considering him unlikely to give to a beggar and too crisp of gait to be wise to rob. There was other, easier prey. He despised them, and understood them at the same time.
Good fortune was with him: Zebedee Marner was in, and after a discreet inquiry, the clerk showed Monk into the upper office.
'Good morning, Mr.-Monk.' Marner sat behind a large, important desk, his white hair curled over his ears and his white hands spread on the leather-inlaid surface in front of him. 'What can I do for you?'
'You come recommended as a man of many businesses, Mr. Marner,' Monk started smoothly, gliding over the hatred in his voice. 'With a knowledge of all kinds of things.'
'And so I am, Mr. Monk, so I am. Have you money to invest?'
“What could you offer me?''
'All manner of things. How much money?' Marner was watching him narrowly, but it was well disguised as a casual cheerfulness.
'I am interested also in safety, rather than quick profit,' Monk said, ignoring the question. 'I wouldn't care to lose what I have.'
'Of course not, who would?' Marner spread his hands wide and shrugged expressively, but his eyes were fixed and blinkless as a snake's. 'You want your money invested safely?'
'Oh, quite definitely,' Monk agreed. 'And since I know of many other gentlemen who are also interested in investment, I should wish to be certain that any recommendation I made was secure.'
Manner's eyes flickered, then the lids came down to hide his thoughts. 'Excellent,' he said calmly. 'I quite understand, Mr. Monk. Have you considered importing and exporting? Very nourishing trade; never fails.'
'So I've heard.' Monk nodded. 'But is it safe?'
'Some is, some isn't. It is the skill of people like me to know the difference.' His eyes were wide again, his hands folded across his paunch. 'That is why you came here, instead of investing it yourself.''
'Tobacco?'
Marner's face did not change in the slightest.
'An excellent commodity.' He nodded. 'Excellent. I cannot see gentlemen giving up their pleasures, whatever the economic turns of life. As long as there are gentlemen, there will be a market for tobacco. And unless our climate changes beyond our wit to imagine'-he grinned and his body rocked with silent mirth at his own humor-'we will be unable to grow it, so must need import it. Have you any special company in mind?'
'Are you familiar with the market?' Monk asked, swallowing hard to contain his loathing of this man sitting here like a fat white spider in his well-furnished office, safe in his gray web of lies and facades. Only the poor flies like Latterly got caught-a«d perhaps Joscelin Grey.
'Of course,' Marner replied complacently. 'I know it well.'
'You have dealt in it?'
'I have, frequently. I assure you, Mr. Monk, I know very well what I am doing.'
'You would not be taken unaware and find yourself faced with a collapse?'
'Most certainly not.' Marner looked at him as if he had let fall some vulgarity at the table.
'You are sure?' Monk pressed him.
'I am more than sure, my dear sir.' Now he was quite pained. 'I am positive.'
'Good.' Monk at last allowed the venom to flood into his voice. “That is what I thought. Then you will no doubt be able to tell me how the disaster occurred that ruined Major Joscelin Grey's investment in the same commodity. You were connected with it.'
Marner's face paled and for a moment he was confused to find words.
'I-er-assure you, you need have no anxiety as to its happening again,' he said, avoiding Monk's eyes, then looking very directly at him, to cover the lie of intent.
'That is good,' Monk answered him coolly. 'But hardly of more than the barest comfort now. It has cost two lives already. Was there much of your own money lost, Mr. Marner?'
'Much of mine?' Marner looked startled.
'I understand Major Grey lost a considerable sum?'
'Oh-no. No, you are misinformed.' Marner shook his head and his white hair bounced over his ears. 'The company did not precisely fail. Oh dear me no. It simply transferred its operation; it was taken over. If you are not a man of affairs, you could not be expected to understand. Business is highly complicated these days, Mr. Monk.'
'It would seem so. And you say Major Grey did not lose a great deal of his own money? Can you substantiate that in any way?'
'I could, of course.' The smug veils came over Mar-ner's eyes again. 'But Major Grey's affairs are his own, of course, and I should not discuss his affairs with you, any more than I should dream of discussing yours with him. The essence of good business is discretion, sir.' He smiled, pleased with himself, his composure at least in part regained.
'Naturally,' Monk agreed. 'But I am from the police, and am investigating Major Grey's murder, therefore I am in a different category from the merely inquisitive.' He lowered his voice and it became peculiarly menacing. He saw Marner's face tighten. 'And as a law-abiding man,' he continued, 'I am sure you will be only too happy to give me every assistance you can. I should like to see your records in the matter. Precisely how much did Major Grey lose, Mr. Marner, to the guinea, if you please?'
Marner's chin came up sharply; his eyes were hot and offended.
'The police? You said you wanted to make an investment. ''
'No, I did not say that-you assumed it. How much did Joscelin Grey lose, Mr. Marner?'
'Oh, well, to the guinea, Mr. Monk, he-he did not lose any.'
'But the company dissolved.'
'Yes-yes, that is true; it was most unfortunate. But Major Grey withdrew his own investment at the last moment, just before the-the takeover.'
Monk remembered the policeman from whom he had learned Marner's address. If he had been after Marner for years, let him have the satisfaction of taking him now.
'Oh.' Monk sat back, altering his whole attitude, almost smiling. 'So he was not really concerned in the loss?'
'No, not at all.'
Monk stood up.
'Then it hardly constitutes a part of his murder. I'm sorry to have wasted your time, Mr. Marner. And I thank you for your cooperation. You do, of course, have some papers to prove this, just for my superiors?'
'Yes. Yes, I have.' Marner relaxed visibly. 'If you care to wait for a moment-' He stood up from his desk and went to a large cabinet of files. He pulled a drawer and took out a small notebook ruled in ledger fashion. He put it, open, on the desk in front of Monk.
Monk picked it up, glanced at it, read the entry where Grey had withdrawn his money, and snapped it shut.
'Thank you.' He put the book in the inside pocket of his coat and stood up.
Marner's hand came forward for the return of the book. He realized he was not going to get it, debated in his mind whether to demand it or not, and decided it would raise more interest in the subject than he could yet affordt He forced a smile, a sickly thing in his great white face.
'Always happy to be of service, sir. Where should we be without the police? So much crime these days, so much violence.'
'Indeed,' Monk agreed. 'And so much theft that breeds violence. Good day, Mr. Marner.'
Outside he walked briskly along Gun Lane and back towards the West India Dock Road, but he was thinking hard. If this evidence was correct, and not fiddled with by Zebedee Marner, then the hitherto relatively honest Jos- celin Grey had almost certainly been forewarned in time to escape at the last moment himself, leaving Latterly and his friends to bear the loss. Dishonest, but not precisely illegal. It would be interesting to know who had shares in the company that took over the tobacco importing, and if Grey was one of them.
Had he uncovered this much before? Marner had shown no signs of recognition. He had behaved as if the whole question were entirely new to him. In fact it must be, or Monk would never have been able to deceive him into imagining him an investor.
