The Death of Kings by Rennie George Airth

Author:Rennie George Airth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-11-07T11:51:01+00:00

15

‘IT COULD BE HIM, couldn’t it?’

Detective-Sergeant Joe Grace peered at the grainy, ill-lit photograph he was holding, which at first glance seemed to show a naked woman sitting alone on the end of a bed. On closer examination, however, the figure of a man lying under the sheets behind her with his face buried in the pillow could just be made out, and it was on this near shapeless form that the sergeant had fastened his gaze.

‘The trouble is it could be anyone.’

Grace clicked his tongue in disapproval. He glanced at Billy. The two of them were sitting in the back of a police car on their way to Rex Garner’s Mayfair address. Earlier that morning, knowing that the individual they wanted to interview was due back any day, Billy had rung his number and found he had finally returned from Scotland.

‘Still at least we know who the lady is: Miss Portia Blake in the altogether—and a nice bit of crackling, too. A pity she had to go and get herself topped.’ Joe sounded regretful. ‘What a waste.’

The photograph, docked to focus on the two figures—more of the room was shown in the print Grace was looking at—and with Miss Blake’s breasts and lap decorously blacked out, had been splashed across the front page of the Daily Mirror that morning. According to the story that accompanied it, the snapshot had been received by the editor through the post together with a note, not typed this time but written in printed capitals, stating baldly that the man lying face down on the bed was in a position to reveal ‘valuable information’ about the young woman’s murder. ‘I will say no more at this stage,’ the brief letter had concluded ominously. Both note and photograph had been sent to Scotland Yard at Chubb’s insistence.

Coming as it had on the heels of the information about Stanley Wing furnished by Sir Richard Jessup and relayed to the Yard by Madden, this latest development had spurred Chubb to summon the detectives involved to his office for a council of war.

‘We’ve got to put a stop to this nonsense,’ he had declared. ‘We’re being led by the nose and I won’t have it. I’ve sent a telegram to Hong Kong asking for confirmation of what Jessup told Madden, not that I doubt it. I think Wing’s here in London, all right, and it’s odds on he’s the one behind this. I want him found, and quick. How’s the photo lab doing with that picture Jessup’s office sent us this morning?’

‘We’ve got a shot of Wing’s face ready to be copied and distributed.’ It was Billy who replied. ‘I’ve already put his name out and I’ve asked for a check on all hotels and boarding-houses. But if the Triads are after him, it’s likely he’s travelling under a false name. If he is—if he’s using a forged passport—that’s an offence and we can detain him. Otherwise we’ve nothing to hold him on for the moment. We could still take his prints though.

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