Monday 30th December 1929, Newcastle upon Tyne
Detective Chief Inspector Sandy Hawkes steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair. ‘So are you saying Miss Vale is lying?’
Jannie van Lelyveld, handcuffed, sat on the opposite side of the table in the interrogation room at the Pilgrim Street police station. He glowered at Clara, who could still not quite believe that the police inspector had allowed her to sit in on the interrogation.
‘If she’s saying I killed Sybil Langford, then yes, she’s lying. And she’s certainly lying if she says I killed Isobel Baxter. I wasn’t even in Newcastle when that happened. I was in York. I was having a Christmas Eve meal at the Kings Arms pub. You can check with them. I was there under my own name – I booked ahead, so I’ll be in their reservation book – and had their turkey special.’
‘Thank you, I will ask Inspector Bradshaw in York to follow that up. So, you weren’t in Newcastle on Christmas Eve but Wally Ransom was. Can you tell me how the two of you are connected? And please don’t waste our time by saying you’re not; we have numerous witnesses who will testify that you were seen drinking together at the York Theatre Royal.’
‘I know Wally.’
‘And did you ask him to search Sybil Langford’s room the night she disappeared in York?’
‘I did not.’
‘Wally says you did.’
Clara flashed a look at Hawkes. Really?
Hawkes nodded. ‘As of ten o’clock last night, Wally Ransom has been in the custody of Scotland Yard. He fled to London after he heard that Jeremy Iceton had been arrested in York. The Metropolitan police tracked him down when he couldn’t resist standing up and singing a few tunes at a Soho pub. He’s now singing like a bird at Scotland Yard.’ Hawkes smiled at his own joke. ‘So, to speed things along here … we already know that you asked Jeremy Iceton to purchase 10 River View Row for you in exchange for a donation to the theatre – most likely as a way to launder money; we’ll be getting the police accountants to look at the books. And we know that you asked Wally Ransom to search Sybil’s room at Minster View Boarding House the night she disappeared, to look for her wand. You, Wally and Sybil had agreed in London to replace the wand’s fake jewels with the real diamonds you had stolen. That they were going to make it all the way to Newcastle then you would switch the wands and take the jewels over to Holland on the ferry. Wally was going to get one of the diamonds as payment for his collaboration. But Sybil was starting to act erratically, and you were both worried she would back out of the deal. So you decided to get the diamond wand back from her in York instead.’
Jannie remained impassive.
Hawkes continued. ‘Wally told us that you and he met after the show and you told him Sybil was supposed to have brought the wand to your meeting. But she hadn’t. She was ill and said she couldn’t remember where it was. You asked him to check if she’d left it in her dressing room, or if not there, at the boarding house. But the wand wasn’t there. After she died – obviously without having told you where the wand was – you broke into the props store at the York Theatre Royal. Miss Vale here took some prints, and we sent them to Scotland Yard. They matched them to the prints they had of you when you were brought in for questioning about the diamond heist. The one you were cleared of after Sybil gave you an alibi.
‘Sybil did a lot for you, it seems, so why did you treat her so badly?’ asked Hawkes.
‘I didn’t treat her badly. I looked after her.’
‘Really? That’s a funny way of looking at it. Wally told us you told him you were going to keep Sybil under lock and key for a few days, for her own safety – those were his words – and that when she was better you would get her to tell you where the wand was. But she didn’t get better, did she, Jannie? She got worse, both physically and mentally. But somehow, she managed to escape the house – wearing the fairy godmother dress but leaving behind her underwear and shoes (which we’ve retrieved, by the way) – and then, bizarrely, took off her dress and went into the river. Or did you strip her naked and push her in?’
Jannie stared daggers at the inspector. ‘I didn’t push her. I had nothing to do with her going into the river.’
‘But you did hold her captive though. We have evidence of that.’
Jannie scowled but didn’t speak. ‘I’ll be wanting a lawyer.’
‘Your lawyer’s on his way. We’ll let him in when he arrives.’
Clara had a few questions of her own but wasn’t sure if Hawkes would let her speak. She chipped in anyway. ‘Why didn’t you take Sybil to the hospital when she was so obviously sick? If you said you wanted her to get well so she could tell you where the wand was, why didn’t you help her to get better?’
Jannie sighed. ‘I didn’t think she was that sick. I thought she just had a touch of flu. But she got worse and worse.’
‘As you knew would happen when you poisoned her – repeatedly – with belladonna,’ said Clara.
Hawkes was watchful but nodded for Clara to continue.
‘Why did you poison her?’ asked Clara, leaning forward.
‘I didn’t!’ spat Jannie. ‘I know nothing about any poison.’
‘And why did you poison Isobel Baxter? And why did you steal her wand?’
‘I didn’t,’ said Jannie again, more quietly this time.
‘Then who did?’ asked Hawkes, matching his tone to Jannie’s.
Jannie shrugged. ‘Ask Wally. He might know.’
‘Oh, we will,’ said Hawkes. ‘Don’t you worry about that.’
‘So,’ said Clara, emboldened. ‘Where did you learn about belladonna poisoning and why did you decide to put it in the face cream and the tea? Why both?’
‘I told you, I didn’t! I couldn’t have. As will soon be proved, if PC Plod here does his job – I was in York on Christmas Eve.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Hawkes. ‘But PC Plod asked me to remind you that you do not have to have put the poison in the tea or the cream yourself to be an accessory to murder. So, when Wally Ransom finally admits to it – as he no doubt will, saying he was doing it on your behest will be a way of minimising his role – you’ll be up to your ears in it, matey. So why don’t you save us all some time and tell us why and how you did it?’
Hawkes leaned in menacingly. Jannie looked like he would throttle the policeman if he wasn’t handcuffed. But before the standoff could go any further there was a knock on the door. The sergeant stepped in to announce the lawyer had arrived.
Hawkes and Clara stepped out of the interrogation room as Jannie’s lawyer went in.
‘He’ll need a couple of hours with his client before I can speak to him again.’
‘Should I stick around?’ asked Clara, hoping the answer would be yes.
‘No need. I wanted you there to back me up with any questions about the poisoning. From a scientific point of view. Dr Malone is still busy with that car crash victim. But there’s not much more we can do for now. I think we’ve got him pretty sewn up on the diamond theft and kidnapping of Sybil, but it’s far more tenuous about the murders. Particularly Isobel’s. Unless, of course, we can get some actual evidence tying him to the poison. But thank you for your help so far. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll need to telephone York for them to check up on his alibi – but I think he was telling the truth about that – and I’ll speak to Scotland Yard to see if they’ve got any more out of Wally.’
‘Do you think Wally was the one who poisoned Sybil and Isobel?’ asked Clara.
‘That’s the theory I’m working on, yes. Whether at the behest of van Lelyveld or off his own bat needs to be determined. But he’s the one with means and opportunity. We’ll just have to wait to hear if he carries on singing. Thanks again for your help. I’ll be in touch.’
And with that she was dismissed. Frustrated, there was nothing for it but for Clara to head back to her office. When she arrived, Bella was already there, having just supervised the installation of a second desk. (As she had rightly pointed out, they couldn’t share the one.) She was now plugging away at the typewriter, practising with one finger.
Clara smiled. ‘We’ll get you some typing lessons in the new year. It’s not as easy as it looks, is it?’
‘No, miss, it’s not!’
Clara took off her hat and coat while Bella put the kettle on. What a relief it was that the office was finally warm! As the women sipped their tea Clara filled Bella in on what had happened at the police station.
‘So he hasn’t admitted to killing Sybil?’
‘Quite the opposite. He said he was trying to save her.’
‘And you believe him?’
Clara shrugged. ‘In some respects, yes. I have thought for quite a while that Sybil wandered into the river herself in a confused state. So no, I don’t think he pushed her in the river to drown her – unlike with me! Although give him his due, he didn’t actually push me either; I went in myself. But the question that remains is whether he was involved in her poisoning and if so, if he knew it might kill her. I think I believe him when he says he was hoping Sybil would get better so she could tell him where the diamonds were. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t poison her in the first place. To what end, I’m still not quite sure.’
Bella took a sip of tea. ‘Yes, it doesn’t seem to make sense, does it? What he wants is the diamonds. I can see how kidnapping ties into that, but not poisoning. But this Wally Ransom fella, as you’ve described him, seems to be a more likely suspect. He hated Sybil. There’d been bad blood between them going back years. Maybe it was the same with Isobel – they’re both from this area, so maybe they had a past, too. From what you’ve said, miss, he sounds petty and jealous. Might he just have poisoned them out of spite? And thinking about the way he did it – first with the cream. It caused a rash. It made them ugly. It’s as if he wanted to spoil their beauty.’
Clara’s eyes lit with cognition. ‘That’s absolutely it, Bella! That’s exactly the psychology that’s at play here.’
Bella frowned. ‘The sy-what?’
Clara smiled. ‘Sorry, the psychology. It means the way the mind works. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here, Bella. This is a crime of spite. Jannie is motivated by greed, not spite. At least as far as I can tell. Oh, how I wish I was in London now to speak to Wally!’
And then the telephone rang.
Bella didn’t move.
‘Go on,’ said Clara, ‘time to practise your receptionist voice.’
Bella gave a rakish grin, grabbed the gooseneck phone and picked up the receiver. Then in her poshest voice said: ‘Vale Investigations. How can I help you?’
Clara gave her an encouraging smile.
Bella listened and nodded, then her eyes grew wide. ‘Bloody hell! Sorry, I mean good grief! Yes, of course Miss Vale is here. I’ll put her on.’
She handed the phone to Clara with a stage whisper: ‘You’re not going to believe it!’
And Clara didn’t at first. But as she listened it started to make more and more sense. As soon as she put down the phone she ransacked her satchel for her notebook then paged through it until she found the interview notes she was looking for. ‘Yes!’ she shouted. ‘That’s it! Bella, ring the police station and tell Inspector Hawkes to meet me at Stanhope Boarding House – where the Starlight Players were staying – immediately. If you can’t get through on the phone, run there, as fast as you can. Tell him I’ve found the proof of the poisoning.’