“I guess you’re better when you get warmed up. I didn’t know you were professional.”
“Usually I like to be paid for my trouble. This time is an exception.”
“You want to know why I want to buy Selby Farm ?”
“We could work well together,” approved Rollison.
“But I guess we’re not going to,” the Texan responded, “because you aren’t going to be satisfied with my reasons, Mr. Rollison. I work for a man in New York. He hired me last week to come over here and buy Selby Farm. He knew there might be competition, or he wouldn’t have hired me. He didn’t tell me more than that. I was paid five thousand dollars in advance, and all my expenses, including first class on the United States one way and the Queen Elizabeth the other, so I didn’t argue. Sure, I expected trouble, and I’ve got it.”
“His name?” asked Rollison.
Slowly, the Texan shook his head.
“I just can’t tell you his name, because that was a condition of the contract. You wouldn’t want me to break a contract, even a verbal one, would you? I can ask his permission to give you his name, but I don’t know that he will agree. So I can’t pay a fortune in the way of fees for your help. I hate to see any of that five grand disappear, but I’d rather not be held on a murder rap.”
He could be telling the truth.
He could be telling a taller story than any that had ever come out of Texas.
Before Rollison spoke, while they stood there within hand’s reach of the murdered man, and with tension between them, there was an exclamation from Gillian, and suddenly she came hurrying. When she reached the doorway, she looked as scared as if she had seen another corpse.
“A police car has just stopped outside,” she said.
8
TOFF ALONE
If she had known the American all her life and been passionately in love with him, she couldn’t be more terrified for him than she did now. And for the first time Tex Brandt was uneasy; it would not be true to say that his confidence was shattered, but he lost a little of it, and his look at Rollison was almost appealing.
“Back home, I’d know how to handle this situation, he declared “How would you handle it here, Mr. Rollison?
“I believe the expression is ‘take a powder’,” Rollison said
“Don’t stand there talking!” Gillian almost shouted, for car doors were slamming outside, and even m this room they could hear the hurrying footsteps of several men. The Texan’s eyes lit up.
“Do I go on my own?”
“Yes I’ll look after Gillian.” As if by sleight of hand, Rollison took a card from his pocket, and slipped it into the lean browned hand. “That’s my London address. Go straight there and when you see my man, tell him 1 asked you to wait. FU try to telephone to warn him.”
“Mr Rollison, one day I’ll find a way of paying you back” the American said fervently. He took Gillian’s arm and squeezed, and then turned and turned out of the room.
“But he’ll run straight into the arms of the police,” Gillian said, hopelessly.
The police were now inside the house, walking and talking noisily. , , .
“If he does, he’s no shamus, and it won’t matter what happens to him,” Rollison said. “Now you’ve got to be more feminine than you’ve ever been, Gillian. We came here because Charlie told us where to come. We shall tell the police everything, except that we leave Tex out of the reckoning—I tackled Charlie, I tied him up, I frightened him into talking. Be slightly hysterical. You are terrified because of Alan, you can’t think where he is, you must find him. Swoon a bit, if needs be. And don’t take any notice of what I say.”
Men were running up the stairs.
“Yes,” Gillian said. “I mean, no.”
“Good girl! Now walk out. You’re pale enough to have seen a ghost. When they start to ask you questions, just look blank. Don’t talk until you have to.”
Men were on the landing.
“All right,” said Gillian, and she could not have been more pale, but she hurried out. Rollison stood looking out of the window of this back room, and was not surprised to see the Texan climbing over a wall a couple of hundred yards away; the sun was bright on his hair.
The police saw Gillian, barked questions, and were soon taken aback. Then two of them came hurrying, and Rollison met them in the doorway. He did not look pale, but was very thoughtful. They started to speak, and then saw the body on the bed. One of the men, stocky and very broad, moved swiftly to it, then pulled up short. The other stood in the doorway, as if he thought that Rollison might want to escape.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
“Looking for a missing man, and that isn’t the one,” said Rollison, and smiled grimly. “You chaps will make the Yard green with envy if you go on like this, he can’t have been dead more than half-an-hour.”
The man by the bed turned round.
“That’s about right. How long have you been here?”
“A quarter of an hour.”
“He might have been dead for fourteen minutes,” the man said aggressively. He looked so massive that he was hardly believable, and had a very strong face. The other, in the doorway, was taller and thinner. Outside,
