Black Ship (21 page)

Alec gave her a sceptical look but didn’t comment. “What was he bullying her about?”

“I didn’t hear much. I gathered he wanted to see Mr. Jessup, who was travelling on the Continent. He seemed not to believe that Mrs. Jessup didn’t know exactly where he was or when he was due to come home. He gave up while I was still in the entrance hall, and I caught a glimpse as he left, but he’d already put on his hat and turned up his collar. He didn’t look at me, so, as I said, I didn’t get a good look at his face.”

“Tom?”

“You want the lot, Chief, or just the Jessups? Not that there’s much else.”

“Apparently we’re going to be concentrating on the Jessups, so let’s get the rest over with first. Mackinnon, did you get anything of interest?”

“Not a bite till I got to the Bennetts, sir. And then nothing actually useful, just a hint that they might have seen something.”

“You couldn’t get it out of them? They’re usually only too ready to spread stories.”

Mackinnon explained about Miss Bennett’s absence and Mr. Bennett’s evasions.

“I’d better have a word with him myself,” Alec said with a sigh.

“Darling, you’re not going to believe anything they say, are you? They’ll concoct a story just to make trouble. They’re utterly poisonous!”

“I know, Daisy, and I promise I’ll take their claims with a pinch of salt, but the fact is, they have the best view of the garden of anyone but us and the Jessups, and they’re notorious for keeping an eye on what’s going on. It’s just conceivable they actually did see something.”

“Then why wouldn’t he tell? Why did she go off with her mythical school friend?”

“Is the school friend mythical?”

“I don’t know,” Daisy conceded. “I’ve never heard of her before, but I don’t exactly go out of my way to chat with Miss Bennett.”

“Mackinnon?”

“I talked to the servants first, sir, before I talked to him. They told me she had gone to meet an old friend. When he told the same story, it never dawned on me that the friend might not exist.”

“No, why should it?”

“Well, sir, Mrs. Fletcher had warned us about the Bennetts not being entirely reliable.”

“She did, did she?” He glared at Daisy.

“Be reasonable, darling. I couldn’t let him walk into their lair assuming they were nice, normal people.”

“All the same, I should have—”

“Never mind, Mackinnon. It was natural to believe them, and it may even be true. But someone in the Circle may know if she exists. Ross, I’ll leave that to you. Ask the Bennett servants first whether they have heard of her before, or seen her. If not, go round the Circle, asking the ladies of the house whether Miss Bennett’s ever mentioned her. We may not get an answer, but it’ll give them all something to think about.”

And distract attention from the Jessups, Daisy hoped. The situation was beginning to look pretty black for them.

“I’ve got it, sir,” said Ross. “Right away?”

“Yes. It’s probably just a distraction, so let’s clear it out of the way. You can skip the Jessups, at number five. Report back here.”

Ross went out. Alec gazed thoughtfully at the remaining DC, Warren, whose cheeks were still fiery red from the flaming umbrella. He had had a hard day. His shoulders were slumped, and if it weren’t for the scorching, his eyebrowless face would probably be pale and wan, Daisy thought. He straightened under Alec’s gaze.

“How are you feeling, Warren?”

“A bit sore, sir, but I can carry on all right.”

“Good man. Go to the kitchen and ask Mrs. Dobson to give you some more ointment for that burn; then I want you to ring up the Yard and tell them to transfer calls to this number. Stay by the phone—there’s a chair beside it—ready to answer if anyone rings. We don’t want the parlour maid going on strike.”

Alec, Tom, and Mackinnon remained—and Daisy, who wondered if she was about to be ejected.

Alec subjected her to the same thoughtful gaze he had turned on Warren. She, too, felt the urge to straighten her shoulders. She resisted it.

“You know the Jessups quite well, don’t you?” he said.

She nodded. “As well as one can after being next-door neighbours for a few weeks.”

“You’d better stay. But you are not to pass on to them a single word of anything that’s said here.”

“Of course not, darling.”

“Tom, Mackinnon, as I’m sure you realise, I’m caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. The Jessups are my neighbours, and I’ve no desire to have to move out. The connection with the victim is not proof that any of the family had any hand in his death, even if he was here because of that connection. I’m not saying we will in any way compromise the
investigation. I’m saying tread gently, and above all, don’t talk about the case to anyone outside this room.”

“Right, Chief.”

“Yes, sir.”

“All right, Tom. Your turn.”

“Nothing of interest at numbers one to four. No one recognised Castellano’s photograph; no one had seen or heard anything. Three of the men had gone to work, and one housekeeper was out at the shops, so we’ll have to go back, but I doubt we’ll have any luck there.”

“All the ladies were at home?”

“Every one of ’em, Chief, and dying to know what’s happened. Miss Bennett leaving like that, it’s not natural.”

“Alec, you don’t suppose Miss Bennett could have killed Castellano?” Daisy asked.

“Highly unlikely. It must have taken considerable strength to move the body.”

“But if he helped her—”

“Then why didn’t he scarper too?” asked Tom.

“He’s verra arthritic and not a big man,” Mackinnon commented.

“We’ll keep them in mind, of course, Daisy, but don’t get your hopes up.”

Daisy was afraid he guessed that not only would she be happy to dispense with the Bennetts as neighbours but she was also doing her best to provide an alternative to the Jessups as chief suspects. Whenever she “interfered” (as he put it) in one of his cases, he accused her of trying to protect someone she was fond of, even to the extent of ignoring evidence against them. It wasn’t true. She never ignored real evidence, and he himself was always telling her hearsay and speculation were not evidence. It wasn’t her fault if sometimes it was not clear which was which.

Tom was continuing his report. “Before I reached number five, Mrs. Fletcher had a look at the photograph and recognised the victim, so I already knew he had visited the Jessups.
Their parlour maid, Miss Enid Bristow, identified him at once. She didn’t know his name—she said he had terrible manners and never gave it to her—but she’d admitted him to the house twice, before she was ordered not to. A smart girl, that.”

“Our maid’s sister,” said Daisy.

“Ah. I thought I detected a resemblance.”

“So you should. You’re a detective.”

Impatiently, Alec asked, “Did she know Castellano’s business?”

“Not much more than what Mrs. Fletcher happened to hear. He wanted to see Mr. Jessup and got pretty shirty when Mrs. Jessup wouldn’t tell him where her husband was.”

“I wonder why he didn’t go to the shop and talk to Aidan?” Daisy muttered. Then she wished she hadn’t.

Suppose Castellano had known Aidan—or, more likely, had known something about Aidan that he was going to report to Mr. Jessup. What was it Alec had mentioned as a possible reason for the Jessups and Mr. Irwin to be nervous of a policeman moving in next door? Evasion of duty on wine and spirits, that was it. Aidan was in charge of the financial side of the business. Suppose he had been paying the tax money to himself instead of the government? Aidan was Mr. Irwin’s daughter’s husband, so if the solicitor knew, he’d have every reason to be worried sick.

What a gift to a blackmailer! He could threaten Aidan with telling his father and threaten Mr. Jessup with telling Customs and Excise, which would probably ruin the business.

But how on earth could Castellano possibly have found out?

Not merely groundless speculation, but a wild flight of fancy, Alec would say if she told him. Much better not to.

“What did you say, Daisy?” he enquired, his tone of voice suggesting it was not the first time of asking.

“Oh, nothing.”

He raised his eyes to heaven in exasperation but did not press her. “Go on,” he said to Tom.

“The housekeeper only knew what Enid Bristow had told her, but at least she confirmed the girl wasn’t making it up on the spot for my benefit. There’s no lady’s maid. The nanny’s away, and the daily help ‘don’t know nothin’ about’,’ and doesn’t want to. The others don’t take her into their confidence.”

“What time does she leave?”

“Four o’clock. She has children coming home from school and her husband wanting his tea at six. She walks down through the garden, but she would have been too early to see anything yesterday evening. That’s assuming nothing happened before dusk. Mrs. Innes—that’s the cook-housekeeper—and Enid Bristow were busy from five to eight clearing up tea things and preparing dinner. I’m pretty sure neither could have got away without the other knowing about it.”

“And what about the family?”

“Ah, now that’s another story, Chief. Comings and goings like a merry-go-round.” Tom put on the wire-rimmed glasses he had recently taken to wearing for reading and took out his notebook. “Let me get this straight. I’ll start with what the servants told me.”

Alec nodded.

“First—being neighbours you’ll know this, I expect—the younger son, Patrick Jessup, has been abroad for some time, on his own. He’s always gone with his father before on these buying trips to the vineyards on the Continent.”

Daisy knew all that, and she was fairly certain she had told Alec. She couldn’t tell from his expression, though, whether he had actually been listening at the time, and remembered.

Tom moved on to the events of the previous night. “Patrick Jessup came home last night. They’re not sure exactly what time, just that it was after dark. He came in through the kitchen—said he wanted to surprise his parents, and besides he was starving and could do with a bite before dinner. He gave ’em each a kiss, and they agree he had beer on his breath. He said he’d stopped in at the Flask public house for old times’ sake.”

“We might be able to get a check on the time from the pub, but he was certainly out and about between five and eight.”

“Only thing is, Chief, he’d left the country before the first time the American turned up. Miss Bristow—Miss Enid Bristow’s sure of that.”

Alec frowned. “That does rather—No, it doesn’t. They could have met abroad. Possibly their meeting set the whole peculiar business in motion.” He scribbled a note to himself. “We’ll consider it later. Go on.”

“Patrick Jessup goes on up the back stairs. Next thing they know in the kitchen, before the maid’s had time to lay a place at table for him, is Mrs. Jessup coming down to say not to bother. With Patrick home, Aidan was going to catch the night express to the North.”

“Great Scott! Were they on such bad terms?”

“On the contrary, according to what I was told. Not to say there wasn’t an occasional spat. Like, f’rinstance, Aidan didn’t approve of this trip of Patrick’s. Mostly, they got on about as well as brothers can. No, it seems Aidan had been on the fidget for a couple of weeks on account of some urgent business needed doing up north, but his mother—their mother—didn’t want him to go while his brother was abroad.”

“They’d known about this for a couple of weeks, or they were told last night he’d been fretting to get away?”

“They knew, though it was a bit of a surprise that he up and left so quick. A cab pulled up and he was off and away before the others sat down to dinner. He was going to get a bite to eat at the station, so as to be sure of not missing the train.”

“He was in a tearing hurry, wasn’t he! Did you get any further explanation? What his urgent business was?”

“Yes, Chief.” Tom started to thumb through his notebook.

“Never mind; when you get to it. Go on with what the servants had to say.”

“Let’s see, now. Enid Bristow doesn’t serve at dinner. She takes the dishes in and they help themselves, so she only heard bits and pieces when she fetched plates and took in the next
course. Mr. Patrick seemed happy to be home, and Mrs. Jessup was happy he was home safe, and Mr. Jessup was pleased with some business he’d done. They all seemed cheerful, ‘cepting Mrs. Aidan, who was in the dumps because of her husband leaving. Leastways, that’s what Miss Bristow assumed was wrong with her.”

“She didn’t actually hear it said?”

“Not in so many words. But after dinner, when she took coffee to the drawing room, Mrs. Aidan asked her to help Nanny pack, because she was going to take the children to visit her sister while he was away. And this morning, off they went, with Patrick along to lend a hand.”

“Don’t tell me Patrick Jessup’s left town, too?” Alec demanded in dismay.

“
Hold on
, Chief!” said Tom. “Patrick didn’t go off with Mrs. Aidan. He just went to the station to see her and the children onto the train. Mrs. Fletcher telephoned the shop, or showroom, or whatever they call it….” He looked at Daisy.

“I was afraid you might think I ought to have stopped Audrey leaving,” she admitted, “though I really don’t see how I could have. But it seemed to me at least I could find out for you whether Patrick had hopped it, too. I rang up Jessup and Sons and asked for Aidan—”

“For Aidan!”

“Because I knew he wasn’t there.”

“For pity’s sake, Daisy!”

“Patience is a virtue,” she reminded him severely. “It worked just as I intended. The receptionist said he wasn’t available but either Mr. Jessup or Mr. Patrick could help me. I told her I really needed to speak to Mr. Aidan and asked when was he expected back. She said he was travelling on business and the date of his return was uncertain. So there you are. One flown, one in the bag.”

“I hope you didn’t leave your name,” Alec said acidly.

“Of course not, darling. And I put on Mother’s
grande dame
voice.”

“Thank heaven for small mercies!”

“Heaven had nothing to do with it. It was entirely my own notion.”

“And I suppose the notion didn’t dawn on you to warn me that Mr. and Mrs. Aidan were flitting?”