The Man of Dangerous Secrets by Margery Allingham

Author:Margery Allingham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Agora Books

CHAPTER 17

The Sprung Trap

JENNIFER leaned as far out of the window as the bars would permit, and her clear young voice, now shrill with terror, echoed over the sodden garden.

“Daddy! Daddy! Come to me!”

But there was no answer save the plaintive cries of the gulls circling over the mud flats.

Slowly she drew back from the window and mechanically pulled down the sash. She stood very straight and still in her hideous grey dress. She was past tears, and her wide eyes were hard and bright.

Once again the utterly incredible had occurred. She had seen her father face to face and he had not recognized her, and slowly into her mind there crept the insidious doubt of her own brain.

She sank down on the rug before the enclosed iron stove and covered her face with her hands.

She was still in that position five minutes later when the door was thrown unceremoniously open and Dr. Crupiner, a triumphant gleam in his pale eyes behind his spectacles, ushered two men into the room.

Sir Henry Fern, looking paler than usual and somehow shrunken within his heavy overcoat, was followed by the square burly figure of Inspector Whybrow. Both men looked anxious. But while the inspector was merely grave with the expression of one who has an unpleasant, embarrassing duty to perform, there was genuine grief and alarm in Sir Henry’s face.

It was evident that they had not received an encouraging report of the patient’s condition from the doctor, and indeed the little man wore an air of smug regret which was easily recognizable.

Jennifer lifted her head dully as they came in, and then, as her eyes fell upon her father, the swift colour came into her cheeks and she half rose.

The next moment, however, the recollection of her recent experience came back to her, and she drew back stiffly like a hurt, reproachful child who fears for its reception.

Sir Henry, whose face had lighted at the sight of her, was quick to notice the change, and the worried light in his eyes deepened.

“Why, Jenny,” he said, “how are you this morning, my dear? Dr. Crupiner tells me you passed quite a good night. I’ve brought Inspector Whybrow down to hear your story about the man you told me had committed suicide in my office. Will you tell it to him, please?”

He was speaking nervously and jerkily, hurrying on further than he had intended because he was puzzled and frightened by the reproach in her eyes.

Jennifer, who was nearly at the end of her tether, suddenly lost her control. That he should have treated her so extraordinarily on the lawn not ten minutes before and then have suddenly confronted her with a lot of stupid questions before a police officer made her indignant, and, in her bewilderment, a little shocked.

“My dear,” she said reproachfully, “why come and ask me this now when you wouldn’t take any notice of me a moment or so ago? When I spoke to you out of the window you simply stared up at me without saying a word.

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