The Death Miser (Department Z Book 1) Read online

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  1

  Concerning a Dog and some Others

  TWO large hands, which were the exclusive property of the Hon. James Quinion, cupped themselves gently round the small, smooth-skinned face of Lady Gloria Runsey. Two humorous and quizzical eyes matched their speckled grey with hers.

  ‘My dear aunt,’ said the Hon. James. ‘In the last hour at least two more wrinkles have grown on your forehead. It’s a positive and unforgivable sin, and if you let it happen again I shall rate you a square for ever.’

  Lady Gloria laughed.

  She was sitting in a deep arm-chair by the open French windows of Runsey Hall, whilst the lazy warmth of a late September sun lulled the aching of her frail body. For many years she had sat in the chair by the window when the weather had been kind, looking at the world in which she had been wont to wander willy-nilly before paralysis had robbed her legs of their strength and made her a captive. She had spent those years cheerfully, and much of her near-happiness she owed to the laughing, carefree nephew who now stood over her.

  Quinion took an Egyptian cigarette from a gold case and lit it with great care. He was a vast man, uncommonly broad of shoulder and long of limb, but his clothes—at the moment he wore a suit of silver greys—fitted him too perfectly. They spoke of affectation, and the perfumed cigarettes, the scented oil that he used for his hair and the complete correctness of every small item of his everyday apparel bespoke the dandy. In a small man these things might have passed unnoticed, but in the huge Quinion they were incongruous to a point of repulsion.

  Of these things Lady Gloria Runsey had been thinking and talking for the past hour, and her companion had been Colonel Cann, a fact which James Quinion had noticed without approval. Colonel Cann, a man’s man and no nonsense, held harshly unpleasant views on Quinion, and considered that his—the colonel’s—sister was all kinds of a fool for putting up with him; in fact, he believed she encouraged him. Quinion tweaked her ear lightly, pulled a hassock to her feet and, squatting on it, spoke with little respect for his uncle.

  ‘I take it that the great Colonel Damn has been blasting me. I don’t think that he would think life worth living if he couldn’t slate me once a day and twice on Sundays. What’s his latest effort? Or does he think I’m beyond redemption?’

  Once again Lady Gloria laughed. This utter absurdity of Jimmy’s was infectious; a man who could make a butt for humour of his own habits and discuss his faults with such complete applomb was surely less of a fool than he looked. Only—Lady Gloria sighed mentally—why did he make himself look such a fool?

  Quinion went on.

  ‘If it would please him, of course, I could pop overseas and pot some lions, or drive a hovercraft, or spend six months in Moscow. Or he might like me to enter the world of commerce, or adopt a cause in the name of action. All of which things might appeal to some people, but they leave me stone cold; in fact, they leave me freezing.’ He was laughing now, and his firm white teeth gleamed between his masculine lips, creating the appearance of a man who was a man. His sizeable jaw swept round masterfully, ending in a cleft chin which added to the impression of strength already lent to his countenance by clear eyes and healthily tanned skin.

  ‘I think,’ she said slowly, ‘that he would be satisfied if you didn’t look quite so … useless … sometimes.’ She eyed her companion squarely, refusing to respond to his laughter. ‘You do slide through life, don’t you, Jimmy?’

  Quinion stood up, tossing the Egyptian cigarette through the open window and watching the spiral of smoke which curled lazily upwards, losing itself in the deep blue of the sky.

  ‘Life,’ he said finally, looking straight at Lady Gloria, ‘is taken far too seriously. I have youth, money and the gift of fair words; with them I can take things easily and enjoy living. All the Colonel Damns in the world wouldn’t make me take up a career. Apart from that, there is a suggestion in the air that I’m not capable of looking after myself’—his expression was half serious and half humorous, revealing a side of his nature at which Lady Gloria had only guessed before—‘and, if it weren’t for the fact that I rather like the dear old Colonel Damn, I’d resent that suggestion. You see’—he pressed her thin fingers between his own, and the tone of his voice became strangely purposeful—‘it doesn’t do to put all your cards on the table … and things are not always what they seem.’ He grinned again, slipping back into his old, familiar, inconsequential manner. ‘Satisfied?’

  Lady Gloria Runsey nodded slowly, half-smiling.

  ‘I wish I knew where you go for your holidays, Jimmy.’

  Quinion placed one large hand beneath her chin, and shook the other half an inch from her nose.

  ‘If you’re very good I might tell you some day,’ he said. ‘Live in hope.’

  An hour later a large-limbed, clear-eyed young man strode rapidly across the Sussex Downs from the direction of Runsey Hall towards Runsey village. He was clad in a disreputable sports jacket, a pair of flannels that would have disgraced an under-gardener, down-at-heel brogues and an open-necked shirt. Between his firm, white teeth he gripped an old and much-charred pipe, and in spite of the fact that he had taken a cold shower less than twenty minutes before, his dark, wavy hair was bared to the cool breezes of the Downs.

  Many folks would have commented on the likeness between the young man and the Hon. James Quinion; few would have believed that it was Quinion himself; none the less, it was.

  He was looking ahead as he walked, and appeared to be thinking with far more concentration than most people gave him credit for. He possessed many traits which were not generally known. He was, in fact, thinking of a telegram which he had received an hour before.

  Telegrams of similar nature had often come to him during the four preceding years, and directly after them he had taken a holiday from England, and spent a week, a month, or even longer in what Colonel Cann described as ‘women, wine and perdition’. Colonel Cann would have been a much surprised man had he known that those frequent ‘holidays’ had been spent in working for an organization which even the most confirmed fighting man held in considerable awe, and which the man in the street knew of, vaguely, as the Secret Service. Life with Quinion was certainly seldom exactly what it seemed.

  For the first time, however, the telegram had given instructions which would keep him in England; it was this which puzzled him as he turned the wording of it over in his mind.

  Watch Thomas Loder Cross Farm near Runsey report daily and give names of visitors.

  Even as he had decoded it, he had wondered on its wisdom. ‘It’s all right so far as it goes,’ he had reflected, ‘but it’s very close to home.’ Then he had shrugged his shoulders; after all, the people at head-quarters knew their business.

  He knew Cross Farm. It was a small place with a rambling and unkempt farmhouse which had been empty for years before Thomas Loder, the man of the telegram, had leased it and lived in it. Loder had been in the neighbourhood for six months, but Quinion had never set eyes on him; the newcomer kept himself very much to himself.

  A sudden sound made the Hon. James stop in his tracks and strain his ears to catch a repetition. It was the combination of a bark, a snarl and a whimper, and it came from behind a small clump of bushes fifty yards to his right. Quickly upon it came the unmistakable voice of a man raised in that objectionable type of anger which finds expression in obscenity, and a swishing sound as of a whip cutting through the air; a yelp and a pitiful whimpering followed
. Quinion broke into a run towards the bushes.

  Before he had sighted the man and the dog yet another voice reached his ears. Coming from some distance it was obviously a woman’s, and Jimmy caught the words: ‘Peter … Peter … come here, boy.…’

  There’s a woman there, thought Quinion, rounding the bushes. He came suddenly upon the man and the dog.

  The former looked round, his whip poised in the air.

  ‘Drop it,’ said Quinion.

  The man brought the whip down cruelly upon the quivering body of the dog, a large Alsatian whose coat showed a number of livid weals. Its eyes turned towards Jimmy in piteous entreaty; the spirit was beaten out of him and he was too weak to show any fight.

  In two strides Quinion was in front of the heavily-built, swarthy-faced man whose smallish eyes were blazing. The whip was suddenly snatched from his hand and sent flying into the clump of bushes. The man cursed, made as though to lunge at Quinion and then kicked viciously at the dog. Quinion’s leg shot out, locked for a moment in the other’s and then jerked upwards; thirteen stone of flesh and bone turned a half-somersault in the air and the man landed heavily on his back.

  Quinion knelt by the side of the dog.

  ‘I’ll give you two minutes,’ he said evenly, ‘to disappear. If you don’t, I’ll thrash you as you’ve thrashed the dog.’

  Kneeling though he was he expected the sudden rush which the other made at him. For a second time the man with the whip somersaulted through the air, landing this time on his face. Moving with great speed for a man of his build, Quinion retrieved the whip and was swishing it through the air as his opponent struggled to his feet. The small eyes seemed to burn.

  ‘I’ll murder you.…’ The voice was thick and the man had difficulty in speaking through lips that were badly bruised where they had hit the earth. ‘I’ll …’

  Quinion flicked the whip threateningly, and the other flinched.

  ‘You’ll do nothing of the kind,’ said Quinion. ‘You’ll … so that’s the game.’ He broke off suddenly, and closed on the man. There was a flash of steel in the red glow of the setting sun, and a knife dropped from nerveless fingers to the ground. The grip on the man’s arm was excruciating; he writhed, completely helpless.

  Before Quinion had decided what to do a girl’s voice from behind him made him turn round. The girl, or woman, was talking to the dog. Even at that moment Quinion noticed the undeniable quality of her voice.

  He released the arm, eyeing the man steadily and pointing towards a hedge which skirted a nearby road.

  ‘You can choose between going now or waiting until I have time to make you wish you were dead. Which is it?’

  His tone, and the expression in his eyes, were ice cold. A few people knew that at such a moment Quinion was as dangerous as any man alive. The other man, peering through half-closed eyes, seemed to sense it; he turned on his heel.

  ‘I’ll get you,’ he said thickly. ‘I’ll get you for this.’

  ‘Oh, go away,’ said Quinion. ‘You’re objectionable.’

  He watched the heavily-built figure moving quickly towards the hedge, and saw the man disappear. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised to hear from him again,’ he reflected.

  Turning round, he found himself looking into a pair of hazel eyes which were gazing at him questioningly. The girl was really something. Sun-tanned, clear-skinned, very attractive. She had auburn hair, a green cotton frock, nice legs and ankles.

  ‘Do you live far away?’ Quinion inquired. ‘Or shall we take him’—the Alsatian whimpered as though acknowledging the thought—‘into Runsey? I know Thomas, the vet.’

  ‘I think it better to get him home,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s not much farther than the village, and I can telephone for Thomas.’

  ‘Right,’ said Quinion. ‘Then hold his head and forelegs and ease him into my arms … slowly … that’s great.’

  He held the Alsatian close to him, and could see the red weals which the whip had made. He wished now that he had thrashed the man with the small eyes.

  The girl was talking soothingly to the Alsatian, and Quinion was content to listen to the clear voice, which held a husky hint of Sussex burr. Occasionally he glanced at the profile of his companion. When she returned his glance, she smiled with a frankness which greatly appealed to him.

  ‘We ought to introduce ourselves,’ he said. ‘My name is Quinn.’

  ‘I’m Margaret Alleyn,’ she told him. ‘And I can’t tell you how grateful I am.’

  Quinion, not a particularly impressionable man, felt that there could hardly be a better start than that to an acquaintance.

  2

  Quinion is Puzzled

  OAK COTTAGE, the home of Margaret Alleyn, was a picturesque old building of the Tudor period, with shaped oak gables, latticed and shuttered windows and a gnarled, rose-covered porch, combining to create an appearance of delightful old-world stability. The cottage had at one time been the Lodge House of Runsey Hall, before a spend-thrift lord of the manor had made retrenchment necessary—the rooms were furnished in keeping with the great oak rafters and the wide, red-brick fireplaces with their cushioned corner seats.

  Quinion was sitting in a comfortable leather arm-chair, smoking a Virginian cigarette and drinking a cup of steaming tea in company with his hostess. He was unusually content; and at odd moments thought almost kindly of the swarthy-faced man whose brutality had made the situation possible—had, in fact, created it.

  The more Quinion saw of the girl, the more he liked her. There was a kind of fascination in that near-husky voice and the delicate features. Her hair was darker than he had realized, yet redeemed from sombreness by a sheen which gave it the appearance of fine satin; here and there a gleaming strand of auburn or gold caught the eye, attracting the attention, convincing him more completely than before of its beauty. Her brow, broad, smooth and white, surmounted two gently curling eyebrows, which in turn crowned the large hazel eyes with their silken lashes. In some lights, Jimmy noticed, the hazel of her eyes turned into a glowing molten amber. Her nose, short and straight and a little retroussé, led downwards to exquisitely shaped lips whose deep red colouring vied with the flaming roses of June’s finest blooms. Her chin was feminine and yet firm, not pointed, not square, but merging perfectly into the features of her beauty. The slender neck sloped downwards to shoulders which Quinion could imagine were creamily white and flawless.

  Peter, the Alsatian, was lying on a large rug between his two friends; Thomas, the veterinary surgeon, had been, prescribed treatment, and gone; the dog, he promised them, would be as fit as ever within a few days.

  Over the second cigarette the girl broached the subject of the man with the whip. She was smiling, a little nervously, as if she didn’t know how to begin. Quinion, who had introduced himself as Mr. James Quinn, was leaning back in his chair.

  ‘It’s very difficult to say “thank you”, Mr. Quinn, but I am … deeply grateful,’ she said.

  Quinion leaned forward in his chair, waving the cigarette.

  ‘There’s no need to say a word. Absolutely none. Anyone would have done exactly the same in similar circumstances—barring gentlemen of the same kidney as our dark-faced friend. The pity is that I turned up too late to be of much help to poor old Peter.’

  Margaret Alleyn smiled with her eyes, reflectively, and Quinion had an uneasy feeling that she was laughing at him for some unimaginable reason.

  ‘It isn’t a common attribute to be able to throw a man of Loder’s weight,’ she commented. She paused for a moment, giving Quinion a chance to absorb the shock. So his opponent had been Thomas Loder, the man he was to watch. He tugged a handkerchief from his pocket, disseminating his surprise in a sneeze, and the girl went on: ‘… as easily as a dog-whip. Is it?’

  Quinion’s cigarette moved in widening circles.

  ‘It’s all a matter of practice,’ he assured her. ‘Like picking blackberries, simple when you know how.’

  ‘It must be an interesting sight
watching you practising.’

  Quinion grinned.

  ‘Touché.’ He wanted to approach the matter from a different angle, for he might get to know a great deal about Thomas Loder. ‘I take it that the man … Loder, did you call him? … doesn’t make a habit of things like today? Or is it a complex of his?’

  The expression clouding the hazel eyes told Quinion better than any words that Thomas Loder was not only known to the girl, but that she felt a dislike which was certainly not characteristic of her. He scented mystery, and was anxious to scent mystery where Thomas Loder was concerned.

  ‘He has been determined to kill Peter,’ she told him. ‘They’ve been enemies since Loder first started to visit us here.’

  ‘A friend of the family?’ inquired Quinion.

  ‘An acquaintance of my father. I believe that they are working together on some business proposition. My father, you see, is an invalid, and Loder has to call here quite often.’

  There was no mistaking the fact that the topic was distasteful, and Quinion had an idea that she had vouchsafed the information solely because she felt she owed him an explanation. It was unfortunate, for Quinion would have liked to have known more about the relationship between the owners of Oak Cottage and the tenant of Cross House. In the circumstances it was impossible to ask more questions without showing too much interest.

  ‘From what I can gather Peter is an excellent judge of character,’ he said. ‘Loder seems a particularly poisonous personality.’

  ‘He is poisonous … and more than that, he’s very dangerous. Mr. Quinn’—she leaned forward, her hand touched Quinion’s arm—‘is it necessary for you to stay in the neighbourhood?’

  There was no doubt of the depth of her feeling. It was all that Quinion could do to cover up his surprise.

  ‘Not absolutely necessary. But surely you’re not suggesting that Loder is sufficiently dangerous to make it unpleasant if I keep about here? I mean’—he grinned a little as though in apology—‘I am able to look after myself more or less.’