Faintley Speaking

turn up. You’ve got no reason to keep badgering me like this!’

‘Just one more question, and I’m through, sir, for the present. Can you be any more exact about the parcel?’

‘I don’t think so. It was about twenty inches long, twelve to fourteen inches wide, and, possibly, half an inch thick.’

‘I see, sir. What about the weight? Could it have contained metal, for instance?’

‘Good heavens, no. It was quite light. Could have been sent by post easily. Can’t think why it wasn’t. No reason at all for sending it by rail.’

‘Thank you, sir. That may be very important. Now, if I may make a suggestion, I advise you to watch your step, same as it wouldn’t have done Miss Faintley much harm if she had managed to watch hers a bit more closely. There’s something funny going on, sir, and precautions may be very necessary. I’ll go farther, and put you under police protection after this, if you like.’

‘I can’t imagine any danger. After all, I did hand over the parcel and Tomson knows it.’

‘If he chooses to tell the real owners of the parcel that you didn’t, you might be in quite a spot of trouble, sir. It wasn’t very likely the parcel belonged to Miss Faintley. I have reason to think she was simply a sort of go-between. She didn’t deliver the goods, so they bumped her off, but by this time Tomson will have wised-up the murderers that she never even saw this particular parcel, but that you – an unauthorized collector – did.’

‘But that’s tantamount to confessing he’s kept it himself!’

‘He’s a foxy type, sir. He’ll have thought of some yarn to fix the stealing on to you. He’s let himself in so deep, it seems to me, that at present he’s got far more reason (or so he thinks) to fear some crook than to fear the police. I could even bet on the sort of yarn he’s told them. You came into the shop, he’ll say, with the parcel, but wanted to stick him a good-sized sum for handing it over the counter. He refused your terms and pointed out it was Miss Faintley’s business to pay you if she’d got you to do her job for her, and before he knew what was happening you shot out of the door and were up the street before he could say Jack Robinson. That’s about the size of what he would tell these people, sir, and if Miss Faintley was murdered because they thought she’d kept the parcel… well, I hope you see what I mean, sir!’

Mandsell did see, but only in the sense that he saw violent actions on the films.

‘All the same, they wouldn’t dare touch me,’ he said. He had that feeling, common to all healthy people, that troubles and violence come to others, but not to the onlooker. ‘Still, if I note one of your Roberts tagging on to me, I’m to understand that his diligence is entirely on my behalf. Is that the ticket?’

‘More or less, sir. But I hope you won’t be aware of him. He won’t be much good at his job if he’s as obvious as all that.’ He nodded genially, and went straight to Tomson’s stores. No one was visible, so Darling shouted, ‘Shop!’ After a short interval Tomson came shuffling out from a room behind the counter.

‘Ah, Tomson! Busy?’

‘No, I ain’t, not on a Monday.’

‘Good. Back of the shop?’

‘Yes, I suppose so. I’ll hear the bell if anybody comes in, but Mondays is always slack.’ Tomson sounded lugubrious. The flap of the counter came up and Darling passed through. The room behind the shop was dark and smelt of stale fish. Darling sat down at the table and Tomson took a rocking-chair at the side of the empty fireplace.

‘This parcel for Miss Faintley. You knew what was in it, of course,’ said the Inspector. ‘Why don’t you open up? There’s nothing to connect you with the murder, and you could help us a lot if you liked.’

‘Yes, and get myself jugged without the option. I know you nosey-parker coppers,’ said Tomson morosely.

‘Now, look here, Tomson, you’ve never been in trouble with us yet, so why begin? We know quite a lot about you, but we’ve never been able to prove anything – not for want of trying, let me tell you. But murder’s an entirely different matter from the sort of thing you’ve been used to. And don’t think I blame you, either, for trying to make a little bit on the side. It must be devilish difficult to make a living out of a small back-street business these days.’

‘You’re telling me! All right, then, here it is. I do take in parcels for one or two people, and I’ve been told to expect this parcel. I don’t know what’s in it, no more than you do, and that’s gospel.’

‘Oh? And hadn’t you any idea of what was in any of the parcels you took in for Miss Faintley?’

‘Sort of, of course. I mean to say, just common sense to find out what goes on. What I took in was statues and that.’

‘Statues?’

‘Yes, statues. Know what a statue is, don’t you?’ His self-confidence was returning.

‘What sort of statues?’ inquired Darling in a tone devoid of offence.

‘Oh, nothing rude. Dancing girls and chaps in top-hats put on sideways. Once one got broke inside the parcel. That’s ’ow I know, otherwise I wouldn’t ’ave done. I wasn’t paid to play nark to the police, I was paid to take in them parcels, and that’s as far as it went.’

Darling smiled.

‘Suppose I told you we have reason to think that the parcels contained diamonds from Amsterdam? Gome on, out with it! Where are the diamonds now?’

‘Easy on, now, Inspector!’ Tomson’s tone had changed. ‘I’ve allowed a parcel got broke. It wasn’t no fault of mine, and I never took no diamonds. Because why? – There wasn’t no diamonds to take.’

‘What happened to them, then? Don’t tell me you were clever enough to piece the statue together again, so