The next morning Freddy went to call upon Larry Bendish.
‘Hallo, old chap,’ said Larry. ‘Oughtn’t you to be at work?’
‘I am,’ said Freddy. ‘I was just on my way to somewhere else, but I thought I’d better come and see you first.’
‘I say, you look rather serious,’ said Larry. ‘Has something happened?’
‘They’ve arrested Nancy Beasley on suspicion of murdering Ticky Maltravers,’ said Freddy.
‘Good God!’ said Larry in astonishment. ‘Nancy? She didn’t do it, did she?’
‘That’s what I’d like to find out,’ said Freddy. ‘I think probably not, but the police found a bottle of nicotine in her bag, and her name written in the poison-book of a chemist’s shop on Oxford Street.’
‘But that’s hardly conclusive, is it? I mean to say, she might have bought it for quite innocent reasons.’
‘True, but unfortunately she’d already told the police she’d never bought the stuff in her life.’
‘Oh,’ said Larry. ‘I wonder how it got there, then.’
‘So do I,’ said Freddy. ‘Listen, I’d like to ask you something. It’s a silly question, but I’d just like to be sure.’
‘Go on.’
‘You didn’t kill Ticky, did you?’
‘I?’ said Larry. ‘Of course not. Whatever makes you think I did?’
‘I don’t know that I do. But I do know you took the flask into Babcock’s that night, so you had the opportunity to put the poison into it, just as everybody else did.’
‘Perhaps. But why should I want to kill him? I had no reason to.’
‘Didn’t you?’ said Freddy, then, as Larry did not reply, went on, ‘I know what Ticky was, and I know pretty much everybody had a reason to kill him.’
Larry regarded him silently.
‘All right, then,’ he said at length. ‘I’ll come clean. I wish I had killed him, and I envy the murderer for getting there first, because I can’t promise I wouldn’t have done it if I’d ever had the chance. But I wouldn’t have poisoned him—that’s a coward’s way of doing things. I’d have shot him, or perhaps even strangled him with my bare hands, just to see the look on his face when he finally realized he was getting his just deserts.’
‘I say, that’s rather bloodthirsty,’ said Freddy.
‘If you know what he was then you’ll know why I hated him so much,’ said Larry.
‘What about Weaver?’
‘Who? Oh, the manservant, you mean?’
‘Yes. He was proposing to take over the business after Ticky died. I suppose you didn’t have anything to do with his death either?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Did the police ask you for an alibi?’
‘No, but they asked Mother for hers, which just happens to be me. I’d been out with Ann, but she went home early, and when I got back my mother was there. That was at about ten, and they were interested in the time between then and one o’clock. So we both give each other an alibi—unless you think we both did it.’
‘No, I don’t think you did,’ said Freddy. There was a look on his face that might have been sympathy.
‘Kind of you,’ said Larry. ‘Was there anything else? Any other murders you’d like to pin on me while you’re here?’
‘No, thank you,’ said Freddy. ‘I think I’d better be going.’
Larry followed him out to the front door, slightly bemused at the visit.
‘I’ll see you later,’ he said.
‘Perhaps,’ said Freddy. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘What for?’
‘For the blunt questions—and other things.’
‘You’re being very cryptic.’
Freddy said nothing, but gave him an odd look and left. Twenty minutes later he walked into Scotland Yard and asked to speak to Inspector Entwistle. The inspector was not in, but Sergeant Bird would see him. Freddy had been hoping for this, and was slightly relieved that he would not have to hand his evidence to the stern inspector.
‘Hallo,’ said Sergeant Bird as Freddy entered. ‘Come to tell me another tall story, have you? Don’t think I don’t know what you did with that flask. I can’t prove it yet, but I will one of these days, just you wait.’
‘Look here, sergeant,’ said Freddy seriously. ‘I’d like to call a truce, if you will. I’ve done my best not to ruin your investigation. It’s just that sometimes one accidentally—er—gets in the way, so to speak. But I’ve something important to tell you, and I think you ought to listen to it.’
‘Oh, do you, now?’ said Bird.
Freddy brought out the clipping he had found in among Ticky’s papers and pushed it across the desk to the sergeant, who glanced at it curiously.
‘I expect you’ve deduced by now that Ticky Maltravers was a blackmailer,’ said Freddy. ‘He held secrets on all his friends, and extorted money from them in return for his silence.’
‘We did have an inkling of that nature, yes,’ said Bird cautiously.
‘Well, naturally, in view of that fact, you could hardly expect any of them to be particularly interested in whether you caught his murderer or not. Most of them said good riddance and were happy to wash their hands of him—and Weaver, who was intending to continue with the blackmail.’
‘Was he, now?’ said the sergeant. ‘How do you know that?’
‘Because he told me so,’ said Freddy.
‘Was he blackmailing you?’
‘Not me, no, but a number of people of my acquaintance. Now, I’m not here to tell you everybody’s secrets, since they’re none of my business or yours. I mean to say, it’s a bit rich to have spent years paying to have one’s peccadillos kept quiet, only to find the police thundering about and asking pointed questions of one when the blackmailer gets his comeuppance—especially if one had nothing to do with his death, don’t you think?’
‘It doesn’t matter what I think,’ said Bird. ‘The law’s the law, and killing people’s against it.’
‘True enough. But the idea of a desperate and unhappy victim administering justice with his own hands, and then being punished for it, doesn’t sit well with me—or with you, I imagine. As a right-minded sort, I don’t suppose you’ve shed too many tears over Ticky either.’
‘Perhaps not, but it’s still my duty to find out who killed him. I hope you’re not about to ask us to turn a blind eye,’ said the sergeant, drawing himself up.
‘No, no, not at all,’ Freddy hastened to assure him. ‘Quite the contrary, in fact. Even though I think people ought to be entitled to be naughty in private without the police sticking their noses in, I do have the wit to understand that all these secrets may have a bearing on the murders.’
‘Clever, aren’t you?’
‘So they tell me,’ said Freddy. ‘But that’s beside the point. I don’t want anyone to suffer unnecessarily, so in the interests of clearing up all the confusion and seeing that justice is done, I’m here to tell you I think I may know who did it—and it wasn’t Mrs. Beasley.’
‘And you’ve come to turn him in, after all you said about desperate and unhappy people?’
‘Ah, now, there’s the thing. Like everyone else, I expect the murderer wasn’t too pleased about being blackmailed, but there’s much more to it than that. I think Ticky and Weaver were killed to put an end to their activities, but their murders were merely incidental to the real crime. As a matter of fact, I believe the person in question is planning another murder—a cold and deliberate one this time.’
Sergeant Bird glanced curiously at the clipping Freddy had given him, then looked up.
‘Go on,’ he said.