Campion 14 The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham

Author:Margery Allingham [Allingham, Margery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Luke hunched his shoulders. “I don’t know about force,” he said bitterly. “Just give me his direction. I’m not saying I’ve not got plenty to go on. His prints were all over the solicitor’s office, and I don’t doubt they are here. He’s leaving a trail like a drag hunt. We’re bound to get him before dawn. But meanwhile there’s four people dead who ought to be alive. One of them a famous man, and another of ’em one of the best kids who ever lived. When this is over I’ve got to go and see Coleman’s old mum. He was her only one and she hoped he’d turn out like me, God help her. Four murders in my manor since six tonight and the chap jumps quietly out of a ring of us.”

He stuck his long right forefinger through a circle made of his left hand, and took a swinging grab at it with his right fist. It was an expressive illustration, but its point was lost in an uncharacteristic explosion from Amanda, whose brown eyes had become wide and horrified.

“That man murdered four people tonight? You didn’t tell us. Meg and I might have been killed.”

Her reaction was so angry, and so exactly an echo of their own earlier performances, that it punctured the emotional tension like a bubble. Mr.

Campion began to laugh and Oates joined him. Amanda remained furious, her flaming hair no redder than her cheeks.

“I think we might have been told,” she said. The unreason of the statement occurred to her the moment it had escaped her, and her expression grew blank.

“I say, how horrible,” she said in an altered voice. “Who is he? A maniac?”

“Not if I know it.” Luke was softly ferocious. “No psychiatrist is going to get him off through that door. He’ll see the inside of the topping shed when I get hold of him.”

“And you think you’ll get him soon?” Amanda spoke absently. She was shivering and she glanced behind her into the shadows.

“Luke will get him soon.” Oates stirred in his chair. He looked very mild and elderly sitting there, the candlelight falling on his close-cropped head, but his voice was chill with certainty. “The animal is trapped,” he said. “Nothing can save him. He has a start on us, but now that the machine has gone into action the odds against him are lengthening every hour. By this time his record has been studied. That means that every living soul who has ever been known to have anything to do with him is going to be contacted, questioned, and kept under observation. For instance, we know he had a visitor in prison. So far that woman (she’s a lodging housekeeper in Bethnal Green) has not heard from him since he escaped. She won’t hear. She won’t have a chance. All her associates will be examined. He’ll have no help there.”

“He picked up a knife somewhere,” grumbled Luke, “and a buff hairy coat. He was in issue clothes when he escaped.

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