Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford Read Free Page B

scrambled away from Dunstan’s fury, putting the bed between them, but that didn’t stop the outraged father. He launched himself across the bed, shoving Miss Abernathy out of his way, and caught the man by the throat. It was all Rutledge could do to pull him off Frey, as Dunstan’s hands tightened their grip.
    “Go downstairs,” he told the struggling, angry father. “Find a policeman and bring him here, then take my motorcar and drive to the Yard. We need help and we need it straightaway.”
    “I’m not leaving my daughter,” Dunstan said stubbornly.
    “She’s just regaining consciousness. Do as I say and bring a doctor back with you. She should be seen.”
    Dunstan turned to look at his daughter, her eyes closed, her mouth slack, and her face very pale.
    “Dear God,” he said, and was out the door, leaving it wide. Rutledge could hear his footsteps racing down the carpeted corridor.
    Rutledge turned to the three people eyeing him speculatively. “If you try something,” he said tightly, “it will give me great pleasure to use you as Dunstan would have done. In the name,” he added, “of quelling an attempted escape.”
    Frey said, “We outnumber you three to one. Even with their hands tied.” He nodded toward his two companions.
    Rutledge smiled coldly. And waited. He watched the two women and one man weigh their chances against the tall, broad-shouldered young policeman, and then subside. Cowards, he found himself thinking, who would leap out at a man and kidnap his daughter but who were unwilling to try their luck with someone who was their match.
    After a moment Miss Abernathy said, “We covered our tracks well. How did you know?”
    He crossed to the door and swung it closed. “The fact that there were three assailants, and you were three to dine. That you left shortly before the Dunstans, with time to set up your trap. Three people dressed as men, to confuse the police. It was a well-prepared plan, and working it through the unsuspecting Lowerys was clever. But I was certain when I told Miss Abernathy here that a thief was on the loose in the hotel and she showed no concern. A woman alone in a strange city would have been frightened enough to welcome the assurance of a policeman making certain she was safe. But she couldn’t afford to have the police come into her room.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” Miss Abernathy exclaimed. “I was glad you’d come to my door.”
    But she hadn’t been.
    That was all he could pry out of them. He went to sit beside Cecily, assuring her that she was safe as she sat up and stared with frightened eyes at her abductors. Finally Dunstan arrived with two men from the Yard and a doctor. As the constables took charge of the surly kidnappers, the doctor was bending over Cecily, examining her while reassuring her that all was well.
    A few minutes later, the doctor crossed the room to speak Rutledge. “She’ll be all right,” he said, “but ether is measured by drops according to weight, not just poured onto a handkerchief. They took a serious risk.”
    Dunstan said wearily, still kneeling by his daughter, “Whatever those people wanted, it must be valuable indeed.”
    “We’ll find out in due course,” Rutledge replied. “First we need to establish just who they really are, and where they came from. That could also tell us what they were after. They’ll be in prison, meanwhile. You and your daughter will have nothing more to fear from them.”
    He could tell that Dunstan was dubious. The night’s events had shaken him badly.
    It wasn’t until a cable to Canada was answered that they had what they needed.
    Roland Paley dead of heart attack ten months ago. Widow remarried to one Thomas Cochran Frey. Whereabouts unknown.
    Rutledge brought the news to Dunstan, who said, “But that doesn’t explain anything, does it? Unless they took Roland seriously, that he’d been cheated over that blasted hunting lodge.”
    “I sent a second cable to the Canadian