At Bertram's Hotel, стр. 15

Elvira Blake looked up at the sky, noted that it was a fine morning and went into a telephone box. She dialled Bridget's number in Onslow Square. Satisfied by the response, she said, "Hello? Bridget?"

"Oh Elvira, is that you?" Bridget's voice sounded agitated.

"Yes. Has everything been all right?"

"Oh no. It's been awful. Your cousin, Mrs. Melford, rang up Mummy yesterday afternoon."

"What, about me?"

"Yes. I thought I'd done it so well when I rang her up at lunchtime. But it seems she got worried about your teeth. Thought there might be something really wrong with them. Abscesses or something. So she rang up the dentist herself and found, of course, that you'd never been there at all. So then she rang up Mummy and unfortunately Mummy was right there by the telephone. So I couldn't get there first. And naturally Mummy said she didn't know anything about it, and that you certainly weren't staying here. I didn't know what to do."

"What did you do?"

"Pretended I knew nothing about it. I did say that I thought you'd said something about going to see some friends at Wimbledon."

"Why Wimbledon?"

"It was the first place came into my head."

Elvira sighed. "Oh well, I suppose I'll have to cook up something. An old governess, perhaps, who lives at Wimbledon. All this fussing does make things so complicated. I hope Cousin Mildred doesn't make a real fool of herself and ring up the police or something like that?"

"Are you going down there now?"

"Not till this evening. I've got a lot to do first."

"You got to Ireland. Was it-all right?"

"I found out what I wanted to know."

"You sound-sort of grim."

"I'm feeling grim."

"Can't I help you, Elvira? Do anything?"

"Nobody can help me really… It's a thing I have to do myself. I hoped something wasn't true, but it is true. I don't know quite what to do about it."

"Are you in danger, Elvira?"

"Don't be melodramatic, Bridget. I'll have to be careful that's all. I'll have to be very careful."

"Then you are in danger."

Elvira said after a moment's pause, "I expect I'm just imagining things, that's all."

"Elvira, what are you going to do about that bracelet?"

"Oh, that's all right. I've arranged to get some money from someone, so I can go and-what's the word?-redeem it. Then just take it back to Bollards."

"D'you think they'll be all right about it?… No, Mummy, it's just the laundry. They say we never sent that sheet. Yes, Mummy, yes, I'll tell the manageress. All right then."

At the other end of the line Elvira grinned and put down the receiver. She opened her purse, sorted through her money, counted out the coins she needed and arranged them in front of her and proceeded to put through a call. When she got the number she wanted she put in the necessary coins, pressed Button A and spoke in a small rather breathless voice.

"Hello, Cousin Mildred. Yes, it's me… I'm terribly sorry… Yes, I know… well I was going to… yes it was dear old Maddy, you know our old Mademoiselle… Yes, I wrote a postcard, then I forgot to post it. It's still in my pocket now… Well, you see she was ill and there was no one to look after her and so I just stopped to see she was all right. Yes, I was going to Bridget's but this changed things…. I don't understand about the message you got. Someone must have jumbled it up… yes, I'll explain it all to you when I get back… Yes, this afternoon. No, I shall just wait and see the nurse who's coming to look after old Maddy-well, not really a nurse. You know one of those-er-practical aid nurses or something like that. No, she would hate to go to hospital…. But I am sorry, Cousin Mildred, I really am very, very sorry." She put down the receiver and sighed in an exasperated manner. "If only," she murmured to herself, "one didn't have to tell so many lies to everybody."

She came out of the telephone box, noting as she did so the big newspaper placards: BIG TRAIN ROBBERY. IRISH MAIL ATTACKED BY BANDITS.

Mr. Bollard was serving a customer when the shop door opened. He looked up to see the Honourable Elvira Blake entering.

"No," she said to an assistant who came forward to her. "I'd rather wait until Mr. Bollard is free."

Presently Mr. Bollard's customer's business was concluded and Elvira moved into the vacant place.

"Good morning, Mr. Bollard," she said.

"I'm afraid your watch isn't done quite as soon as this, Miss Elvira," said Mr. Bollard.

"Oh, it's not the watch," said Elvira. "I've come to apologize. A dreadful thing happened." She opened her bag and took out a small box. From it she extracted the sapphire and diamond bracelet. "You will remember when I came in with my watch to be repaired that I was looking at things for a Christmas present and there was an accident outside in the street. Somebody was run over I think, or nearly run over. I suppose I must have had the bracelet in my hand and put it into the pocket of my suit without thinking, although I only found it this morning. So I rushed along at once to bring it back. I'm so terribly sorry, Mr. Bollard, I don't know how I came to do such an idiotic thing."

"Why, that's quite all right, Miss Elvira," said Mr. Bollard slowly.

"I suppose you thought someone had stolen it," said Elvira.

Her limpid blue eyes met his.

"We had discovered its loss," said Mr. Bollard. "Thank you very much, Miss Elvira, for bringing it back so promptly."

"I felt simply awful about it when I found it," said Elvira. "Well, thank you very much, Mr. Bollard, for being so nice about it."

"A lot of strange mistakes do occur," said Mr. Bollard. He smiled at her in an avuncular manner. "We won't think of it any more. But don't do it again, though." He laughed with the air of one making a genial little joke.

"Oh no," said Elvira, "I shall be terribly careful in future."

She smiled at him, turned and left the shop.

"Now I wonder," said Mr. Bollard to himself, "I really do wonder…

One of his partners, who had been standing near, moved nearer to him. "So she did take it?" he said.

"Yes. She took it all right," said Mr. Bollard.

"But she brought it back," his partner pointed out. "She brought it back," agreed Mr. Bollard. "I didn't actually expect that."

"You mean you didn't expect her to bring it back?"

"No, not if it was she who'd taken it."

"Do you think her story is true?" his partner inquired curiously. "I mean, that she slipped it into her pocket by accident?"

"I suppose it's possible," said Bollard thoughtfully.

"Or it could be kleptomania, I suppose."

"Or it could be kleptomania," agreed Bollard. "It's more likely that she took it on purpose… But if so, why did she bring it back so soon? It's curious-"

"Just as well we didn't notify the police. I admit I wanted to."

"I know, I know. You haven't got as much experience as I have. In this case, it was definitely better not." He added softly to himself, "The thing's interesting, though. Quite interesting. I wonder how old she is? Seventeen or eighteen, I suppose. She might have got herself in a jam of some kind."

"I thought you said she was rolling in money."

"You may be an heiress and rolling in money," said Bollard, "but at seventeen you can't always get your hands on it. The funny thing is, you know, they keep heiresses much shorter of cash than they keep the more impecunious. It's not always a good idea. Well, I don't suppose we shall ever know the truth of it."

He put the bracelet back in its place in the display case and shut down the lid.