Parker Pyne Investigates - Agatha Christie [40]
They were just leaving the station when Elsie felt a friendly tap on the shoulder and turned to see Mr Parker Pyne. His bland face was beaming good-naturedly.
‘Mrs Jeffries,’ he said, ‘will you come to see me at the Hotel Tokatlian in half an hour? I think I may have some good news for you.’
Elsie looked uncertainly at Edward. Then she made the introduction. ‘This–er–is my husband–Mr Parker Pyne.’
‘As I believe your wife wired you, her jewels have been stolen,’ said Mr Parker Pyne. ‘I have been doing what I can to help her recover them. I think I may have news for her in about half an hour.’
Elsie looked enquiringly at Edward. He replied promptly: ‘You’d better go, dear. The Tokatlian, you said, Mr Pyne? Right; I’ll see she makes it.’
IV
It was just a half an hour later that Elsie was shown into Mr Parker Pyne’s private sitting room. He rose to receive her.
‘You’ve been disappointed in me, Mrs Jeffries,’ he said. ‘Now, don’t deny it. Well, I don’t pretend to be a magician but I do what I can. Take a look inside here.’
He passed along the table a small stout cardboard box. Elsie opened it. Rings, brooches, bracelets, necklace–they were all there.
‘Mr Pyne, how marvellous! How–how too wonderful!’
Mr Parker Pyne smiled modestly. ‘I am glad not to have failed you, my dear young lady.’
‘Oh, Mr Pyne, you make me feel just mean! Ever since Trieste I’ve been horrid to you. And now–this. But how did you get hold of them? When? Where?’
Mr Parker Pyne shook his head thoughtfully. ‘It’s a long story,’ he said. ‘You may hear it one day. In fact, you may hear it quite soon.’
‘Why can’t I hear it now?’
‘There are reasons,’ said Mr Parker Pyne.
And Elsie had to depart with her curiosity unsatisfied.
When she had gone, Mr Parker Pyne took up his hat and stick and went out into the streets of Pera. He walked along smiling to himself, coming at last to a little café, deserted at the moment, which overlooked the Golden Horn. On the other side, the mosques of Stamboul showed slender minarets against the afternoon sky. It was very beautiful. Mr Pyne sat down and ordered two coffees. They came thick and sweet. He had just begun to sip his when a man slipped into the seat opposite. It was Edward Jeffries.
‘I have ordered some coffee for you,’ said Mr Parker Pyne, indicating the little cup.
Edward pushed the coffee aside. He leaned forward across the table. ‘How did you know?’ he asked.
Mr Parker Pyne sipped his coffee dreamily. ‘Your wife will have told you about her discovery on the blotter? No? Oh, but she will tell you; it has slipped her mind for the moment.’
He mentioned Elsie’s discovery.
‘Very well; that linked up perfectly with the curious incident that happened just before Venice. For some reason or other you were engineering the theft of your wife’s jewels. But why the phrase “just before Venice would be the best time”? There seemed nonsense in that. Why did you not leave it to your–agent–to choose her own time and place?
‘And then, suddenly, I saw the point. Your wife’s jewels were stolen before you yourself left London and were replaced by paste duplicates. But that solution did not satisfy you. You were a high-minded, conscientious young man. You have a horror of some servant or other innocent person being suspected. A theft must actually occur–at a place and in a manner which will leave no suspicion attached to anybody of your acquaintance or household.
‘Your accomplice is provided with a key to the jewel box and a smoke bomb. At the correct moment she gives the alarm, darts into your wife’s compartment, unlocks the jewel case and flings the paste duplicates into the sea. She may be suspected and searched, but nothing can be proved against her, since the jewels are not in her possession.
‘And now the significance of the place chosen becomes apparent. If the jewels had merely been thrown out by the side of the line, they might have been found. Hence the importance of the one moment when the train is passing over the sea.
‘In the meantime, you make your arrangements for