Читать книгу Red Aces - E. Phillips Oppenheim - Страница 11

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WHEN her visitor was gone, Ava opened the letter he had left with her, read a few lines of it, then threw letter and envelope into the fire. Funny, the sameness of men... they all wrote the same sort of stuff... raw stuff dressed up poetically... yet they thought they were being different from all other men. She did not resent these stereotypes of passion, nor did she feel sorry for those who used them. They were just normal experiences. She sat clasping her knees, her eyes on the fire. Then she got up dressed quickly and, going into Gower Street, found a cab.

She was set down at a house in an exclusive Mayfair street, and a liveried footman admitted her and told her there was company. There usually was in the early evening. She found twenty men and women sitting round a green table, watching a croupier with a large green shade over his eyes. He was turning up cards in two rows, and big monies, staked in compartments marked on the green table, went into the croupier's well or was pushed, with additions, to the fortunate winner.

The usual crowd, she noted. A pretty girl looked up and smiled then turned her eyes quickly and significantly to the young man by her side.

Ava found the governor in his room. He was smoking alone and reading the evening newspaper when she came in.

'Shut the door,' he ordered. 'What's wrong?'

'Nothing much. Only Feathers is bit worried.' She told him why.

Rufus Machfield smiled.

'Don't you worry, my pet,' he said kindly. 'There's been a murder down his way—did he tell you anything about that? I've just been reading about it. I should be surprised if old Reeder didn't get to the bottom of it—clever fellow, Reeder.'

He picked up his newspaper from the floor and his cigar from the ashtray where he had laid it.

'Rather a coincidence, wasn't it, Ava? Feathers pickin' on that account... Wentford's?'

She looked at him thoughtfully.

'Was it a coincidence?' she asked. 'That's what's worrying me. Did he pick on this poor man's account because he knew that he was going to be dead in a few days? I got a horrible creepy feeling when he was sitting beside me. I kept looking at his hands and wondering if there was blood on them!'

'Shuh!' said Machfield contemptuously. 'That rabbit!'

He opened a panel in the wall—it was nothing more romantic than a serving hatch when it was built—and glanced at the gamesters.

'They're playing for marbles!' he said in fine scorn. 'But they never do play high in the afternoon. Look at Lamontaine: he's bored sick.'

And certainly the croupier did not look happy. He closed the panel.

'I suppose you'll be raided one of these days?' she said.

'Sure!' he answered easily. 'But I've got another couple of houses ready for starting.'

'What do you think about Feathers? Will he squeal when they find him out?'

'Like a stuck pig,' said Machfield. 'He'll go down for nine months and get religion. That's the kind of fellow who gives the prison chaplain an interest in life. Ava, I've got a little job for you.'

She was alert, suspicious.

'Nothing much. I'll tell you all about it. Shall I open a bottle?'

'Yes, if it's milk,' she said. 'What's the little job and how much does it carry?'

'Would you faint if I said a thousand?' he asked, and opened the hatch again, looking through and closing it.

'Who are you expecting?' she asked. '... all right, don't be rude. No thousands never make me faint. Especially when they're talked about—'

'Now listen.'

Machfield was too good a talker to be brief. He led from a preamble to sections, into sub-sections...

'One minute.'

He interrupted his explanation to lift the hatch. She saw him bringing it down; then unexpectedly he raised it again. Was it the effect of odd lighting, or had his face changed colour? He dropped the hatch softly and gaped round at her.

'Who let him in? That doorman has "shopped" me—'

'Who is it?' she asked.

He beckoned her to his side, lifting the panel an inch.

'Stoop!' he hissed. 'Look... that fellow with the side-whiskers.'

'Oh—is he anybody?' She did not recognize the visitor. Possibly he was a bailiff; he looked hopelessly suburban, like the people who serve writs. They always wear ready-made ties and coloured handkerchiefs that stick out of their breast pockets.

'Reeder... J.G. Reeder!'

She wanted to raise the hatch and look, but he would not allow this.

'Go out and see what you can do... wait a bit.'

He lifted a house telephone and pressed a knob.

'Who was that fellow... the old fellow with side-whiskers? Got a card... what name... Reeder?'

He put down the phone unsteadily. Mr Machfield gave his membership cards to the right people. They were issued with the greatest care and after elaborate inquiries had been made as to the antecedents of the man or woman so honoured.

'Go and get acquainted... he doesn't know you. Go round through the buffet room and pretend you've just come in.'

When she reached the gaming room, Ava found Mr Reeder was sitting opposite the croupier. How he got that favoured chair was a mystery. His umbrella was between his knees. In front of him was a pile of banknotes. He was 'punting' gravely, seemingly absorbed in the game.

'Faîtes vos jeux, messieurs et mesdames,' said the croupier mechanically.

'What does he mean by that?' asked Mr Reeder of his nearest neighbour.

'He means "Make your bet",' said the girl, who had drawn up a chair by his side.

Mr Reeder made ten coups and won six pounds. With this he got up from the table and recovered his hat from beneath his chair.

'I always think that the time to—um—stop playing cards is when you're winning.' He imparted this truth to the young lady, who had withdrawn from the table at the same time.

'What a marvellous mind you have!' she said enthusiastically.

Mr Reeder winced.

'I'm afraid I have,' he said.

She shepherded him into the buffet room; he seemed quite willing to be refreshed at the expense of the house.

'A cup of tea, thank you, and a little seed cake.'

Ava was puzzled. Had the whole breed of busies undergone this shattering deterioration?

'I prefer seed to fruit cake,' he was saying. 'Curiously enough chickens are the same. I had a hen once—we called her Curly Toes—who could eat fruit and preferred it...'

She listened—she was a good listener. He offered to see her home.

'No—if you could drop me at the corner of Bruton Street and Berkeley Square—I don't live far from there,' she said modestly.

'Dear me!' said Mr Reeder, as he signalled a cab. 'Do you live in a mews too? So many people do.'

This was disconcerting.

'Perhaps you will come and see me one day—I am Mrs Coleforth-Ebling, and my phone number—do write this down—'

'My memory is very excellent,' murmured Mr Reeder.

The cab drove up at that moment and he opened the door.

'Ava Burslem—I will remember that—907, Gower Mansions.' He waved his hand in farewell as he got into the cab.

'I'll be seeing you again, my dear—toodle-oo!'

Mr Reeder could on occasions be outrageously frivolous. 'Toodle-oo!' was the high-water mark of his frivolity It was not remarkable that Ava was both alarmed and puzzled. Brighter intellects than hers had been shaken in a vain effort to reconcile Mr Reeder's appearance and manner with Mr Reeder's reputation.

She went back into the house and told Rufus Machfield what had happened.

'That man's clever,' said Machfield admiringly. 'If I were the man who had killed Wentworth or whatever his name is, I'd be shaking in my shoes. I'll walk round to the Leffingham and see if I can pick up a young game-fish. And you'd better dine with me, Ava—I'll give you the rest of the dope on that business I was discussing.'

The Leffingham Club was quite useful to Mr Machfield. It was a kind of potting shed where likely young shoots could be nurtured before being bedded out in the gardens of chance. Even Kenneth McKay had had his uses.

When Mr Reeder reached Scotland Yard, where they had arranged to meet, he found Inspector Gaylor charged with news.

'We've had a bit of luck!' he said. 'Do you remember those banknotes? You took their numbers... you remember? They were paid out on Wentford's account!'

'Oh, yes, yes, yes,' said Mr Reeder. 'To the veiled lady—'

'Veiled grandmother!' said Gaylor. 'We've traced two hundred pounds' worth to a moneylender. They were paid by Kenneth McKay, the bank clerk who cashed the cheque—and here's the cheque!'

He took it from a folder on his desk.

'The signature is a bad forgery; the cheque itself was not torn from Wentford cheque-book but from a book kept at the bank under McKay's charge!'

'Astounding!' said Mr. Reeder.

'Isn't it?' Mr Gaylor was smiling. 'So simple! I had the whole theory of the murders given me tonight. McKay forged and uttered the note, and to cover up his crime killed Wentford.'

'And you instantly arrested him?'

'Am I a child in arms?' asked Gaylor reproachfully. 'No, I questioned the lad. He doesn't deny that he paid the money lender, but says that the money came to him from some anonymous source. It arrived at his house by registered post. Poor young devil, he's terribly worried. What are we waiting for now?'

'A Gentleman Who Wants to Open a Box,' said Mr Reeder mysteriously.

'Reeder releases his mysteries as a miser pays his dentist,' said Gaylor to the superintendent. 'He knows I know all about the case—I admit he is very good and passes on most of the information he gets, but the old devil will keep back the connecting links!'

'Humour him,' said the superintendent.