Miss Silver Deals With Death

CHAPTER 44

Instead of taking the Inspector’s kindly meant if somewhat patronising advice, Miss Silver put on her coat and hat and walked briskly to the corner, where she caught a bus into the town.

There was still daylight when she alighted in the High Street. A few enquiries and about five minutes’ walk brought her to her destination, a small old-fashioned jeweller’s shop with the name of Jackson above it in letters of faded gold. The shutters were up. Miss Silver made her way to what appeared to be a private door and rang the bell. After a few moments’ delay Mrs. Jackson opened it. Miss Silver at once said,

“May I come in? We met this morning in your sister’s flat at Vandeleur House. My name is Silver-Miss Maud Silver. I am very anxious indeed to have a talk with you.”

As she spoke she was over the threshold.

There was no welcome in Mrs. Jackson’s manner, but she closed the door and led the way along a dark passage to the back of the house. Here the light was on and red chenille curtains drawn in a pleasant old-fashioned parlour with a table in the middle, chairs round it, a horsehair couch with a carved back, an upright piano, and a mantelpiece crowded with photographs. Under the light Ella Jackson was seen to be pale and tired, her colourless hair disordered, her air very obviously that of a woman who has been caught at a disadvantage. There was quite a pause before she said,

“Do sit down.”

Miss Silver accepted the proffered chair. She drew it out from the table and seated herself. When Mrs. Jackson had followed her example, she said,

“I owe you every apology for intruding upon you in this manner. It is very good of you to receive me. I ask you to believe that I should not have troubled you if the matter were less urgent.” She paused, and then went on in her gravest voice. “There has been another death at Vandeleur House.”

Ella Jackson started.

“Oh, how dreadful!”

“Yes-it is dreadful. It is Miss Garside who has been found dead in her flat. She sold your sister’s ring this morning, and this evening she was found dead in her flat. The police regard her death as suicide. They believe that she killed your sister. I do not share that belief. I am of the opinion that she was murdered, and for the same reason that your sister was murdered- she knew too much, or the murderer suspected that this might be the case and was taking no risks. I do not dispute that she effected an exchange of her own ring, which was paste, for your sister’s which contained a valuable diamond, but I believe that her presence at or near the time of the murder was accidental, and that she was not a party to it.”

The reluctance had gone from Mrs. Jackson’s manner. Her eyes were fixed upon Miss Silver’s face. She put up a hand and pushed back a straggling lock of hair, but she did not speak, only moved her head in an almost imperceptible motion of assent.

Miss Silver went on.

“I see that you are inclined to agree with me. I am very glad of that, for I need your help. The murderer is a cunning and dangerous person and is still at large. The matter is extremely urgent, and the greatest care and discretion must be exercised if a further fataility is to be avoided.”

Ella Jackson said “Oh!” on a sharp breath of protest.

Miss Silver shook her head.

“I am not exaggerating. I am very deeply concerned. Chief Inspector Lamb is an able and honest man-I have a great respect for him-but I cannot shake his conviction that Miss Garside committed suicide, and that this suicide closes the case. I must have evidence in order to shake this conviction. Enquiries which I shall make tomorrow will, I hope, provide me with some of this evidence. Meanwhile it is in your power to help me. Will you do so?”

Ella Jackson said, “Yes, I will.”

Miss Silver beamed upon her.

“That is so very kind. I will not keep you any longer than I can help. I have a question to ask you, and I hope very much that you will be able to answer it. Your sister talked to you about her affairs, did she not?”

“About some of them. She didn’t tell me everything.”

“Did she tell you that she was being blackmailed?”

Ella Jackson took a quick, short breath.

“How did you know?”

“Another person in the house was being blackmailed. Miss Roland was in possession of a letter from this person to the blackmailer. The police regard this as evidence that your sister was herself the blackmailer, but from the fact that she exposed this letter carelessly in her bag and allowed the writer to see it I deduce that she was not a principal in the matter. I believe she merely intended to tease the writer of the letter. I began to wonder whether she herself was being blackmailed, and had come into possession of the letter in an attempt to secure evidence against the blackmailer. If she knew who this person was, it would supply a motive for the murder. Now, Mrs. Jackson- can you help me?”

Ella Jackson leaned forward.

“She was being blackmailed-she told me that-and she came down here because she thought she’d got a clue to the person who was blackmailing her. She thought it was someone in Vandeleur House-that’s why she took that flat. Of course it suited her in other ways-it was out of the way and quiet, and she wanted to be near me-but that’s really why she took it. There was a girl she’d known when she was on the halls-a girl that used to be an acrobat but she had an accident and couldn’t carry on. Carrie got her to go into service with Mrs. Underwood in No. 3 so that she could help her. The last thing she told me was that they were getting on fine and going to make someone sit up.”

“She didn’t tell you who it was?”

Ella shook her head.

“I didn’t ask her. To tell you the truth, Miss Silver, I didn’t like the sound of it. The fact is she’d got the idea she could turn the tables-get hold of something that would put this blackmailer in the wrong, and use it to make them give up trying to blackmail her. I didn’t like the sound of it at all. It seemed right down dangerous to me, and so I told her.”

“You were right. She tried to blackmail the blackmailer, and she got the worst of it. That was inevitable. She was dealing with a dangerous and experienced criminal. We still have that criminal to deal with. She gave you no clue as to the person’s identity?”

Ella shook her head.

“Not even by the use of a pronoun? She never said he or she?”

Ella shook her head again.

“No, it was always they. ‘They think they can do this or that, but I’ll show them’-you know how one talks. It isn’t grammar, but everyone does it.”

Miss Silver nodded in an abstracted manner. Her thoughts were busy. After a little she said,

“Mrs. Jackson, will you tell me why your sister was being blackmailed?”

Ella started and flushed. Then she said,

“Oh, well, I suppose it doesn’t matter now. You get past minding, don’t you? And it wasn’t her fault, poor Carrie-she thought he was dead.”

“Bigamy?” said Miss Silver.

Ella flushed again.

“She thought he was dead. She married him when she was only a kid-ran away from home. They were on the halls together. He was a horrid man. Well, in the end he went off with someone else, and she heard he was dead. I suppose she ought to have taken more trouble about finding out if it was true, but she didn’t bother. Only after she’d married Jack Armitage and he’d been killed the blackmail began. She paid up once or twice because she was afraid that if Major Armitage found out he’d stop the allowance, and she was getting friendly with the gentleman she was going to marry, Mr. Maundersley-Smith-she didn’t want him to know. He was the sort that thinks a girl’s perfect because she’s pretty. I always thought he’d have some shocks if he married Carrie. But there-it never came to that, only you can see why she didn’t want him to know.”

Miss Silver said, “Yes, indeed.” She though Ella Jackson a very sensible young woman. Fond of her sister too, but not blind to her faults. She coughed and enquired,

“Was she being asked for money all the time, or only at first?”

Mrs. Jackson had a startled look.

“She hadn’t a lot to give,” she said.

“She had some valuable jewellery.”

“Well, nearly all of it came from Mr. Maundersley-Smith- everything except the diamond ring that Jack Armitage gave her. Mr. Smith would have noticed if she hadn’t worn his presents. Besides she looked upon the jewellery as a kind of nest-egg.”

“Then it wasn’t money she was asked for?”

The startled look was still there. Ella said,

“No-it wasn’t.”

“I think I can guess what it was. Mr. Maundersley-Smith is a big man in the shipping world. It might have been supposed that your sister would be able to supply valuable information.”

Ella nodded.

“Yes-that was it. And it fairly got her back up. Carrie was my sister, and no one knows her better than me. She’d done a lot of things I didn’t like-it’s no good pretending she hadn’t- but that’s a thing she wouldn’t do, not with a war on anyhow. So she set herself to find out who was running the show, and to get even with them.”

“A very dangerous enterprise,” said Miss Silver gravely.