Murder Adrift (14 page)

‘The man says my husband has been bringing coloured people into this country illegally,' she said to the doctor.

The doctor didn't seem to hear.

‘Give me a hand with her,' he said to the daily help, who was herself thunderstruck at the news about the mayor and looked ready to give notice at any moment. Instead, she seized Mrs. Pollitt and almost engulfed her in her huge
body and piloted her across the room and out without another word. They could hear them bumping their way up the stairs with Mrs. Pollitt protesting at every step. The doctor opened his bag and took out a bottle of tablets and followed them up.

The mayor stood listening without comment.

‘You'd better sit down, Mr. Mayor,' said Littlejohn.

It seemed to remind Mr. Pollitt of his official position.

‘I shan't be mayor much longer if you have your way, shall I?'

He began to sob, fished in the pocket of his gown and took out a handkerchief and mopped his eyes and cheeks.

‘Suppose you tell me all about it, sir?'

‘What is there to tell? You seem to know it all . . .?'

There was a sudden ring at the door bell. Nobody answered it. So Littlejohn went to see what it was all about. It was Hopkinson, slightly out of breath, and bubbling over with news.

‘Could I have a word with you, sir, before we go inside?'

‘What is it, Hopkinson?'

‘I've been making inquiries at the
Trident.
Nobody was of any help until I got to the hall porter who was at his desk as the yacht club dinner ended and the guests began to troop out to the bars or else make their ways home. The mayor was one of the first out and he seemed a bit merry and chatting freely with everybody. Then he came upon Lever who was just on his way out and who buttonholed His Worship. They exchanged only a few words, but it seemed to upset Mr. Pollitt. The hall porter said it seemed to knock all the guts out of him. And Lever left him that way and went out.'

‘Did the porter overhear what was said?'

‘No, they were too far away. But Pollitt got his hat and
coat on and went outside, without another word to anybody. In fact, one or two men spoke to him on the way but he didn't seem to hear, and ignored them.'

‘Very well. We'd better get inside with the mayor. He's had one or two shocks and isn't quite himself.'

Which was a massive understatement. Hopkinson couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the state Mr. Pollitt was in.

The doctor reappeared and turned his attentions to the mayor.

‘You all right, Mr. Mayor?'

‘Yes. I'm all right. I've had a bit of a shock, but I feel better now.'

He didn't mention his wife, as though her incident hadn't happened at all.

‘I'll be going, then. I've some more calls to make. Mrs. Pollitt is almost herself again. I've given her a sedative and she'll sleep quietly now.'

‘You've not given her a bottle of those pills, have you?'

‘Of course not. . . .'

He remembered the occasion when he had given her a supply of sedatives and after a row with her husband she swallowed the lot and he had to use the stomach-pump to put her in circulation again.

‘Good-bye, then.'

Littlejohn accompanied the doctor to the door.

‘What's the mayor been up to?' asked Macmannus.

‘I asked him a few questions, but he got so excited he couldn't think up any answers. He said he was confused by recent events.'

‘I'd leave him to recover for a little while and see him again in the morning. His wife's hullabaloo and his own emotion might give him a stroke. Good-bye.'

Littlejohn was surprised at the change in the mayor when he got back in the room. He certainly had a mercurial temperament. He was quite calm and had tidied himself up a bit. He was sitting by the fire talking to Hopkinson.

‘Are you a sort of apprentice?' he was asking Hoppy.

‘In a way, I am, sir.'

Pollitt turned to Littlejohn.

‘You asked me to tell you all about it. . . .'

‘You've had a bad shock with one thing and another, sir. Suppose we leave it until later.'

‘It will upset me more if I don't get it off my mind. What did you want to know? Sit down, both of you.'

He looked at the bottle on the table.

‘Mind if I have a drink? Have one with me?'

They said they'd rather not but Hopkinson poured one out for the mayor and handed it to him. He drank eagerly.

‘I feel better now. . . . Are you going to arrest me?'

‘Whatever for, sir? We want some help from you, that's all.'

‘I really ought to have my solicitor here, but if you'll play fair with me, I'll not bother. I've just been thinking, as principal citizen of the town and as a J.P., I ought to be helping you, not confusing you. If I tell you the truth, I hope it will go easier for me.'

‘I can assure you it will, sir.'

‘Well . . . I wasn't attacked last night. I was a bit unsteady coming out of the hot room into the cold air and I felt light-headed. I kicked the edge of the kerb and I fell. I couldn't save myself and I came an awful cropper. I fell flat on my face. I was quite stunned. . . .'

‘Had you had some bad news before you left the hotel, sir?'

Pollitt went rigid and Littlejohn expected another emotional scene. Instead he relaxed again.

‘Who told you that?'

‘We heard that you were in serious conversation immediately before you left. You were talking with Mr. Lever.'

‘That's true. I'll come to that later. Otherwise I'll get mixed up again. One thing at a time. There was nobody about when I had the fall. I lay there a minute and it struck me that if it got about that I'd taken a nasty toss they'd say I got drunk and I'd become a laughing stock. There was somebody soon on the spot, so I said I'd been attacked.'

He looked at Littlejohn out of the corner of his eye to see how he was taking it. Littlejohn nodded calmly and the mayor seemed relieved that the expected rebuke didn't come.

‘Now, sir, about your conversation with Lever. What was it that upset you so much?'

The mayor hesitated.

‘I said I'd tell you everything, but on condition that you believe me. I won't have you insinuating that I'm a liar. I'd rather keep it to myself and take the consequences.'

‘Very well. Carry on. . . .'

Hopkinson thought it was time he took out his book and made a few notes. The mayor eyed him suspiciously.

‘You needn't take it all down. I know police procedure. Whatever I say I'll have put down in a statement later and I'll sign it. What I say will be the truth and I'll vouch for it and sign it.'

Littlejohn nodded to Hopkinson, who put his book in his pocket.

Mr. Pollitt sat in silence for a minute as though weighing his words.

‘Listen, Chief Superintendent. . . .I've landed myself in a terrible mess through my own stupidity and vanity. . . .'

With his swollen lips and scarred forehead he looked a bit like a gargoyle. He spoke in jerks in a voice so subdued that his visitors had to strain to hear what he said.

‘ . . . I'm telling you this because I can see from what you've already found out that you'll pursue this business right to the end and my own share in it will come out. I may as well co-operate with you and come clean with what I know, because you'll find out sooner or later from elsewhere and the added trimmings won't be in my favour, you can be sure.'

It was quite unexpected and somehow out of keeping with the mayor's previous conduct, but it helped him to recover some of his dignity. He gave Littlejohn another questioning look.

‘Go on, Mr. Mayor. . . .'

‘I swear to you that I didn't know about this traffic in immigrants till I was in it right up to my neck. I couldn't withdraw by then. In a sense I'd helped to finance it, but I never had a thing to do with the arrangements. At first, I didn't even know what was involved. All I knew was that Heck Todd came to me one day and said he'd a chance to buy a boat at a bargain price, but hadn't the money to pay for it and then wait for a good offer . . . You were right. . . . I was on my beam ends for money. All those empty houses. At first the building scheme was a success. The first few sold like hot cakes. Then the slump. . . .'

He leaned over and drew the whisky bottle to him and helped himself.

‘You're sure you won't . . .?'

‘No, thanks.'

Mr. Pollitt gulped it down eagerly.

‘ . . . The bank cut me off and the building societies and other mortgage sources dried up and I was left with nearly a dozen houses on my hands, some finished and others in various stages of construction. The bank started to press me for repayments. I know a bit about boats. Todd's proposition seemed a reasonable one. I stood to make perhaps a thousand pounds if we got a good buyer. It wasn't enough to put my affairs in order by a long way, but I had to live and my wife kept nagging for this and that. I nearly went off my head; must have been mad to get myself involved the way I did. I agreed to put up the money. As you said, it was £3,000 in cash and a post dated cheque for the rest. I may as well tell you that the cheque will be presented any day now and I can't meet it. The bank will dishonour it, which means the people who hold the cheque will seize the boat and sell it.'

‘Do you own the boat that Todd met his death in?'

‘In a way. Nobody knew. What would I do with a boat? I'm sick every time I get on the water. People would have laughed at me. I bought it in my name and then Haddock, the seller, left my post dated cheque with a finance company to collect, because he was going to live in Australia. I backed the cheque with a mortgage on the boat in favour of the finance company. . . .'

‘It sounds very complicated.'

‘It's simple. The sort of thing that happens every day. When the cheque isn't paid the finance company will seize and flog the boat to meet it.'

‘Where did the three thousand cash come from?'

‘The bank hold all my securities against my business loan, except a large life policy that I kept back for my wife
in case anything happened to me. I got a loan against it from the insurance company.'

‘Does she know that?'

‘No. For God's sake don't tell her. She'll go off the deep end. She's very highly strung. . . .'

Pollitt looked anxiously in the direction of the door to make sure nobody was listening. Then he rose, opened the door, looked down the passage outside and returned to his chair. He seemed relieved.

‘Where was I?'

Littlejohn felt like asking the question himself. The mayor kept rambling on and on. It seemed that, once having broken the ice, Mr. Pollitt wished to confess his troubles and shortcomings in great detail. If it wasn't that, he was a lonely man and was glad of someone to talk to. It must have been that he still suffered from slight concussion and was babbling on and on without quite knowing what he was talking about.

‘Where was I?'

‘You had bought the boat on Todd's persuasion and instead of selling it at a profit you found yourself landed with it. . . . '

The mayor got quite excited. It was as if Littlejohn were confessing to
him
.

‘That's it! And Todd was using the boat as if it were his own and doing nothing about selling it. When I approached him he said he'd got a very profitable business to carry on with the help of the boat. My boat! I said I needed the money and would sell it myself if he didn't. He turned nasty and told me what the business was and asked me how I'd like it known that my boat was being used for that purpose. It was ferrying illegal immigrants ashore and thence to London from ships at sea from the Continent.'

‘But if he let that be known he'd involve himself as well. . . .'

‘I said the same, but he laughed. He said he'd get away abroad before they could find him. There was nothing to keep him here. I realise now that it was all bluff, but I was afraid at the time and agreed to keep quiet. He said he'd cut me in and the profits were generous. That's all.'

‘I take it others were involved. Todd couldn't have run a racket like that all on his own?'

‘There must have been others, but I knew nothing about all that. Whatever went on was done after dark and I wasn't there. All I did was to provide a boat and I was tricked into that. All the same, I suppose you'll be accusing me of being an accomplice. That's why I'm being quite frank with you. I hope you'll remember it when the time comes.'

‘We won't forget. Are you feeling any better now, sir?'

‘I feel relieved to have got all that off my chest, although it won't do me any good, will it?'

He gave Littlejohn an imploring, questioning look, as though he half expected to be told that he'd nothing to fear.

‘I heard that as you left the party last night you weren't looking very well. Did Mr. Lever bring you some bad news?'

The suddeness of the question took Pollitt aback.

‘Lever . . .?'

‘Yes. Weren't you talking with him as you made your way to the door?'

Once again there was the old trace of fear in Pollitt's eyes.

‘I don't remember. After what I've been through, last night seems a long way off.'

‘I think you'd better tell us, sir. Don't withhold anything now.'

The mayor tried to pass it off casually, but didn't succeed.

‘It was nothing really. He said he'd been sitting with you at the dinner and enjoyed your company.'

‘And. . .?'

Mr. Pollitt made a petulant gesture.

‘Oh, very well. You might as well know that as well. It doesn't make any difference. He said that you were a shrewd and experienced operator. Those were his very words. And that I'd better be careful if you questioned me about anything. That was all. It upset me.'

‘Why?'