Coroner's Pidgin Read Free Page B

well, you see, it was ’er time orf from duty this afternoon. She ’asn’t got a deputy now as things ’ave been quiet for a bit. When she’s away I mind the ambulance. To tell you the truth, things is so quiet I’m pretty well alone at the depot most afternoons.”
    Mr. Campion began to understand.
    â€œYou brought the body here in an ambulance.” he said. “In fact, Lady Carados made a confidant of you because you were the one man who could get hold of a vehicle without being questioned. That’s a relief, the woman isn’t quite mad after all.”
    Lugg looked hurt. “She confided in me because she knew she could trust me,” he said. “But I’m not saying the ambulance might not ’ave ’elped. You can’t trust a taxi to ’old ’is tongue, and no one’s got a car running these days. It was a very good idea of ’ers, and it would ’ave worked, too, if the girl ’ad not come into the square just as we were slipping out of it.”
    â€œShe followed you, did she?”
    â€œYus, she did.” Lugg was torn between admiration and exasperation. “She’s a conscientious little beggar—some of these kids are; and when she saw ’er ambulance being drove orf by a woman (I was in the back, you see, with the corp), she thought the vehicle was being pinched, and I suppose she ’opped in a taxi and followed it. Anyway, she came barging in the door right on top of us, and when she sawwot we’d got, she was frightened. We was just tryin’ to argue a little reason into ’er, when you come in.”
    Mr. Campion made no comment. He glanced at his watch noting that he had twenty minutes before he need start for the station. The situation was so macabre, the possibilities so unpleasant, the characters so illustrious, and the explanations so humanly silly that it left him speechless.
    Lugg was watching him under heavy white lids. No voices sounded from the sitting-room, and there was silence in the flat.
    Lugg stirred uncomfortably. “It wasn’t ’alf so barmy when we started out,” he said. “Left to ourselves, me and the old lady might have brought it orf and not a soul been the wiser. Now that the girl’s in it—not to mention you—it’s not going to be so easy.”
    Mr. Campion eyed his old companion steadily.
    â€œAnd there are the others,” he said. “All the hundreds of others who are bound to hear the story in confidence. My dear good chap, you don’t imagine that you can keep a thing like this quiet? Just think . . .”
    He broke off and sat listening. Someone was coming up the stairs; light, purposeful footsteps advanced upon them steadily; on and on they came, nearer and nearer, neither hurrying nor hesitating, but coming ever closer to the door.

CHAPTER TWO
    THE KNOCKING WAS gentle at first, almost timid, but the quiet sound echoed round the flat like thunder or the noise of guns. In the sitting-room the urgent whispering ceased abruptly, and Campion caught an echo of the thrill of fear which went through those others who heard it. Beside him, Lugg was standing stiffly. He was frowning, and the veins on his forehead stood out clearly under the skin. No one moved, and the knocking came again. It was more resolute this time; still nobody answered.
    From outside the faint rumblings of the traffic floated up to the silent flat. These were homely, ordinary noises,hootings, the squeal of brakes, and the cries of paper-sellers shouting the news. But they were far off, belonging to another world.
    Within the flat there was silence. The four who lived were as quiet as the one who lay so stiffly on the bed.
    The third bout of knocking was violent. The summons was angry and the bell rang shrilly like an alarm, while the knocker shook the panels of the door. Immediately afterwards, as there was no response from within, the lock rattled savagely and