’

      ‘Sure, they have. I gave a little lunch last Wednesday for Cara and Raveenje and Garnette and Dagmar. Lemme see. Maurice and Janey were around last Sunday. That was the night Dr Kasbek came in. I haven’t had Claude and Lionel come in again. Those two queens give me a pain.’

      ‘Now look here, Mr Ogden, you’ve got your own ideas on the subject, haven’t you? You practically stated, just now, that you believed Mr Garnette had taken these bonds.’

      Mr Ogden looked extremely uncomfortable.

      ‘Didn’t you?’ pressed Alleyn.

      ‘I’m not saying a thing.’

      ‘Very well,’ said Alleyn shortly, ‘I can’t do anything against that,’

      Ogden gave him a sidelong but not unattractive grin.

      ‘Seems like the British police is kinda helpless,’ he said.

      ‘Seems like it,’ agreed Alleyn dryly. ‘How many of you are in this thing with Garnette?’

      ‘What the hell? In what thing?’

      He broke off, got to his feet, and stood glaring down at Alleyn, his face white and his eyes very angry.

      ‘See here,’ he said. ‘Just what do you mean? I’m not muscling in on any homicide rackets. I’ve told you a straight story about that book and I’m sticking to it. If you don’t believe me – find out.’

      ‘Mr Ogden, I fully believe your story. But there are more rackets than one, you know.’

      ‘Yeah? Just what are you aiming to insinuate?’

      ‘Merely that I have far too high an opinion of your intelligence to suppose that you would allow yourself to become as enamoured of transcendental mumbo-jumbo as you would have me believe.’

      ‘Are you telling me the spiritual dope we hand out here is phoney?’

      ‘I’m saying that you aren’t so hypnotized by it that you’ve lost your business man’s acumen.’

      Mr Ogden looked very hard at the inspector and a slow grin began to dawn on his face.

      ‘And I’m saying,’ Alleyn continued, ‘that you don’t float anything with big fat cheques unless you’re going to get a more tangible return for your money than a dose of over-proof spiritual uplift.’

      ‘Maybe,’ said Mr Ogden with a fat chuckle.

      ‘In short, Mr Ogden, I want to know how you stand as regards the finance of this affair. I’ve got to find out how everybody stands. It’s no good mincing matters. All of the Initiates come under suspicion of this crime; yourself as much as anyone. Believe me, you cannot afford to keep back any information when there’s a capital charge in the offing.’

      ‘Just when did you get your big idea that I’m interested financially?’

      ‘I got it the first time I saw you. I know that there are, if you will forgive me for saying so, many hard-headed Americans who can be taken in by highly-coloured religious sects. I told myself you might be one of them, but somehow I didn’t think you were. You seemed to me to be too shrewd. Your attitude towards Mr Garnette, when the theft of the bonds was discovered, confirmed my opinion. Of course, if you prefer not to tell me how matters stand, we can ferret round and find out. Mr Garnette is now so alarmed he will no doubt be ready to give me his version.’

      ‘Like hell he will, the dirty what’s it,’ said Mr Ogden indignantly. ‘See here, Chief, you win this deal, hands down. Bar one point. Until today I was putting my OK stamp on the doctrine of the Sacred Flame. I’ve never backed a phoney deal in my life and I’m not starting in now. No, sir. The Sacred Flame and Jasper Garnette looked like clean peppy uplift to me. When Garnette and me met up on that trip, he outlined his scheme and he slipped me the line of talk. He told me it’d need capital. Well, I heard him address the passengers and the way he had those society dames asking if he’d accept ten dollars as a favour for the Seamen’s Fund got me thinking. Before we landed I’d figured it out. I floated the concern on a percentage basis and Garnette couldn’t have done it without me. We were in cahoots, and now, the dirty so-and-so, he’s pulled out those bonds on me.’

      ‘Are there any other shareholders?’

      ‘M. de Raveenje put five hundred pounds into it. All he could find. The slump hit him up some. Say, I reckon he’ll want to know the how-so about those bonds. He’s СКАЧАТЬ