Death Comes to the Ballets Russes

18

They had most of the story now, Powerscourt and Lady Lucy. They knew that the jewels had been stolen in St Petersburg but they didn’t know who had taken them or from whom they had been taken. They knew that Anastasia had been charged with the selling of them, but not by whom. They knew now about George Smythe, currently sitting happily in a Powerscourt chair and drinking some Powerscourt coffee. Anastasia’s reluctance to name names did not extend to George’s, possibly because he was English. At any rate, she had thrown him, metaphorically, to the wolves at the first available opportunity. Anastasia had been so upset after telling most of the rest of what she knew that she had been sent back to her hotel in a taxi-cab.

‘Mr Smythe,’ Powerscourt began, ‘thank you for coming to see us so promptly. I appreciate that.’

‘Thank you, Lord Powerscourt.’

‘I’d just like to ask you a couple of questions, if I may. We are, as I am sure you know, engaged in the mystery of the deaths at the Ballets Russes, not into the thefts of large sums of money from a hotel in Russell Square. Let me begin by asking, who approached whom: did you get in touch with Anastasia, or did she get in touch with you?’

George Smythe paused before he replied. He was going to do a lot of pausing in the course of the interview.

‘She got in touch with me, originally.’

‘And how did she know to get in touch with you? Why you, George Smythe, and not anybody else?’

This question seemed to cause a certain amount of thought.

‘I knew she would be coming.’

‘How did you know she would be coming?’

‘Somebody wrote to me from St Petersburg, saying that a girl called Anastasia would be in touch with me.’

‘And are you prepared to tell us who that person is?’

‘No, I am not.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because, Lord Powerscourt, if I may say so, you are, in effect, behaving like a policeman in this matter. I do not wish to incriminate anybody, even in a country very far away.’

‘So the person who communicated with you came from St Petersburg?’

‘I can say no more than I already have.’

‘Very well. I can see your position. Would I be right in saying that your role in all this was, quite simply, to sell the jewels for the best possible price?’

‘Yes, my lord. It was.’

‘Could I ask how you sold them?’

‘I made enquiries. I found a firm called Johnston Killick in Hatton Garden. They took most of the jewels, as far as I know, to Antwerp and various places on the Continent where they had contacts. They offered to wire the money back to Russia. Anastasia wasn’t having that. She wanted the money delivered to the hotel in a suitcase. I put her in a taxi after our last meeting and asked the cabbie to take her to the Premier Hotel.’

‘You didn’t want to be seen at the hotel with her, is that right?’

‘It is.’

‘Why not?’

‘Lord Powerscourt, I’m sure you will understand. I’m not absolutely sure about the legality of my actions. I don’t see how I could be breaking the law selling some jewels. But I wasn’t sure. And I knew about the murders. It seemed to me the most prudent course would be to have as little as possible to do with the ballet people.’

‘That’s very helpful. And am I right in thinking that you are not prepared to tell us who contacted you from St Petersburg?’

‘No, I mean yes, you are right in thinking that.’

‘Not even if it was connected in some way with the ballet?’

‘You said earlier that you did not think there was a connection with the Ballets Russes.’

‘I did,’ said Powerscourt, ‘but now I’m not absolutely sure.’