The Toff Takes Shares by John Creasey

Author:John Creasey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

A Visit From Romeo

Rollison woke up next morning to an unaccustomed silence.

It was a quarter to nine.

He got up, calling, “Jolly!” There was no answer. Only when he saw the kettle on a low gas in the kitchen, the breakfast-table laid, toast in the rack and newspapers and the post by the side of his plate did Rollison remember that it was April the first. Jolly had gone to business.

He glanced at the newspapers.

They had not yet got the story of Peter’s murder, but they had a good account of what had happened at Majors in the morning and during the night. Romeo was featured prominently in all of them, and his photograph appeared in most. The Daily Wire had a photograph of Chloe at her loveliest, and had also managed to get one of Alice Hellier to put beside Peter’s – Peter, having won fame during the war, was still news. There was nothing startling in any of the newspapers except one story of the remarkable unpopularity of Majors’ shares on the market.

At ten o’clock Grice telephoned. The detective officer who had followed Lund had been killed in a car crash the previous night, and his body had been so mangled that he had not been identified for some hours. There was no news of Snub, said Grice, but the police were now searching high and low for him.

Aunt Gloria telephoned to say that Alice was sleeping the sleep of exhaustion, and had Rollison any requests to make about her?

“Keep the police away from her as long as you can,” said Rollison. “Get a doctor to swear that she mustn’t be worried, if needs be.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Hilary came on the telephone. Was there any truth in the rumour that Peter had been murdered? He had seen it in a Stop Press … Good lord! … Shocking! … That probably explained the sharp drop in Majors’ shares, they were down to fourteen shillings and threepence and it looked as if they were going to fall lower.

“I was afraid of that,” said Rollison. “If you’ve got any money, buy.”

“Buy? ”

“Buy,” repeated Rollison. He rang off immediately, and telephoned his brokers. Yes, there was a run on Majors, which amounted to a slump.

“Buy,” said Rollison, briefly.

“Buy? ”

“As hard as you can,” said Rollison. “Sell out as much as you like of my other stuff, and buy.”

“You must be mad!”

“I’m not mad at all,” said Rollison. “Buy, old chap—don’t risk too much of other people’s money, though.”

“Look here, if you buy big at the start you’ll stop the fall.”

“That’s what I want to do. It hasn’t reached the fringes yet; the small holders won’t think of selling shares until the bottom’s dropped right out of them, and I want to keep the bottom in. I am not crazy,” Rollison assured him. “Buy!”

“Oh well,” said the broker.

Grice was on the telephone again at twelve o’clock. After a weak opening and a sharp slump, Majors’ shares had steadied and were even recovering a little.

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