THE HEAD
WHEN Mike went out, he found Stella at the gate of the studio, and
remembered, seeing her, that she had been invited to lunch at Griff
Towers. To his surprise she crossed the road to him.
“I wanted to see you, Mr. Brixan,” she said. “I sent in word to find if
you were there.”
“Then your message was wrongly delivered to Mr. Knebworth,” smiled Mike.
She lifted one of her shoulders in demonstration of her contempt for
Jack Knebworth and all his works.
“No, it was you I wanted to see. You’re a detective, aren’t you?”
“I am,” said Michael, wondering what was coming next.
“My car is round the corner: will you come to my house?”
Michael hesitated. He was anxious, more than anxious, to speak to Adele,
though he had nothing special to tell her, beyond the thing which he
himself did not know and she could never guess.
“With pleasure,” he said.
She was a skilful motorist, and apparently so much engrossed in her
driving that she did not speak throughout the journey. In the pretty
little drawing-room from which he had a view of the lovely South Downs,
he waited expectantly.
“Mr. Brixan, I am going to tell you something which I think you ought to
know.”
Her face was pale, her manner curiously nervous.
“I don’t know what you will think of me when I have told you, but I’ve
got to risk that. I can’t keep silence any longer.”
A shrill bell sounded in the hall.
“The telephone. Will you excuse me one moment?”
She hurried out, leaving the door slightly ajar. Michael heard her
quick, angry reply to somebody at the other end of the wire, and then a
long interregnum of silence, when apparently she listened without
comment. It was nearly ten minutes before she returned, and her eyes
were bright and her cheeks flushed.
“Would you mind if I told you what I was going to tell you a little
later?” she asked.
She had been on the telephone to Sir Gregory: of that Michael was sure,
though she had not mentioned his name.
“There’s no time like the present, Miss Mendoza,” he said encouragingly,
and she licked her dry lips.
“Yes, I know, but there are reasons why I can’t speak now. Would you see
me to-morrow?”
“Why, certainly,” said Michael, secretly glad of his release.
“Shall I drive you back?”
“No, thank you, I can walk.”
“Let me take you to the edge of the town: I’m going that way,” she
begged.
Of course she was going that way, thought Michael. She was going to
Griff Towers. He was so satisfied on this matter that he did not even
trouble to inquire, and when she dropped him at his hotel, she hardly
waited for him to step to the side-walk before the car leapt forward on
its way.
“There’s a telegram for you, sir,” said the porter. He went into the
manager’s office and returned with a buff envelope, which Michael tore
open.
For a time he could not comprehend the fateful message the telegram
conveyed. And then slowly he read it to himself.
“A head found on Chobham Common early this morning. Come to
Leatherhead Police Station at once.
“STAINES.”
An hour later a fast car dropped him before the station. Staines was
waiting on the step.
“Found at daybreak this morning,” he said. “The man is so far unknown.”
He led the way to an outhouse. On a table in the centre of the room was
a box, and he lifted the lid.
Mike took one glance at the waxen face and turned white.
“Good God!” he breathed.
It was the head of Lawley Foss.