Detection Unlimited (36 page)

'Well, what do you -- Hallo, there he is!'

'Where?'

'Just gone into that bank,' replied the Inspector, nodding towards a building a few yards farther down the street. 'He didn't look as if he was worrying much, I must say. It beats me how a chap can --' He broke off, for he perceived that his Chief was not attending to him.

Hemingway had, in fact, stopped in front of a linen-draper's shop, a most peculiar look on his face, his eyes a little narrowed. Surprised, the Inspector said: 'What's the matter, sir?'

His attention recalled, Hemingway looked at him. 'Horace, I've got it!' he said. 'Come on!'

Wholly at sea, the Inspector followed him down the street, and into the bank.

The bank was as crowded as the rest of Bellingham, most of those waiting in queues before the various cashier's guichets being housewives, much encumbered by baskets and parcels. Gavin Plenmeller had not joined any of the queues, but was writing a cheque at one of the tables provided for that purpose. His back was turned to the door, and, after a quick glance at him, the Chief Inspector stepped up to the broad counter, and ruthlessly interrupted a cashier who was engaged in counting thick wads of dirty-looking notes, behind a notice which gave customers to understand that he was in balk, and must not be disturbed. Upon being accosted, he began, in repressive accents, to request the Chief Inspector to go to the next desk.

However, Hemingway had thrust his card under the grille, and the inscription it bore worked like a charm. The cashier abandoned his calculations, and looked a startled enquiry.

'Any one with the manager?' asked Hemingway.

'No, I don't think -- That is to say, I'll go and --'

'That's all right,' said Hemingway cheerfully. He nodded towards a frosted glass-door. 'That his office?'

'Yes, but --'

'Thanks!' said Hemingway, and turned, just as Plenmeller got up from the writing-table, and came towards the counter.

The Inspector, bewildered, but very much on the alert, thought that there was something more than natural surprise in Plenmeller's face. He gave no melodramatic start, but he seemed to stiffen, like an animal freezing, and the Inspector saw a muscle twitch in his cheek. The next moment the faintly sneering smile had curled his mouth, and he said coolly: 'If it isn't Scotland Yard again! Good-morning, gentlemen! Is there anything I can do for you?'

'Yes, there's something I want to ask you,' responded Hemingway affably. 'It's a lucky thing I caught sight of you. Not but what it's a bit too crowded here for my taste. Let's go into the manager's office!'

'I'm entirely at your disposal, but may I suggest that the King's Head is just across the street? I can't help feeling that the manager might not view with favour an invasion of his sanctum. If you don't mind waiting until I've cashed this cheque --'

'From the look of things, that'll be twenty minutes at least, and I'm in a hurry. I daresay the manager won't object,' said Hemingway, edging him towards the glass door.

Plenmeller checked, found the Inspector immediately behind him, and shot a quick, searching glance at Hemingway. His brows went up. 'Is it so urgent?' he asked lightly.

'Just a point I've an idea you may be able to clear up for me,' replied Hemingway, opening the glass door, and pushing him into the room beyond it.

The manager was seated at a large knee-hole desk, the cashier to whom Hemingway had spoken at his elbow. He looked up over the top of his spectacles, by no means pleased by the unceremonious entrance of three uninvited persons. 'Mr Plenmeller?' he said, surprised. He glanced from Harbottle to Hemingway, and then at the card in his hand. 'Chief Inspector -- er -- Hemingway? You wish to see me?'

'Properly speaking, it's Mr Plenmeller who wishes to sec you,' said Hemingway. 'He deposited a package with you on Monday, for safe-keeping, and now he wants to show me what's in it. -- Take him, Harbottle!'

* * * *

'But how did you know, Chief?' Harbottle demanded, when at last he found himself alone with the Chief Inspector.

'I didn't,' replied Hemingway calmly. 'I took a chance on it.'

'Took -- You never!' said Harbottle, with conviction. A look of foreboding crept into his face. 'You aren't going to tell me it was this flair of yours?' he said imploringly.

'I oughtn't to have to tell you!' retorted Hemingway. 'Not but what there was a bit more to it than than,' he added truthfully. 'In fact, I ought to have tumbled to it before I actually did. I told the Chief Constable yesterday that if this were London I should be nosing round the safe-deposits, and why I didn't carry straight on from there, and think of bank-strong-rooms, I can't tell you.'

'Everyone was talking you silly,' suggested the Inspector helpfully.

'Very likely! And if I have any lip from you, my lad, you'll be sorry!'

'I get into the way of repeating the things you say, sir,' explained the Inspector. 'But do you mean that just because I told you Plenmeller had gone into the bank you guessed he'd deposited that Colt there?'

'Well, no, not quite,' confessed Hemingway. 'When you told me that, it came to me in a flash that he was just coming out of a bank when I happened to run into him here on Monday morning. Putting two and two together, and taking into account the psychology of Mr Gavin Plenmeller, it seemed fairly safe to trust my instinct.'

'Good lord!' ejaculated the Inspector. 'And where would you have been if he hadn't deposited the Colt in the bank?'

'Exactly where I am now. I should have arrested him anyhow. But the instant he set eyes on me I knew I was right. He's a good actor, but seeing me in the bank gave him the nastiest shock he's had -- so far.'

'But to rush it like that -- !' said Harbottle, his respect for forms and ceremonies considerably shocked. 'Pushing into the manager's office without a by your leave, and telling him lies about Plenmeller's wanting to show you the contents of a package you'd no proof was in the bank at all! You ought to have had a warrant!'

'Yes, that's where I think quicker than you do, Horace. You try getting a warrant to search a bank! First, you've got to put up a strong case, then you've got to get authority to make the manager disclose that he has received a package from your suspect, and after that you've got to apply for a special warrant, and lastly, just to round things off, you've got to wait for three days after you've presented it before you can execute the warrant! Thanks, I've had some! Meanwhile, Mr Gavin Plenmeller gets wind of what you're up to, and thinks up an ingenious stalemate. No, the proper thing to do was to rock him right of his balance.'

'He couldn't have done anything,' argued the Inspector. 'We could have had him watched, and the bank too.'

'We could, of course, but there's something you're forgetting, Horace. Two things, in fact.'

'What are they?' asked the Inspector, frowning.

'All that hanging about would have been a bad curtain. If you hadn't got a silly prejudice against the theatre, you'd know that. And on top of that,' said the Chief Inspector comfortably, 'I've got a fortnight's leave due to me on Saturday. I had to force the pace!'