‘Where did the money come from? Where had he kept it?’
‘Where? Oh, I see. He got it out of the till.’
‘Which day of the week was it?’
‘Friday.’
‘And the Thursday had been early closing day?’
‘Yes. Yes, it had.’
‘With only half a day’s takings and… at what time did you get to him on the Friday?’
‘At about four, I suppose. Before he closed, anyhow.’
‘With only half a day on Thursday and between six and seven hours of shopping time on Friday, then, would you really have expected, in a shop of that kind, the man to have been able to take five pounds out of the till?’
‘Now you come to put it like that, well, I suppose I wouldn’t have expected it.’
‘And now that you realize it was an unusual thing to have happened, are you still certain that there is nothing else you can tell me?’
‘I can tell you one thing,’ said Mandsell vigorously. ‘I wish I’d never touched that beastly parcel!’
‘It may be very helpful to the police that you did. Tell me, Mr Mandsell, what really induced you to call for that parcel at all?’
‘I don’t know. The Inspector wanted me to tell him that. It was just a sudden idea.’
‘But why, Mr Mandsell? You must have known it was none of your business.’
Mandsell looked unhappy.. He racked his brains. This extraordinary old lady obviously was determined to have an answer, and the answer, her black eyes and beaky little mouth suggested, had better be a satisfactory one. She cackled with a suddenness and a harshness that made him start.
‘I – I beg your pardon?’ he stammered. She did not answer. In a terrifying way she waited. He was mesmerized into replying to her question. ‘I went because, I suppose, it was something to do. I was a bit at a loose end, that was all.’
‘You went, in response to an unexpected summons from an unknown woman, knowing quite well that she had mistaken you for someone else, to a railway station five miles distant from your lodgings, to pick up and deliver a parcel (of whose nature and contents you were unaware) to a seedy little man in a back-street shop in this town? I still ask why you did it, Mr Mandsell.’
Mandsell felt still more unhappy, and looked so.
‘I’ve really no idea,’ he replied. ‘I mean that. I don’t know why I went. It was just one of those things.’
‘And as a result of “one of those things” a woman has been murdered.’
‘Oh, but I couldn’t possibly have thought that that was going to happen!’
‘You didn’t think at all. Come, now, Mr Mandsell, tell me why you did it.’
This persistence had its effect.
‘I was on my beam ends. I was pretty desperate. I’d been turned out of my digs and… well, to tell you the truth… I thought there might be something in it for me, even if it was only a bob to buy some grub.’
‘You were as badly off as that?’
‘At that moment, yes, I was. Of course, I
‘Yes, yes, so it is. Mr Mandsell, you will have gathered that the police and I are extremely interested in these five one-pound notes which shopkeeper Tomson gave you.’
‘Oh, Lord! You don’t think they’re dud ones? I’ve paid four of them over to my landlady!’
‘Have you any idea what she did with them?’
‘Yes, of course. They’re in the teapot.’
‘Still?’
‘Oh, yes. She won’t put money in the Savings Bank because of the Income Tax, and she won’t buy National Savings Certificates because she thinks they’re a nuisance to cash, and she’s saving up to visit her daughter in Canada.’
‘Banking account?’
‘Not she. Says the young gents behind the counter look down on the likes of her. I told her that was nonsense. The trouble is, she’s almost illiterate, I think, and it gives her a rather vast sense of inferiority.’
‘I should like to see those notes.’
Mandsell looked dubious.
‘You know what those sort of people are like about money.’
‘She must either show them to me or take them to the police station. They may be very important evidence against Tomson if he’s been up to anything shady.’
‘Well, honestly,
But Mrs Deaks, under the influence of Mrs Bradley’s beautiful voice and tactful handling, was not at all averse
