Renick moved away from the map and joined me.
‘Well, here we go. Malroux paid the ransom and, of course, his daughter hasn’t been returned. We’re going over to talk to him now. I want you along, Harry.’
‘What happened then?’
‘The kidnappers told him his daughter would be at Lone Bay parking lot. She didn’t show, so he called us.’ He turned to Reiger. ‘Captain, can you collect her car and get it photographed? I’ll need prints when I get back.’ To me, he went on, ‘You’ll have to get the picture of the car in every newspaper: we want a complete local coverage.’
Reiger said, ‘I’ll fix it, and I’ll get the road blocks organised. In an hour, this district will be sewn up so tight a fly won’t get out of it.’
‘Let’s go, Fred,’ Renick said to Barty, and taking my arm, he strode off down the passage, down the stairs to the waiting police car.
As we were being rushed to Malroux’s place, Barty, a thick-set man in his early forties, said, ‘She’s dead, of course. If only the old fool had alerted us so we could have marked the money.’
‘I can’t say I blame him,’ Renick said. ‘In his place, I would have done the same. Money means nothing to him. He wants his daughter back.’
‘He should have guessed they wouldn’t return her. You know, John, the more I think about this, the more certain I am it’s a local job.’
‘That’s what I think.’
I stiffened to attention.
‘How do you figure that out?’ I asked.
‘Before she left for the movies,’ Renick said, ‘she got a telephone call from this guy Jerry Williams.
As soon as Malroux alerted us, I telephoned Williams, but he wasn’t there. He’s in hospital with a bust leg and he’s been there since Thursday so he couldn’t have telephoned the girl. That means it was the kidnapper using Williams’s name. How did he know about Williams? The boy’s father tells me the boy hasn’t seen Odette for a couple of months. Think that one over. Then another thing: why pick on the Pirates’ Cabin. Okay, it’s an out of the way place, but there are plenty of other lonely places better known than that joint. It’s very unlikely a stranger to the town would know of it.’
While he was speaking the police car pulled up outside Malroux’s house. The lights were on on the ground floor, and the front door stood open. I could see the butler waiting for us at the top of the steps.
He took us immediately to Malroux who was sitting in a vast room, lined with books and crowded with heavy antique furniture.
Malroux looked haggard and ill.
‘Come in, gentlemen,’ he said, ‘and sit down. I suppose you are going to tell me my daughter is dead.’
‘We won’t say that yet, sir,’ Renick said awkwardly. ‘There’s still hope she’ll turn up. You knew she had been kidnapped when I called on you this morning?’
‘Oh yes. This man threatened to kill her if I called you in. It was a difficult decision to make, but I finally decided not to tell you.’
‘I understand that. When did you last see your daughter?’
‘On Saturday night. She was going to the movies with a friend. She left about nine o’clock. Her friend telephoned about twenty minutes to ten to say Odette hadn’t arrived. This didn’t worry me. Odette is always changing her mind. She had a telephone call from young Jerry Williams just as she was leaving the house. I thought she had joined him. A little after half past eleven, the kidnapper telephoned.
He demanded a ransom of five hundred thousand. He warned me not to call in the police. He told me to have the money ready by today and I would receive instructions how to deliver it to him. I had a letter from Odette on Monday morning. I have it here.’
He produced the letter I had drafted and handed it to Renick who read it.
‘This is your daughter’s handwriting?’
‘Yes.’
Malroux then went on to tell Renick about the instructions I had given him, how he had driven along East Beach Road, had seen the flashing light, had dropped the money from the car and then had driven on to Lone Bay parking lot.
‘I found my daughter’s car there. One of the wings had been badly damaged as if she had had an accident. I waited there until three-forty-five, then I realised she wasn’t coming. I reported to a policeman who alerted you.’
‘He’s at the car park now,’ Renick said. ‘If she should turn up, we’ll know at once. You didn’t see the man who used the flashlight?’
‘No. He was hiding behind a clump of bushes. I only saw the light.’
‘We’ll want to check those bushes. Would you come with us and show us exactly where?’
Malroux lifted his shoulders wearily.
‘I’m a sick man, Lieutenant. The early morning air doesn’t agree with me. I anticipated you would want to see the place and I have sketched a map for you.’ He passed a slip of paper to Renick who examined it, then passed it to Barty.
‘Suppose you go out there and check, Fred?’ Renick said. ‘As soon as the news breaks, we’ll have people trampling all over that spot.’ He looked at me. ‘You go with him and send the car back for me.’
Barty nodded, and with me trailing after him, he went down to the police car.
