CHAPTER XIX
MYSTERIOUS INQUIRIES
As soon as he had gone through his letters on the following morning,Laverick, in response to a second and more urgent message, wentround to his bank. Mr. Fenwick greeted him gravely. He was feelingkeenly the responsibilities of his position. Just how much to sayand how much to leave unsaid was a question which called for a fullmeasure of diplomacy.
"You understand, Mr. Laverick," he began, "that I wished to see youwith regard to the arrangement we came to the day before yesterday."
Laverick nodded. It suited him to remain monosyllabic.
"Well?" he asked.
"The arrangement, of course, was most unusual," the manager continued."I agreed to it as you were an old customer and the matter was anurgent one."
"I do not quite follow you," Laverick remarked, frowning. "What isit you wish me to do? Withdraw my account?"
"Not in the least," the manager answered hastily.
"You know the position of our market, of course," Laverick went on."Three days ago I was in a situation which might have been calleddesperate. I could quite understand that you needed security togo on making the necessary payments on my behalf. To-day, thingsare entirely different. I am twenty thousand pounds better off,and if necessary I could realize sufficient to pay off the whole ofmy overdraft within half-an-hour. That I do not do so is simply amatter of policy and prices."
"I quite understand that, my dear Mr. Laverick," the bank managerdeclared. "The position is simply this. We have had a most unusualand a strictly private inquiry, of a nature which I cannot divulgeto you, asking whether any large sum in five hundred pound banknoteshas been passed through our account during the last few days."
"You have actually had this inquiry?" Laverick asked calmly.
"We have. I can tell you no more. The source of the inquiry was,in a sense, amazing."
"May I ask what your reply was?"
"My reply was," Mr. Fenwick said slowly, "that no such notes hadpassed through our account. We asked them, however, without givingany reasons, to repeat their question in a few days' time. Ourreply was perfectly truthful. Owing to your peculiar stipulations,we are simply holding a certain packet for you in our securitychamber. We know it to contain bank-notes, and there is very littledoubt but that it contains the notes which have been the subject ofthis inquiry. I want to ask you, Mr. Laverick, to be so good as toopen that packet, let me credit the notes to your account in theusual way, and leave me free to reply as I ought to have done inthe first instance to this inquiry."
"The course which you suggest," replied the other, "is one which Iabsolutely decline to take. It is not for me to tell you the natureof the relations which should exist between a banker and his client.All that I can say is that those notes are deposited with you andmust remain on deposit, and that the transaction is one which mustbe treated entirely as a confidential one. If you decline to dothis, I must remove my account, in which case I shall, of course,take the packet away with me. To be plain with you, Mr. Fenwick,"he wound up, "I do not intend to make use of those notes, I neverintended to do so. I simply deposited them as security until theturn in price of 'Unions' came.
"It is a very nice point, Mr. Laverick," the bank manager remarked."I should consider that you had already made use of them."
"Every one to his own conscience," Laverick answered calmly.
"You place me in a very embarrassing position, Mr. Laverick."
"I cannot admit that at all," Laverick replied. "There is only oneinquiry which you could have had which could justify you in insistingupon what you have suggested. It emanated, I presume, from ScotlandYard?"
"If it had," Mr. Fenwick answered, "no considerations of etiquettewould have intervened at all. I should have felt it my duty tohave revealed at once the fact of your deposit. At the same time,the inquiry comes from an even more important source,--a sourcewhich cannot be ignored."
Laverick thought for a moment.
"After all, the matter is a very simple one," he declared. "Byfour o'clock this afternoon my account shall be within its limits.You will then automatically restore to me the packet which you holdon my behalf, and the possession of which seems to embarrass you."
"If you do not mind," the banker answered, "I should be glad if youwould take it with you. It means, I think, a matter of six orseven thousand pounds added to your overdraft, but as a temporarything we will pass that."
"As you will," Laverick assented carelessly. "The charge of thosedocuments is a trust with me as well as with yourself. I have nodoubt that I can arrange for their being held in a secure placeelsewhere."
The usual formalities were gone through, and Laverick left the bankwith the brown leather pocket-book in his breast-coat pocket.Arrived at his office, he locked it up at once in his private safeand proceeded with the usual business of the day. Even with anadded staff of clerks, the office was almost in an uproar. Laverickthrew himself into the struggle with a whole-hearted desire toescape from these unpleasant memories. He succeeded perfectly. Itwas two hours before he was able to sit down even for a moment. Hishead-clerk, almost as exhausted, followed him into his room.
"I forgot to tell you, sir," he announced, "that there s a manoutside--Mr. Shepherd was his name, I believe--said he had a smallinvestment to make which you promised to look after personally. Hewould insist on seeing you--said he was a waiter at a restaurantwhich you visited sometimes."
"That's all right," Laverick declared. "You can show him in. We'llprobably give him American rails."
"Can't we attend to it in the office for you, sir?" the clerk asked."I suppose it's only a matter of a few hundreds."
"Less than that, probably, but I promised the fellow I'd look afterit myself. Send him in, Scropes."
There was a brief delay and then Mr. Shepherd was announced.Laverick, who was sitting with his coat off, smoking a well-earnedcigarette, looked up and nodded to his visitor as the door was closed.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," he remarked. "We're having a bit of arush."
The man laid down his hat and came up to Laverick's side.
"I guess that, sir," he said, "from the number of people we've hadin the 'Black Post' to-day, and the way they've all been shoutingand talking. They don't seem to eat much these days, but there'ssome of them can shift the drink."
"I've got some sound stocks looked out for you," Laverick remarked,"two hundred and fifty pounds' worth. If you'll just approve thatlist as a matter of form," he added, pushing a piece of paper across,"you can come in to-morrow and have the certificates. I shall tellthem to debit the purchase money to my private account, so that ifany one asks you anything, you can say that you paid me for them."
"I'm sure I'm much obliged, sir," the man said. "To tell you thetruth," he went on, "I've had a bit of a scare to-day."
Laverick looked up quickly.
"What do you mean?" he demanded.
"May I sit down, sir? I'm a bit worn out. I've been on the gosince half-past ten."
Laverick nodded and pointed to a chair. Shepherd brought it up tothe side of the table and leaned forward.
"There's been two men in to-day," he said, "asking questions. Theywanted to know how many customers I had there on Monday night, andcould I describe them. Was there any one I recognized, and so on."
"What did you say?"
"I declared I couldn't remember any one. To the best of myrecollection, I told them, there was no one served at all after teno'clock. I wouldn't say for certain--it looked as though I mighthave had a reason."
"And were they satisfied?"
"I don't think they were," Shepherd admitted. "Not altogether,that is to say."
"Did they mention any names?" asked Laverick--"Morrison's, forinstance? Did they want to know whether he was a regular customer?"
"They didn't mention no names at all, sir," the man answered, "butthey did begin to ask questions about my regular clients. Fortunatelike, the place was
so crowded that I had every excuse for notpaying any too much attention to them. It was all I could do tokeep on getting orders attended to."
"What sort of men were they?" Laverick asked. "Do you think thatthey came from the police?"
"I shouldn't have said so," Shepherd replied, "but one can't tell,and these gentlemen from Scotland Yard do make themselves up sosometimes on purpose to deceive. I should have said that these twowere foreigners, the same kidney as the poor chap as was murdered.I heard a word or two pass, and I sort of gathered that they'd ashrewd idea as to that meeting in the 'Black Post' between the manwho was murdered and the little dark fellow."
Laverick nodded.
"Jim Shepherd," he declared, "you appear to me to be a verysagacious person."
"I'm sure I'm much obliged, sir; I can tell you, though," he added,"I don't half like these chaps coming round making inquiries. Mynerves ain't quite what they were, and it gives me the jumps."
Laverick was thoughtful for a few moments.
"After all, there was no one else in the bar that night," heremarked,--"no one who could contradict you?"
"Not a soul," Jim Shepherd agreed.
"Then don't you bother," Laverick continued. "You see, you've beenwise. You haven't given yourself away altogether. You've simplysaid that you don't recollect any one coming in. Why should yourecollect? At the end of a day's work you are not likely to noticeevery stray customer. Stick to it, and, if you take my advice,don't go throwing any money about, and don't give your notice infor another week or so. Pave the way for it a bit. Ask the governorfor a rise--say you're not making a living out of it."
"I'm on," Jim Shepherd remarked, nodding his head. "I'm on to it,sir. I don't want to get into no trouble, I'm sure."
"You can't," Laverick answered dryly, "unless you chuck yourself in.You're not obliged to remember anything. No one can ever prove thatyou remembered anything. Keep your eyes open, and let me hear ifthese fellows turn up again."
"I'm pretty certain they will, sir," the man declared. "They satabout waiting for me to be disengaged, but when my time off came, Ihopped out the back way. They'll be there again to-night, sureenough."
Laverick nodded.
"Well, you must let me know," he said, "what happens."
Jim Shepherd leaned across the corner of the table and dropped hisvoice.
"It's an awful thing to think of, sir," he whispered, blinkingrapidly. "I wouldn't be that young Mr. Morrison for all that greatpocketful of notes. But my! there was a sight of money there,sir! He'll be a rich man for all his days if nothing comes out."
"We won't talk any more about it," Laverick insisted. "It isn't apleasant thing to think about or talk about. We won't know anything,Shepherd. We shall be better off."
The man took his departure and the whirl of business recommenced.Laverick turned his back upon the city only a few minutes beforeeight and, tired out, he dined at a restaurant on his homeward way.When at last he reached his sitting-room he threw himself on thesofa and lit a cigar. Once more the evening papers had noparticular news. This time, however, one of them had a leadingarticle upon the English police system. The fact that an undetectedmurder should take place in a wealthy neighborhood, away from theslums, a murder which must have been premeditated, was in itselfalarming. Until the inquest had been held, it was better to makelittle comment upon the facts of the case so far as they were known.At the same time, the circumstance could not fail to incite aconsiderable amount of alarm among those who had offices in thevicinity of the tragedy. It was rumored that some mysteriousinquiries were being circulated around London banks. It waspossible that robbery, after all, had been the real motive of thecrime, but robbery on a scale as yet unimagined. The whole interestof the case now was centred upon the discovery of the man's identity.As soon as this was solved, some very startling developments mightbe expected.
Laverick threw the paper away. He tried to rest upon the sofa, buttried in vain. He found himself continually glancing at the clock.
"To-night," he muttered to himself,--"no, I will not go to-night!It is not fair to the child. It is absurd. Why, she would thinkthat I was--"
He stopped short.
"I'll change and go to the club," he decided.
He rose to his feet. Just then there was a ring at his bell. Heopened the door and found a messenger boy standing in the vestibule.
"Note, sir, for Mr. Stephen Laverick," the boy announced, openinghis wallet.
Laverick held out his hand. The boy gave him a large squareenvelope, and upon the back of it was "Universal Theatre."Laverick tried to assure himself that he was not so ridiculouslypleased. He stepped back into the room, tore open the envelope,and read the few lines traced in rather faint but delicatehandwriting.
Are you coming to fetch me to-night? Don't let me be a nuisance,but do come if you have nothing to do. I have something to tellyou.
ZOE.
Laverick gave the boy a shilling for himself and suddenly forgotthat he was tired. He changed his clothes, whistling softly tohimself all the time. At eleven o'clock, he was at the stage-doorof the Universal Theatre, waiting in a taxicab.