The Seven Dials Mystery - Agatha Christie [28]
‘Oh!’ said Bundle, rather nonplussed.
‘But all the same I should very much like to know what put that neighbourhood into your head, Lady Eileen.’
‘Have I got to tell you?’
‘Well, it saves trouble, doesn’t it? We know where we are, so to speak.’
Bundle hesitated for a minute.
‘There was a man shot yesterday,’ she said slowly. ‘I thought I had run over him–’
‘Mr Ronald Devereux?’
‘You know about it, of course. Why has there been nothing in the papers?’
‘Do you really want to know that, Lady Eileen?’
‘Yes, please.’
‘Well, we just thought we should like to have a clear twenty-four hours–see? It will be in the papers tomorrow.’
‘Oh!’ Bundle studied him, puzzled.
What was hidden behind that immovable face? Did he regard the shooting of Ronald Devereux as an ordinary crime or as an extraordinary one?
‘He mentioned Seven Dials when he was dying,’ said Bundle slowly.
‘Thank you,’ said Battle. ‘I’ll make a note of that.’
He wrote a few words on the blotting pad in front of him.
Bundle started on another tack.
‘Mr Lomax, I understand, came to see you yesterday about a threatening letter he had had.’
‘He did.’
‘And that was written from Seven Dials.’
‘It had Seven Dials written at the top if it, I believe.’
Bundle felt as though she was battering hopelessly on a locked door.
‘If you’ll let me advise you, Lady Eileen–’
‘I know what you’re going to say.’
‘I should go home and–well, think no more about these matters.’
‘Leave it to you, in fact?’
‘Well,’ said Superintendent Battle, ‘after all, we are the professionals.’
‘And I’m only an amateur? Yes, but you forget one thing–I mayn’t have your knowledge and skill–but I have one advantage over you. I can work in the dark.’
She thought that the Superintendent seemed a little taken aback, as though the force of her words struck home.
‘Of course,’ said Bundle, ‘if you won’t give me a list of secret societies–’
‘Oh! I never said that. You shall have a list of the whole lot.’
He went to the door, put his head through and called out something, then came back to his chair. Bundle, rather unreasonably, felt baffled. The ease with which he acceded to her request seemed to her suspicious. He was looking at her now in a placid fashion.
‘Do you remember the death of Mr Gerald Wade?’ she asked abruptly.
‘Down at your place, wasn’t it? Took an overdraught of sleeping mixture.’
‘His sister says he never took things to make him sleep.’
‘Ah!’ said the Superintendent. ‘You’d be surprised what a lot of things there are that sisters don’t know.’
Bundle again felt baffled. She sat in silence till a man came in with a typewritten sheet of paper, which he handed to the Superintendent.
‘Here you are,’ said the latter when the other had left the room. ‘The Blood Brothers of St Sebastian. The Wolf Hounds. The Comrades of Peace. The Comrades Club. The Friends of Oppression. The Children of Moscow. The Red Standard Bearers. The Herrings. The Comrades of the Fallen–and half a dozen more.’
He handed it to her with a distinct twinkle in his eye.
‘You give it to me,’ said Bundle, ‘because you know it’s not going to be the slightest use to me. Do you want me to leave the whole thing alone?’
‘I should prefer it,’ said Battle. ‘You see–if you go messing around all these places–well, it’s going to give us a lot of trouble.’
‘Looking after me, you mean?’
‘Looking after you, Lady Eileen.’
Bundle had risen to her feet. Now she stood undecided. So far the honours lay with Superintendent Battle. Then she remembered one slight incident, and she based her last appeal upon it.
‘I said just now that an amateur could do some things which a professional couldn’t. You didn’t contradict me. That’s because you’re an honest man, Superintendent Battle. You knew I was right.’
‘Go on,’ said Battle quickly.
‘At Chimneys you let me help. Won’t you let me help now?’
Battle seemed to be turning the thing over in his mind. Emboldened by his silence, Bundle continued.
‘You know pretty well what I