The Dusky Hour (33 page)

“Yes, sir,” answered Bobby. “Larson himself. It will be plainer in the enlargement, though through a magnifying-glass his face is plain enough. What's more, he's holding a pistol in his hand – the light just catches it under that branch. When it's enlarged, the bent foresight and dented barrel will be quite plain and will identify it as Mr. Moffatt's missing automatic we know was used. Larson had plenty of opportunities for getting hold of it. Miss Moffatt saw him once, looking in the drawer where it was kept, though probably he didn't take it then. Most likely he only saw it that time and afterwards remembered where it was.”

“You say Larson himself gave you the photo? What on earth...?”

“He didn't realise he himself was shown on it; he was trying to implicate Hayes, and at the same time provide an excuse for his presence at Way Side. He knew – Mrs. O'Brien told him – Hayes had taken a photo of her and Bennett together. He did not know, as we did, that Hayes had a perfectly good alibi for the actual moment of the shooting – thanks to the egg gatherer's testimony. All Hayes had wanted was actual evidence that Mrs. O'Brien still had a husband living and was meeting him in secret. The moment he got that by snapping them together he slipped away, and, luckily for him, met the egg gatherer. Larson had no idea he had been caught in the same snap; he didn't realise how plainly his face showed behind the bush he thought covered him. Hayes knew it, of course; knew it as soon as he developed the snap. He was holding the evidence up, partly to keep a hold on Larson and partly because gentlemen like Mr. Hayes like to keep as far away from police inquiries as they can. But chiefly, I think, because he wanted us to arrest Thoms. He was getting nervous about Thoms.”

“Where does Thoms come in?” the colonel asked. “I don't understand that. You say his name is really Oulton?”

“It's a long story,” Bobby answered. “Begins years ago, when money was easy in the United States, and if a man was swindled out of a few thousand dollars he didn't bother much. He merely bought some shares and waited for the rise they all took for granted in those days was quite certain, to sell them at a profit and get back all he had lost. Larson, Pegley, Bennett, and Hayes were all in the game. Denver seems to have been their headquarters, at least for Larson and Pegley, who generally worked together. Bennett and Hayes were often in Denver, but generally operated outside, in the smaller towns. Larson was always a bit too much of the gunman, and, from what the F.B.I. people say, he made Denver finally too hot for him. Protection broke down, and he had to clear out, though he still kept in touch with Pegley. They worked the same game. Pegley made the opening moves. Larson came on the scene later, won the victim's confidence in some way. Sometimes he did that by giving a warning against Pegley; once or twice apparently he pretended to catch out Pegley playing a crooked game at poker. Pegley faded away after that and Larson was established as the honest friend. Afterwards, of course, Pegley got his share of the loot. Larson seems to have worked both tricks with Mr. Moffatt, by the way – warning him against Pegley and making a pretence of exposing crooked play at cards. After Larson had to leave Denver, he spent a good deal of time on the Atlantic boats, looking out for likely victims. He was always very careful to make a good impression on board. He got to be known as a wealthy business man with influential connections on both sides of the Atlantic. It was on these voyages that he got in touch with Mr. Oulton, and, later on, with Mr. Moffatt.

“That was some time ago. Men like Larson are often prepared to wait years. Difficult to believe that a man you have known for long enough as a wealthy business man, extremely correct and discreet, is really a long-range swindler waiting his chance to trap you. It seems Oulton was the easier prospect. Moffatt was put in cold storage, so to say. Oulton was cleaned out successfully. Larson and Pegley got nearly every penny he possessed. Then he was found dead, with a revolver in his hand. It passed for suicide. Almost certainly Larson shot him to prevent him from prosecuting. There is no doubt Oulton had realised by then that he had been swindled, and meant to take steps against Larson. I've been at the Towers Farm again, too, and his widow, Mrs. Oulton, has shown me letters that make that plain. They were some written from New York when he first began to suspect he had been swindled. They are almost incoherent – I suppose the poor devil was pretty well out of his mind with excitement and worry. The Oultons were in a pretty helpless position after his death. They knew hardly any details. Mr. Oulton had been persuaded to consent to a high degree of secrecy. They knew the name, Bennett, but nothing about him. They knew, too, that a Mr. Moffatt had been mentioned. They knew, again, that the man who called himself Bennett, really Larson – he went by many names; in this case the assumed name, Bennett, seems to have been part of the secrecy Oulton was persuaded to agree to on the usual plea that, if Larson's own name was used, envious rivals and competitors would be put on the track of the operations on the market supposed to be in train – they knew that once or twice he had motored to this neighbourhood. Most likely Larson had given Mr. Moffatt's name as a partner or friend of his. He had found out that Mr. Moffatt was a man of some position, and any claim of friendship with him would help to impress Oulton.

“By this time both Hayes and Bennett had also found America a bit too hot, and, after the slump, a little less like a Tom Tiddler's ground for picking up gold and silver. They came back to England. Bennett heard Larson had been using his name, and, guessing some game was on, tried to join in. Larson didn't want him, and from what he says now – he has talked a little since he knew how the Hayes photo was evidence against him – he even threatened Bennett with giving information to us about him. He knew the Denver police wanted Bennett. Bennett told him two could play that card, but, all the same, thought it prudent to stand out. But he told Hayes Larson was playing a rich sucker. Bennett was in funds at the time, and didn't want to run risks while he had money in his pocket to enjoy himself with. Hayes did a bit of spying, found out there were funds in a Paris bank Oulton had refused to touch and Larson and Pegley thought it best to leave alone considering the much bigger prize they were working for. When Hayes heard of Oulton's death – both he and Bennett suspected it was murder, and Larson's work – he saw his opportunity. By the help of a forged authority and through the negligence of the Paris bank's clerks – perhaps there was bribery as well – Hayes succeeded in getting hold of the American bearer bonds in which Mr. Oulton had invested the whole of his wife's fortune. The idea was to dodge paying income-tax. There are plenty of business men who consider themselves perfectly honourable but are perfectly willing to swindle the income-tax if they can manage it by any legal dodge – and plenty of clever lawyers to think up one-man companies, sham repayments of loans, bond washing, and so on, to help them. Anyhow, Hayes got hold of the bonds. Mrs. Oulton had no way of identifying them – she didn't even know what concerns had issued them – and Hayes, always in character, forgot to inform Bennett of his success. He vanished instead into the country, meaning to live there in peaceful retirement, with coupon clipping as his recreation.

“Young Oulton – Thoms – wasn't sitting down to it though. He traced the Mr. Moffatt mentioned in the letters to Sevens, and at first suspected him of having the bonds. His half-sister, Miss Henrietta, wanted to start a poultry farm, as something had to be done to earn a living for herself and her mother and sister, and Thoms, while making inquiries about Mr. Moffatt, came across the farm she has now and suggested she should take it. It was quite suitable, and it would give him a good opportunity for watching Mr. Moffatt and waiting a chance if possible to recover the bonds. But then it began to dawn on him that he was on the wrong track, and that Mr. Moffatt knew nothing about what had been happening.

“But the same discoveries that convinced Thoms – young Oulton, that is – that Mr. Moffatt had had nothing to do with it put him on the track of Mr. Hayes. He managed to get employment with Hayes as chauffeur with the idea of watching him. Then, visiting his mother and sisters, he heard of the Way Side property, and mentioned it to his employer, who was, he knew, looking out for a secluded country residence. Hayes liked the place, and settled down with the idea of spending the rest of his life in peaceful seclusion, with nothing to do but clip coupons off bearer bonds. He never attempted to sell them, for fear of being asked questions, and the income was quite comfortable.

“Two things went wrong with his idea. The country bored him. Mrs. O'Brien, his housekeeper – really Mrs. Bennett – wanted him to marry her. Finally he began to get suspicious of Thoms. Thoms had been displaying a certain curiosity, wandering about upstairs and so on.

“All this time Larson was pursuing his schemes, with Mr. Moffatt's big holding in consols as his objective. The first step was to win Mr. Moffatt's confidence. On one of the Atlantic voyages Larson, who had been watching Moffatt carefully and knew a good deal about him – not difficult; Mr. Moffatt talked a good deal; it was something Mr. Moffatt said in a liner's smoking-room that first put Larson on the trail of his consols holding – found that Moffatt had been losing fairly heavily at poker. To Larson, losing money at poker had only one meaning – that the game was crooked and that Mr. Moffatt had fallen in with card-sharpers. That seemed to Larson a heaven-sent opportunity to win Moffatt's confidence by rescuing him – besides further establishing himself with the steamship companies by exposing the supposed card-sharpers. As a matter of fact, Mr. Moffatt had been playing with two extremely important and wealthy financiers, both of them really influential and well-known men, but travelling under assumed names to attend some conference in New York the papers were not wanted to know about – something about meat supplies. Larson had no idea of that. He told Moffatt he was being swindled, joined in the game one night, and soon saw the game was perfectly straight. A bit awkward; so, to prove his case and keep his influence with Moffatt, he proceeded to make it crooked by stacking the cards, but in Moffatt s favour, not in his own. Moffatt won quite a bit that night – all he had lost before and some more as well. Larson told him what he had done, explained that he had hoisted the card-sharpers with their own petard, and suggested telling the captain all about it. But, as Larson knew would be the case, Moffatt had got his money back, didn't want his family to know of these visits to America, and didn't like the idea of any publicity. So Larson said all right, it would be enough to drop a hint to the purser, and put him on his guard against the supposed card-sharpers – really these two financial magnates of the City of London.

“The financial magnates had their wits about them, though – financial magnates would have, naturally – and had seen that the play was crooked. Only they suspected Moffatt, the winner, not Larson, who had been a loser, like themselves. Larson, finding suspicions roused, took alarm, and, with his usual impudence, laid a complaint against Moffatt himself – by that time he knew the identity of the City magnates and daren't accuse them – and, for proof, produced cards that had been used and that he had marked himself. The guilt was saddled on the unconscious Moffatt, but the two City magnates insisted that nothing must be said. They said it would ruin the important conference they were attending if anything got out about their presence, and most likely as well they weren't anxious for it to be known they played poker with strangers on Atlantic liners. The two magnates were too important for their wishes to be disregarded. So all that happened was that their incognito was respected, Larson was thanked, and Mr. Moffatt blacklisted without his knowing anything about it.

“Larson passed out of Moffatt's life for a time. When he thought things were ripe, he appeared again. By now Pegley had also got in touch with Moffatt. The usual plan was contemplated. Pegley was to advise reinvestment. Larson was to give a warning. Moffatt was to be so grateful therefor he would be ready to take Larson's advice – saved from Pegley, he was to be caught on the rebound by Larson. It's an old game, of course, but it works.

“Not this time, though. Mr. Moffatt had first brought himself to Larson's notice as a possible victim worth trouble by talking of his holding in consols – £100,000. Worth trying for; worth any confidence man's attention. Unfortunately, Mr. Moffatt never explained that it was a trust fund he had no power to touch, and Larson never thought of that possibility.

“His plans were coming to a head and he still had no idea of the trust fund snag when Bennett turned up again. Bennett was hard up now. Oddly enough, it was through Molly Oulton that he had heard of his old associates. He recognised his wife's signature on the back of some of Miss Oulton's sketches. He began to make inquiries. He found out Thoms was Hayes's chauffeur and tried to pump him. Having no idea that there was any connection between Thoms and Miss Molly, and, as he had heard vague, ill-natured gossip about her, he said something to Thoms about Miss Molly for which Thoms tried to knock his head off. I fancy they had both been drinking. Bennett was a bit tough himself; he fought back, and only the interference of the Cut and Come Again staff prevented serious damage to one or other. It was because of this – because Thoms heard in this way there was gossip about Miss Molly – that he tried to warn off young Noll Moffatt – with the pretty little scrimmage between them as a result that I had to stop.

“By that time, however, Bennett knew enough of what was going on to think the time had come for him to muscle in, as they call it. He knew enough to feel Larson could not afford to defy him. He added hints that if necessary he could produce proof that Larson had murdered Mr. Oulton. That probably decided Larson. He felt Bennett was better out of the way, and when he found out that Bennett had an appointment to see Mrs.