Ordeal by Innocence - Agatha Christie [76]
“So I’ve always believed, and shall continue to believe,” said Calgary. “To no man will we deny justice,” he murmured softly.
“Magna Carta,” said Superintendent Huish.
“Yes,” said Calgary, “quoted to me by Miss Tina Argyle.”
Superintendent Huish’s eyebrows rose.
“Indeed. You surprise me. That young lady, I should say, has not been particularly active in helping the wheels of justice to turn.”
“Now why do you say that?” asked Calgary.
“Frankly,” said Huish, “for withholding information. There’s no doubt about that.”
“Why?” asked Calgary.
“Well, it’s a family business,” said Huish. “Families stick together. But what was it you wanted to see me about?” he continued.
“I want information,” said Calgary.
“About the Argyle case?”
“Yes. I realize that I must seem to you to be butting in in a matter that’s not my concern—”
“Well, it is your concern in a way, isn’t it?”
“Ah, you do appreciate that. Yes. I feel responsible. Responsible for bringing trouble.”
“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, as the French say,” said Huish.
“There are things I want to know,” said Calgary.
“Such as?”
“I’d like a great deal more information about Jacko Argyle.”
“About Jacko Argyle. Well, now, I didn’t expect you to say that.”
“He’d got a bad record, I know,” said Calgary. “What I want is a few details from it.”
“Well, that’s simple enough,” said Huish. “He’d been on probation twice. On another occasion, for embezzlement of funds, he was just saved by being able to put up the money in time.”
“The budding young criminal, in fact?” asked Calgary.
“Quite right, sir,” said Huish. “Not a murderer, as you’ve made clear to us, but a good many other things. Nothing, mind you, on a grand scale. He hadn’t got the brains or the nerve to put up a big swindle. Just a small-time criminal. Pinching money out of tills, wheedling it out of women.”
“And he was good at that,” said Calgary. “Wheedling money out of women, I mean.”
“And a very nice safe line it is,” said Superintendent Huish. “Women fell for him very easily. Middle-aged or elderly were the ones he usually went for. You’d be surprised how gullible that type of woman can be. He put over a very pretty line. Got them to believe he was passionately in love with them. There’s nothing a woman won’t believe if she wants to.”
“And then?” asked Calgary.
Huish shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, sooner or later they were disillusioned. But they don’t prosecute, you know. They don’t want to tell the world that they’ve been fooled. Yes, it’s a pretty safe line.”
“Was there ever blackmail?” Calgary asked.
“Not that we know of,” said Huish. “Mind you, I wouldn’t have put it past him. Not out and out blackmail, I’d say. Just a hint or two, perhaps. Letters. Foolish letters. Things their husbands wouldn’t like to know about. He’d be able to keep a woman quiet that way.”
“I see,” said Calgary.
“Is that all you wanted to know?” asked Huish.
“There’s one member of the Argyle family I haven’t met yet,” said Calgary. “The eldest daughter.”
“Ah, Mrs. Durrant.”
“I went to her house, but it was shut up. They told me she and her husband were away.”
“They are at Sunny Point.”
“Still there?”
“Yes. He wanted to stay on. Mr. Durrant,” added Huish, “is doing a bit of detecting, I understand.”
“He’s a cripple, isn’t he?”
“Yes, polio. Very sad. He hasn’t much to do with his time, poor chap. That’s why he’s taken up this murder business so eagerly. Thinks he’s on to something too.”
“And is he?” asked Calgary.
Huish shrugged his shoulders.
“He might be, at that,” he said. “He’s a better chance than we have, you know. He knows the family and he’s a man with a good deal of intuition as well as intelligence.”
“Do you think he’ll get anywhere?”
“Possibly,” said Huish, “but he won’t tell us if he does. They’ll keep it all in the family.”
“Do you yourself know who’s guilty, Superintendent?”
“You mustn’t ask me things like that, Dr. Calgary.”
“Meaning that you do know?”
“One can think one