CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE DETECTIVE CALLS
Mr. Penniket, to whom the two cousins and Mrs. Goldmark were evidentlyvery well known, looked a polite enquiry at the stranger as he took thechair which Melky drew forward for him.
"As Mr. Purdie is presumably discussing this affair with you," heobserved, "I take it that you intend him to hear anything I have totell?"
"That's so, Mr. Penniket," answered Melky. "Mr. Purdie's one of us, soto speak--you can tell us anything you like, before him. We were goinginto details when you come--there's some strange business on, Mr.Penniket! And we want to get a bit clear about it before we tell thepolice what we know."
"You know something that they don't know?" asked Mr. Penniket.
"More than a bit!" replied Melky, laconically. "This here affair'srevolving itself into a network, mister, out of which somebody's goingto find it hard work to break through!"
The solicitor, who had been quietly inspecting Purdie, gave him a slysmile.
"Then before I tell you what I have just found out," he said, turningto Melky, "I think you had better tell me all you know, and what youhave been discussing. Possibly, I may have something to tell whichbears on our knowledge. Let us be clear!"
He listened carefully while Purdie, at Zillah's request, told himbriefly what had been said before his arrival, and Purdie saw at oncethat none of the facts surprised him. He asked Mrs. Goldmark one or twoquestions about the man who was believed to have dropped one of hiscuff-links in her restaurant; he asked Melky a question as to hisdiscovery of the other; he made no comment on the answers which theygave him. Finally, he drew his chair nearer to the table at which theywere sitting, and invited their attention with a glance.
"There is no doubt," he said, "that the circumstances centring roundthe death of my late client are remarkably mysterious! What we want toget at, put into a nut-shell, is just this--what happened in thisparlour between half-past four and half-past five on Monday afternoon?We might even narrow that down to--what happened between ten minutes tofive and ten minutes past five? Daniel Multenius was left alone--weknow that. Some person undoubtedly came in here--perhaps more than oneperson came. Who was the person? Were there two persons? If there weretwo, did they come together--or singly, separately? All that will haveto be solved before we find out who it was that assaulted my lateclient, and so injured him that he died under the shock. Now, MissWildrose, and Mr. Rubinstein, there's one fact which you may as wellget into your minds at once. Your deceased relative had his secrets!"
Neither Zillah nor Purdie made any comment on this, and the solicitor,with a meaning look at Purdie, went on. "Not that Daniel Multeniusrevealed any of them to me!" he continued. "I have acted for him inlegal matters for some years, but only in quite an ordinary way. He wasa well-to-do man, Mr. Purdie--a rich man, in fact, and a considerableproperty owner--I did all his work of that sort. But as regards hissecrets, I know nothing--except that since yesterday, I have discoveredthat he certainly had them. I have, as Miss Wildrose knows--and by herinstructions--been making some enquiries at the bank where Mr.Multenius kept his account--the Empire and Universal, in LombardStreet--and I have made some curious unearthings in the course of them.Now then, between ourselves--Mr. Purdie being represented to me as inyour entire confidence--I may as well tell you that Daniel Multeniusmost certainly had dealings of a business nature completely outside hisbusiness as jeweller and pawnbroker in this shop. That's positivelycertain. And what is also certain is that in some of those dealings hewas, in some way or another, intimately associated with the man whosename has already come up a good deal since Monday--Mr. SpencerLevendale!"
"S'elp me!" muttered Melky. "I heard Levendale, with my own two ears,say that he didn't know the poor old fellow!"
"Very likely," said Mr. Penniket, drily. "It was not convenient tohim--we will assume--to admit that he did, just then. But I havediscovered--from the bankers--that precisely two years ago, Mr. SpencerLevendale paid to Daniel Multenius a sum of ten thousand pounds. That'sa fact!"
"For what, mister?" demanded Melky.
"Can't say--nobody can say," answered the solicitor. "All the same, hedid--paid it in, himself, to Daniel Multenius's credit, at the Empireand Universal. It went into the ordinary account, in the ordinary way,and was used by Mr. Multenius as part of his own effects--as no doubtit was. Now," continued Mr. Penniket, turning to Zillah, "I want to askyou a particular question. I know you had assisted your grandfather agreat deal of late years. Had you anything to do with his bankingaccount?"
"No!" replied Zillah, promptly. "That's the one thing I never hadanything to do with. I never saw his pass-book, nor his deposit-book,nor even his cheque-book. He kept all that to himself."
"Just so," said Mr. Penniket. "Then, of course, you don't know that hedealt with considerable sums--evidently quite outside this business. Hemade large--sometimes very heavy--payments. And--this, I am convinced,is of great importance to the question we are trying to solve--most ofthese payments were sent to South Africa."
The solicitor glanced round his audience as if anxious to see that itsvarious members grasped the significance of this announcement. AndMelky at once voiced the first impression of, at any rate, three ofthem.
"Levendale comes from those parts!" he muttered. "Came here some two orthree years ago--by all I can gather."
"Just so," said Mr. Penniket. "Therefore, possibly this South Africanbusiness, in which my late client was undoubtedly engaged, is connectedwith Mr. Levendale. That can be found out. But I have still more totell you--perhaps, considering everything, the most important matter ofthe whole lot. On Monday morning last--that would be a few hours beforehis death--Mr. Multenius called at the bank and took from it a smallpacket which he had entrusted to his banker's keeping only a fortnightpreviously. The bankers do not know what was in that packet--he hadmore than once got them to take care of similar packets at one time oranother. But they described it to me just now. A packet, evidentlyenclosing a small, hard box, some four or five inches square in alldirections, wrapped in strong cartridge paper, and heavily sealed withred wax. It bore Mr. Multenius's name and address--written by himself.Now, then, Miss Wildrose--he took that packet away from the bank atabout twelve-thirty on Monday noon. Have you seen anything of it?"
"Nothing!" answered Zillah with certainty. "There's no such packethere, Mr. Penniket. I've been through everything--safes, drawers,chests, since my grandfather died, and I've not found anything that Ididn't know of. I remember that he went out last Monday morning--he wasaway two hours, and came in again about a quarter past one, but I neversaw such a packet in his possession as that you describe. I knownothing of it."
"Well," said the solicitor, after a pause, "there are the facts. Andthe question now is--ought we not to tell all this to the police, atonce? This connection of Levendale with my late client--as undoubted asit seems to have been secret--needs investigation. According to Mr.Purdie here--Levendale has suddenly disappeared--or, at any rate, lefthome under mysterious circumstances. Has that disappearance anything todo with Multenius's death? Has it anything to do with the death of thisnext door man, Parslett, last night? And has Levendale any connectionswith the strange man who dropped one platinum solitaire stud in Mrs.Goldmark's restaurant, and another in this parlour?"
No one attempted to answer these questions for a moment; then, Melky,as if seized with a sudden inspiration, smote the table and leaned overit towards the solicitor.
"Mr. Penniket!" he said, glancing around him as if to invite approvalof what he was about to say. "You're a lawyer, mister!--you can putthings in order and present 'em as if they was in a catalogue! Take thewhole business to New Scotland Yard, sir!--let the big men atheadquarters have a go at it. That's what I say! There's some queermystery at the bottom of all this, Mr. Penniket, and it ain't a one-manjob. Go to the Yard, mister--let 'em try their brains on it!"
Zillah made a murmured remark which seemed to second her cousin'sproposal, and Mr. Penniket turned to Purdie.
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"I understand you to be a business man," he remarked. "What do you say?"
"As far as I can put things together," answered Purdie, "I fully agreethat there is some extraordinary mystery round and about Mr.Multenius's death. And as the detective force at New Scotland Yardexists for the solution of such problems--why, I should certainly tellthe authorities there everything that is known. Why not?"
"Very good," said Mr. Penniket. "Then it will be well if you two comewith me. The more information we can give to the heads of the CriminalInvestigation Department, the better. We'll go there at once."
In a few moments, the three men had gone, and Zillah and Mrs. Goldmark,left alone, looked at each other.
"Mrs. Goldmark!" said Zillah, after a long silence. "Did you see thatman, yourself, who's supposed to have dropped that platinum solitairein your restaurant?"
"Did I see him?" exclaimed Mrs. Goldmark. "Do I see you, Zillah? Seehim I did!--though never before, and never since! And ain't I the goodmemory for faces--and won't I know him again if he comes my way? Do youknow what?--I ain't never forgotten a face what I've once looked at!Comes from keeping an eye on customers who looks as if they might haveforgot to bring their moneys with 'em!"
"Well, I hope you'll see this man again," remarked Zillah. "I'd give alot to get all the mystery cleared up."
Mrs. Goldmark observed that mysteries were not cleared up in a day, andpresently went away to see that her business was being conductedproperly. She was devoting herself to Zillah in very neighbourlyfashion just then, but she had to keep running into the restaurantevery hour or two to keep an eye on things. And during one of herabsences, later in the early evening of that day, Zillah, alone in thehouse, answered a knock at the door, and opening it found Ayscoughoutside. His look betokened news, and Zillah led him into the parlour.
"Alone?" asked Ayscough. "Aye, well, I've something to tell you that Iwant you to keep to yourself--for a bit, anyway. Those rings, you know,that the young fellow, Lauriston, says are his, and had been hismother's?"
"Well?" said Zillah, faintly, and half-conscious of some coming badnews. "What of them?"
"Our people," continued the detective, "have had some expertchap--jeweller, or something of that sort, examining those rings, andcomparing them with the rings that are in your tray. And in that traythere are several rings which have a private mark inside them. Now,then!--those two rings which Lauriston claims are marked in exactly thesame fashion!"