"I know what you mean," said the Chief. "I always tell my young men to be wary when a man smiles too much. Smiles are sometimes camouflage, to cover up something that mustn"t be seen underneath! Strangwise is a Canadian, isn"t he?"
"I think so," answered Desmond, "anyhow, he has lived there. But he got his commission over here. He came over some time in 1915, I believe, and joined up."
"Ah, here we are!" cried the Chief, steering the car down a turning marked "Laleham Villas."
Laleham Villas proved to be an immensely long terrace of small two-story houses, each one exactly like the other, the only difference between them lying in the color of the front doors and the arrangement of the small strip of garden in front of each.
The houses stretched away on either side in a vista of smoke-discolored yellow brick. The road was perfectly straight and, in the dull yellow atmosphere of the winter morning, unspeakably depressing.
The abode of small clerks and employees, Laleham Villas had rendered up, an hour before, its daily tribute of humanity to the City-bound trains of the Great Eastern Railway. The Mackwayte"s house was plainly indicated, about 200 yards down on the right-hand side, by a knot of errand boys and bareheaded women grouped on the side-walk. A large, phlegmatic policeman stood at the gate.
"You"ll like Marigold," said the Chief to Desmond as they got out of the car, "quite a remarkable man and very sound at his work!"
British officers don"t number detective inspectors among their habitual acquaintances, and the man that came out of the house to meet them was actually the first detective that Desmond had ever met. Ever since the Chief had mentioned his name, Desmond had been wondering whether Mr. Marigold would be lean and pale and bewildering like Mr. Sherlock Holmes or breezy and wiry like the detectives in American crook plays.
The man before him did not bear the faintest resemblance to either type. He was a well-set up, broad-shouldered person of about forty-five, very carefully dressed in a blue serge suit and black overcoat, with a large, even-tempered countenance, which sloped into a high forehead. The neatly brushed but thinning locks carefully arranged across the top of the head testified to the fact that Mr. Marigold had sacrificed most of his hair to the vicissitudes of his profession. When it is added that the detective had a small, yellow moustache and a pleasant, cultivated voice, there remains nothing further to say about Mr.
Marigold"s external appearance. But there was something so patent about the man, his air of reserve, his careful courtesy, his shrewd eyes, that Desmond at once recognized him for a type, a cast from a certain specific mould. All services shape men to their own fashion. There is the type of Guardsman, the type of airman, the type of naval officer. And Desmond decided that Mr.
Marigold must be the type of detective, though, as I have said, he was totally unacquainted with the genus.
"Major Okewood, Marigold," said the Chief, "a friend of mine!"
Mr. Marigold mustered Desmond in one swift, comprehensive look.
"I won"t give you my hand, Major," the detective said, looking down at Desmond"s proffered one, "for I"m in a filthy mess and no error. But won"t you come in, sir?" he said to the Chief and led the way across the mosaic tile pathway to the front door which stood open.
"I don"t think this is anything in your line, sir," said Mr.
Marigold to the Chief as the three men entered the house, "it"s nothing but just a common burglary. The old man evidently heard a noise and coming down, surprised the burglar who lost his head and killed him. The only novel thing about the whole case is that the old party was shot with a pistol and not bludgeoned, as is usually the case in affairs of this kind. And I shouldn"t have thought that the man who did it was the sort that carries a gun..."
"Then you know who did it?" asked the Chief quietly.
"I think I can safely say I do, sir," said Mr. Marigold with the reluctant air of one who seldom admits anything to be a fact, "I think I can go as far as that! And we"ve got our man under lock and key!"
"That"s a smart piece of work, Marigold," said the Chief.
"No, sir," replied the other, "you could hardly call it that. He just walked into the arms of a constable over there near Goodmayes Station with the swag on him. He"s an old hand... we"ve known him for a receiver for years!
"Who is it?" asked the Chief, "not one of my little friends, I suppose, eh, Marigold!"
"Dear me, no, sir," answered Mr. Marigold, chuckling, "it"s one of old Mackwayte"s music-hall pals, name o" Barney!"
CHAPTER V. THE MURDER AT SEVEN KINGS
"This is Mrs. Chugg, sir," said Mr. Marigold, "the charwoman who found the body!"
The Chief and Desmond stood at the detective"s side in the Mackwaytes" little dining-room. The room was in considerable disorder. There was a litter of paper, empty bottles, overturned cruets and other debris on the floor, evidence of the thoroughness with which the burglar had overhauled the cheap fumed oak sideboard which stood against the wall with doors and drawers open. In the corner, the little roll-top desk showed a great gash in the wood round the lock where it had been forced.
The remains of a meal still stood on the table.
Mrs. Chugg, a diminutive, white-haired, bespectacled woman in a rusty black cape and skirt, was enthroned in the midst of this scene of desolation. She sat in an armchair by the fire, her hands in her lap, obviously supremely content with the position of importance she enjoyed. At the sound of Mr. Marigold"s voice, she bobbed up and regarded the newcomers with the air of a tragedy queen.
"Yus mister," she said with the slow deliberation of one who thoroughly enjoys repeating an oft-told tale, "I found the pore man and a horrid turn it give me, too, I declare! I come in early this morning a-purpose to turn out these two rooms, the dining-room and the droring-room, same as I always do of a Sat.u.r.day, along of the lidy"s horders and wishes. I come in "ere fust, to pull up the blinds and that, and d"reckly I switches on the light "Burglars!" I sez to meself, "Burglars! That"s wot it is!" seeing the nasty mess the place was in. Up I nips to Miss Mackwayte"s room on the first floor and in I bursts. "Miss," sez I, "Miss, there"s been burglars in the house!" and then I sees the pore lamb all tied up there on "er blessed bed! Lor, mister, the turn it give me and I ain"t telling you no lies! She was strapped up that tight with a towel crammed in "er mouth she couldn"t "ardly dror "er breath! I undid "er pretty quick and the fust thing she sez w"en I gets the towl out of her mouth, the pore dear, is "Mrs. Chugg," she sez all of a tremble as you might say, "Mrs. Chugg" sez she, "my father! my father!" sez she. With that up she jumps but she "adn"t put foot to the floor w"en down she drops! It was along of "er being tied up orl that time, dyer see, mister! I gets "er back on the bed. "You lie still, Miss,"
says I, "and I"ll pop in and tell your pa to come in to you!"
Well; I went to the old genelmun"s room. Empty!"
Mrs. Chugg paused to give her narrative dramatic effect.
"And where did you find Mr. Mackwayte?" asked the Chief in such a placid voice that Mrs. Chugg cast an indignant glance at him.
"I was jes" going downstairs to see if "e was in the kitching or out at the back," she continued, unheeding the interruption, "when there on the landing I sees a foot asticking out from under the curting. I pulls back the curting and oh, Lor! oh, dear, oh, dear, the pore genelmun, "im as never did a bad turn to no one!"
"Come, come, Mrs. Chugg!" said the detective.
The charwoman wiped her eyes and resumed.
""E was a-lying on his back in "is dressing-gown, "is face all burnt black, like, and a fair smother o" blood. Under "is hed there was a pool o" blood, mister, yer may believe me or not..."
Mr. Marigold cut in decisively.
"Do you wish to see the body, sir?" the detective asked the Chief, "they"re upstairs photographing it!"
The Chief nodded. He and Desmond followed the detective upstairs, whilst Mrs. Chugg resentfully resumed her seat by the fire. On her face was the look of one who has cast pearls before swine.
"Any finger-prints?" asked the Chief in the hall.
"Oh, no," he said, "Barney"s far too old a hand for that sort o"
thing!"
The landing proved to be a small s.p.a.ce, covered with oilcloth and raised by a step from the bend made by the staircase leading to the first story. On the left-hand side was a window looking on a narrow pa.s.sage separating the Mackwayte house from its neighbors and leading to the back-door. By the window stood a small wicker-work table with a plant on it. At the back of the landing was a part.i.tion, glazed half-way up and a door--obviously the bath-room.
The curtain had been looped right over its bra.s.s rod. The body lay on its back at the foot of the table, arms flung outward, one leg doubled up, the other with the foot just jutting out over the step leading down to the staircase. The head pointed towards the bath-room door. Over the right eye the skin of the face was blackened in a great patch and there was a large blue swelling, like a bruise, in the centre. There was a good deal of blood on the face which obscured the hole made by the entrance of the bullet. The eyes were half-closed. A big camera, pointed downwards, was mounted on a high double ladder straddling the body and was operated by a young man in a bowler hat who went on with his work without taking the slightest notice of the detective and his companions.
"Close range," murmured Desmond, after glancing at the dead man"s face, "a large calibre automatic pistol, I should think!"
"Why do you think it was a large calibre pistol, Major?" asked Mr. Marigold attentively.
"I"ve seen plenty of men killed at close range by revolver and rifle bullets out at the front," replied Desmond, "but I never saw a man"s face messed up like this. In a raid once I shot a German at point blank range with my revolver, the ordinary Army issue pattern, and I looked him over after. But it wasn"t anything like this. The only thing I"ve seen approaching it was one of our sergeants who was killed out on patrol by a Hun officer who put his gun right in our man"s face. That sergeant was pretty badly marked, but..."
He shook his head. Then he added, addressing the detective: "Let"s see the gun! Have you got it?"
Mr. Marigold shook his head.
"He hadn"t got it on him," he answered, "he swears he never had a gun. I expect he chucked it away somewhere. It"ll be our business to find it for him!"
He smiled rather grimly, then added:
"Perhaps you"d care to have a look at Miss Mackwayte"s room, sir!"
"Is Miss Mackwayte there" asked the Chief.