John Creasey - Send Superintendent West

“Tony, you’ve got to give way over the secrecy,” Roger went on grimly. “We’ve lost too much time already. Never mind what Shawn wants, never mind protecting him and his wife from hurt, stop wet-nursing them. I want Ricky Shawn’s picture in every English newspaper in the morning. Every American paper, too — every newspaper in the world that will print it If it’s as vital as you say, then you want quick results, and secrecy won’t get them, it will only slow us down. All I’ve been holding back from you and Lissa Meredith is that I don’t like the hush-hush. It could kill your chance of finding that child quickly. You may throw away any chance of finding him at all.”

He talked quietly, standing by the desk, looking down on Marino; and Marino gave no indication of what he felt. It was some time before he spoke.

“I don’t think it can be done,” he said.

“It’s got to be done. Or I’ll tell Hardy that I’m just wasting my time, and ask to be taken off the case,” Roger said. “Look.” He took an envelope from his despatch-case, opened it, pushed a picture of Ricky Shawn in front of Marino, waited until the man had looked at it, drew out another. He held it out. “Now look at this. That’s Ed Scammel. That’s what his throat looked like, after these people had finished with him.

They are the same people who hold Ricky Shawn. At the moment they’ve got us scared. Use enough publicity and they’ll be the ones who are scared. When are you going to realize that?”

9

“REST” BY NIGHT

Marino took the photograph of Scammel, placed it by the side of that of Ricky, and studied each closely without looking up. His big, pale hands did not move. Roger lit a cigarette, and blew smoke over Marino’s head. The faces of Presidents looked down on him.

Marino glanced up.

“I will do what I can,” he said. “I am not the big man.” He looked very bleak. “Thank you, Roger. Even if they agree, it will take an hour or two. Call me in two hours, and I’ll have the answer.”

“Do you mean that you’re going to need Shawn’s permission?” Roger demanded.

“I mean I’ll do all I can.”

“If Shawn holds it up, let me handle him,” Roger said.

Marino chuckled, unexpectedly. Roger smiled and relaxed, accepted another drink, and asked without tension:

“Where is Lissa?”

“With David Shawn. Now that he’s cooled down a bit, she can cope. He won’t throw her out of any window. There are two or three of our men down there, you have no need to worry. We’re trying to make sure that if Shawn gets a message, he won’t keep it to himself. The most likely one he’ll talk to is Lissa, so she will stay closer than a sister. Unless you need her for something else, that is.”

“I should hate to think she wasn’t doing something useful,” Roger said lightly. Gaining his point with Marino had given j him brief but sweet satisfaction, and he didn’t actually miss Lissa now. “I won’t call you about sending that photograph out, I’ll have Bill Sloan do that. If you give the go-ahead, he can fix everything.”

“What are you going to do?”

“First I’m going home,” said Roger. “I’ve a wife and family. Afterwards, I’m going to Clarice Norwood’s house.”

“Why?”

“The lady’s left it empty, and Gissing might be planning to use it Obviously he might have wanted her out of the way in case we trace the Austin to the house, but why should we take that for granted? Ask me again, and I’ll say I’ve got a hunch!”

“I told you,” Marino said. “Lissa can pick men.” He tapped Scammel’s photograph. “Be very careful.” To emphasize the words, he took a small automatic from his pocket and held it out. “I know you Yard men don’t carry guns without special permission. I talked Hardy into agreeing that you should. Use this until you can collect yours from the Yard.”

Roger took it. “I will,” he said. “Thank you.”

The tapping of Marino’s finger seemed like a warning of disaster; the little gesture, so deliberate and full of meaning, hovered in front of Roger’s eyes as he went out into the welcome cool of the evening. The gun made an unfamiliar weight in his pocket. He drove to the Yard but did not trouble to collect another gun. He went to the canteen with Sloan, had supper and made plans, as carefully as if he knew that Gissing would go to the house. After eight-thirty, when dusk was falling, he turned into Bell Street, Chelsea, where he lived. He would only have a few minutes, for he wanted to be at “Rest” by full darkness, but it would be better than nothing. The street looked friendly and pleasant in the fading light, and neighbours waved. He pulled up alongside the house, and walked up the path as Janet opened the front door.

“Darling! I didn’t think you were going to make it!”

“No faith in me,” Roger said. “That’s the trouble.” As they went indoors, he raised his head and sniffed. “No odours of frying. No noises of tape recorder or television. I deduce that my two sons are not at home.”

They turned into the front room, which was pleasant but just a little shabby, for most of the furniture had been here for over twenty years. But it had comfort and charm.

“Scoop’s out at some exhibition, they’re showing three of his African paintings,” Janet said. “And Richard rang up — he’s a chip off the old block, I’m afraid.”

“What’s he done that I wouldn’t do if I could help it?”

“Working overtime. He has to go out on location, or something, he sounded very excited.” Janet watched as Roger poured out a modest tot of whisky and splashed in a lot of soda, and he got the impression she was waiting for something.

“What are you going to have?” he asked, although she seldom joined him except on special occasions.

“Nothing,” she said.

He sipped and frowned.

“Then what —” he began, and suddenly he remembered. “God! What a clod I am! What did you buy?”

Her face lit up.

She had bought a suit in a blue-brown check which obviously she loved, and which she was sure was a bargain; he hadn’t seen her happier for a long time, and for a short while, as he watched her face, he forgot the Shawns, Ricky, Marino and even Lissa.

Twenty minutes later, in a very different mood, he left the car in a yard near “Rest” and walked along the side of the garden, under the trees towards the back door. No light showed. Plain-clothes police, patrolling the road, had signalled that no one had gone in. It could be, probably would be, a complete waste of time.

He let himself in with a key made at Scotland Yard’s workshop, modelled from the soap impression he had taken on his last visit to the house. Using only his flashlight he left the kitchen and looked into each room. Nothing had changed. There was a faded easy-chair in the hall, and at the far end, beneath the stairs, a cupboard used as a cloakroom, big enough for him to hide in. Even if the door were opened, he could squeeze back, out of sight. He sat in the chair and put a cigarette to his lips but didn’t light it. At first he found himself thinking of Scoop painting, and wondering what Richard, so much more intent and industrious, had been doing during the day on his scripts. His thoughts veered to Janet, then to Lissa Meredith. He found himself comparing them, in looks, in manner, and suddenly wrenched his thoughts away, to the missing Ricky and the dead Scammel.

Suddenly he heard a car approaching. Nearer it came, and nearer. He stood up as it stopped outside the house.

•     •     •

Roger waited by the front door, heard footsteps and retreated to the cloak-cupboard. He was inside, with the door open a crack, when a key turned in the lock. He couldn’t see who came in, but the footsteps were those of a man. He heard a faint cough; then the light went on by the front door, not bright enough to show anything here. As his eyes became accustomed to the crack of light, he saw a man of medium height, wearing a black Homburg hat and a raincoat of a darker shade than that worn by the man who had followed him at Hammersmith Underground that afternoon. He took off the hat and coat and Roger made ready to draw further back; but the man flung them on to the easy chair, threw his gloves after them and went into the drawing-room.

A pale-faced man of middle age; that fitted this man and Gissing. Roger didn’t move, heard the other walking about, fancied there was the chink of glass on glass. After a pause there came the unexpected, a bang of wood on wood followed by the rippling of fingers lightly touching the piano keys, then a melody, a familiar tune — I’m Gonna Wash That Man right out of my Hair. Its gaiety came to life, played well, as if the man enjoyed playing for its own sake. He went into other hits from South Pacific without pausing; he didn’t need music. It was so normal, so light-hearted, that it seemed to mock any suspicion.

The man began to sing lightly, voice and music filled the house. Tunes from My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls, then further back — Annie Get your Gun and Oklahoma, all without a pause, as if the player had come here just to do this.

Where was the touch of the sinister?

The music stopped, and the silence seemed to hurt, to be false. Sounds of movement followed, the drawing-room door opened. Roger didn’t close the cloakroom door, he just drew back. The man walked towards him, and he held his breath. He couldn’t see what happened, but the door slammed, as if the man had pushed it as he passed. Darkness surrounded Roger. He waited a few seconds, then opened the door a crack, heard water running from a tap, and the man humming. He re-closed it but kept his ear to the keyhole. He knew when the man passed, gave him time to reach the drawing-room again, then opened it once more.

There could be deadly danger here, if the house held danger. Gissing — was it Gissing? — had noticed the door open once, would be suspicious if he saw it open again.

He had played enough to satisfy himself, apparently, and it was very quiet A clock struck ten. The chimes were light and clear, a friendly sound. As the last faded, Roger heard something else; another car.

He pulled the door so that it was almost closed, and he could only just see out. The old pattern was repeated — the slamming of a car door followed by footsteps. This time there was a sharp ring at the door bell. The pianist appeared, didn’t look towards the cloakroom, just opened the front door. He hid most of the newcomer, but wasn’t tall enough to hide David Shawn’s rugged face.

If the face were not enough, the gruff voice with its undertone of harshness supplied everything that was missing.

“Are you the man who called himself Jack?”

“Jack” — and it was “Jack” Gissing, thought Roger.

“I am,” said Gissing. His voice was pleasant and urbane, could easily have been the voice of the man who had telephoned Shawn at Wavertree Road. “David Shawn, I presume.” Laughter tinged with mockery lurked in the voice. “You must have shaken off anyone sent by the Embassy to follow you, or I would have had a telephone message by now. So we can talk freely. Come in.”

Shawn came in; Gissing wasn’t small, but he was dwarfed. He looked up at the big man, smilingly, suave, quite self-possessed, untroubled by Shawn’s hugeness. He closed the door. Shawn, without hat or overcoat, wearing the same grey suit that he had worn the previous morning, unruly hair roughly combed, face still like a piece of chiselled stone, looked down on him.

Roger couldn’t see Shawn’s eyes, but guessed what they were like; hot coals.

“I haven’t come to talk,” Shawn said. “I’ve come for my son.”

“And you shall have your son, quite safe and unharmed,” Gissing said easily. “You needn’t be at all worried about him, Mr Shawn. But we needn’t stay here.”

He turned and led the way into the drawing-room. Shawn hesitated, glowering at his back, and then followed. Roger slipped out of the cupboard, closed the door softly, stepped across to the wall and crept towards the drawing-room. He opened the dining-room door next to it as a quick way of retreat.

“I told you I didn’t come to talk,” Shawn growled.

“I know, I know,” said Gissing, and the laughter still lurked, as if the giant amused him. Yet Shawn’s eyes must tell their story, and Shawn could crush him; if Gissing knew anything about Shawn, he would know that he was in acute danger. Judging from his voice, he didn’t give the possibility a thought. “We won’t waste words, Mr Shawn, but there are one or two details to be settled. What will you drink?”

Shawn said: “Where’s my son? If you don’t come across, I’ll break your neck. Where is he?”

Gissing actually laughed.

“If you break my neck, how are you going to find your son?” he asked. “Be sensible, Mr Shawn. Sit down. Whisky? Rye? Bourbon? There’s ice in the kitchen — just wait a moment, and I’ll go and get it.”

He was not a dozen feet away from Roger, and coming nearer.

10

BARGAINING

ROGER backed into the dining-room, but there was no time to close the door properly. Any movement would catch Gissing’s eye, he would look up involuntarily. He might not notice that the door was ajar if it were not moving. Roger saw his shadow, and dropped a hand to Marino’s gun.

Shawn said: “You stay right here.”

“Mr Shawn, don’t —”

Gissing looked as if he had suddenly been turned into a puppet pulled by its strings into a whirligig. The shadow of his arms, legs and head made crazy movements, then vanished. There was a thud, next a moment of silence before Shawn said thickly:

“I’ll break your neck after I’ve broken up the rest of you. Where’s my son?”

There was another moment of silence. Roger moved forward into the hall, taking a greater chance, and stood so that he could just see into the room; the door was wide open. He saw Gissing’s feet and legs, on the floor. Shawn stood with his back to the door, blocking the rest of the room from Roger’s sight.

“You don’t seem to understand,” Shawn said, and his voice seemed higher-pitched, as if he were fighting for words. “I’ve come here for Ricky, and if I don’t get him, I’ll kill you.”

Lissa had said that he had been hovering between sanity and insanity for a long time. No sane man would talk like this; no sane father would take such a chance with the man whom he knew or thought he knew had kidnapped his son. It could be a big bluff, of course, but was Shawn in a mood to bluff? He didn’t sound like it He sounded as if he thought that he could come here and find Ricky, and take him away; and if he didn’t, he would kill.

Gissing made no attempt to get up.

Into the silence, Shawn said thickly: “And a gun won’t stop me.”

So Gissing had drawn a gun. Roger couldn’t see it, could only see that neither of the men moved.

“If it comes to killing,” the Englishman said, “I’ll start Don’t be a fool, Shawn. I can tell you where to find Ricky, and I promise you he’s not hurt. I had a message about him two hours ago.”