The Mind Readers (16 page)

‘Does he know this about Sam?'

‘Not entirely.' She was shaking. ‘I felt I must see what I could do to jerk the child out of it first before they persuade Martin to let him go to the psychos. Those chaps are out of hand. You've no idea of the dangerous things they can get up to if there isn't a good doctor in charge. I think I can get him right. After all, it's only like a hand which has been in plaster going numb. He'll get well but he must be pulled out of it right away, mustn't he?'

‘Of course, my dear. Of course. Who thought of the buttons?'

‘Mrs Talisman. She says she's seen something like it before. A little girl she took care of long ago had delirium in a fever which left her mind exhausted and they had to coax it to work again. She wrapped him up like that. She says it'll make him feel it's some sort of illness he's got to get over and he won't be so frightened. He is getting better, quite fast. Let me go back to him. Just let me have a day, for God's sake.'

‘Where is Mrs Talisman now?'

‘She had to go to the dairy before the shops shut.'

Amanda passed her hand over her hair. ‘Edward has gone off somewhere,' she said, trying to sound casual. ‘Dot gave him some money. He could have gone quite a way.'

‘Look, Amanda.' Helena was trying to control her panic without great success. ‘I'm desperate about this . . . demoralised if you like. I can't keep any sort of secret. I'm simply thinking of Sam. Let me tell you all I know before you try him.'

It was a diversion. Amanda knew it but she let the husky voice go on.

‘When I said there was a flap on at the Island yesterday I didn't tell all I knew. I couldn't help gathering a good deal more. When Lord Ludor sent for Paggen before the luncheon he told him that there'd been a dangerous leak of information from the island. One day this week, one of the big propaganda papers in the East had actually published the fact that Paggen was working with Nipponanium. But then it went on to say that Martin Ferris (it gave his name and said he was an American “on loan”) was experimenting with a device and was using schoolboys as guinea pigs.'

‘Martin? Not Mayo?'

‘Exactly. That's the trouble. Lord Ludor assumed that this part of the tale was a mistake and the names had got confused. He wanted to know if Paggen had gone mad and
was
experimenting on children! Paggen didn't think there was any mistake. I was with Martin when he told him and I could see he suspected him.'

‘What about Martin?'

‘He simply howled with laughter. Paggen took his cue from him but he wasn't satisfied.'

‘And all that business with the gas and the Micky Finn?'

‘That was Paggen. Paggen doesn't want to lose Martin because he's lost without him but he wants to keep him under his thumb. If there's a black mark against Martin he can do that. Unfortunately, Martin likes Paggen and he's too high-minded and loyal to see anything so dirty. . . . That's what Mayo is doing now, hiding from us until he can cook up some evidence against Martin and associate him with those ghastly things.'

The telephone ringing in the cloakroom next door interrupted the confidence. Amanda flew to answer it and as she took off the receiver she heard the chink at the other end of the wire which indicated a public callbox.

‘I want to speak to 'er Ladyship,' a cheerful cockney voice, not too used to telephoning, greeted her. ‘That's you yourself, is it madam? Right you are then. Message from Edward Longfox: he says to tell you he's got very important business which is takin' longer than what he thought. He says you are not to worry yourself and to expect him when you see him. O.K.?'

‘May I ask your name?' Long experience had taught Amanda much.

‘Mr. Henry Caudwell, your Ladyship. Pleased to meet you.'

‘And me. Would you be ringing from London?'

‘Right in the middle of it. This 'ere box is under Ludgate Hill railway bridge.'

‘Is Edward there?'

‘Eh . . . wait a minute . . . no. No, he's just gorn. He'd been waiting to make sure I got you and when he heard me speak he nipped off and on to the top of a bus . . . Wanstead one, I think. He's only just this minute gorn. No. Nobody with him. Quite on his own. Perky little party. Well, your mind's at rest, is it? So I'll say good-day. I've got a paper stand here, you see. Goodbye. Cheerio.' He rang off hastily as if exhausted by the experience and she hung up, her tongue dry in her mouth.

‘Helena?' she said, but there was no reply. Sam's mother had gone back to the kitchen.

Amanda went after her. She was aware of a crisis the moment she opened the door.

Sam was still sitting at the table in his blanket toga. The heaps of buttons were not complete but he was bright enough and was taking a great interest in the scene before him. Helena, white as paper, was staring at the verger's wife who was stuttering with outrage. The plump old lady was still in her coat and her full basket stood on the table.

‘
Inside
the house!' she was saying. ‘The man was
inside.
He told me he was checking the meter and he had the cheek to show me the back of an envelope as if he was going to enter the figures on that! Even if you haven't thieved a thing it's an insult, I told him. You think we're subnormally brained, I said. You young educateds think we're deaf, dumb and blind as well as ignorant.'

‘He wasn't young he was fifty,' Sam said cheerfully. ‘He was as old as Soppy and he's a headmaster.'

‘Did he talk to you darling?' The concern in Helena's voice seemed to upset or perhaps to remind the boy. He gave her a frightened look and his face quivered. ‘Who?'

‘Why, the man, Sam. The man who was here when Mrs Talisman came back. You saw him, didn't you? Well? Didn't you, darling? Answer. You were here.'

Sam turned from her and threw himself down among the buttons in a single furious gesture.

‘Was I? I don't know. Perhaps I was. I can't remember.'

‘Sam!' It was a cry of horrified protest and old Mrs Talisman came to the rescue.

‘Anyway, it doesn't matter,' she said comfortably, ‘because I was and I saw him quite plainly and I spoke to him.' She shook her head warningly at Helena and eyed the boy casually. ‘You tidy up those buttons, young man. This is the kitchen table. We don't want them turning up in the lunch. Yes, I suppose you're right and this person was about forty. He was tall, quite cool, like a reporter on the telly, but a bit over-gentlemanly, if you know what I mean?'

‘Ladylike?' Amanda suggested, inspired.

The old woman nodded. ‘Now you've said it. And not even good-looking with it. “I'm just checking the meter” he said, and waved the envelope at me as if I couldn't see what it was, the fool! He hadn't been here long. I don't suppose Sam had even noticed him, walking in like that, straight out of the area as if he had a right.'

‘Yes, I did. He asked me if I had my new “toy telephone from school” down here!' The contempt in the young voice was superb.

‘Jolly funny! What did you tell him?' For the second time in ten minutes Amanda's heart turned over.

Sam pulled the button tin towards him and spoke absently.

‘Oh, I guessed what he meant and so I told him they had been confiscated and I expected my cousin had gone to get some more.'

Amanda's fingers fastened on Helena's shoulder and her cool voice continued to be easy and pleasant.

‘Why did you say that?'

‘Because it was what he had to do if ever an iggy-tube got lost.' He continued to sort buttons, stepping up the rate of progress considerably.

‘Who is Edward's friend?'

‘Just his friend,' said Sam, placing a pink pearl button amid a heap of the same kind. ‘His special friend.'

‘We can guess that.' Mrs Talisman was brusque. ‘What is his name, please?'

Sam did not look up. ‘Rubari,' he said idly. ‘He's a Rumanian living in Paris.'

‘Sam! Are you making this up?'

‘No, Mom. Rubari is awfully, terribly rich.'

There was a moment of silence in the kitchen while he selected a pink pearl button with great care. When he had got it on the right heap he looked over at the window which gave on to the area. The only light it received came down through the railings from the sunlit square and the scene appeared to remind him.

‘The electricity man has a white cat with a brown tail which follows him like a dog,' he said. ‘He was telling me I could go up and see it when Mrs Talisman came in and saw him and of course he had to leave'

IN THE MIDDLE
of the afternoon on the same day, Deputy Commander Sydney of the Special Branch sat at his desk, with his signed photograph of H.M. The Queen over it, and concentrated on keeping the interview as smooth as silk.

As a member of the Other Service, as he called Security, he did not expect much trouble from Mr Campion, or help either, if the truth were faced. Mercifully his good lady looked as if she were sensible and well brought up. However, he did feel that Superintendent Charles Luke C.I.D., who had just been wished upon him to help with the enquiry, and who now sat at the second desk looking like some great black Tom jaguar, filled the office to bursting point.

Sydney was as big a man as Luke and his face had some of the quality of polished stone. The C.I.D. man was behaving and trying to remember he was a visitor, but they were both ruthless animals manoeuvring in a restricted space, and it was not a comfortable gathering.

Amanda, still in her chestnut coat, had just told her story and was being taken through it.

‘So,' Sydney said, ‘as soon as you heard the name Rubari you telephoned the school. You found the Head was on a walking tour and you spoke to his wife. She recognised the name immediately, and she told you that Henri Rubari is a pupil at the school and is somewhere about twelve years old. You then, very sensibly, obtained the number of the school secretary who confirms that the boy
is
Rumanian and
does
live in Paris. The secretary also thinks he should be at home there at this moment. We are enquiring into all those points. The secretary also told you that Rubari's mother is a widow and she gave you the address and telephone number of her Paris apartment. Why didn't you call it?'

As he looked up she met his eyes and noted that he was slightly hostile.

‘I thought you might not like me to,' she said, frankly.

‘Me?'

‘All of you up here. That was why I came instead of trying to report by telephone. If Edward has been getting these things from Rubari I thought you would want to do any questioning there might be to do at that end. My impulse was to telephone Paris to see if they knew anything, of course.'

Luke took the opportunity to interrupt. A uniformed man had brought him a chit just before Sydney had begun to talk and he had been awaiting a pause.

‘Caudwell, the newsvendor, is O.K. The man on the beat has known him for years. The old boy repeated the story he told Lady Amanda, word for word. He says the kid was happy and off on an adventure. He thinks he took a Wanstead bus but he can't swear to it.'

‘The boy knew where he was going to find his friend, anyway. That's the main thing,' Sydney said. ‘I don't think we shall find it was Paris!'

He laughed at the suggestion and was put out to find the husband and wife continuing without him.

‘Madame Rubari is in the silk business,' Amanda said to Campion. ‘I thought I'd heard the name before in connection with fabric and I called in on Meg on my way here. She says that they're a very successful concern, not very big but extremely high class, dealing with all the great couturiers. Mme Rubari does a lot of her own buying and she is a real widow, not a grass one. She seems to know everybody in Paris who is anybody. That's all the dope I could get you.'

‘Good enough! We can do the rest in ten minutes.' Luke pulled a pad towards him. ‘It's rather the right sort of set-up, don't you think?' he added to Sydney, who shrugged his shoulders.

‘It's a line which will have to be followed.' He spoke as an expert in a very small and very well explored field. ‘I shouldn't think it will lead to much. I'm very grateful to you, madam, but I think if you go home now you could quite possibly find the boy waiting for you. When he does come back we'd like to see him.'

Campion touched Amanda's arm.

‘Martin, Helena, Sam and Mrs Mayo are all going back to the island,' he murmured. ‘It was arranged just before you arrived.'

‘They're going in the Mayo car, Martin driving and with a police car escort,' said Luke, who was still slightly shaken by what he considered the high-handedness of Special Branch methods. ‘“Go there and stay there”. I'd like to see me saying that to a threatened subject.'

‘The suggestion came from top level, didn't it, Mr Campion?' Hearing his own words, Sydney suspected that he sounded as if he needed support and reasserted himself promptly. ‘I advised it because I felt they should be kept somewhere absolutely safe.'

‘Particularly from the Press!' Mr Campion smiled at him. ‘Could we drop the formalities, Commander. At the moment the principal concern is that Mayo should be located before there is any breath of public speculation about him. That really is absolutely essential in Security's opinion.'

‘His Missus can't give interviews with the Army on the door, anyway,' said Luke cheerfully. ‘That's one mercy. Then you're off now, are you Amanda?'

‘Please. I'd like to get back in case Edward does come in.' She had risen and was leaning forward to shake Sydney's hand. ‘I've told you everything and you're the judge of what is important. I want Edward back safe. I don't think you quite believe in that amplifier, Commander.'