They Found Him Dead Part 22

"I don't think I've seen the yard. Is it overlooked?"

"Yes, by the windows in the back of the house. But I ran the car under a lean-to shelter running down one side of the wall. I don't think anyone tinkering with the car under that roof would be seen from any of the upper windows, and the ground-floor ones are frosted."

"I'll go and take a look round," said Hannasyde. "Did you meet anyone in the yard?"

"No, not a soul."

"Were you expected at the office?"

"Yes, Mr. Mansell asked me to call for the purpose of talking over the general situation."

"Does that mean the question of the Australian project?"

"Largely, yes."

"Forgive what may seem to be a somewhat intrusive question; but are you going to adopt that scheme?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not in love with it, and I'm not over-fond of being jockeyed into things."

"Does it seem to you that the Mansells are pressing you unduly?"

Jim thought it over. "Difficult to say. I suppose, since they're so keen on it, it's not surprising they should want to hustle me a bit. I found Joe Mansell a trifle too persuasive for my taste. I don't think there's much doubt he'd like either to get me out of the business or to make me into a sort of sleeping partner. You can't altogether blame him. It must be darned annoying for a man of his age and experience to have me foisted onto him as head of the firm."

"I take it you don't mean to become a sleeping partner?"

"No, I don't think so. It was originally a Kane show, and somehow I don't fancy leaving it in the Mansells' hands."

"Have you said as much to them?"

"Well, hardly! I've made it pretty clear that I'm not going to be shelved."

"Have you given them any indication of what your views on the Australian scheme are?"

Jim reflected. "I haven't committed myself in any way. I did tell Paul Mansell that I knew neither my Cousin Silas nor Clement liked it. They've probably gathered that I'm not smitten with it."

"If the scheme were adopted, would you have to put up the necessary capital?"

"That seems to be the general idea. Sort of loan, to the time of about twenty thousand pounds."

"I see. Was Mr. Paul Mansell present at your interview this morning?"

"No, I didn't see him at all. I imagine he was in the building, as his car was parked in the yard, but he didn't show up."

"You had an interview with Paul Mansell at Cliff House not so many days ago, didn't you, as a result of which Mr. Oscar Roberts also called upon you for the purpose of warning you that you might be in danger?"

"Yes."

"Did you set any store by that warning? Had you any reason to think that there might be a risk in visiting the offices of Kane and Mansell?"

"Far from it. I thought I couldn't be in a safer place, even supposing they were trying to b.u.mp me off. The idea of anyone doctoring my car didn't occur to me. I don't think it occurred to Roberts either. He seemed to think I was more likely to get knocked on the head, or something equally absurd."

Hannasyde frowned. "Did he tell you so?"

"No, but he walked in in the middle of my interview with Mr. Mansell, quite obviously as a protective measure. I was rather fed up with him at the time, but, by Jove, I believe he was right!"

"Mr. Kane, from your knowledge of the Mansells, does it seem probable to you that they would murder two, if not three, people for the sake of putting through a business deal?"

"Not a bit," replied Jim promptly. "On the other hand, they undoubtedly think there's big money to be made out of the Australian deal, and you can't get away from the fact that an attempt-probably two attempts-have been made on my life. I admit it sounds pretty steep on the face of it, but you must remember that, if I'd gone down in the Seamew, or been smashed up in my car today, you'd have found it very hard to prove that I'd been murdered. As far as the Seamew's concerned, I doubt whether you'd find any evidence, even if you went to the expense of salvaging her. If a hole was really cut in her, the force of the water must have torn the bottom off her. And if I hadn't had Miss Allison with me this morning, I should have smashed my car up so good and proper that you'd have been hard put to it to find out what caused the crash."

"I quite appreciate that, Mr. Kane. You are quite sure no one else could have access to your car?"

"No, of course I'm not. While it stood in the yard anyone could have walked in and tinkered with it. But who'd want to?"

"And at Cliff House?"

"Well, yes; but again, who'd want to?" Jim said impatiently. "Besides, the chauffeur was washing my great-aunt's car first thing this morning and didn't leave the garage until eleven. I had the car out late last night and locked the garage when I brought her in, so it can't have been done yesterday. I went down to the garage myself just after eleven this morning and found my stepfather there, so I should think that at the most the garage was empty for five minutes."

There was the slightest of pauses. "What was your stepfather doing in the garage, Mr. Kane?"

"Filling his cigarette lighter. Look here, what the devil are you getting at?" demanded Jim, half starting from his chair.

"Merely checking up on everyone who was seen near your car," replied Hannasyde mildly.

"Well, please don't check up on my stepfather!" said Jim. "The idea's quite absurd. I'm on the best of terms with him and always have been. You might as well suspect my young stepbrother."

"I don't think I suspect anyone, Mr. Kane. On the other hand, you must see that I cannot exonerate anyone on your bare word. If I am to go into this attempt on your life, which I understand you wish me to do, you must allow me to make what inquiries I think necessary. You say Sir Adrian was filling his lighter, which strikes me immediately as being a somewhat unusual thing to do.

Lighters are generally filled at a tobacconist's shop."

Jim smiled. "When you know my stepfather a little better, Superintendent, you won't see anything unusual in that. It's entirely typical of him."

Hannasyde inclined his head slightly, as though accepting this statement. "And he was the only person you observed anywhere in the vicinity of the garage?"

"Yes-at least, no; my stepbrother blew in while I was there; but as he was very keen to go with me, I don't somehow think we need consider him as a possible suspect."

Hannasyde paid no heed to this rather sarcastic speech. "He was keen to go with you? You didn't take him, did you?"

"No, my stepfather told him--" Jim broke off, his eyes going swiftly to Hannasyde's face.

Then he burst out laughing. "Oh, this is too farcical!"

"What did your stepfather tell him, Mr. Kane?"

"That I didn't want to be bothered by him. Which was perfectly true. Seriously, Superintendent, you must leave my stepfather out of this. Incidentally, I fail to see what his motive could possibly be."

"I take it you have never had any reason to suspect that he might be jealous of your mother's affection for you?"

"Not the slightest," said Jim emphatically.

"Very well," said Hannasyde. "I promise you I'll go into it carefully, Mr. Kane. And, if possible, refrain from insulting Sir Adrian," he added, with the glimmer of a smile.

"Thanks," said Jim, rising and shaking hands. "I'll be getting along, then."

"Not got cold feet, Mr. Kane?"

"Oh, not very! There seems to be a Providence watching over me, anyway."

Hannasyde agreed and saw him off the premises.

After that he had a short conference with Inspector Carlton and went out to meet Sergeant Hemingway for lunch.

The sergeant, who had failed to elicit anything from Mr. James Kane's old nanny but the most rigid corroboration of her mistress's story, was feeling disgruntled; but he cheered up when he heard what Hannasyde had to tell him, and pointed out that he had prophesied that no one could tell where the case was going to end. "That's one suspect less, at all events," he said briskly. "Looks like we can rule out the old lady, too, not to mention Lady Harte."

"You're going too fast for me," said Hannasyde. "I'm not ruling anyone out yet."

"What, not James Kane himself, Super?"

"I don't think so. I believe he's telling me the truth, but we can't leave out of account the possibility that he may have engineered this accident just to put us off the real scent."

"Him?" said the sergeant incredulously. "Don't you believe it, Super! He's not that sort!"

"Hemingway," said the superintendent, "you think that if a man plays first-cla.s.s football and gets into the semi-final of the Amateur Golf Championship he can't be a murderer!"

The sergeant blushed but said defiantly: "Psychology!"

"Rubbish!" said Hannasyde. "However, Carlton's putting one of his young men on to keep an eye on James Kane, and I've promised to investigate the affair. I'm going to see the car and to question the garage hands immediately after lunch. I shall go on up to Cliff House. I want you to go around to Kane and Mansell's office, take a careful look at the building with respect to the yard, and see what you can get out of the personnel."

While the superintendent and Sergeant Hemingway were discussing the case over the lunch table, Mrs. Kane's Daimler was bearing Jim home in state. He arrived to find that the rest of the party had started lunch and realised, as soon as he entered the dining room, that Miss Allison had not been able to allay his relatives' suspicions. As he took his seat at the end of the table, with an apology for being late, his mother said in her most businesslike and commanding voice: "Now, Jim! Without any beating about the bush, what happened this morning?"

"To the Bentley?" said Jim, shaking out his table napkin. "The steering went, and we ended up safely but ungracefully in the ditch."

"Don't try and throw dust in my eyes, Jim!" she said. "You needn't think my nerves won't stand the truth. I've faced too many dangers in my time--"

"Nerves!" interrupted Emily fiercely. "No one talked of nerves in my young days!"

"And a very good thing too!" said Lady Harte. "I don't know what they are. Never did."

"You don't know how fortunate you are," said Rosemary with a pitying smile.

"On the contrary, I do know. Jim, I insist upon being answered!"

"Well, Mother, a nut holding one of the ball joints had worked loose, and it fell off."

"That," said Sir Adrian, helping himself to salad, "of course explains everything. Enlighten our ignorance, my dear boy."

"I don't want to hear anything about nuts and ball joints," announced Emily. "If someone's been tampering with your car, say so!"

Jim looked up to find Miss Allison's gaze inquiringly on his face. "Was it tampered with, Jim?"

she asked.

"Traitress!"

"I did try to make out it was an accident, but no one believed me. If it wasn't an accident we'd all rather know."

"Of course it wasn't an accident!" declared Timothy scornfully. "And now perhaps you'll believe I did not run the Seamew on the rocks!"

"I think," said Sir Adrian in his tranquil way, "that since speculation is so rife, you had better tell us just what did happen, Jim."

"Well, sir, it seems fairly obvious the car was tampered with."

"That is very disturbing," said Sir Adrian. "If you have not already done so, you should inform the police."

"I have. That's what made me late for lunch. The superintendent's going to look into it."

"I should think so indeed!" snapped Emily. "I don't know what the world's coming to!"

"Of course, what I am waiting for," said Rosemary, "is for somebody to try and bring it round to Trevor. Or possibly even me."

No one but Emily paid any attention to this remark, and as she merely said that the least said about that Dermott the better, Rosemary was discouraged from pursuing the subject.

"I have yet to learn that I am an alarmist," said Lady Harte; "but it is quite obvious that we must take immediate steps. This is beyond a joke. Whom do the police suspect?"

"Adrian," replied Jim with a cheerful grin.

Even Emily laughed at this. Norma said: "Adrian? Good G.o.d, the police must be out of their senses! Adrian doesn't know one end of a car from the other!"

"It grieves me to think I made so ill an impression on the superintendent," said Sir Adrian, delicately dropping tarragon over his salad. "What, if any, is my motive, Jim?"

"Oh, stepfather complex, sir! Gnawing jealousy."

"Ah yes, of course!" agreed Sir Adrian. "But surely it is a little odd of me to have borne with you all these years and to choose the moment when you are about to leave my roof for ever to murder you?"

"Actually," said Rosemary, who had been listening with deep interest, "people suffering from inhibitions often behave quite irrationally."

Emily looked at her with acute dislike. "If you've nothing to say more worth listening to than that, you'd better hold your tongue," she said crushingly.

"Well, it's very funny, no doubt; but I'm not going to have such nonsensical things said of my husband!" announced Lady Harte. "It annoys me very much indeed, for no one could have been a better father to Jim than Adrian!"

"I utterly refuse to subscribe to that," said Jim. "He never came the father over me in all his life."

"Thank you, Jim," said Sir Adrian, touched.

"Something must be done!" said Norma in a martial voice. "If I had my revolver-well, anyway, this decides it! From now on you'll carry a gun, Jim."

"I haven't got a gun," replied Jim. "Besides, from the look of things, I'm to be done in by accident."

"The Killer's failed twice," said Timothy. "We've got to be prepared for absolutely anything now. I say, it's most frightfully exciting, isn't it, Jim?"