Death-Watch

Author:John Dickson Carr [Carr, John Dickson]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery, Mystery & Detective - General, Mystery & Detective, Fiction - Mystery, 20th Century English Novel And Short Story, Detective, General, Suspense, Fiction, Mystery and detective stories
ISBN: 9780060810405
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1990-05-15T14:43:03+00:00

19

Sequel in a Tavern

In the bar of the "Duchess of Portsmouth" tavern, which is in the curve of the little backwater called Portsmouth Street, there is still talk of a lunch given in the smoky, low-raftered back dining-room one afternoon early in September. The lunch was given by a certain enormously fat gentleman to four guests. It lasted from half-past one until a quarter-past four. It was noted not merely for its size—although the stout gentleman himself consumed a steak and kidney pie nearly as big as a washbowl... but also for its hilarious noise. The stout gentleman stuck his head into the bar, removed a shovel-hat, and announced that all the drinks for the habitues there assembled were on him. He made a speech to the company, which contained incomprehensible references to having his enemy by the hip, or some such nonsense; but it was roundly applauded until a companion of his, tall chap with a military cut, came hurrying in and hauled him away, amid protests from the company.

That lunch was always a pleasant memory to Melson. But what he best remembered was a little scene that preceded it, while Eleanor and Donald Hastings were studying the menu in the dining-room, and the other three had adjourned to the private bar to moisten their sandy throats with a quick one before the beer-drinking. Dr. Fell looked at Hadley, and Hadley looked at Dr. Fell. But neither spoke until the doctor had emitted an expiring and satisfied "Haaa!" as he put down his glass.

"And the beauty of the circumstance," said he, bringing down his first on the bar in admiration, "is the way both of us used the testimony of Gray and her two accomplices—false testimony, to divert suspicion from Gray's own crime. You used lies to condemn Eleanor, and I used the same lies to defend her. Of course we believed Gray. Why not? There were three apparently unrelated people, disinterested onlookers, who all told the same tale. Gray didn't run. She simply dropped the knife, cried out, pointed to a phantom, told an expert lie.. . and was backed up. Why she should have lost her head and stabbed Manders—"

Hadley stared at his glass and swirled round its contents. "Well, it meant certain prison if they took her up on suspicion and compared finger-prints with the files. All the same, it was a fool trick. She'll hang, for a certainty, and maybe the others with her." He scowled. "What interests me is that it's a new trick in super-shoplifting. If anybody grew suspicious, up stepped a fashionably dressed young man. You thought you saw this lady—? Nonsense! I was watching her myself, and—' Snuffy-looking respectable man on the other side also shakes his head and timidly agrees. Gray thanks them and departs in a huff before authority can be summoned. Not bad! Costume jewellery at twenty quid a time. .. they must have cleaned up a couple of thousand in a fortnight. The shopwalker'd probably spotted her before, and wasn't going to have any nonsense.

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