Mother
In the room three men had mysteriously appeared--the three who had
captured Parr’s spy two nights before--and in a second Yale was
manacled hand and foot. A deft hand jerked the pistol that he carried
from his pocket, a third man dropped a cloth bag over his head and
face, and he was hurried from the room.
Inspector Parr wiped the perspiration from his streaming forehead, and
faced his amazed audience.
“Gentlemen,” he said a little shakily, “if you will excuse me for
to-night I will tell you the whole of this story to-morrow.”
They surrounded him, plying him with questions, but he could only
shake his head.
“He’s had a very bad time,” it was the colonel’s voice, “and nobody
knows it better than I. I should be very glad, Prime Minister, if you
could accede to the inspector’s request, and allow the further
explanation to stand over until to-morrow.”
“Perhaps the inspector will lunch with us,” said the Premier, and his
Commissioner accepted on Parr’s behalf.
Gripping Jack’s arm Parr marched from the room and into the street. A
taxi-cab was awaiting him and he bundled the young man in.
“I feel that I’ve been dreaming,” said Jack when he had found his
voice. “Derrick Yale! Impossible! And yet----”
“Oh, it is possible all right,” said the inspector with a little
laugh.
“Then he and Thalia Drummond were working together?”
“Exactly,” was the reply.
“But, inspector, how did you get on to this story?”
“Mother put me on to it,” was the unexpected answer. “You don’t
realise what a clever old lady mother is. She told me to-night----”
“Then she’s come back?”
“Yes, she’s come back,” said the inspector. “I want you to meet her.
She’s a bit dogmatic, and she is inclined to argue, but I always let
her have her way in that respect.”
“And you may be sure I shall, too,” laughed Jack, though he did not
feel like laughing. “You really believe that the Crimson Circle is in
your hands?”
“I am sure of it,” said the inspector. “As sure as I’m sitting in this
taxi-cab with you, and as sure as I am that grandmother is the wisest
old lady in the world.”
Jack maintained a silence until they were turning into the avenue.
“Then this means that Thalia is dragged a little lower?” he said
quietly. “If this man Yale is, as you believe, the Crimson Circle, he
will not spare her.”
“I’m certain of that,” said the inspector; “but, lord bless you, Mr.
Beardmore, why trouble your head about Thalia Drummond?”
“Because I love her, you damned fool!” said Jack savagely, and
instantly apologised.
“I know I’m a bit of a fool,” the inspector spoke, between gusts of
laughter, “but I’m not the only one in London, Mr. Beardmore, believe
me. And if you’ll take my advice you’ll forget that Thalia Drummond
ever existed. And if you’ve got any love to spare, why, give it to
mother!”
Jack was about to say something uncomplimentary about this paragon of
a grandmother, but suppressed his desire.
The inspector’s maisonette was on the first floor, and he went up the
stairs ahead, opened the door and stood for a moment in the doorway.
“Hello, mother,” he said. “I’ve brought Mr. Jack Beardmore to see
you.”
Jack heard an exclamation.
“Come in, Mr. Beardmore, come in and meet mother.”
Jack stepped into the room and stood as if he had been shot. Facing
him was a smiling girl, a little pale and a little tired looking, but
undoubtedly, unless he were mad or dreaming, Thalia Drummond!
She took his outstretched hand in hers and led him to the table, where
a meal for three was laid.
“Daddy, you told me you were going to bring the Commissioner,” she
said reproachfully.
“Daddy?” stammered Jack. “But you told me she was your grandmother.”
She patted his hand.
“Daddy has developed a sense of humour, which is very distressing,”
she said. “I’m always called ‘mother’ at home, because I’ve mothered
him ever since my own dear mother died. And that story about his
grandmother is nonsense, but you must forgive him.”
“Your father?” said Jack.
Thalia nodded.
“Thalia Drummond Parr, that is my name. Thank goodness, you aren’t a
crime investigator, or you would have made inquiries and discovered my
ghastly secret. Now eat your supper, Mr. Beardmore; I cooked it
myself.”
But Jack could neither eat nor drink until he had learnt more, and she
proceeded to enlighten him.
“When the first of the Crimson Circle murders occurred and daddy was
put into the case, I knew that he had a tremendous work in front of
him and that the chances were he would fail. Daddy has a lot of
enemies at head-quarters, and our Commissioner asked him not to take
the case, knowing how difficult it was going to be. You see, the
Commissioner is my godfather,” she added smilingly, “and naturally he
takes an interest in our affairs. But daddy insisted, though I think
he regretted it the moment he had taken it on. I have always been
interested in police work, and just as soon as father got behind the
Crimson Circle organisation and knew the methods that the Circle
employed to gather its recruits, I decided to start upon a career of
crime.
“Your father received the first threat three months before it was put
into execution. It was two or three days afterwards that I secured a
post as secretary to Harvey Froyant, for no other reason than that his
estate adjoined yours. He was a friend of your father, and it gave me
an opportunity of watching. I tried to get employment with your
father. Perhaps you don’t know that,” she said quietly, “but I failed.
Even more dreadful, I was in the wood when he was killed.” She
squeezed his hand sympathetically. “I didn’t see who it was who fired
the shot, but I flew forward to where your father was lying, only to
discover that he was beyond help, and then, seeing you through the
trees running across the meadows toward the wood, I thought I had
better get away. The more so,” she added, “since I had a revolver in
my hand at the time, for I had seen a man stalking in the wood and I
had gone in to investigate.
“With the death of your father there was no longer any need for me to
remain in the service of Mr. Froyant. I wanted to get closer to the
Crimson Circle, and I knew the best way to attract the attention of
the man who controlled the gang was for me to embark on a criminal
career. It was not providential that you were passing the pawnshop
when I came out after pledging Mr. Froyant’s golden image. My father
manœuvred that, and when he described me as a thief and an associate
of crooks, it was to create an atmosphere, which would impress Derrick
Yale, or Ferdinand Walter Lightman, to give him his real name. There
was no danger of my being sent to prison. The magistrate treated me as
a first offender, but my reputation was gone, and immediately after,
as I expected, I received a summons to meet the head of the Crimson
Circle.
“I met him one night in Steyne Square. I think daddy was watching me
all the time and shadowed me back to the house. He was never far away,
were you, darling?”
“Only at Barnet,” he shook his head. “I was scared there, mother.”
“My first task as a member of the Crimson Circle was to go to
Brabazon. You see, Yale’s method was to set one member to spy upon
another. Mr. Brabazon puzzled me. I was never quite sure whether he
was straight or crooked, and of course I had no idea at first that he
was a member of the gang. I had to begin stealing again in order to
sustain my character. It brought down on me a reprimand from my
mysterious chief, but it served a useful purpose, for it brought me
into contact with a gang of crooks and led unconsciously to my being
present in Marisburg Place when Felix Marl also died.
“Yale’s object in employing me was to divert suspicion from himself.
Besides which, he had intended a very pretty ending to my youthful
life. The night he killed Froyant I was ordered to be in the vicinity
of the house with a similar knife and the fellow gauntlet to that
which Yale used himself in his dreadful crime.”
“But how did you escape from prison?” asked Jack.
She looked at him with amusement in her eyes.
“You dear boy,” she said, “how could I escape from prison? I was let
out by the governor in the middle of the night and escorted to my home
by a respectable inspector of police!”
“We wanted to force Yale’s hand, you see,” explained Parr. “As soon as
he knew that mother was out he got rattled and began to hurry his
preparations for flight. When he found that his office had been
burgled he was pretty sure that Thalia was something more than he had
dreamt she was.”