Johnny Swanson - Eleanor Updale [84]
‘Don’t go yet,’ said Howell. ‘I want to know what to do about the boy.’
‘I’ve told you what to do,’ said Mrs Langford. ‘We haven’t any choice.’
‘But won’t someone come looking for him?’ said Howell. ‘Maybe he told someone he was coming here.’
‘Will you stop worrying!’ said Mrs Langford. ‘He’s alone, I’m sure of it. And better still, he’s told me that the police won’t listen to him. Even the boy himself is convinced that I was in France at the time of the murder. That letter you made me write seems to have done a good job, Bennett.’
Johnny was trembling in his hiding place, sure now that he and his mother were both doomed. He was still trying to make sense of what Mrs Langford was saying.
Dr Howell was bemused too. ‘What letter?’ he said. ‘What have you two been up to behind my back?’
‘Don’t be so dramatic,’ sneered Bennett. ‘We haven’t been keeping anything from you. We had to do something to fill in a few gaps. It was our own fault. We didn’t think things through properly at the beginning, when you made the Langfords come here in such a rush …’
‘I had to,’ said Howell. ‘The culture wasn’t growing properly. I needed Dr Langford’s help, or we’d never have got the vaccine going.’ He sounded close to tears. ‘But neither of us wanted to sell it. It was just you two!’
‘But you’re in on it now, Howell,’ said Bennett. ‘You’ve already supplied the stuff, and now you’ve given me more.’ He tapped his parcel. ‘How will you explain this to the police?’
‘They’re not going to worry about that when I tell them how Dr Langford died!’
‘You—’
Johnny heard the sound of a punch, a groan and a scuffle as the two men fought.
‘Let me go!’ screamed Howell, whose arm had been bent behind his back by Bennett.
Mrs Langford leaped up from her chair. ‘You’re not going to tell anyone anything, Howell!’ she cried. There was a demonic chuckle behind the menace in her voice as she asked Bennett, ‘What do you say, Frederick? Shall we do away with him too?’
Howell was struggling against Bennett’s grip. ‘No! Don’t! I’m not going to talk. Anyway, what could I say? I wasn’t even there, was I?’ His voice became muffled. Bennett had a hand over his mouth now. Johnny could hear Howell trying to shout. He was kicking too, trying to break away. Great blows from his feet thundered against the desk, and into Johnny’s backbone.
Johnny could see Mrs Langford’s feet pacing round the desk. She tormented Howell as he squirmed against Bennett’s grip. ‘You know, you’ll be much more useful to us dead than you’ve ever been alive,’ she said. ‘It’s true, there’ll be no more vaccine, but we’ll be able to split the money we’ve already got two ways instead of three.’
Bennett picked up her drift. ‘You’re right, Marie. And if we’re ever caught, we could say it was Howell’s idea to sell the vaccine, and not yours at all.’
Johnny was stunned. So Mrs Langford was the mastermind. He had been completely taken in by her pretence of friendliness. He didn’t want to believe it, but somehow it made sense. He knew that the Langfords had been hard up. Mrs Langford had even sent off for Make Your Money Go Further. And then Johnny felt a new twist of panic. To his undercurrent of terror was added a sickening wallop of guilt and regret. He was having another clong. He remembered showing Mrs Langford the Umckaloabo advert. He recalled asking why Dr Langford couldn’t sell the BCG vaccine in the same way, and how the doctor had criticized Chas. H. Stevens, of Worple Road, Wimbledon, for making money by playing on the anxieties of the unwell. Had Johnny unwittingly given Mrs Langford the idea which had led to her husband’s death and Winnie’s arrest? Could she have thought up the whole scheme, and chosen Bennett to be her salesman? After all, as she herself had told Johnny when they’d talked in the theatre, the best customers were rich people: people who would keep quiet because they had a lot to lose if they were discovered. Bennett moved in those circles, and Mrs Langford had known him since he was a child. And Johnny knew that Bennett needed cash too. He’d said as much