The next few days were busy ones for Freddy. First, his arm needed attention; although he was in some pain, he was relieved to hear that the wounds were fairly superficial, and would heal nicely with care and a little rest. After that, he spent some time in conference with the men of Scotland Yard, who were now inclined to take his view of the case, since well-bred young ladies did not, as a rule, tend to visit young men in their own homes with a view to stabbing them in the back, and so it could be fairly inferred that this was a matter that required investigation. Ann Chadwick had been arrested on a charge of attempted murder, and evidence was now beginning to come to light that seemed to show she was also responsible for the deaths of Ticky Maltravers and James Weaver. The proprietor of the chemist’s shop from which the nicotine had been purchased could not positively identify the person who had bought the poison, but the signature in the poison-book—although a fair imitation—was certainly not that of Nancy Beasley. Then the knife Ann had brought with her to kill Freddy was shown to be one of a pair—the other having been used to murder Weaver. Furthermore, she could not or would not say where she had been on the night of Weaver’s death—and in fact, was maintaining a stubborn silence in the face of any attempts to question her. All in all, there seemed no further reason to continue holding Mrs. Beasley in prison, and so she was released, to her very great joy.
‘I don’t recommend these sorts of goings-on, sir,’ said Sergeant Bird on Wednesday afternoon. He had come to Freddy’s flat to examine the scene of the fight, and had found Freddy lounging artistically on a sofa with his bandage arranged to its greatest advantage. ‘You might have been killed.’
‘True,’ said Freddy. ‘But think of the time and effort I’ve saved you. Why, if I hadn’t lured her into my trap, the thing might have dragged on for months, since I refuse to believe a judge would have done anything but throw out the case against Mrs. Beasley on such flimsy evidence.’
‘There’s not a great deal of evidence against Miss Chadwick, either,’ said Bird. ‘If she hadn’t tried to kill you, then we might have had difficulty in prosecuting anybody at all. I suppose we ought to thank you, even if it was a very foolish thing to do on your part.’
‘Yes, it occurred to me as soon as she hacked a hole in my arm that perhaps I’d bitten off a little more than I could chew. It’s not the sort of thing I’d normally do. In fact, to be perfectly frank, I can’t think what got into me.’
‘A knife, sir.’
‘Oh, very good,’ said Freddy appreciatively. ‘Do they teach you jokes like that at police school? Would they accept me, do you think?’
‘I beg your pardon, but a policeman is required to demonstrate evidence of good character and high moral standing—at least, I seem to remember that’s what they call it.’
‘Are you suggesting I lack those qualities, sergeant?’
‘I couldn’t say, sir. Which reminds me: you don’t happen to know anything about the child’s toy cart we found while we were searching Mrs. Pilkington-Soames’s house, do you?’
Freddy raised his eyebrows politely.
‘A child’s toy cart, you say? Why, no, I don’t think so. I used to have something of the kind myself, but I thought it had been thrown away long ago. Is it still there?’
‘It is indeed,’ said the sergeant.
‘Were you thinking of taking it down Parliament Hill?’ said Freddy. ‘I doubt it would hold your weight.’
‘Probably not. But it’s had something heavy in it lately, by the looks of it. There are several cracks in the wood that look very recent.’
‘Perhaps someone’s been carrying coal in it,’ suggested Freddy.
‘Not coal, I don’t think,’ said Bird. ‘But I’m pretty certain someone’s been pushing it about in the street. There were some flecks of dried black paint on it that looked as though they might have come from the railings in Eaton Terrace—or possibly even Caroline Terrace.’
‘How very odd.’
‘It is, isn’t it?’
‘Still, I don’t suppose it has anything to do with the murder,’ said Freddy. ‘After all, we know who did it.’
‘But there are still some things we don’t know. For instance, two doctors have sworn that Mr. Maltravers’ body was moved after he died.’
‘Yes, I remember you said something of the sort. Might they have made a mistake?’
‘Not likely, is it?’ said Bird.
‘Well, then, perhaps someone found him in the street and decided to move him out of the way for one reason or another. It was probably something quite innocent, and nothing to worry about.’
‘Perhaps not, but it confused the investigation no end. If we’d found him where he died then we might have solved the case much more quickly.’
‘Still, no harm done, eh?’ said Freddy. ‘You found the murderer and we can all go on as we were before.’
‘That’s as may be, but I might hope that whoever was responsible for moving the body would have the sense in future not to interfere with the police in the carrying-out of their duty,’ said Bird with some emphasis.
‘Oh, I agree with you absolutely,’ said Freddy sincerely. ‘But as I think I said to you before, sometimes people accidentally get in the way, and it can’t be helped.’
Having demonstrated to his satisfaction that he was not to be taken for a fool, Sergeant Bird shortly afterwards went away, leaving Freddy to trust that the subject of Ticky Maltravers’ final journey might never be brought up again. He was feeling tired, and was just settling himself back against the cushions in preparation for a nap, when his mother arrived.
‘What are you doing, lolling about at this time of day?’ she said. ‘Oughtn’t you to be up by now?’
‘I was feeling a little weak,’ he replied. ‘Loss of blood, you know. It makes one rather tired.’
‘Nonsense. It was barely a scratch, and you’ve had ages to recover. Listen, I’ve come because I need your help. Marjorie Belcher is holding an afternoon tea today for her saved women in Clerkenwell, and Nancy and I were supposed to be setting everything up in the church hall, but of course Nancy can’t do it now, so you’ll have to come with me instead.’
‘Why can’t Nancy do it? I thought she’d been released.’
‘So she has, but Denis is whisking her off to the Riviera for the winter, so she won’t be doing any of this sort of thing for a while,’ said Cynthia. ‘I’m rather cross with her for leaving it all to me, as a matter of fact. I only got in with Mrs. Belcher in the first place because Nancy begged me, and now she’s left me in the lurch, and I’m afraid there won’t be enough helpers to keep an eye on things. If you ask me, it’s a waste of time trying to help these women, anyway. Most of them only come for the free tea and cakes, and I’m perfectly convinced they go back to drinking as soon as they get home. And I’m not entirely sure they’re all as honest as they’d like us to believe. There’s one girl in particular I shall be keeping my eye on, who has an especially wicked look about her. I had to speak to her for insubordination at the reception the other week, and she was most impertinent. Then afterwards we found quite a few spoons and things were missing. I can’t prove it was her, but she’s the brazen sort so I shouldn’t be a bit surprised.’
‘If she was stealing the silver then I don’t suppose she’ll be back,’ said Freddy, who had a suspicion as to the identity of the young woman to whom his mother was referring. He wondered, not for the first time, why Valentina Sangiacomo was pretending to be down on her luck and accepting Mrs. Belcher’s charity, for he was sure she had no need of anything of the sort—and, indeed, seemed perfectly capable of looking after herself without anyone’s patronage. He resolved that if he ever met her again he would find out all he could about her, for she struck him as a most interesting individual, and a person worth knowing—provided he kept a hand on his pocket-book whenever she were near.
‘Anyway, I must go, darling,’ said Cynthia. ‘I’m glad to see you’re on the mend—although of course it serves you right, since you really oughtn’t to be inviting girls here even if they’re not planning to kill you.’
‘I didn’t—’ began Freddy, but she was not listening, and went on:
‘I know we’re all very modern these days, but it’s not quite the done thing, and you might get into trouble if you’re not careful. In my day there’d have been the most awful to-do if my father had found me visiting young men without a chaperone. Not that I’d have dreamed of it, of course, but there was one young man who was rather insistent. Very handsome, too, as I remember. However, it’s a good thing your father stepped in first, as the other one lost both his legs in the war, and if I’d married him then we wouldn’t be sitting here now, would we? Now, you’d better not lie there all morning. I shall come back at two and we’ll go to this place together. You’ll be no good for hanging bunting with that arm of yours, but I dare say you can hold a teapot.’
And with that she departed as briskly as she arrived, leaving Freddy to fall into a comfortable doze.