“I’m all right out here.”
“It’s the first time you’ve been out for several days, you shouldn’t overdo it,” she said. She took his arm again and drew him towards the side entrance to the house. This time there was no doubt; she pressed gently against him. He went into the house, which seemed gloomy after the bright sunlight, and she led the way to a door on the right —overlooking the back garden. Was it the room where the man had been?
It was large, pleasant, sunlit—a drawing-room, furnished with the same taste as his bedroom. In one corner, near the window, was a grand piano, and on it a huge bowl of daffodils and early tulips. Freshness seemed to come from them. There were several sofas and easy-chairs, the carpet was pale green and yellow, on the cream-papered walls were water-colours—good ones. She led him to a chair and waited for him to sit down, pulled up a small table on which was a box of cigarettes and a table lighter. She offered him a cigarette.
“Thanks.”
“Just sit here for a while. I’ll see you again soon.”
She left him with the lighter—the beginning of trust. The door closed softly behind her. He fought back a temptation to jump up and follow her, and as he began to sit down, saw the newspapers.
The sight had a curious physical effect. He stared at them—at this first contact with the real world in four days. The papers were in a rack, near the piano, with several magazines. He went across and picked them up. Before he did so, he thought: “It’s a trick.” They would be old newspapers, of no real interest.
They weren’t; there were four, each a
GIRL MURDERED IN LONELY COTTAGE.
The body of an unknown girl, her face savagely mutilated, was found by the police in Copse Cottage, Helsham, one of the loneliest parts of Surrey. The killer had smashed a window in order to force entry, and broken down the door of the girl’s room with an axe.
There was a great deal more, but nothing about Roger or the hold-up. He dropped the paper and picked up the next.
GANG RESCUES KILLER—
POLICEMAN SAVAGELY ATTACKED
There was the whole story; much more than there had been in the first paper. He scanned it swiftly, for names. The man who had been charged was “believed to be Arthur King, with an address at Kingston-on- Thames”; there was nothing about Roger West. He glanced through the rest of the paper quickly, seeking only headlines, and found what he wanted on an inside page—a short paragraph with a small heading: Yard Man Missing.
Chief Inspector Roger “Handsome” West, youngest C.I. at Scotland Yard, left his office late on Monday afternoon, and has not been seen or heard of since. The Yard authorities believe that West, who has been working at high pressure for several months, may be suffering from loss of memory or some other illness.
POLICE HUNT MURDER GANG
There was much more behind that; he could see the wary hand of the Yard, requesting the newspapers to play down the fact that he was missing. There was no photograph, nothing to suggest a hue and cry, nothing to hint that his disappearance might be in any way connected with the murder. He picked up the fourth paper—that morning’s.
Everywhere in Great Britain the police are seeking the gang which rescued a killer from a police guard near Helsham, Surrey, late on Monday night. It is believed that an arrest will shortly be made. The rescue, described fully in yesterday’s Cry, was the most daring in police annals.
The dead girl has not yet been identified. There was nothing at the house where she was found to suggest that she lived there, and the house has been empty for several months, the owner, Mrs. Ethel Malloy, being abroad. The police theory is that the murderer made an appointment with the unknown girl who discovered his evil intentions too late and locked herself in. Her face was so badly mutilated that photographs cannot help with identification.
Sir Harry Gregg, chief pathologist at Scotland Yard, says that the girl was probably in the early twenties, but there were no distinguishing marks on the body. The police are anxious to have details of any young woman who has been missing from her home since Monday last, and who answers the following general description: Height: 5 ft. 6 in.; medium to dark hair; blue eyes; well-developed; Weight: 10 stone 4 lb. At the time of her death, the victim was wearing a pleated black-serge skirt, white-silk blouse with four mother-of-pearl buttons the size of two-shilling pieces, a three-quarter-length coat to match the skirt, nylon stockings size 9? (French make), black suede shoes, rayon underwear (peach colour). The names of the suppliers and manufacturers of all these articles of clothing had been removed.
* * * *
Roger groped for another cigarette and lit it without thinking of that token of trust—he was left with a lighter. There was plenty to go on; absence of name tags shouldn’t prevent the police from tracing the clothes. The “French make” introduced a difficulty; was it possible that the girl had come from France? No more than an outside possibility.
He was thinking almost as if he were at his office. He turned the pages, and again found what he wanted— another reference to himself, this time with a small photograph; and a poor one.
YARD MAN STILL MISSING
Chief Inspector West (photo side) still missing from the Yard and from his home in Bell Street, Chelsea. There has been no trace of his movements since he left the Yard late on Monday afternoon to keep an appointment with his wife. The police theory that he is suffering from loss of memory is supported by his wife, who says that the pressure of work for the past few years has affected his health.
Nonsense! Janet knew better. Janet had been visited by the pundits, had been told what to say to the Press— and the pundits were still influencing the Press. There was not a hint that he was even remotely connected with the Copse Cottage murder. Janet, by now, would be in agony of mind.
