Johnny Swanson - Eleanor Updale [45]
‘And how long will that be?’
‘Well, there’ll have to be a remand hearing very soon if they want to keep her in custody, but the magistrates can put big restrictions on how much of that we can report. The police will make their case for holding her in jail, but we can’t put all the evidence in the paper in case it influences a future jury.’
‘And have the police got a good case?’ asked Hutch.
‘Seems like it to me. She was seen there on the night of the murder, and her apron was found at the scene, soaked in the doctor’s blood. It certainly sounds as if she’s the criminal type. I’ve been talking to that Miss Dangerfield. She’s told me all about her.’
Johnny was tempted to burst out of his hiding place and punch the man, or at least to tell him what a nasty, cruel woman Miss Dangerfield was. But he stayed where he was, listening, as the reporter continued:
‘And this Swanson woman had a motive. The police know why she went to the Langfords’ house. They owed her money.’
Johnny had another clong. He felt shaky, and his mouth was dry. He realized why the police thought his mother had a motive for murdering the Langfords. He had told them. He had explained to the constable the night before that Winnie hadn’t been paid, and he had said that she was angry, though he hadn’t dared say why. He’d even described Winnie’s apron: the pink one with the dainty daisies. So Johnny was as much to blame as Miss Dangerfield. He had given the police a reason to believe that his own mother was a killer.
The reporter went to the phone. He closed the door on the little kiosk, but Hutch and Johnny could still make out what he was saying to his editor. He was relishing the story. It involved High Society now: for the suspect had revealed that the Langfords had entertained young Mr Bennett and his fiancée to supper on Remembrance Day – the last day that anyone had seen them alive. Now the detectives were planning to drive over to the Bennett mansion to talk to the most powerful man in town.
‘I’d better hurry,’ the reporter yelled down the phone. ‘I want to get there before the police do.’
It gave Johnny an idea. This was his chance to get close to the men in charge of the investigation – to find out what they knew, and to persuade them that Winnie couldn’t possibly be guilty.
Chapter 23
HIGH-CLASS INFORMATION
Without a word to Hutch, Johnny ran out of the shop before the reporter had even put down the receiver. He dived into the back of the reporter’s car, cramming himself down onto the floor and pulling some of the rubbish from the seat on top of himself in the hope of being camouflaged. A minute later, the reporter jumped into the front, lit up a cigarette, and accelerated away. With his ear pressed against the floor of the car, Johnny heard the rumble of the main road, dull thumps as they turned onto a country lane, splashes as the wheels rocked through puddles, and then the crunch of gravel as the car drew up outside Mr Bennett’s grand house.
The reporter got out, leaving his door open. Through a gap under the seat, Johnny saw him walk across to talk to a man who was washing Mr Bennett’s car.
The reporter stroked the bonnet. ‘Quite a beast. A Phantom Two, isn’t it?’
‘Watch it,’ snapped the man, wiping the part the reporter had touched. ‘I’ve just polished that bit.’
‘Sorry. Takes a bit of looking after, I should think?’
‘The engine’s fine, but it’s like any other car: if you drive through the countryside, you have to clean off the mud. Mr Bennett wants it spick and span for this afternoon.’
‘Where’s he off to?’
The handyman stopped rubbing the car and looked quizzically at the reporter. ‘Who wants to know?’
The reporter drew closer to the man, and offered him a cigarette. Johnny couldn’t hear everything now, but from the tone of the mumbled words he guessed that the reporter was trying to get information about Mr Bennett, and to talk his way into the house. Johnny was scared that it wouldn’t work. If the reporter was sent away, his own journey would be wasted. So he wriggled over to the other side