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

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СКАЧАТЬ we’d better have a look at it. I wonder where Mr Garnette keeps his.’

      ‘Most likely at his bank. He’s a wise coon!’

      ‘You are convinced Garnette took the bonds?’

      ‘I wish to God I wasn’t,’ said Mr Ogden unexpectedly. ‘I – I kind of reverenced that guy. Me! Maybe I’ll learn sense – next year.’

      ‘Did you keep books?’

      ‘Yes, sir. I did the books and Raveenje and Garnette could see them at any time. Raveenje has got them home right now.’

      ‘How did it work?’

      ‘Like any regular company. I’m the biggest shareholder – I put up the most dollars. Garnette is paid a salary and he draws twenty per cent of the profits. That was square enough.’

      ‘Do you know Mr Garnette is a fellow-countryman of yours?’

      ‘Mr Ogden looked as if he might be a sign for an inn called The Incredulous Man. ‘Forget it,’ he said briefly. ‘Him! No, sir! We certainly breed one brand of polecat, but it ain’t called Garnette. Look at his line of talk! Where do you get that stuff anyway?’

      ‘You might say,’ said Alleyn with a glance at Fox, ‘that the gentleman told me himself.’

      ‘Then he piled up one more lie on to his total.’

      ‘Ah, well,’ sighed Alleyn, ‘I think that’s all for the moment, Mr Ogden.’

      ‘Good! But listen, Chief, I don’t want to get in wrong over the financial side of his joint. Get this. I put up the dollars. I saw it as a commercial proposition and I backed it. I’ve run my department straight and I’ve had no more’n my fair share. Same goes for Raveenje. He’s on the level all right. I look at it this way. This temple has brought colour and interest into folk’s lives. I’d thought it was something more than that, day-before-yesterday, when Garnette looked like a regular guy. But even if Garnette’s synthetic, and he certainly is, it’s been a great little party.’ He paused and then repeated as though it was a manufacturer’s slogan: ‘It has brought colour and interest into otherwise drab and grey lives.’

      ‘Together with hysteria and heroin, Mr Ogden.’

      Nigel, who had managed to make unostentatious shorthand notes throughout this interview, now watched Ogden eagerly. Would this shot go home? He decided that the American’s astonishment bore the unmistakable stamp of sincerity.

      ‘What the sweltering hell d’you mean?’ asked Ogden. ‘Heroin? Snow? Who’s doping in this crowd? By heck!’ he added after a moment’s pause, ‘is that what’s wrong with young Pringle? Who’s started it?’

      ‘To the best of my belief, Mr Garnette.’

      The American swore, heartily, solidly, and with lurid emphasis. Alleyn listened politely, Fox with a dispassionate air of expert criticism.

      ‘By God,’ ended Mr Ogden, ‘I wish to – I’d never touched this – concern. Never no more! It’s taken a murder to put me wise, but never no more. Say, listen. Chief, as God’s my witness I never – Aw, what’s the use?’

      ‘It’s all right,’ said Alleyn quietly. ‘We have been told you were not mixed up in it.’

      ‘How’s that?’

      ‘Pringle told me. Don’t worry about it too much, Mr Ogden. We’re not going to pull you in for drug-running.’

      Ogden looked nervously from Fox to Alleyn.

      ‘Not for drug-running,’ he said. ‘I’m not raving about the way you said it.’

      ‘Now look here,’ said Alleyn, ‘don’t you go making things more difficult by getting the wind up. I can’t go round like a child in a nursery game saying: “It isn’t you! It isn’t you!” until I get to the “he.” I can only repeat my well-worn slogan that the innocent are safe as long as they stick to the truth.’

      ‘I hope to hell you’re right.’

      ‘Of course I’m right. It’ll come out what the Australians call “jakealoo.” Have any of the Initiates ever been to Australia, do you know?’

      ‘I don’t know, Chief. I haven’t.’

      ‘They have a strong way of putting things there. But I wander. Don’t worry, Mr Ogden.’

      ‘That blamed book! If only I knew when it went.’

      ‘Never mind about the book. I think I can guess when it went and who took it.’

      ‘Well, ain’t you the clam’s cuticle!’ said Mr Ogden.

       CHAPTER 18 Contribution from Miss Wade

      After Miss Ogden had gone Alleyn thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and stood staring at Fox.

      ‘What are we to make of all this, Fox?’ he asked. ‘What do you make of it? You’re looking very blank and innocent, and that means you’ve got hold of an idea.’

      ‘Not to say an idea, sir. I wouldn’t go so far as that. I’ve been trying to string up a sequence as you might say.’

      ‘May we hear it? I’ve got to such a state I hardly know which of these creatures is which.’

      ‘Now, then, sir,’ said Fox good-humouredly, ‘you know we won’t believe that. Well, this is as far as I’ve got. We know Miss Quayne went out yesterday afternoon. We know she came here between two-thirty and three. We know she got some sort of a shock while she was here. We know the bonds were stolen, but we don’t know when. We know she was murdered last night.’

      ‘True, every word of it.’

      ‘Starting from there,’ continued Fox in his slow way, ‘I’ve wondered. I’ve wondered whether she discovered the theft yesterday afternoon and whether the thief knew she discovered it. She used the word “discovery” in her note. Now if Garnette pinched the bonds she didn’t know it was him or she wouldn’t have left that note for him. That’s if the note was meant for him, and I don’t see how it could be otherwise. Well, say the safe was open when she got here and for some reason she wanted to see the bonds and found they were gone. She perhaps hung round waiting for him until the people began to come in for the afternoon show – the chauffeur chap said they did – and then came away leaving the note. I don’t quite like this,’ continued Fox. ‘It’s got some awkward patches in it. Why did she put the bonds away all tidily? Would the safe be unlocked?’

      ‘She might,’ said Alleyn, ‘have met somebody who said something to upset her. Something about –’

      ‘I say,’ interrupted Nigel. ‘Suppose she met somebody who said they suspected Garnette of foul play and she wanted to warn Garnette against them? How’s that?’

      ‘Not a bad idea, sir. СКАЧАТЬ