Roger helped the man from the car. They carried him into the house, put him on a settee, then began to massage his lips and legs and wrists. Mark laced strong tea with brandy and spoon-fed the man. The tension, which had relaxed after the disappearance of the Black Maria, was more acute than ever. Roger was desperately anxious to find out what had happened to Dixon, and who had brought the man here.
It was half an hour before the man could speak, and then only in a voice a little above a whisper.
Dixon had followed the Daimler to Bonnock House. Soon after he had parked his cab at the end of the road, another had arrived, bearing Mrs Sylvester Cartier. With her had been a man whom the taxi-driver knew by sight because he had worked a great deal in the East End and had often been to the Old Bailey for a free entertainment. The man’s name, he said, was Oliphant.
“Oliphant!” Roger exclaimed.
“Sure — and the lady.” Dixon moistened his lips. “Maybe I got too curious, mister. I went too close. I was hanging around and Malone arrived — you know Malone? He’s poison, he—”
“He’s at Cannon Row,” Roger said.
Dixon’s eyes glittered. “I wish I could have had a go at ‘im first. Well, I just stayed around. Malone was watching. The toff who had been with the lady came out and got into the Daimler again and I started to follow but before I got far Malone came on the running board. Know Hampstead Heath, mister? Well, it’s lonely enough an’ I couldn’t do a thing about it. There was four of them. They — they” — his voice was hoarse with anger — “they tied me up an’ put me at the back of me own cab an’ drove it ‘ere!”
Roger said : “Have you been here ever since?”
“Every ruddy minnit,” said Dixon. “They never even give me a drink o’ water. They tied me ‘ere an’ told me I’d be lucky if anyone came before I was stiff.” He gulped. “I couldn’t move me ‘ead, Guv’nor. Wouldn’t I like—”
“Did they talk much?”
“Talk — they never did nothing else!” said Dixon. “They arst me ‘ow long I’d been a squealer, me — me, a perishing nose! They wanted to know if I’d been told to watch the lady, an’ whether you had said anything about her. I said you said I was to watch the toff, Guv’nor. I didn’t see no sense in giving them what they perishin’ well wanted!”
“Good man,” said Roger.
“That tickled Malone,” Dixon said. “He laughed as if it was the best joke in the world, Guv’nor — but I had the laugh on him, because he didn’t know you was really after the dame.”
“And is that the lot?” asked Roger.
“Seems plenty to me,” said Dixon. “If I don’t get some shut-eye soon I. shall drop dead, that’s what I shall do.”
“We’ll get you home,” Roger said.
“Guv’nor, if you’ve got a bed here, I’ll be asleep in a couple of jiffs.”
“Yes, of course.” Roger left Mark and Tennant to put the man to bed, smiled at the thought of Janet’s homecoming, then drove in his own car to the Yard. There seemed nothing to do but detain Mrs Cartier and Oliphant and hope that one or the other would make a true statement. The woman might break down. Some things continued to puzzle him. If Malone had known that the woman was implicated when Dixon had arrived, he must have known later that evening, yet there had been nothing phoney about the way he had assaulted her.
“To make me jump to the wrong conclusion,” Roger mused. “It couldn’t mean anything else.”
He reached the Yard and immediately gave instructions for Mrs Cartier and Oliphant to be shadowed. He learned from Eddie Day that Abbott had put a man on Oliphant after all; so Abbott was still capable of being two- faced. Until he saw Abbott, he thought that Mrs Cartier had no watcher, but he was wrong. The Superintendent was apologetic; Chatworth had ordered him to have Oliphant watched, as well as Mrs Cartier; the AC had not been prepared to leave it to Roger. And :
“I think he was right, West.”
“So do I, by hindsight,” admitted Roger. “Any sign of Pickerell?”
“No.”
“Have you heard about Malone?”
“I’ve just come from him,” said Abbott. “He will not talk — but then, he is hardly in a condition to talk, he will be in hospital for several days. Who dealt with him? Was it Cornish ?”
Roger smiled. “No. There was a bit of a scrap. I can’t say who hit who.”
He expected to be pressed on the point, but a buzzer rang on Abbott’s desk and the Superintendent stood up quickly.
“That will be Sir Guy. I told him you had arrived and he promised to ring for us as soon as he was ready.” Abbott led the way up to Chatworth’s office and they went in immediately.
“You’re having quite a week, aren’t you, West?” The question was almost aggressive.
Roger grimaced. “Yes, aren’t I ?”
“It looks as if the worst is over,” said Chatworth. “Abbott’s told you that we’re watching everyone?” Roger nodded. “All the people whom the Randall girl named have been interviewed except Oliphant,” Chatworth went on. “We’ve been very busy all through the night.”
Roger smiled with relief. He should have realised that the Yard would act swiftly and thoroughly. He had not yet got it out of his system that he was working this case on his own.
“And we have a very remarkable story,” Chatworth said. “You haven’t told him, Abbott, have you?”
“No, sir.”
