Inspector West Takes Charge Read Free Page A

you can have a good sleep without being afraid.’
    ‘I’m not afraid,’ Mark declared. ‘I just want a few hours rest.’
    ‘That’s good,’ said Roger. ‘Then you’ll be fit enough to call on Gabby Potter in the morning. If you do, you’ll make it obvious you connect him with this burglary. You might get an, interesting reaction.’
    ‘Oh, no!’ Janet cried.
    ‘Damned good idea,’ enthused Lessing. ‘He knows I’m Prendergast case crazy. If he has any nefarious designs on the Prendergast money, we’ll find out.’
    ‘Do you really think he’s right?’ Janet asked Roger, as they drove home.
    ‘If Potter’s involved or the Prendergasts have been murdered, Mark’s stirring up the mud. If he scares anyone they might get careless. That’s Mark’s real motivation; of course he can do what the Yard can’t. But don’t ask me whether I think he’s right about Potter.’
     
    At the time when Roger and Janet were driving home, Mr Gabriel Potter, Solicitor & Commissioner for Oaths, was sitting up in a four-poster bed in a large, high-ceilinged room in a very large house on the outskirts of London, and listening in to the telephone. A man with a gruff voice was saying: ‘Not a thing there, Guv’nor. There wasn’t nothing about you, neither. I saw the bit he’d written about Prendergast, though. Guesswork, that’s all. I took a photo of each page, nearly got nabbed staying so long. I’ll send the film over in the morning. The other stuff just wasn’t there. I don’t make mistakes like that.’
    ‘ I trust not,’ said Potter. He was a thin man in feature, figure and voice. ‘I would like that film as soon as possible, please. Goodnight.’
    He replaced the receiver, put out the light and slid down in the bed, but he did not get to sleep at once. Yet Potter’s nights were usually so serene and untroubled; tonight he was preoccupied and uneasy.
     
    In a darkened room some miles away, Claude Prendergast blinked. He was restless because of a noise he could not get accustomed to; his wife’s heavy breathing in the next bed. Now and again she raised her voice clearly in coherent speech. It was strange and to Claude a little improper to have a woman sleeping in the same room. Thought and contemplation of Maisie did not comfort Claude; he did not fully understand how he had come to marry her, but he had not yet reached the stage of wishing that he had resisted her.
    Quite loudly she said: ‘I wonder if he found them?’
    Then she heaved her heavy body over, and fell silent.

 
3:   Photographs and Things
    Janet West awakened first, stirred, stretched, and snuggled down to look at Roger’s profile. He was on his back, with his lips closed, and was absurdly good-looking. There had been a time when she had doubted whether good looks could go with good sense, a keen brain, and the more attractive human traits. In Roger they did. If there was anything the matter with him it was that he took his work too seriously. Occasionally, he was inclined to take Mark too seriously, also.
    ‘And yet, they scare me at times,’ admitted Janet. ‘What does Mark call it? . . . Prescience? Last night, for instance. What made Roger decide to go over?’ In a louder voice she demanded: ‘Do you know anything you haven’t told me?’
    ‘Er,’ said Roger. ‘Was time?’
    ‘Half-past ten,’ answered Janet, pushing the sheet back and taking a hold on his left ear. ‘Roger, why did you go to Mark’s last night? What are you keeping from me?’
    ‘Er,’ grunted Roger, and widened his eyes. ‘Ten? Half-past ten ? Good Lord!’ He flung the clothes back and jumped out of bed, then caught a glimpse of the clock on the dressing-table. He slumped down. ‘It’s not much past eight.’
    From downstairs came a faint but distinctive miaow.
    ‘Of course, we’ve got visitors,’ went on Roger, pulling, on a dressing gown. ‘I’ll make the tea; you lie in for a few minutes.’
    By the time he had brushed his teeth, the