Bony Holds Audience
“WELL, what haveyou got to say, Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte?” Sergeant Marshall demanded in a tone of voice which, had Bony heard it from another policeman, would have astounded him. “You’ve been dawdling on this case, waiting for time or Providence or something to drop the clues into your open hands. Evil never triumphs, eh? You never rush about like Tom, Dick, or Harry Redman, do you? You take everything calmly, and just wait and wait and wait, until another poor devil is murdered and the killer can hand you another clue or two. You never allow emotion or even humanitarian thoughts to sway you when you’re on an investigation, do you? You proceed calmly and without undue haste, don’t you? You don’t care two hoots if a dozen persons are murdered, do you? Not even when a little girl is murdered for knowing something about windmills? Why the hell didn’t you tell me that Florence knew something about something vital to that killing swine? I’d have got it out of her-quick.”
With singular deliberateness Bony stood up, stood up to meet the blazing brown eyes of Sergeant Marshall, still incongruously dressed in pyjamas. Feeling in his own body had drained away so that he was conscious of having no physical feeling at all, save a sensation of terrible cold in his brain.
“You are right, Marshall, and you are wrong,” he said. “As a father you are right: as a policeman you are wrong. Take a hold on yourself. What’s Gleeson’s telephone number?”
“He’s out in the yard, searching the outbuildings. But what’s the use? They’ll find her body. Oh, they’ll find that. I’m going to have a word or two with that snivelling parson. I’ll fix him for a start.”
“Youwill leave the parson to me, and you will continue to followmy instructions. You don’t know nearly so much asI know about this investigation. You will now conduct me to the bedroom occupied by your daughter, and thenyou will get dressed and start work.”
Marshall swung round. He opened his mouth to say something, snapped it shut, and walked to the door. Bony followed him along the passage to a room opening off it just before the kitchen was reached.
Over the foot of the bed the clothes were tossed in disarray. On a chair beside the bed the child’s school clothes were laid, neatly folded, and upon them was a plate on which a peeled orange had waited for the child to eat on awakening.
“Go and dress,” Bony snapped.
“I’ll see you-”
“Sergeant Marshall, go and dress and then report back to me.” Bony glared upward into the furious brown eyes. “Take a hold on yourself. Until we find Rose Marie is dead, I for one will believe she still lives.”
The anger began to fade out of the brown eyes, and into them crept a new expression, one of painful surprise, for Marshall found himself looking upon the Mr Hyde of kindly Napoleon Bonaparte. He was gazing into eyes which appeared to glow with a bluish fluorescence, and underneath those eyes was a mouth, lipless and filled with clay-white fangs. The usual carefree and debonair expression had vanished, giving place to one of ferocious hate. And that new face which he had never seen before gave him comfort, for what he saw in it matched all that was in his own heart.
Bony strode to the open window. It faced to the north. Beyond it, some twenty feet away, was the paling fence bordering the north side of the station compound. He bent forward and thrust his head beyond the sill and noticed the fine red sand being whisked over the hard ground by the wind. He said something for which Lawton-Stanley would have fined him a full twenty shillings.
From the window he returned to the bed, where he stood for a few moments quite motionless. The mattress still contained the depression made by the child’s sleeping body. The depression made by her head was still upon the pillow. Then, abruptly, he leaned over the bed and sniffed with his nose but a fraction above the linen cover.
There was a square of carpet between the bed and window, and this he picked up and held to the light, squinting his eyes to stare all over it, square inch by square inch. The carpet he rolled and pushed beneath the bed. He closed and fastened the window, and then left the room, closing and locking the door and placing the key in his pocket.
Mrs Marshall was sitting on a chair beside the kitchen table. He went to her, brought his head down to the level of hers, and said:
“I do not believe Rose Marie is dead until it is proved. You must not think of it, for you have work to do. We allhave, every one of us. Slip out and tell the Rev. Lawton-Stanley that I want him, urgently. Will you do that?”
Slowly she turned her head and stared at him with tear-dimmed eyes. She nodded in assent. Her gaze fell away from his eyes and rested upon his brown hand laid lightly upon her forearm.
“I love Rose Marie too,” he told her.
Abruptly he turned and walked swiftly to the door, to the passage and back to the office. He noted the time by the clock. It was twenty minutes to eight. He took up the telephone.
“Hullo!” said a dreamy feminine voice.
“Dr Scott, please.”
“Number, please?” came the dreamy voice.
“This is Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte speaking from the police station. I want Dr. Scott. You know the number. If not, look it up.”
“The number is Merino 14,”came the now pert voice.
“Ring me when you get the doctor.”
As Marshall had done, Bony strode to the window. He saw Mrs Marshall reach the gate and turn westward towards where the evangelist’s truck was parked. A doubt cast a shadow over his mind. Had he been in error, had he always been wrong in accepting the death of human beings by violence in the cold academic manner of the scientist, and not with the righteous indignation of a warm human being? Murders he had always accepted as food for his mind, the victims meaning nothing to him save as the foundation upon which to raise the scaffold to hang the killer. As Marshall had justly pointed out, an additional killing or two meant little whilst his Providence dropped clues into his hands. Had he dawdled? Had he failed in his duty to humanity? Had he permitted his pride to overrule his own humanity?
Had he…? Oh hell! It was a different proposition when the probable victim of murder was a little child whom he had come to love, a winsome little girl whom young Jason had named Rose Marie. He had scoffed at theRedmans for permitting their emotions to trouble them, had boasted of his own scientific coldness. Had Marshall been right?
The telephone bell shrieked at him.
“Dr. Scott here,” the staccato voice announced.
“Good. Bonaparte speaking. Will you come right along to the police station?”
“Certainly. Has the child been found? Housekeeper just told me about it.”
“No. I want your assistance-urgently.”
“Be there in a minute.”
Bony cut the connexion and then rang the exchange.
“Is the postmaster on the phone?” he asked the girl.
“Yes. His number is-”
“I want him. Get him.”
“You might be a little civil, Inspector,” she said.
“I am. Your ears would burn were I uncivil. Get the postmaster quick. I’m in a hurry.”
He slammed down the receiver, then spun about to see standing in the office doorway little Mr Watson and two men standing behind him.
“Morning!” said Mr Watson smilingly. “You cleaningup here? Where’s the sergeant?”
“Out. Whatd’youwant?”
“Oh, just a friendly call on Marshall. These gentlemen are city colleagues up here to get a little news about the murders. Is it possible that Marshall’s child has been kidnapped, d’you think?”
“Nonsense. She has walked out in her sleep. Proved sleepwalker.”
“Interesting,” remarked one of Mr Watson’s companions.
“Yes, isn’tit! ” Mr Watson agreed. “Let me introduce you. This is a friend of mine, Mr Burns-Bony to his friends.”
“Eh!” ejaculated the other of his companions.“My hat.”
“Yes. I am Inspector Bonaparte. I have no news for you gentlemen this morning. When I have I shall be happy to impart it to you. Call again at six o’clock this evening.”
He returned to the shrieking telephone. On lifting the receiver, he heard Marshall’s voice out in the passage, and, placing a hand over the instrument, he called to the sergeant:
“Show these gentlemen out, Marshall. I am expecting Lawton-Stanley and Dr Scott.”
One red hand at the extremity of a large uniformed arm seemed to encircle the three newsmen and draw them out through the doorway. Then the door was slammed shut.
“Lovell here, the postmaster.”
“Ah… morning, Mr Lovell. I am Inspector Bonaparte speaking from the police station, and I rang to ask you a favour. It is that you come along here as quickly as possible. I haven’t met you, but I understand that you are a family man, and I am sure you would be only too glad to render all assistance in a most urgent matter.”
“Certainly. I’ll be right along.”
Three seconds after he had disconnected, the sergeant and Lawton-Stanley entered the office, followed by the hesitant Mrs Marshall.
“Got rid of those newsmen?”
Marshall nodded. To the evangelist Bony said:
“You have heard that Rose Marie has disappeared. You can do a big part in the search for her. I know you will do it. Listen! Marshall and Gleeson and I are policemen, and we are controlled by far too much damned red tape. Sorry! Here’s your shilling.” As he went on speaking he pulled coins from his pocket, selected a shilling piece, and placed it on the table before Lawton-Stanley, who, without comment, placed it in his collecting box, the pocket of his open-necked shirt.
“As I have pointed out, we policemen are bound hand and foot. We cannot enter houses and shops and search without a warrant. But you can, Padre. You can gather a band of men and women and go from house to house to make search for Rose Marie. No householder will object to such action by you. It is useless to search for tracks outside or on the street. Turn every house and shop inside out. Game?”
“Of course,” replied Lawton-Stanley.
“Good! And include the church and the parsonage.”
The evangelist nodded, turned, and went out with Mrs Marshall. They could hear him talking softly to her in the passage. Then Dr Scott came in… like a little dust storm.
“Morning!” he snapped, his white hair all ruffled.“Bit early. I haven’t had breakfast yet.”
“I want you to go along to Rose Marie’s bedroom, Doctor, and there take a sniff at the child’s pillow. When I did so I fancied I could smell chloroform. Then, under the bed, you will find a strip of carpet, rolled up. Take that back to your laboratory and, with your microscope, establish the foreign matter adhering to it. I think it is jute fibres. Anyway, I must know just what that foreign matter is. Will you do that for me?”
“Of course I will. Damn the breakfast! I’ll do that immediately and come back with my report.”
“Good! You may be disturbed by the evangelist and his search party, but you won’t mind that, will you?”
“Mind it!” echoed the doctor. “What the heck does Lawton-Stanley want to search my house for?”
“To find Rose Marie. They are going to search every house in the town.”
“Oh, all right! I won’t bellow.”
As he had entered, so Dr Scott left, followed by Marshall. In less than two minutes the doctor returned to the office to tell Bony that he was sure the smell of chloroform still clung to the child’s pillow. Marshall let him out and then rejoined Bony.
“Sorry I spoke like I did,” he said gruffly.
Across Bony’s face flashed a smile. It vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
“That’s nothing to worry about, Marshall,” he said softly. “I felt no better about it than you did, and do. When it is all cleared up you will acquit me. I am now expecting the postmaster. After he arrives I want you to go along to the garage and ask young Jason to come in for a moment or two. As you well know, young Jason was very friendly with Rose Marie. He may be able to give us a lead. Treat him very gently.”
“Yes, he might give us a lead,” Marshall agreed. “He’s a queer fellow, but all the kids like him. He might give us a lead as you suggest. Ah… there’s Lovell coming in now.”
The postmaster’s pale face was adorned with a thin moustache. His shoulders were slightly stooped. The sergeant placed a chair for him at the table opposite Bony and withdrew.
“So you are a police inspector,” Lovell said, brows raised. “What can I do for you?”
“A lot for me and more for Rose Marie.”Bony told him. “The child was kidnapped sometime during last night, and I am going to confide in you this much-I believe that she was taken by the man who killed Kendall and that swagman.” Bony leaned well back in his chair and stared hard at Mr Lovell. “I am professionally interested in certain parties here in Merino, and some time ago I wrote to Sydney asking for inquiries to be made concerning their origins and histories. Being a civil servant, as I am, you will appreciate that no sense of urgency will be experienced by the officers in Sydney. You will appreciate the urgency animating us here in Merino, and you will appreciate the urgency with which I want to contact Sydney.”
“That’s so, Inspector. Rule of thumb, you know, and all that. Still, as a general rule, it’s better to be slow and sure.”
“I agree there with you. Now… will you take over that telephone exchange yourself and do all possible to clear the lines to police headquarters, Sydney, as quickly as possible?”
“Yes.”
“I am going to ask headquarters to speak on matters which normally would be concealed in a sealed envelope, and, therefore, would you remain in that exchange until I am done?”
“Of course.”
“Fine. Thank you, Mr Lovell. Will you get going?”
The postmaster stood up.
“Anything else I can do?” he asked. “I’ve got a kid of Rose Marie’s age.”
“Well, now,” said Bony slowly, placing the tips of his fingers together beneath the point of his chin. “You could take a faint interest in the conversations of other telephone users this morning, and make a mental note of anything which might have a bearing on the disappearance of Rose Marie. But haste in contacting Sydney is of first importance.”
“I’ll bet I’ll get Sydney within an hour. So long. And when I do, I’ll lock the exchange door and shut fast the window.”
It was a quarter to nine o’clock. Left alone, Bony sat still and stared at the police notices on the back of the door which Lovell had closed behind him. From outside came the voice of the wind which since sunup had risen to become half a gale. Bony’s mind became less taut, more fluid. He thought of young Jason and of Mr James. Then again of the postmaster. What had Lovell said just before he went? Something about shutting a door. Yes, that was it. Shutting a door. Who else said something about shutting a door?
Into Bony’s mind appeared, as on a screen, the hut at Sandy Flat, the hut as he had last seen it in the moonlight. The door of the hut was shut, and he remembered that he had debated then whether he had closed it. Closed it! No, he hadn’t closed that door when he left the place for the cane-grass meat house, because his arms were loaded with his swag and things. And that door would not have been closed by the wind. It would not just catch shut because therewere no door lock or handles. There was merely a bent piece of wire to keep that door shut. Bony leapt from his chair. Within three seconds he was out in the street.