Young Petrella (25 page)

When the train arrived, Sergeant Gwilliam hesitated. He seemed to have an eye on Mrs. Coulman’s movements. They approached the train simultaneously. At the very last moment Mrs. Coulman stopped. Sergeant Gwilliam went on, the doors closed, and the train disappeared bearing the Sergeant with it.

Mrs. Coulman returned to her seat on the platform and waited placidly. By the time the next train arrived, the only other occupants of the platform were three schoolgirls. Mrs. Coulman got into the train, followed by the schoolgirls. Two stations later the schoolgirls got off. Mrs. Coulman, from her customary seat beside the door, watched them go.

Thereafter, as the train ran south, she observed a succession of people getting on and off. There were three people she did not see. Petrella, with Mote and Wilmot, had entered the train at the station before her. Sergeant Gwilliam’s planned diversion had given them plenty of time to get there. Petrella was in the first and the other two were in the last carriages of the train.

It was at Balham that Mrs. Coulman finally emerged. Two women with shopping bags, who had joined her carriage at Leicester Square, went with her. Also a commercial traveller with samples, whom she had watched join the next carriage at the Oval.

Petrella, Mote, and Wilmot all saw her go, but it was no part of their plan to follow her, so they sat tight.

At the next stop, all three of them raced for the moving stairs, hurled themselves into the street, and found a taxi.

“I’m off duty,” said the taxi driver.

“Now you’re on again,” said Petrella, and showed him his warrant card. “Get us back to Balham Station, as quick as you can.”

The taxi driver blinked, but complied. Petrella had his eye on his watch.

“She’s had four minutes’ start,” he said, as they bundled out. “You know what to do. Take every pub in your sector. And get a move on.”

The three men separated. There is no lack of public houses in that part of South London, but Petrella calculated that if they worked outwards from the station, taking a sector each, they could cover most of them quite quickly. It was the riskiest part of the scheme, but he could think of no way to avoid it.

He himself found her.

She was sitting quietly in the corner of the saloon bar of The Gatehouse, a big, newish establishment at the junction of the High Street and Trinity Road.

There was no convenient snack bar this time; there was very little cover at all. The best he could find was a trolley-bus shelter. If he stood behind it, it did at least screen him from the door.

The minutes passed, and added up to a quarter of an hour. Then to half an hour. During that time two people had gone in, and three had come out, but none of them had aroused Petrella’s interest. He knew, more or less, what he was looking for.

At last the door opened and a man emerged. He was a thick, well-set-up man, dressed in a close-fitting flannel suit which was tight enough across the shoulders and round the chest to exhibit his athletic frame. And he was carrying a canvas bag, of a type that athletes use to hold their sports gear.

He turned left, and swung off down the pavement with an unmistakable, aggressive masculine stride, a mature bull of the human herd, confident of his strength and purpose.

Petrella let him have the length of the street, and then trotted after him. This was where he had to be very careful. What he mostly needed was help. The chase swung back past the Underground and there he spotted Wilmot and signalled him across.

“In the grey flannel suit, carrying a bag,” he said. “See him? Then get right after him, and remember, he’s got eyes in the back of his head.”

Wilmot grinned all over his guttersnipe face. He was imaginatively dressed in a teddy-boy suit and he fitted into the South London streets as easily as a rabbit into a warren.

“Doanchew worry,” he said, “I won’t lose him.”

Petrella fell back until he was a hundred yards behind Wilmot. He kept his eyes open for Mote. The more of them the merrier. There was a long, hard chase ahead.

He noticed Wilmot signalling.

“Gone in there,” said Wilmot.

“Where?”

“Small shop. Bit of the way up the side street.”

Petrella considered. “Walk past,” he said. “Take a note of the name and number on the shop. Go straight on, out of sight, to the other end. If he goes that way, you can pick him up. If he comes back I’ll take him.”

Ten minutes went by. Petrella thought anxiously about back exits. But you couldn’t guard against everything.

Then the man reappeared. He was carrying the same bag, yet it looked different. Less bulky in shape but, by the swing of it, heavier.

He’s dumped the hat and coat and the remains of the suitcase at that accommodation address, thought Petrella. Even if we lose him, we know one of the Ponting hideouts. But we mustn’t lose him. That bag’s got several thousand pounds’ worth of stolen jewellery in it now.

Would it be best to arrest him, and give up any chance of tracing the receiver? The temptation was almost overmastering. Only one thing stopped him. His quarry was moving with much greater freedom, as if convinced that there was no danger. Near the end of the run he would get cautious again. For the moment there was nothing to do but follow.

The man plunged back in the Underground; emerged at Waterloo; joined the queue at the Suburban Booking-Office. Petrella kept well clear for he owned a ticket which enabled him to travel anywhere on the railway.

Waterloo was a station whose layout he knew well. By positioning himself at the central bookstall, he could watch all three exits. His quarry had bought, and was eating, a meat pie. Petrella was quite unconscious of hunger. His eyes were riveted on the little bag, swinging heavily from the man’s large fist. Once he put it down, but it was only to get out more money to buy an orange, which he peeled and ate neatly, depositing the remains in one of the refuse bins. Then he picked up the bag again and made for his train.

It was the electric line for Staines and Windsor. He went through the barrier, and walked slowly up the train. There were very few passengers about, and it must have been near enough empty. He walked along the platform, and climbed into a carriage at the far end.

Some instinct restrained Petrella. There were still five minutes before the train left. He waited. Three minutes later the man emerged from the carriage, walked very slowly back down the train, glancing into each carriage as he passed, and got into the carriage nearest to the barrier. The guard blew his whistle.

Two girls who had been sauntering towards the barrier broke into a run – Petrella ran with them. They pushed through the gate. The guard blew his whistle again; they jerked open the door of the nearest carriage and tumbled in together.

“We nearly left that too late,” said one of the girls. Her friend agreed with her. Petrella thought that they couldn’t have timed it better. But he didn’t say so. He was prepared to agree with everything they said. It was the quickest way he knew of getting on with people.

The girls were prepared to enjoy his company too. The dark vivacious one was called Beryl and the quieter mousy one was Doreen. They lived at Staines.

“Where are you getting out?” asked Beryl. “Or is that a secret?”

“I haven’t made up my mind yet,” said Petrella.

Beryl said he was a case. Doreen agreed.

The train ambled through dim, forgotten places like Feltham and Ashford. No one got out and no one got in. Petrella heard about a dance, and what had gone on afterwards in the car park. He said he was sorry he didn’t live at Staines. It sounded quite a place.

“It’s all right in summer,” said Doreen. “It’s a dump in winter. Here we are.”

The train drew up.

“Sure you won’t change your mind?” said Beryl.

“Perhaps I will, at that,” said Petrella. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that his man had got out and was making his way along the platform.

“You’d better hurry up then. They’ll take you on to Windsor.”

“That’d never do,” said Petrella. “I forgot to warn her that I was coming.”

“Who?” said Doreen.

“The Queen.”

His man was safely past the ticket collector now.

“Come on,” said Beryl. They went past the collector together. “Wouldn’t you like some tea? There’s a good place in the High Street.”

“There’s nothing I’d like better, but I think I see my uncle waving to me.”

The girls stared at him. Petrella manoeuvred himself across the open yard, keeping the girls between him and his quarry. The man had set off up the road without, apparently, so much as a backward glance, but Petrella knew that the most difficult part of the chase was at hand.

“I don’t see your uncle,” said Beryl.

“There he is. Sitting in that taxi.”

“That’s just the taxi driver. I don’t believe he’s your uncle at all.”

“Certainly he is. How are you keeping, uncle?”

“Very fit, thank you,” said the taxi driver, a middle-aged man with a brown bald head.

“There you are,” said Petrella. “I’ll have to say goodbye now. We’ve got a lot to talk about. Family business.”

The girls hesitated, and then withdrew, baffled.

“You a policeman?” said the taxi driver. “A detective or something?”

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

“Following that man in the light suit? I thought as much. Very pretty, the way you got behind those girls. As good as a book.”

His quarry was now halfway up the long, straight, empty road, which leads from Staines Station to the riverside. He had stopped to light a cigarette, and in stopping he half turned.

“Keep behind my cab,” said the driver. “That’s right, well down. He’s getting nervous. I’d say he’s not far from wherever it is he’s going to. Good as a book, isn’t it? Do you read detective stories?”

The man was walking on again now. He was a full three hundred yards away.

“I don’t want to lose him,” said Petrella. “Not now. I’ve come a long way with him.”

“You leave it to me,” said the cab driver. “I’ve been driving round here for forty years. There isn’t a footpath I don’t know blindfold. Just watch which way he turns at the end.”

“Turning right,” said Petrella.

“All aboard.” The taxi shot out of the station yard, and the driver turned round in his seat to say, “Might be making for the High Street, but if he wanted the High Street, why not take a bus from the other platform? Ten to one he’s for the ferry?”

“I say, look out for that dog,” said Petrella.

The driver slewed back in his seat. Said, “Effie Muggridge’s poodle. Asking for trouble,” and accelerated. The dog shot to safety with a squeal of rage.

“Got to do this bit carefully,” said the driver as they reached the corner. “Keep right down. Don’t show so much as the tip of your nose, now.”

Petrella obeyed. The taxi rounded the corner, and over it, in a wave, flowed the unmistakable smell of the river on a hot day – weed and water and tar and boat varnish.

“He’s in the ferry,” said the driver. “Got his back to you. You can come up for air now.”

Petrella saw that a ferry punt ran from the steps beside a public house. There were three passengers on her, standing cheek by jowl, and the ferryman was untying and pushing out. He realised how hopeless he would have been on his own.

“What do we do?” he said.

“Over the road bridge, and back down the other side. Plenty of time, if we hurry.”

“What were we doing just now?”

The driver chuckled throatily. Petrella held his breath and counted ten, slowly. Then they were crossing Staines Bridge.

“Not much traffic at the moment,” said the driver. “You ought to see it at weekends.” They did a skid turn to the left, and drew up in the yard of another riverside inn.

“There’s two things he could do,” said the driver. “Walk up the towpath to the bridge. There’s no way off it. Or he could come down the path – you see the stile? – the one that comes out there. I’ll watch the stile. You go through that gate and down the garden – I know the man who owns it. He won’t mind. You can see the towpath from his summerhouse. If you hear my horn, come back quick.”

With a feeling that some power stronger than himself had taken charge, Petrella opened a gate and walked down a well-kept garden, full of pinks and roses and stone dwarfs with pointed hats. At the bottom was a summerhouse. In the summerhouse he found a small girl reading a book.

“Are you coming to tea?” she said.

“I’m not sure,” said Petrella. “I might be going to the cinema.”

“You’ll have to hurry then. The big film starts in five minutes.”

Behind him a hooter sounded off.

“I’ll run then,” said Petrella. He scooted back up the garden. The girl never raised her eyes from her book.

“Just come out,” said the taxi driver. “Going nicely. We’ll give him twenty yards. Can’t afford too much leeway here. Tricky navigation.”

He drove slowly towards the turning, and stopped just short of it.

“Better hop out and look,” he said. “But be careful. He’s stopped twice already to blow his nose. We’re getting pretty warm.”

Petrella inched up to the corner, and poked his head round the wall. The man was going away from him, walking along the pavement, but slowly. It was an area of bungalows, some on the road, some on the riverbank, with a network of private ways between.

The taxi driver had got out, and was breathing down the back of his neck.

“Got to take a chance,” he said. “If we follow him, he’ll spot us for sure. I’ll stay here. If he turns right, I’ll mark it. If he turns left he’s for Riverside Drive. You nip down that path, and you can cut him off.”

Petrella took the path. It ran between high hedges of dusty bramble and thorn; hot and sweet-smelling in the sun. It was the dead middle of the afternoon, with hardly a dog stirring. Petrella broke into a jog trot, then slowed for the road ahead.

As he reached the corner, he heard footsteps on the pavement. Their beat was unmistakable. It was his man, and he was walking straight towards him.

Petrella looked round for cover and saw none. He thought for a moment of diving into the shallow ditch, but realised that he would merely be attracting attention. The footsteps had stopped. Petrella held his breath. He heard the click of a latch. Feet on flagstones. The sudden purring of an electric bell.