Johnny Swanson - Eleanor Updale [86]
Mrs Langford lifted the receiver and dialled the operator. A second later, she had dropped the phone. It swung to and fro across the mouth of the footwell. Johnny could hear the woman through the earpiece, shouting out, ‘Hello … Hello … Hello?’
They were the same words used by one of two policemen who had just entered the room.
Johnny was flooded with joy. His earlier call to the operator hadn’t been ignored.
Mrs Langford kept her creepy calm. ‘Oh, Sergeant … and Constable … Thank goodness you are here,’ she said, trying to conceal her bewilderment at their arrival.
Bennett took charge. ‘This poor lady has been the victim of a savage assault,’ he said. ‘She was lucky I arrived.’
Then the door opened again and Johnny heard Olwen’s voice: ‘Johnny, are you in here? Mrs Langford? I’ve brought Professor Campbell.’
‘What the devil …?’ said the policeman as everyone else in the room gasped in unison.
Johnny was feeling exactly as he had back in Mr Bennett’s grand house, hidden under the big fur cloak. He could stay hidden and wait for a chance to run away, or he could show himself and intervene in the action. At Bennett’s, fear had got the better of him. Now he took courage. He uncurled himself and shuffled out from under the desk. Everyone was paralysed – looking the other way, towards the door. And Johnny found himself just as aghast as they were. For there, holding Olwen’s hand, was a six-foot-tall man with grotesquely rouged cheeks, wearing a multi-layered crinoline dress, hooped earrings and a fluffy blonde wig.
The senior policeman, with a deep Welsh voice, spoke for everyone. ‘Will somebody please tell me what on earth is going on?’
Chapter 42
ARRESTS
‘I can explain!’ said Johnny, and everybody turned to face him.
‘Johnny!’ gasped Mrs Langford. ‘Where did you come from?’
‘I’ve been under the desk,’ said Johnny. ‘I heard everything. Officer, you must arrest that woman, and Mr Bennett too. They haven’t been telling you the truth.’
‘But Johnny,’ said Olwen, ‘you told me Mrs Langford was in danger. It looks as if you were right.’
‘No. I was wrong,’ he gabbled. ‘She killed Dr Howell. And Mr Bennett here, he killed Dr Langford.’
Bennett made a move for the door, but Professor Campbell opened his giant pantomime fan and blocked his path. ‘This is preposterous,’ said Bennett. ‘I don’t have to stay here and listen to the incoherent ramblings of a deranged child!’
‘I think you’d better stop where you are, sir,’ said the sergeant calmly. I’m sure we can get this cleared up.’ He turned to Mrs Langford. ‘Madam, perhaps you can enlighten us?’
Mrs Langford took a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed her eyes. ‘It’s as I said just now. Dr Howell attacked me, and Mr Bennett came to my rescue.’
‘No!’ cried Johnny. ‘It wasn’t like that. She killed Dr Howell, and she was going to kill me!’ He pointed at Bennett. ‘And he killed Dr Langford.’
‘No he didn’t,’ came a voice. ‘That’s not quite right.’ Everybody froze as Dr Howell’s body began to stir. He sat up and spoke. ‘It’s all right. I haven’t come back from the dead. I was only pretending. It seemed safer than letting myself be knocked about by those two thugs.’ Howell pulled himself to his feet and seized the jar of liquid from the desk, hurling its contents into Mrs Langford’s eyes. ‘Did you really think I would murder a child? Did you really believe this was poison? You sick, depraved woman. Officer, she’s your murderess!’
‘But you’re not dead,’ said the sergeant in confusion. ‘There is no victim.’
‘Yes there is,’ said Howell. ‘Not me, Officer, but Dr Giles Langford, this woman’s husband. She killed him. She’s admitted it to me a hundred times, threatening to do the same to me unless I went along with her plans. And this man’ – he pointed at Bennett