Dolly And The Cookie Bird - Dorothy Dunnett - Johnson Johnson 03 (24 page)

“You were following us?” I said. I thought of the kiss, and then didn’t.

“I picked up the bag after you’d gone. Mandleberg left it behind quite deliberately, of course,” Johnson said. “His face when he came back and found it had gone was a study. He raked about for the better part of an hour and then drove up and down the road inquiring at houses before he finally gave up and went home. As soon as he’d gone, I laid the letter by itself back in the ditch and brought the handbag here, to hand over to you.”

“I remember,” I said.

“I thought you would,” he said smoothly, damn him. “It was rather a neat trick. Before I took you and Janey and Gilmore back to the ditch, I phoned up Spry at the yacht club and told him to tell Clem what had happened and that I wouldn’t be long. Spry said Clem took all of three seconds to announce that he must rush out and buy something in town. He let him get a head start and then followed him. A bicycle is a wonderful thing. It was Clem whose white shoes you saw in the wood that night, Sarah. I knew it must be, but I didn’t want him unmasked just yet. Spry was there, watching him. And I knew that Clem would have found and read your father’s letter. He would know it was harmless. He would think, of course, that it was genuine, and the incoherence was caused, as you first thought, only by drink. And he would go ahead, as I hoped, with his plans, whatever they were.”

Mr. Lloyd said, in a subdued voice, “It was Clem who murdered Lord Forsey? But the macabre setting…”

“That was accident again, I believe. I don’t know why Clem was at the gallery on the night Forsey went there. He may even have had his suspicions aroused. At any rate, he must have surprised him, perhaps trying to open one of the sections which Lady Forsey pressed with such effect earlier today. There was a fight, and Lord Forsey was killed.

“What then? My guess is that Clem was going to dump the body: take a dinghy out and drop it into the sea with a stone round its neck. He got it as far as the boatyard, perhaps in a wheelbarrow, it’s downhill all the way, and the workshop certainly had one. At any rate, when he looked for his boat, he found she had gone. It was small wonder that what happened tonight half overturned what was left of his brain. Just like tonight, he must have looked for her, wildly, with a bloodstained body lying dead in the cart, sleeping ships beside him, and a party of late-night revelers coming along the road. Then he saw it: the classical practical joke. The boat he’d been working on, upon dry land, with the winch going round and round, and not a hope of getting the dinghy or anything else. And people approaching. So he took a desperate chance. He lifted Forsey out of the barrow and hitched him upon the horse. He was a powerful man. And he took out of his pocket the blade that had killed him, wiped it, and pressed Forsev’s fingers on the handle. Then he fled to his friend’s ship, the
Sheila
, and got into bed. The boy in the ship didn’t even waken, and he spun him some tale in the morning;
Sheila
was leaving almost immediately anyway. As it happened, we’ve never traced that boy since. So still,” said Johnson, “there was no real evidence, until Sarah realized she had seen a replica of the Saint Hubert rubies.”

“Coffee, dear?” Mummy said.

I got up and started to collect plates. “That was after Coco died,” Gilmore said thoughtfully. “I suppose Clem killed him too? Why?”

“On the evening that he died, Lord Forsey visited his wife,” Johnson said. “I rather think Coco must have followed him and found that he went straight from there to Austin Mandleberg’s house. It would have been fatal for him to tell anyone. Clem didn’t know who Mrs. van Costa was, although Mrs. van Costa”—he smiled at Mummy—“had very kindly contacted me as soon as I arrived with
Dolly
and had made herself known. He constituted himself Sarah’s bodyguard simply so that he might put a stop to any secrets Coco felt like imparting. He did, too. He waited until Dilling had gone, then doped and drowned him.”

I had only got halfway to the door. “But you made Clem stay the night to guard Mummy?” I said.

Johnson smiled again, the bifocals flashing, “Your mother was safe: Clem had heard with his own ears that Coco hadn’t had time to betray him. I wanted him out of the way. As it happened, it was that evening, with Sarah’s help, that we were able to find the replica collar and prove that Jorge and Gregorio must somehow be in that part of the conspiracy, at least. If Clem had known that, he would have lost no time either in killing the two or getting them out of the country. Mandleberg was incapacitated, for the moment, with a gun wound.

“I let it appear that they had left the country under their own steam. We kidnaped each of them from his own house, then took them together to the salt flats and down to the anchorage. But instead of putting them on board the steamer, Spry received them on
Dolly
, which he had sailed round from her berth in Ibiza that night. They were tied up in the fo’c’s’le and taken back to Ibiza while Clem was asleep in the Casa Mimosa. Then, when day dawned and we wanted Jorge and Gregorio off
Dolly
, Lady Forsey invented a reason for driving out from the villa, and of course Clem had to go as her bodyguard.

“In fact, they met you, Sarah, and went in pursuit of Derek, who was being so very energetic in his search for Jorge and Gregorio that he almost wrecked the whole thing. She found Derek and you, Mr. Lloyd, on your way to the salt flats, and managed to persuade you because of the heat, and helped for his own reasons by Clem, to cut short your inquiries. If you hadn’t, you would almost certainly have heard about
Dolly
. Meanwhile, of course, Jorge and Gregorio had been safely removed to Lady Forsey’s house, and Clem and Lady Forsey went on to be entertained painlessly here, at Mr. Lloyd’s invitation. When the excuses for that visit ran out, Lady Forsey took Clem, on orders, to
Dolly
, where he had his unfortunate accident.”

“Who hit him?” said Mr. Lloyd.

“Spry did,” said Johnson. “Actually. Although when he came to, we rather gave him to believe it had been Austin.”

Mummy sat up. “You told me,” she said, “that someone had mistaken Clement for me.”

“Well, I had to make some excuse,” Johnson said cheerfully. “Couldn’t have Clem blaming us for the dent on his head. As it was, we knew very soon after that that there was a second and better copy of the Saint Hubert collar in existence, and that it was therefore very likely that an attempt to steal it would be made that night. Clem, we think, was actually to encompass the robbery, with Austin presumably getting a cut for having provided the replica. Whether the stolen necklace was afterward destined for the Gallery 7 hiding place or not, I don’t know. Anyway, as soon as we figured that out, our first step was to make sure that Austin believed that Clem’s injury was far worse than it was. By the same token, Austin was already making himself out to be pretty feeble, whereas in fact he had every intention of nipping out as soon as you had all gone and accomplishing the theft by himself.

“You can imagine Clem’s state of mind when he woke up on
Dolly
and learned that Austin had come and gone and had had every chance of delivering that blow. He lost no time, I can tell you, getting into Ibiza. He had no idea Spry was on his tail. He got to where, according to plan, two sets of penitents’ clothing were waiting: one for himself and one for Austin, who was to help with the diversion. One set had gone, proving that Austin, far from being at death’s door, was planning to snatch the rubies himself.

“In fact, that was precisely what Austin did, although in better faith than Clem suspected: he really thought Clem was incapacitated on
Dolly
.”

“Hence the punch-up?” said Gil.

“Hence the punch-up. Austin, carrying the rubies, fled for the house, with Clem hotfooting it after him. Unluckily, we were all rather close behind. Clem dropped back then and let Austin race by himself into the house, sure he knew, anyway, where Austin would hide the collar. Then he mingled, in his masked robe, with the rest of us as we all pelted past and was a spectator in all that nonsense in the gallery.

“He wasn’t worried by then about Austin’s fate. All he wanted was a chance to open that secret drawer and get away with the rubies. He got them out, too; only he couldn’t get out of the room because I’d put a police cordon round the house with orders not to let anyone through. So when you, Gil, by sheer chance found the drawer, and when Austin, seeing that it was empty, knew Clem had taken the rubies, Clem realized that Austin would name him in a matter of seconds. So he shot him and tried to escape, with the rubies stuffed in his pocket. None of you,” said Johnson gravely, “realizes even yet the full extent of Sarah’s genius. To Sarah we owe the home-made bleep, or homing signal, which ensured that wherever any of you went we were able to find you.”

“How?” said Mr. Lloyd sharply.

“Curry,” said Johnson simply. “I followed two Pakistanis for miles. Otherwise it worked. It worked, of course, in the final resort, by allowing us to trace Sarah herself. We were with her from start to finish, although we didn’t always let her know it.”

Mummy said, “Not bad, She-she.”

“It was my high spot,” I said. “Actually, I thought Mr. Lloyd had killed Daddy.”

“
I
had?” Mr. Lloyd looked amazed and then laughed. “What possible reason could I have had for doing that?”

“I don’t know. But you were awfully ready with a gun in Austin Mandleberg’s workshop, and you might have wanted the rubies. And then on the night of Janey’s party, the night Daddy died—”

“I wasn’t even—” said Mr. Lloyd, and paused. “Here.”

“I know. It doesn’t matter. Heavens,” I said. “The coffee.”

I went out and did a lot of cup rattling and came back with seven mugs and the kettle and a big jar of instant: to hell with beans in a crisis. I didn’t escape it, though. The minute I got back in, I could hear Janey talking in her bright voice, the one she used after they found out her bed hadn’t been slept in at St. T’s. She turned it on me. “I was just going to say, I wish you’d told me your nasty suspicions. I could have set your tiny brain bells at rest. That was the night Daddy flew off to Barcelona.”

“I know,” I said. “Someone told me, that is. I just thought maybe he hadn’t actually gone there. It was a silly idea.”

“I don’t suppose he did go there,” said Janey languidly. “But he’d have a perfectly good alibi in Majorca. Wouldn’t you, Daddy?”

Gilmore shifted in his chair and said, “Oh, shut up, Janey.” But Janey went on staring at Mr. Lloyd, and her father looked back at her, without changing color or anything: just a long, steady stare. He said, without much tone, “Yes. I had.”

“She sounds rather decent,” said Janey. “I can’t think why you don’t do something about it. I mean, I can’t hang around doing the flowers forever.”

Mr. Lloyd got up very suddenly without touching his coffee and said to Janey, “Will you come out a minute?”

Janey got up without a word, and Gil rose at the same moment. “Can I come too?”

They were halfway to the French windows when Mr. Lloyd stopped suddenly and turning, said, “I’m so sorry. Would you excuse us?” He had gone very red now. Mummy waved graciously, and Derek said, “Of course, sir.” Johnson was lighting his pipe.

There was a short silence while I poured the coffee. Then Mummy said, “You’re a damned liar, She-she. You thought it was Derek. But I must say you did that rather well. Didn’t she?”

“Sarah has the most delightful subconscious,” said Johnson, “of any young woman I have ever met. Her conscious decisions are lousy.”

“Well, goodness, if Louie’s lot knew about the girl in Majorca, Janey was bound to know too. She didn’t
have
to say anything. But I bet her father was relieved that she did.”

Mummy put down her cup. “If Tony Lloyd marries this woman in Palma—”

“He will,” said Johnson, removing his pipe from his mouth. “We checked up on that. The liaison has gone on for years: they have a child, as a matter of fact. Lloyd was afraid it would put out Gil and Janey, and the woman was afraid of cramping Lloyd’s style. If things go well out there just now, I imagine he’ll move her and the child in.”

Mummy’s face remained perfectly amiable. “It’ll throw Janey onto your market, darling. No more pouring vodka martinis for Russians.”

“The Russians,” said Derek suddenly. “Were they—?”

“They were,” Johnson said, “in Spain on a perfectly innocent errand, but of course would hardly miss the chance of examining the goods. I’m quite sure Austin gave them a good look at the machinery while they were all in the gallery, and they were able to report back to Moscow that the exhibition should be given every possible welcome in the course of its European tour. That was all they wanted: they couldn’t possibly have smuggled out anything quite so bulky. And since the real secrets were in the assembly and the content of the metal, no real harm has resulted… You think a good deal, don’t you, of your work?”

“Yes,” said Derek. “It’s satisfying. I’m not a— big, forceful character. I like a quiet life.”

“You haven’t had much of a quiet life recently,” Johnson said. “I don’t see that either of your parents could have done any better than you did. Didn’t you enjoy it at all?”

“Bits of it,” said Derek, and his mouth gave a twitch. I didn’t catch Mummy’s eye. I felt, rightly or wrongly, that another problem was on its way to solution.

“And what about Sarah?” Johnson said. “Have you been casting the runes? What will you do with your money?”

“Big joke,” I said, and pulled my fingernails out of my mouth. I was trying to grow them, but Lord Luck hadn’t helped.
Lucky day for all money transactions
, it had said.
But you will need to take family matters a little more seriously
. I said, with gloom, “Four pounds ten in the bank, and a week’s half-rent owing to Flo.”

“Daddy’s money, sweetheart,” said my mother. “He left you all his money. He knew Derek could earn all he needed.”

I fixed my eyes on Janey’s collection of woven straw skulls, and they stared back, their long black and red wigs dangling beneath them…