dedicated to a life of service. Probably he would never see seventy again, but the blue eyes were still alert and clear, and what he lacked in speed he made up in experienced efficiency: a family retainer straight out of Hollywood, almost too genuine to be true.
‘Yeah, I guess you’re right. Looks like a good three-hour wait: probably more.’ I dug out a package of cigarettes. He had a match flame ready before I got the cigarette into my mouth. ‘I didn’t get your name.’
The grizzled eyebrows lifted.
‘Wadlock, sir.’
‘Do you work for Mrs. Dedrick or Mr. Marshland?’
‘Oh, Mr. Marshland, sir. I have been lent to Mrs. Dedrick for the time being, and I am very happy to be of service to her.’
‘Have you been with the family long?’
He smiled benignly.
‘Fifty years, sir. I was with Mr. Marshland senior for twenty years, and I have been with Mr. Marshland junior for thirty years.’
That seemed to put us on a friendly footing, so I asked, ‘You met Mr. Dedrick when he was in New York?’
The benign expression went away like a fist when you open your fingers.
‘Oh, yes, sir. He stayed a few days with Mr. Marshland.’
‘I haven’t seen him. I’ve spoken to him on the ‘phone, and I’ve heard a lot about him, but there appears to be no photograph of him. What does he look like?’
I had an idea there was disapproval in the blue eyes now, but I wasn’t sure.
‘He is a well-built gentleman; dark, tall, athletic, with very good features. I don’t think I can describe him any better than that, sir.’
‘Did you like him?’
The bent old back stiffened.
‘Did you say you would like some periodicals, sir? You may find the wait a little tedious.’
I had my answer. Obviously for some reason or other this old man had as much use for Dedrick as I had for a punch on the jaw.
‘That’s all right. It makes a change to sit and do nothing.’
‘Very good, sir.’ He wasn’t friendly any more. ‘I will let you know when there is any news.’
He went away on his spindly old legs as dignified as an archbishop conferring a favour, and left me alone in a room full of bad memories. About a yard from my left foot Souki’s head had bled on the rug. Over by the fireplace stood the telephone into which Dedrick had breathed hurriedly and unevenly while he talked to me. I turned to stare at the casement window through which the kidnappers had probably come, gun in hand.
A short, dapper figure in a white tropical suit and a panama hat stood in the doorway, watching me. I hadn’t heard him arrive. I wasn’t expecting him. With my mind full of murder and thugs, he gave me a start that nearly took me to the ceiling.
‘I didn’t mean to startle you,’ he said in a mild, rather absent-minded way. ‘I didn’t know you were in here.’
While he was speaking he came into the room and put his Panama hat on the table. I guessed he would be Franklin Marshland, and looked to see if Serena took after him. She didn’t. He had a small, beaky nose, a heavy chin, dreamy, forgetful woman eyes and a full, rather feminine mouth. His wrinkled face was sun-tanned, and the thick fringe of glossy white hair, above which was a bald, sun-tanned patch, made him look like a clean-shaven and amiable Santa Claus.
I began to climb out of my chair, but he waved me to stay where I was.
‘Don’t move. I’ll join you in a whisky.’ He consulted a narrow, gold wrist-watch, worn on the inside of his wrist. ‘Quarter past six. I don’t believe in drinking spirits before six, do you?’
I said it was a good rule, but rules should be broken now and then if one was to preserve one’s sense of freedom.
He paid no attention to what I was saying. There was look of aloof disinterest on his face that hinted he seldom ever listened to anything anyone said to him.
‘You’re the chap who’s going to pay them the ransom money,’ he went on, stating a fact and not asking a question.
I said I was as he carried a fair-size snifter to an arm-chair opposite mine. He sat down and stared at me over the rim of the glass the way you would stare at some curious animal at the Zoo.
‘She tells me she’s going with you.’
‘So she says.’
‘I wish she wouldn’t, but nothing I say makes any difference. He sipped the whisky, stared down at his white buckskin shoe. He had the smallest male feet I have ever seen. ‘I never have been able to influence her one way or the other. A pity, really. Of course, old people are bores, but sometimes they are able to help the young if the young would only let them.’
I had the idea he was talking rather to himself than to me so I didn’t say anything.
He brooded off into a silence that lasted some time. I helped myself to another of my cigarettes, kept an intelligent expression on my face just in case he might think it worth while to speak to me and resisted the temptation to fidget.
In the middle distance I noticed the two Chinese gardeners had decided to call it a day. They had been staring at the umbrella standard for some time without touching it; now, having learned it by heart, they moved off to enjoy a well-earned rest.
‘Do you carry a gun?’ Marshland asked suddenly.
‘Yes; but I don’t expect to use it.’
‘I hope not. You’ll see she takes as little risk as possible, won’t you?’
‘Of course.’
He drank half the whisky. It didn’t do much to cheer him up.
‘These fellows have pretty big ideas. Five hundred thousand is an enormous sum of money.’
He seemed to expect me to say something so I said, ‘That’s why they snatched him. The risk is enormous too.’
‘I suppose it is. Do you think they’ll keep their side of the bargain?’
‘I don’t know. As I explained to Mrs. Dedrick, if he hasn’t seen them…’
‘Yes; she told me. You’re probably right I’ve been reading about some of the famous kidnapping cases of the past years. It would seem the higher the ransom the less likely is the chance of the victim surviving.’
I was suddenly aware that he wasn’t mild or absentminded any more, and that he was staring at me with an intent, rather odd expression in his eyes.
‘It depends on the kidnappers,’ I said, meeting his eyes.
‘I have a feeling we shan’t see him again.’ He got slowly to his feet, frowned round the room as if he had lost something. ‘Of course, I haven’t said anything to her about it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t already killed him.’ The white eyebrows lifted. ‘What do you think?’
‘It’s possible.’
‘More than possible, perhaps?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
He nodded. The pleased, satisfied expression in his eyes jarred me to the heels.
He went out of the room, very spry and dapper, and humming a tune under his breath.
IV
It wasn’t until the hands of my watch had crawled round to eleven that the telephone bell rang. The five- hour wait had been interminable, and I was so het-up I very nearly answered the telephone myself, but someone in some other part of the house beat me to it.
