Alibi For A Judge by Henry Cecil

Author:Henry Cecil
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Alibi For A Judge
ISBN: 9780755128976
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2012-12-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

On Holiday

When he awoke, he got up at once and read the letter he had written, thought about it and tore it up. Then he decided to say it on the telephone instead. He picked up the telephone and then put it down again because he couldn’t think how to begin. He was still undecided when Lesley telephoned.

‘I’ve had an idea,’ she said. ‘Why shouldn’t I advertise for someone who could give information of Thompson’s whereabouts?’

‘There’s no reason why you shouldn’t,’ said the judge, ‘but you must be prepared to draw another blank.’

‘Of course,’ said Lesley, ‘but I thought it might be worth trying.’

Four days later she informed the judge that a man had answered the advertisement.

‘He’s a pretty unsavoury specimen,’ she said, ‘but he claims to know Thompson and says he’s sure he can find him for me.’

‘Well, that’s good,’ said the judge. ‘There’s no harm in following up any of his suggestions. But the way you speak makes me think there’s a snag in it. Is there?’

‘Not really,’ said Lesley. ‘It’s just this, that … Well, I find this awfully embarrassing – you’ve been so terribly kind and I must have cost you quite a lot of money so far and…’

‘How much does this man want?’ said the judge.

‘Twenty-five pounds, to begin with,’ said Lesley.

‘What do you get for the twenty-five pounds? What does “to begin with” mean?’

‘Twenty-five pounds is for the first try. If it comes off, that’ll be that. If it doesn’t, he’ll want more.’

‘Well, you say the man’s unsavoury; if he’s a crook he could run up a whole lot of twenty-five pounds.’

‘I know,’ said Lesley. ‘One’s pretty well in his hands, but I thought …’

‘All right,’ said the judge. ‘I’ll stand for the first lot.’

‘You are good,’ said Lesley.

‘Probably only foolish,’ said the judge.

But in fact he was quite pleased to be able to do this. It solved his problem for the moment. He could easily afford the money, and providing it was a useful compromise between giving the whole thing up and doing futile things himself. So for a day or two he ceased to worry so much about the matter. After all, he was doing all he had been asked to do. For peace of mind it was cheap at the price.

One evening a few days later he received a very odd call from Lesley. He could recognise her voice but she was speaking very softly and in an extremely strange manner, so strange indeed that he wondered if she could have been drunk. She had always treated him up to that moment as he would have expected. She either called him ‘Sir Gerald’ or nothing at all and, though they had become on terms of easy familiarity, she had never taken advantage of that fact. Accordingly he was astonished to hear her say when he answered the telephone: ‘Is that you, Gerald?’

He felt pretty certain who it was but none the less he asked: ‘Who is it?’

‘Lesley, of course,’ she answered.

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