Hammer the Toff Read online

  A friendly receptionist said she was afraid there was not an available room, but it was just possible there had been a cancellation; she would make sure. As she turned to look, Rollison glanced at the registration book, which was open in front of him. Horniman’s was the last signature, just above was Susan’s; he was about to look up when another signature caught his eye.

  He stared at it. E. M. Drayton had signed on the previous day. A spark of excitement shot through him. He inspected it more closely, and saw a bracketed ‘Mrs’ beside it. The address was given briefly as Chelsea.

  Could the name Drayton be a coincidence?

  ‘I’m very sorry, sir,’ said the receptionist, ‘but there’s absolutely nothing. You might get something at the Norfolk or the Bath, and there’s the Palace Court. Would you care to telephone?’

  Rollison went to a booth and called the Norfolk Hotel. He was not surprised to find that Jolly, his man, had taken the precaution, of telephoning for a room; and as Rollison was not unknown at the Norfolk, one was at his disposal.

  Not for the first time congratulating himself on the astuteness of his man Jolly, Rollison went to a shadowy corner, picked up a discarded newspaper and sat down, hiding his face from the lift and the foot of the stairs. He did not expect much to happen that night, but he wanted to see whether Horniman and Susan came down together. He was also burning with curiosity as to the identity of ‘Mrs Drayton’.

  After a quarter of an hour, he stifled a yawn. It looked as if nothing was likely to happen so late as this, and—

  A man came in through the revolving doors, and he recognised the little fellow who had spoken to Horniman at Southampton Station. He looked less hunched, now, but was still remarkably round shouldered. But for that he would have been ordinary enough. He walked rapidly to the counter, and asked if Colonel Horniman had arrived.

  He had, and had been in the hotel for half an hour.

  ‘Tell him I am here, please.’ The man gave his name, but Rollison could not catch it. ‘He is expecting me.’

  The man went to a chair near to Rollison, and took a newspaper from his pocket with a show of ease. Rollison moved unobtrusively to the door. He did not think the man recognised him as he went out.

  A small car was standing outside the hotel, and by it was a porter.

  ‘Can one park cars outside here?’ Rollison asked innocently.

  ‘No, sir, but it’s only a gentleman who said he wouldn’t be ten minutes,’ said the porter.

  Rollison nodded, and continued his way to the West Station where there were several taxis on hire.

  ‘Taxi, sir?’ asked one of the drivers. ‘I may have a longish run,’ Rollison warned him.

  ‘That’s all right, sir.’ The driver of a rakish-looking cab opened the door. ‘Take you anywhere you like – within reason, that is!’

  Rollison smiled. ‘I don’t think I’ll be unreasonable,’ he assured the man, and got in. ‘We’ll go to the corner of the main road for a start.’

  They passed the little car, which was pointing towards the main road. Rollison took a pound note from his pocket, thrust it over the driver’s shoulder, and said: ‘I want to follow the car we’ve just passed, as unobtrusively as possible.’

  ‘I see, sir.’ The driver grinned knowingly as he tucked the note carefully into his pocket. They waited for five minutes before two men came out of the hotel and got into the car; Rollison recognised one of them as Horniman.

  ‘Okay, sir?’ asked the driver.

  ‘Yes. Don’t get too close.’

  ‘We’ll get in front of them,’ murmured the driver, with relish. ‘That way he won’t know we’re after ’im.’

  ‘Nice work,’ congratulated Rollison.

  He felt a tremor of excitement as the cab swung into the main road. The little car followed. They took a turning to the left, into a one-way street and reached the Square. There the taxi let the little car pass, then gathered speed. Soon they reached another road junction, where a policeman on point duty held up the little car.

  ‘Bit o’ luck,’ confided the driver.

  They started off again.

  ‘Christchurch Road now, sir. I hope ’e don’t turn off, it can be a bit tricky on the cliff. Does he know Bournemouth, sir?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ said Rollison.

  The little car kept along the main road, making a fair speed. The driver allowed two other cars to get in front of him. Rollison looked both over as carefully as he could. He had a lightning suspicion that the passenger in one of them was Barrow. If that was so, then he, too, was tailing Horniman.

  As they drove through Christchurch, he was sure of it. He wondered if the Colonel realised that he was being followed; if he did, this might prove a wild goose chase.

  They were now doing fifty miles an hour, and Horniman’s car was probably stretched to its limit. The police car was well behind it.

  Then suddenly the leading car turned off on to a narrow New Forest by-road.

  The police car followed. Rollison said: ‘All right, after it.’ They climbed a long, gradual hill. As the rear lights of both cars disappeared over the brow, they showed up clearly. Too clearly.

  Rollison was puzzled. Surely there was an unnatural glow, as of a fire, some distance off? As his own car breasted the hill, he saw that he was right, there was a fire, perhaps two miles away. He could see the tiny figures of people standing about it, and several cottages were silhouettes against the flames.

  ‘Our man’s slowing down,’ said the driver, suddenly. ‘By that burning cottage, sir. What a blaze!’

  Rollison sat forward tensely. Undoubtedly Horniman’s car was slowing down.

  Someone was standing in the road, flagging it down.

  Rollison thought that the driver was going to stop, but suddenly the car leapt forward again. The man in the road jumped aside. The police car tore past the burning cottage in pursuit and Rollison drew nearer.

  ‘Straight on?’ asked the driver.

  Rollison hesitated.

  ‘’Ave to make up your mind quick!’

  ‘Slow down,’ said Rollison.

  The driver pulled into the side of the road. A man disengaged himself from a little group of people and hurried forward. He declaimed bitterly against the two previous cars which had dashed past without stopping. Would Rollison go to the next village, half a mile along, and jerk up the fire-station? If pumps didn’t arrive soon, the fire …

  In the distance there was the clanging note of a fire-engine.

  ‘Oh, here it is!’ The man gave a breathy sigh of relief. ‘So it’s all right, sir, and thank you.’

  ‘Everyone out?’ asked Rollison, looking at the flames.

  ‘That’s what worries me,’ said the villager. ‘Young gent lives there. But I thought I heard a car an hour ago, he might have gone out.’

  The driver said gruffly: ‘Well, if anyone’s in there, he’s had it.’

  The roof had already crashed in, and now only the skeleton of the building remained, the windows like gaping eye sockets, doors burning furiously. As they watched, the walls fell inwards. When at last the fire-engine swung into the narrow street there was little they could do.

  ‘I’m afraid you’ve lost your man, sir,’ said the taxi driver, Rollison looked at him.

  ‘Have I?’ he asked.

  The firemen began to fix their hoses and to spray the adjoining cottages. Rollison walked up to them.

  ‘When can you find out if anyone was in there?’ he asked.

  ‘Not for half an hour yet, unless he happened to be near the window,’ said one of the men briefly.

  ‘How long had the young man been here?’ asked Rollison.

  ‘A month,’ cut in one of the on-looking villagers eagerly. ‘Just a month today, nice-looking young chap he was, too.’

  ‘What did he look like?’ asked Rollison.

  The villager was vague. Darkish, but not really dark, quite good-looking but not what you would call handsome, rather thin and worried,
but perhaps he was suffering from nerves. A lot of young people were suffering from nerves …

  Rollison took a photograph of Bruce Drayton from his pocket, praying that he was not the man he feared.

  The villager fiddled madly with his spectacles, but they were on at last, and he held out his hand for the photograph – and nearly dropped it.

  ‘Why, that’s him!’ he cried, ‘that’s him!’

  An hour later the Chief Officer of the N.F.S. party looked about the glowing embers, glanced at Rollison, and nodded significantly.

  Chapter Three

  Shock for Susan

  Rollison sat in the back of the taxi, almost convinced that Bruce Drayton was dead. He would have been quite convinced, had not the villagers assured him that someone had driven up to the cottage and visited Drayton a short time before the fire. It was therefore possible that Drayton had left, and the visitor had been trapped. Identification would take days, perhaps weeks; bones, dentistry, previous scars having to be investigated.

  The police would have to work out those details.

  Barrow had not driven back past the fire; nor had Horniman. Rollison felt sure that Horniman had gone to see Bruce, had been horrified at the sight of the fire and, after slowing down, had suddenly decided to drive past as if it were no concern of his. Perhaps he had realised belatedly that he was being followed.

  The driver of Rollison’s taxi pulled up outside the Lorne Hall, and Rollison, jerked suddenly out of his reverie, remembered that he was staying at the Norfolk. He decided that a walk would do him good, and that he might as well find out for certain whether Horniman was back.

  He paid the man generously, and the taxi drove off. As Rollison approached the hotel entrance, Barrow moved out of the shadowed porch.

  ‘Where have you been?’ he asked, brusquely.

  Rollison hesitated a moment, and then decided to tell him all he knew. It was a wise move, for as his story progressed, Barrow’s dislike faded; he made notes and, after five minutes, hurried agitatedly into the hotel to telephone Scotland Yard.

  Rollison followed him.

  Horniman had been back for some time, it proved, and had dropped his passenger in the Square. Barrow had discovered ‘Mrs Drayton’ had stayed at the hotel and caught a late train to London. A waiter was able to tell Rollison that Susan and Mrs Drayton had spent part of the evening together.

  Rollison dreaded telling Susan the latest development. He decided to wait until the morning.

  Susan did not believe him.

  She sat opposite him at the Norfolk Hotel next morning, drinking coffee. He had persuaded her to spare him half an hour, much against her will, but she had not talked freely until he had told her about the fire. It shocked her so much that, within ten minutes, he knew much of what had happened. She had come down to see Bruce’s mother who, Horniman had told her, had recently seen Bruce himself. She had not known Mrs Drayton before, and had believed her to be in America. Susan had liked her. She had gathered that Mrs Drayton was worried about Bruce’s disappearance, but Horniman had assured them both, at different times, that Bruce was keeping out of the public eye of his own accord. Horniman had hinted that he was working on a fabric even more revolutionary than Silva-Sheen, that he was financed by several textile manufacturers and, after the leakage of information about Silva-Sheen, had preferred to work in secrecy.

  ‘Why didn’t Horniman tell the police this?’ Rollison asked.

  Susan said: ‘The police didn’t do much about the leakage of Silva-Sheen, did they? Bruce preferred that no one should know where he was. Rolly, where’s Horniman now?’

  Rollison was glad to hear the friendly ‘Rolly’, but made no comment about it.

  ‘Being interviewed by the police,’ he said. ‘He may be back soon. Susan, don’t trust Horniman.’

  ‘I think you’re prejudiced against him,’ said Susan, sharply. ‘And—and I just don’t believe that Bruce is dead. He can’t be dead!’

  ‘I hope he isn’t,’ said Rollison, slowly.

  He walked with Susan to the Lorne Hall. She went up to her room, worried, frightened, less hostile than she had been, but hostile enough.

  The Scotland Yard man was in the Hall, but there was no sign of Barrow. Rollison, hoping to see Horniman, sat in the lounge and looked through the morning papers, none of which mentioned the fire. He had been there for half an hour when Horniman came in.

  Rollison was startled; for Horniman, was the picture of contentment, as if his interview with the police had gone off very well indeed.

  Susan and Horniman took the 2.20 train to London,

  On the following morning, Rollison sat at his desk in the living-room of his Gresham Street flat; Jolly was with him. Between them lay the accumulation of three days’ correspondence.

  There were many people who looked upon Rollison as one of the idle rich, but this was far from being the case. Rich he might be, but idle never. Nevertheless he found it useful to assume sometimes the role of a man-about-town.

  Jolly looked at him glumly. He was, to all intents and purposes, a glum man; and especially so that morning.

  ‘Sit down, Jolly,’ said Rollison, affably. ‘We’ll open them together. Three piles: one for prompt attention, one for anything that can wait, and one for donations and subscriptions.’

  After twenty minutes Rollison looked at the growing piles and shook his head.

  ‘It’s too much,’ he said.

  ‘The correspondence is becoming somewhat excessive,’ murmured Jolly.

  ‘Either we must cut down or get help,’ said Rollison. ‘I just don’t want to plod through this. I want to think about the Drayton business. And yet—’

  ‘It will become unmanageable if it is left unattended much longer,’ said Jolly lugubriously.

  ‘We need a stenographer,’ announced Rollison.

  ‘I could telephone an agency and arrange for someone to come part-time,’ Jolly suggested.

  Rollison shook his head.

  ‘It’s no use, Jolly, part-time help won’t see us through. Look through the advertisements in The Times, will you, and write to anyone who sounds promising.’

  ‘Very good, sir,’ said Jolly austerely. He was not pleased. ‘Er … you require a young woman, I assume, sir,’

  ‘Well, I don’t know, Jolly, a girl might brighten us up a bit. Flowers and things.’ He laughed at Jolly’s expression. ‘All right, males only for a start, but get the letters off today,’

  ‘Certainly, sir. You may leave that to me.’

  Rollison glanced through the correspondence when the man had gone, glad that he had decided to increase his staff, yet sympathising with Jolly, who had held sway at the flat for the last twelve years.

  The front-door bell rang shrilly.

  A familiar voice came to him.

  ‘Good morning, Jolly! Is he in?’

  ‘To you, I think, sir.’

  There was a tap on the door, and Superintendent Grice, a tall, brown-clad man with a scar on the right side of his face, appeared. That scar was a souvenir of a case on which both he and Rollison had worked. Now he came in breezily, refusing a cigarette but agreeing to a cup of coffee.

  He glanced at the correspondence.

  ‘Busy, I see,’

  ‘I shouldn’t have gone to Bournemouth,’ said Rollison, ‘the work piles up too quickly. But I’m getting a secretary.’

  Grice grinned. ‘That will put Jolly’s nose out of joint.’

  ‘A little crudely put,’ reproved Rollison, ‘but I agree tact may be necessary.’

  Grice waved a hand, as if to dismiss the matter. ‘Well, whether you could afford the time or not, I’m glad you went to Bournemouth. We might not have discovered that Drayton was down there if it had been left to Barrow.’

  ‘Aren’t you a bit hard on the chap?’

  ‘He’s too big for his boots,’ said Grice. ‘And now I suppose you’re going to tell me that you didn’t know where Drayton was?’

  ‘I did not,’ sai
d Rollison.

  Jolly came in with coffee, and Rollison told the story as he knew it. Grice agreed that there was little hope the body would prove to be that of someone other than Drayton, but the full medical report would not be available for several days. Meanwhile, had Susan Lancaster told him anything? Rollison countered quickly: ‘What did Horniman tell the police at Bournemouth?’

  It transpired that Horniman’s story had been the same as Susan’s. And, as Drayton himself was not actually wanted by the police, there had been no action that the police could take. As far as the previous night’s events were concerned, Horniman said that he had not known that Drayton lived in the New Forest but had gone to meet him by appointment at the Crown, in Lyndhurst. Drayton had telephoned him, but had not turned up, so Horniman had returned to the Lorne Hall Hotel. There was nothing that could be proved untrue in that story.

  ‘Or is there?’ asked Grice.

  Rollison frowned. ‘I don’t know. Personally I think he went to the cottage, had a shock when he saw it ablaze, and made off, waiting for a while at Lyndhurst so as to have a plausible story to tell you. I also think that it was Horniman who was fired at on the train,’ he added.

  ‘And why do you think that?’

  Rollison told him, and then agreed with Grice that it was just possible that someone had been playing the fool with a gun on the bridge. Cartridge cases had been found on the roadway and the police were still searching for the gun. Grice was reluctant to connect that episode with the other mystery and, as there was no reliable evidence, Rollison did not press the point.

  When the Superintendent had gone, Jolly came into the room, ostensibly to collect the coffee cups, actually in the hope that Rollison would tell him what had been said.

  ‘How is the Superintendent, sir?’

  Rollison smiled. ‘How much did you hear?’

  ‘Very little, sir.’

  ‘I wonder,’ said Rollison, dryly.

  He had already discussed the Bournemouth trip with Jolly and now, half to take Jolly’s mind off the disagreeable prospect of a secretary, half because he really wanted to know, he asked his opinion.