Then, "What letter do you mean?" he asked composedly.
"A letter which lay on H.P."s desk in the library at Harkings when they found the body ..."
"There _was_ a letter there then ...?"
"Haven"t _you_ got it?"
Jeekes shook his head.
"Come inside for a minute and tell me about this," he said.
He led Bruce into the vast smoking-room of the club. They took seats in a distant corner near the blazing fire. The room was practically deserted.
Now, Mr. Jeekes"s excessive carefulness about money had been a long-standing joke amongst his a.s.sistants when Bruce Wright had belonged to Hartley Parrish"s secretarial staff. Thrift had become with him more than a habit. It was a positive obsession. It revealed itself in such petty meannesses as a perpetual cadging for matches or small change and a careful abstention from any offer of hospitality. Never in the whole course of his service had Bruce Wright heard of Mr. Jeekes taking anybody out to lunch or extending any of the usual hospitalities of life. He was not a little surprised, therefore, to hear Jeekes ask him what he would take.
Bruce said he would take some coffee.
"Have a liqueur? Have a cigar?" said Jeekes, turning to Bruce from the somnolent waiter who had answered the bell.
There was a strange eagerness, a sort of over-done cordiality, in the invitation which contrasted so strongly with the secretary"s habits that Robin felt dimly suspicious. He suddenly formed the idea that Mr. Jeekes wanted to pump him. He refused the liqueur, but accepted a cigar. Jeekes waited until they had been served and the waiter had withdrawn silently into the dim vastness of the great room before he spoke.
"Now, then, young Wright," he said, "what"s this about a letter? Tell me from the beginning ..."
Bruce told him of the letter from Elias van der Spyck & Co. which Robin had seen upon the desk in the library at Harkings, of his (Bruce"s) journey down to Harkings that afternoon and of his failure to find the letter.
"But why do you a.s.sume that I"ve got it?"
There was an air of forced joviality about Mr. Jeekes as he put the question which did not in the least, as he undoubtedly intended it should, disguise his eagerness. On the contrary, it lent his rather undistinguished features an expression of cunning which can only be described as knavish. Bruce Wright, who, as will already have been seen, was a young man with all his wits about him, did not fail to remark it.
The result was that he hastily revised an intention half-formed in his mind of taking Jeekes a little way into his confidence regarding Robin Greve"s doubts and suspicions about Hartley Parrish"s death.
But he answered the secretary"s question readily enough.
"Because Miss Trevert told me you went to the library immediately you arrived at Harkings last night. I consequently a.s.sumed that you must have taken away the letter seen by Robin Greve ..."
Mr. Jeekes drew in his breath with a sucking sound. It was a little trick of his when about to speak.
"So you saw Miss Trevert at Harkings, eh?"
Bruce laughed.
"I did," he said. "We had quite a dramatic meeting, too--it was like a scene from a film!"
And, with a little good-humoured exaggeration, he gave Mr. Jeekes a description of his encounter with Mary. And lest it should seem that young Wright was allowing Mr. Jeekes to pump him, it should be stated that Bruce was well aware of one of the secretary"s most notable characteristics, a common failing, be it remarked, of the small-minded, and that was an overpowering suspicion of anything resembling a leading question. In order, therefore, to gain his confidence, he willingly satisfied the other"s curiosity regarding his visit to Harkings hoping thereby to extract some information as to the whereabouts of the letter on the slatey-blue paper.
"There was no letter of this description on the desk, you say, when you and Miss Trevert looked?" asked Jeekes when Bruce had finished his story.
"Nothing but circulars and bills," Bruce replied.
Mr. Jeekes leaned forward and drank off his coffee with a swift movement. Then he said carelessly:
"From what you tell me, Miss Trevert would have been perhaps a minute alone in the room without your seeing her?"
Bruce agreed with a nod.
Adjusting his _pince-nez_ on his nose the secretary rose to his feet.
"Very glad to have seen you again, Wright," he said, thrusting out a limp hand; "must run off now--ma.s.s of work to get through ..."
Then Bruce risked his leading question.
"If you haven"t got this letter," he observed, "what has become of it?
Obviously the police are not likely to have taken it because they know nothing of its significance ..."
"Quite, quite," answered Mr. Jeekes absently, but without replying to the young man"s question.
"Why," asked Bruce boldly, "did old H.P. make such a mystery about these letters on the slatey-blue paper, Mr. Jeekes?"
The secretary wrinkled up his thin lips and sharp nose into a cunning smile.
"When you get to be my age, young Wright," he made answer, "you will understand that every man has a private side to his life. And, if you have learnt your job properly, you will also know that a private secretary"s first duty is to mind his own business. About this letter now--it"s the first I"ve heard of it. Take my advice and don"t bother your head about it. _If_ it exists ..."
"But it _does_ exist," broke in Bruce quickly. "Mr. Greve saw it and read it himself ..."
Mr. Jeekes laughed drily.
"Don"t you forget, young Wright," he said, jerking his chin towards the youngster in a confidential sort of way, "don"t you forget that Mr.
Greve is anxious to find a plausible motive for Mr. Parrish"s suicide.
People are talking, you understand! That"s all I"ve got to say! Just you think it over ..."
Bruce Wright bristled up hotly at this.
"I don"t see you have any reason to try and impugn Greve"s motive for wishing to get at the bottom of this mysterious affair ..."
Mr. Jeekes affected to be engrossed in the manicuring of his nails. Very intently he rubbed the nails of one hand against the palm of the other.
"No mystery!" he said decisively with a shake of the head: "no mystery whatsoever about it, young Wright, except what the amateur detectives will try and make it out to be. Or has Mr. Greve discovered a mystery already?"
The question came out artfully. But in the quick glance which accompanied it, there was an intent watchfulness which startled Bruce accustomed as he was to the mild and unemotional ways of the little secretary.
"Not that I know of," said Bruce. "Greve is only puzzled like all of us that H.P. should have done a thing like this!"
Mr. Jeekes was perfectly impa.s.sive again.
"The nerves, young Wright! The nerves!" he said impressively. "Harley Street, not Mr. Greve, will supply the motive to this sad affair, believe me!"
With that he accompanied the young man to the door of the club and from the vestibule watched him sally forth into the rain of Pall Mall.
Then Mr. Jeekes turned to the hall porter.