He lifted the top-hat to the light, and extracted the evidence with tweezers.
"Think of it, Parker–to remember the hairbrush and forget the hat–to remember his fingers all the time, and to make that one careless step on the telltale linoleum. Here they are, you see, black hair and tan hair–black hair in the bowler and the panama, and black and tan in last night's topper. And then, just to make certain that we're on the right track, just one little auburn hair on the pillow, on this pillow, Parker, which isn't quite in the right place. It almost brings tears to my eyes."
"Do you mean to say–" said the detective, slowly.
"I mean to say," said Lord Peter, "that it was not Sir Reuben Levy whom the cook saw last night on the doorstep. I say that it was another man, perhaps a couple of inches shorter, who came here in Levy's clothes and let himself in with Levy's latchkey. Oh, he was a bold, cunning devil, Parker. He had on Levy's boots, and every stitch of Levy's clothing down to the skin. He had rubber gloves on his hands which he never took off, and he did everything he could to make us think that Levy slept here last night. He took his chances, and won. He walked upstairs, he undressed, he even washed and cleaned his teeth, though he didn't use the hairbrush for fear of leaving red hairs in it. He had to guess what Levy did with boots and clothes; one guess was wrong and the other right, as it happened. The bed must look as if it had been slept in, so he gets in, and lies there in his victim's very pyjamas. Then, in the morning sometime, probably in the deadest hour between two and three, he gets up, dresses himself in his own clothes that he has brought with him in a bag, and creeps downstairs. If anybody wakes, he is lost, but he is a bold man, and he takes his chance. He knows that people do not wake as a rule–and they don't wake. He opens the street door which he left on the latch when he came in–he listens for the stray passer-by or the policeman on his beat. He slips out. He pulls the door quietly to with the latchkey. He walks brisky away in rubber-soled shoes–he's the kind of criminal who isn't complete without rubber-soled shoes. In a few minutes he is at Hyde Park Corner. After that–"
He paused, and added:
"He did all that, and unless he had nothing at stake, he had everything at stake. Either Sir Reuben Levy has been spirited away for some silly practical joke, or the man with the auburn hair has the guilt of murder upon his soul."
"Dear me!" ejaculated the detective, "you're very dramatic about it."
Lord Peter passed his hand rather wearily over his hair.
"My true friend," he murmured, in a voice surcharged with emotion, "you recall me to the nursery rhymes of my youth–the sacred duty of flippancy:
'There was an old man of Whitehaven
Who danced a quadrille with a raven,
But they said: It's absurd
To encourage that bird–
So they smashed that old man of Whitehaven.'
That's the correct attitude, Parker. Here's a poor old buffer spirited away–such a joke–and I don't believe he'd hurt a fly himself–that makes it funnier. D'you know, Parker, I don't care frightfully about this case after all."
"Which, this or yours?"
"Both. I say, Parker, shall we go quietly home and have lunch and go to the Coliseum?"
"You can if you like," replied the detective; "but you forget I do this for my bread and butter."
"And I haven't even that excuse," said Lord Peter; "well, what's the next move? What would you do in my case?"
"I'd do some good, hard grind," said Parker. "I'd distrust every bit of work Sugg ever did, and I'd get the family history of every tenant of every flat in Queen Caroline Mansions. I'd examine all their boxrooms and rooftraps, and I would inveigle them into conversations and suddenly bring in the words 'body' and 'pince-nez,' and see if they wriggled, like those modern psycho-what's-his-names."
"You would, would you?" said Lord Peter with a grin. "Well, we've exchanged cases, you know, so just you toddle off and do it. I'm going to have a jolly time at Wyndham's."
Parker made a grimace.
"Well," he said, "I don't suppose you'd ever do it, so I'd better. You'll never become a professional till you learn to do a little work, Wimsey. How about lunch?"
"I'm invited out," said Lord Peter, magnificently. "I'll run round and change at the club. Can't feed with Freddy Arbuthnot in these bags; Bunter!"
"Yes, my lord."
"Pack up if you're ready, and come round and wash my face and hands for me at the club."
"Work here for another two hours, my lord. Can't do with less than thirty minutes' exposure. The current's none too strong."
"You see how I'm bullied by my own man, Parker? Well, I must bear it, I suppose. Ta-ta!"
He whistled his way downstairs.
The conscientious Mr. Parker, with a groan, settled down to a systematic search through Sir Reuben Levy's papers, with the assistance of a plate of ham sandwiches and a bottle of Bass.
Lord Peter and the Honourable Freddy Arbuthnot, looking together like an advertisement for gents' trouserings, strolled into the dining-room at Wyndham's.
"Haven't seen you for an age," said the Honourable Freddy, "what have you been doin' with yourself?"
"Oh, foolin' about," said Lord Peter, languidly.
"Thick or clear, sir?" enquired the waiter of the Honourable Freddy.
"Which'll you have, Wimsey?" said that gentleman, transferring the burden of selection to his guest, "they're both equally poisonous."
"Well, clear's less trouble to lick out of the spoon," said Lord Peter.
"Clear," said the Honourable Freddy.
"Consommé Polonais," agreed the waiter. "Very nice, sir."
Conversation languished until the Honourable Freddy found a bone in the filleted sole, and sent for the head waiter to explain its presence. When this matter had been adjusted Lord Peter found energy to say:
"Sorry to hear about your gov'nor, old man."
"Yes, poor old buffer," said the Honourable Freddy; "they say he can't last long now. What? Oh! the Montrachet '08. There's nothing fit to drink in this place," he added gloomily.
After this deliberate insult to a noble vintage there was a further pause, till Lord Peter said: "'How's 'Change?"
"Rotten," said the Honourable Freddy.
He helped himself gloomily to salmis of game.
"Can I do anything?" asked Lord Peter.
"Oh, no, thanks–very decent of you, but it'll pan out all right in time."
"This isn't a bad salmis," said Lord Peter.
"I've eaten worse," admitted his friend.
"What about those Argentines?" enquired Lord Peter. "Here, waiter, there's a bit of cork in my glass."
"Cork?" cried the Honourable Freddy, with something approaching animation; "you'll hear about this, waiter. It's an amazing thing a fellow who's paid to do the job can't manage to take a cork out of a bottle. What you say? Argentines? Gone all to hell. Old Levy bunkin' off like that's knocked the bottom out of the market."
"You don't say so," said Lord Peter; "what d'you suppose has happened to the old man?"
"Cursed if I know," said the Honourable Freddy; "knocked on the head by the bears, I should think."
"P'r'aps he's gone off on his own," suggested Lord Peter. "Double life, you know. Giddy old blighters, some of these City men."
"Oh, no," said the Honourable Freddy, faintly roused; "no, hang it all, Wimsey, I wouldn't care to say that. He's a decent old domestic bird, and his daughter's a charmin' girl. Besides, he's straight enough–he'd do you down fast enough, but he wouldn't let you down. Old Anderson is badly cut up about it."
"Who's Anderson?"
"Chap with property out there. He belongs here. He was goin' to meet Levy on Tuesday. He's afraid those railway people will get in now, and then it'll be all U. P."
"Who's runnin' the railway people over here?" enquired Lord Peter.
"Yankee blighter, John P. Milligan. He's got an option, or says he has. You can't trust these brutes."
"Can't Anderson hold
on?"
"Anderson isn't Levy. Hasn't got the shekels. Besides, he's only one. Levy covers the ground–he could boycott Milligan's beastly railway if he liked. That's where he's got the pull, you see."
"B'lieve I met the Milligan man somewhere," said Lord Peter, thoughtfully; "ain't he a hulking brute with black hair and a beard?"
"You're thinkin' of somebody else," said the Honourable Freddy. "Milligan don't stand any higher than I do, unless you call five-feet-ten hulking–and he's bald, anyway."
Lord Peter considered this over the Gorgonzola. Then he said:
"Didn't know Levy had a charmin' daughter."
"Oh, yes," said the Honourable Freddy, with an elaborate detachment. "Met her and Mamma last year abroad. That's how I got to know the old man. He's been very decent. Let me into this Argentine business on the ground floor, don't you know?"
"Well," said Lord Peter, "you might do worse. Money's money, ain't it? And Lady Levy is quite a redeemin' point. At least, my mother knew her people."
"Oh, she's all right," said the Honourable Freddy, "and the old man's nothing to be ashamed of nowadays. He's self-made, of course, but he don't pretend to be anything else. No side. Toddles off to business on a 96 'bus every morning. 'Can't make up my mind to taxis, my boy,' he says. 'I had to look at every halfpenny when I was a young man, and I can't get out of the way of it now.' Though, if he's takin' his family out, nothing's too good. Rachel–that's the girl–always laughs at the old man's little economies."
"I suppose they've sent for Lady Levy," said Lord Peter.
"I suppose so," agreed the other. "I'd better pop round and express sympathy or somethin', what? Wouldn't look well not to, d'you think? But it's deuced awkward. What am I to say?"
"I don't think it matters much what you say," said Lord Peter, helpfully. "I should ask if you can do anything."
"Thanks," said the lover, "I will. Energetic young man. Count on me. Always at your service. Ring me up any time of the day or night. That's the line to take, don't you think?"
"That's the idea," said Lord Peter.
* * *
Mr. John P. Milligan, the London representative of the great Milligan railroad and shipping company, was dictating code cables to his secretary in an office in Lombard Street, when a card was brought up to him, bearing the simple legend:
LORD PETER WIMSEY
Marlborough Club
Mr. Milligan was annoyed at the interruption, but, like many of his nation, if he had a weak point, it was the British aristocracy. He postponed for a few minutes the elimination from the map of a modest but promising farm, and directed that the visitor should be shown up.
"Good-afternoon," said that nobleman, ambling genially in, "it's most uncommonly good of you to let me come round wastin' your time like this. I'll try not to be too long about it, though I'm not awfully good at comin' to the point. My brother never would let me stand for the county, y'know–said I wandered on so nobody'd know what I was talkin' about."
"Pleased to meet you, Lord Wimsey," said Mr. Milligan. "Won't you take a seat?"
"Thanks," said Lord Peter, "but I'm not the Duke, you know–that's my brother Denver. My name's Peter. It's a silly name, I always think, so old-world and full of homely virtue and that sort of thing, but my godfathers and godmothers in my baptism are responsible for that, I suppose, officially–which is rather hard on them, you know, as they didn't actually choose it. But we always have a Peter, after the third duke, who betrayed five kings somewhere about the Wars of the Roses, though come to think of it, it ain't anything to be proud of. Still, one has to make the best of it."
Mr. Milligan, thus ingeniously placed at that disadvantage which attends ignorance, manìuvred for position, and offered his interrupter a Corona Corona.
"Thanks, awfully," said Lord Peter, "though you really mustn't tempt me to stay here barblin' all afternoon. By Jove, Mr. Milligan, if you offer people such comfortable chairs and cigars like these, I wonder they don't come an' live in your office." He added mentally: "I wish to goodness I could get those long-toed boots off you. How's a man to know the size of your feet? And a head like a potato. It's enough to make one swear."
"Say now, Lord Peter," said Mr. Milligan, "can I do anything for you?"
"Well, d'you know," said Lord Peter, "I'm wonderin' if you would. It's damned cheek to ask you, but fact is, it's my mother, you know. Wonderful woman, but don't realize what it means, demands on the time of a busy man like you. We don't understand hustle over here, you know, Mr. Milligan."
"Now don't you mention that," said Mr. Milligan; "I'd be surely charmed to do anything to oblige the Duchess."
He felt a momentary qualm as to whether a duke's mother were also a duchess, but breathed more freely as Lord Peter went on:
"Thanks–that's uncommonly good of you. Well, now, it's like this. My mother–most energetic, self-sacrificin' woman, don't you see, is thinkin' of gettin' up a sort of a charity bazaar down at Denver this winter, in aid of the church-roof, y'know. Very sad case, Mr. Milligan–fine old antique–early English windows and decorated angel roof, and all that–all tumblin' to pieces, rain pourin' in and so on–vicar catchin' rheumatism at early service, owin' to the draught blowin' in over the altar–you know the sort of thing. They've got a man down startin' on it–little beggar called Thipps–lives with an aged mother in Battersea–vulgar little beast, but quite good on angel roofs and things, I'm told."
At this point, Lord Peter watched his interlocutor narrowly, but finding that this rigmarole produced in him no reaction more startling than polite interest tinged with faint bewilderment, he abandoned this line of investigation, and proceeded:
"I say, I beg your pardon, frightfully–I'm afraid I'm bein' beastly long-winded. Fact is, my mother is gettin' up this bazaar, and she thought it'd be all awfully interestin' side-show to have some lectures–sort of little talks, y'know–by eminent business men of all nations. 'How I did it' kind of touch, y'know–'A Drop of Oil with Mr. Rockefeller'–'Cash and Conscience' by Cadbury's Cocoa and so on. It would interest people down there no end. You see, all my mother's friends will be there, and we've none of us any money–not what you'd call money, I mean–I expect our incomes wouldn't pay your telephone calls, would they?–but we like awfully to hear about the people who can make money. Gives us a sort of uplifted feelin', don't you know. Well, anyway, I mean, my mother'd be frightfully pleased and grateful to you, Mr. Milligan, if you'd come down and give us a few words as a representative American. It needn't take more than ten minutes or so, y'know, because the local people can't understand much beyond shootin' and huntin', and my mother's crowd can't keep their minds on anythin' more than ten minutes together, but we'd really appreciate it very much if you'd come and stay a day or two and just give us a little breezy word on the almighty dollar."
"Why, yes," said Mr. Milligan, "I'd like to, Lord Peter. It's kind of the Duchess to suggest it. It's a very sad thing when these fine old antiques begin to wear out. I'll come with great pleasure. And perhaps you'd be kind enough to accept a little donation to the Restoration Fund."
This unexpected development nearly brought Lord Peter up all standing. To pump, by means of an ingenious lie, a hospitable gentleman whom you are inclined to suspect of a peculiarly malicious murder, and to accept from him in the course of the proceedings a large cheque for a charitable object, has something about it unpalatable to any but the hardened Secret Service agent. Lord Peter temporized.
"That's awfully decent of you," he said. "I'm sure they'd be no end grateful. But you'd better not give it to me, you know. I might spend it, or lose it. I'm not very reliable, I'm afraid. The vicar's the right person–the Rev. Constantine Throgmorton, St. John-before-the-Latin-Gate Vicarage, Duke's Denver, if you like to send it there."
"I will," said Mr. Milligan. "Will you write it out now for a thousand pounds, Scoot, in case it slips my mind later?"
The secretary, a sandy-haired young man with a long chin and no eyebrows, silently did a
s he was requested. Lord Peter looked from the bald head of Mr. Milligan to the red head of the secretary, hardened his heart and tried again.
"Well, I'm no end grateful to you, Mr. Milligan, and so'll my mother be when I tell her. I'll let you know the date of the bazaar–it's not quite settled yet, and I've got to see some other business men, don't you know. I thought of askin' Lord Northcliffe to represent English newspapers, you know, and a friend of mine promises me a leadin' German–very interestin' if there ain't too much feelin' against it down in the country, and I'd better get Rothschild, I suppose, to do the Hebrew point of view. I thought of askin' Levy, y'know, only he's floated off in this inconvenient way."