Answer in the Negative by Henrietta Hamilton

Author:Henrietta Hamilton [Hamilton, Henrietta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Agora Books
Published: 2020-02-19T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

They settled down to wait for Lindesay, who was supposed to be coming back to question the Saturday staff. It was after half past eleven when he appeared, and they gathered that he had been seeing the girls in Miss Quimper’s department, the two messengers on duty, and the people in Cuttings.

He took Sally first and listened to Miss Quimper’s story. He looked rather more austere than before, and she was glad when he released her. She wasn’t allowed to rejoin the others in Toby’s office. But there was no objection to her waiting for Johnny, and the young plain-clothes man who had been left outside in Peex shepherded her to a table. Camberley was taken next. A quarter of an hour later he came out, and Johnny was fetched. Camberley paused beside Sally.

‘Will you forgive me if I don’t wait?’ he asked. ‘I’ve got to meet someone for lunch.’

It was five minutes after that that she heard the low voices of two assistants behind the nearest row of filing cabinets. (Selina wasn’t here this morning; as Toby’s principal assistant she obviously wouldn’t be off duty on his Saturday off.)

One girl said, ‘When do you suppose we’ll get away? I wanted to catch a train at ten past one.’

The other said, ‘Well, at this rate, I doubt if you’ll do it.’

‘I ought to ring up, then. I was counting on getting off at half past twelve as usual.’

Sally looked automatically at her watch. It was close on twenty-five past twelve. It flashed suddenly upon her that Teddy would presumably be leaving the building at half past and might make straight for his client.

She got up without thinking and smiled at the young plain-clothes man.

‘Would you be very kind,’ she said, ‘and tell my husband I couldn’t wait after all?’

‘Certainly, Mrs Heldar.’ He smiled too.

‘It’s the photographs we had to pick up,’ she added hurriedly, and moved on. ‘I’ll be home as soon as I can.’

‘I’ll tell him, Mrs Heldar; don’t worry.’ He came with her to open one of the glass doors. She thanked him warmly and went on.

She ran along the passage and pressed the down button of the nearer lift. Everyone must have been too busy with the police for the last hour or two to send Teddy out on jobs or to organise him at all. He might not have been able to replace the Venezuelan negs, but he could probably have left the building half an hour ago without anyone’s noticing — anyone except the day-porter at Laxton’s door. The lift, according to the indicator, was at the ground floor and not moving. Sally, growing reckless, pressed the down button of the next one, which was at the second. But the nearer lift came first. The doors opened with their usual maddening decorum, and she went in and pressed the ground-floor button.

He might well have gone, she thought, as she hurried out on to the crowded pavement. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be long. But

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