The blaze of electric lights under their opal shades in Heldon Foyle's
office became dim before the growing of the dawn. The superintendent, a
cigar between his lips, was working methodically over half-a-dozen piles
of papers. At the other side of the table Green puffed furiously at an
old brier as he compiled from the documents Foyle handed him a fresh
list of witnesses and their statements to be submitted to the Treasury
solicitors.
All night the two men had toiled without consciousness of fatigue. Their
jigsaw puzzle was at last righting itself. The fragments of the picture
had begun to shape clearly. Their efforts had at last been justified.
That alone would be their reward. The trial would show little of the
labour that the case had cost--only the result. The hard labour of many
scores of men would never be handled outside the walls of Scotland Yard.
They had nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of the Princess
Petrovska. When the case was handed over to the Treasury it would be
entirely straightened out, and it would be for them to present the
simple issue to the judge and jury at the Old Bailey.
Foyle flung away the remnant of his cigar, and drew out his watch. It
was nine o'clock. Sir Hilary Thornton, who had heard of the woman's
confession by telephone, might be expected at any moment.
"That ought to do, Green," said the superintendent, as he strung tape
round the discarded bundles. "We'll have the lady brought up at the
afternoon sitting of the court. That'll give us time to talk it over
with the people from the Treasury. Yes, what is it?"
A man had tapped and opened the door. Before he could reply, a slim
figure pushed by him. Green rose to his feet and hastily pushed his pipe
into his pocket. Foyle raised his eyebrows and stood up more slowly.
Lady Eileen Meredith confronted them with wild eyes and pallid face. She
swayed a trifle, and the chief inspector with a quick movement placed
his arm round her waist and helped her to a chair.
"You are not well, Lady Eileen," said Foyle, slipping to her side.
"Shall I do something?--send for a doctor?"
She waved a slim hand in an impatient negative. "I--I shall be all right
in a minute," she gasped. Her throat worked. "I wanted to see you, Mr.
Foyle. I wanted to tell you--to tell you----"
Her voice trailed away in piteous indecision. Heldon Foyle whispered a
few words to Green, who nodded and passed out. The superintendent took a
small decanter from a cupboard, poured something into a glass, and added
some water.
"Drink this," he said sympathetically. "You will feel better afterwards.
That's right. Now, you wanted to tell me something."
A little colour returned to the girl's pale cheeks. Her hands opened and
shut convulsively.
"The paper--this morning!" she exclaimed incoherently. "It said--it
said----"
Foyle rubbed his chin. "It said that we had detained a man in Sussex,"
he said encouragingly.
She pulled herself together a little, but her whole form was trembling.
"It was Mr. Grell?" she asked eagerly.
He inclined his head in assent. "Yes, it was Mr. Grell."
Her face dropped to her hands and her frame shook. But when she raised
her head she was dry-eyed. The emotion that possessed her was too deep
for tears. She gazed in a kind of stupor at the immobile face of the
detective.
"You have made a ghastly mistake," she said, and her voice was level and
dull. "Mr. Grell had nothing to do with the murder. I killed that man. I
have come here to-day to give myself up."
A twinkle of amusement shot into the blue eyes of Heldon Foyle. The
girl, oblivious to all save the misery that enwrapped her, noticed
nothing of his amusement. But his next words aroused her.
"That's curious," he said slowly, "very curious. You are the third
person to confess to the murder. Really, I don't believe you can all be
guilty."
She stared at him in dumb amazement. Her tortured mind was slow to
accept a new idea. "The third!" she echoed mechanically.
"Yes, the third. The others are Mr. Robert Grell and the woman you know
as the Princess Petrovska, who in our police jargon would be described
as alias Lola Rachael, alias Lola Goldenburg." He smiled down at her as
she turned her bewildered face towards him. "So you see, there is no
great need to alarm yourself. The mystery is all but cleared up. If you
will permit me, my dear young lady, I should like to congratulate you."
"But--but----" She struggled for words.
Foyle seated himself, and picking up a pen beat a regular tattoo on his
blotting-pad. He went on, unheeding the girl's interruption.
"I won't deny that if you had told me you killed Harry Goldenburg a day
or two ago, I might have believed you, and it might have made things
awkward. But there is now no question of that. We know now that it was
neither you nor Mr. Grell. If you had told us the real facts at first so
far as you were concerned, it would have simplified matters. However,
there is no reason why you shouldn't do so now."
The warm blood had suffused her cheeks. She had risen from her seat,
unable at first to comprehend the full meaning of it all. "I cannot
understand," she exclaimed.
"You will presently. Now, if you don't mind, sit down quietly, and tell
me in your own way exactly what happened on the night this man was
killed. Take your own time. I shall not interrupt."
A lurking fear at the back of the girl's mind that he was trying by some
subtle means to entrap her into an admission that would implicate Grell
disappeared. He dropped his pen. She searched the square face, but could
see nothing behind the mask of smiling good-nature. Her own curiosity
was alight, but she sternly suppressed it.
"You know about the letter?" she asked. "The letter I got from
Goldenburg."
He shook his head. "Assume that I know nothing. Begin at the beginning."
"Well, that was the beginning. I did not know it was from Goldenburg
then, for it was unsigned, and both the address and the note itself were
in typewriting. It was delivered by an express messenger. It said that
the writer had something of importance affecting my future happiness to
say to me, and that I could learn what it was by calling at Mr. Grell's
house about ten. The writer advised me to keep my visit as secret as
possible."
"Ah! What time did you get the note?"
"I am not quite sure. It was about half-past nine or quarter to ten."
"Very neatly timed to prevent you making inquiries beforehand. Go on."
"I was perhaps a little frightened and the note piqued my curiosity. The
quickest way to learn what was wrong seemed to me to follow the writer's
instructions. I went to Grosvenor Gardens, where I was apparently
expected, for a man-servant let me in and took me to Mr. Grell's study.
I walked in by myself, not permitting him to announce me. The room was
in semi-darkness, but I could make out a figure on a couch at the other
end of the room. I walked over to it. The face was in shadow, and not
until I was quite close could I see the stain on the shirt front. It
took me a few moments to realise that the man was dead.
"Then I wanted to scream, to call out for help, but I could not. It was
all too terrible--horrible--like a ghastly dream. Gradually my wits and
my senses returned to me. It came into my mind like a flash that the
letter I had received hinted at blackmail. I could not see the dead
man's face."
Her voice died away and she looked a little hesitatingly at the
superintendent. He nodded encouragingly.
"Don't be afraid, Lady Eileen. You had found a dead man in Mr. Grell's
house--a man whom you suspected of blackmailing your fiancé. You not
unnaturally thought that he had been killed by Mr. Grell."
"Yes." She was speaking in a lower key now. "I feared that Mr. Grell in
an excess of passion had killed him. What was I to think?" She made a
gesture of helplessness with her hands. "My brain was in a whirl, but I
seemed to see things clearly enough. I dared not raise an alarm, for I
recognised that my evidence as far as it went would be deadly agamst the
man I loved. I laid my hand on the dagger to withdraw it, but at that
moment I heard the door behind me open and close quickly. I turned, but
not sharply enough to see who the intruder was.
"Then the idea came to me that I must get quietly out of the place. So
far as I knew I was the only person who could guess that Mr. Grell had
been blackmailed and so supply a motive for the crime. I slipped
downstairs and went home. You will understand my state of mind. At about
eleven o'clock I thought of a possible chance of speaking to Mr. Grell.
I rang up his club. Sir Ralph Fairfield answered. He assured me that Mr.
Grell had been there all the evening, but was too busy to speak to me. I
was unspeakably relieved.
"Then in the morning, he, Sir Ralph Fairfield, came to see me. I partly
guessed his mission, but the full shock came when he told me that it was
Mr. Grell who was murdered. I think I must have been mad at the time. I
said nothing about my own discovery--if Mr. Grell had been blackmailed,
I did not want any details to come out. Besides, it seemed obvious to me
that Fairfield had said Grell was at the club in order to shield
himself." She flushed slightly. "I knew Sir Ralph loved me. I thought he
was guilty and--and denounced him.
"I continued to believe that until the Princess Petrovska came to me
with a note from Mr. Grell bidding me trust her. I gave her my jewels,
and she told me he could communicate with me by cipher. I returned to my
first idea that he had killed Goldenburg--the Princess told me the
murdered man's name--rather than submit to blackmail. I determined to do
all I could to help him, for, murderer or not, I loved him--I loved him.
You know how our attempt to communicate by cipher failed.
"A day or two ago he sent me a note--a mysterious note--saying we were
both in danger. I could not understand that part of it, but it was clear
he wanted money. I could not get it except by putting my father's name
to a cheque. You know all about that. I took a taxicab and arranged to
meet him at Putney."
"You went to the General Post Office before that," interposed Foyle.
"Yes, I wanted to order a motor-car to meet us at Kingston. I thought it
safer to do it from a public-call office so as to leave as little trace
as possible. I picked Mr. Grell up at Putney, and gave him the money.
Neither of us referred directly to the murder during the journey. He
told me that he was making for his place in Sussex, and should there
make a plan for getting out of the country. He argued that the less I
knew of details the better."
"A reasonable feeling, under the circumstances," murmured Foyle. And
then, with a smile, "Your finger-prints on the dagger have been partly
responsible for a lot of bother, Lady Eileen. If you had followed my
advice at first--but it's no use harping on that. You have believed Mr.
Grell to be the murderer, I suppose, and made your own confession to
shield him. I don't know that I oughtn't to congratulate you both, for
he has certainly made enormous sacrifices, and taken enormous risks to
shield you."
"To shield _me_?" Her astonishment was palpable.
"To shield you. He had at least as much reason--if you'll forgive me
saying so--to believe you guilty as you had to think he was a murderer.
It was he--if my guess is correct--who opened the door while you were
stooping over the murdered man. He must have jumped to the conclusion
that you had at that moment killed the man, and took his own way of
diverting suspicion from you. That is the only explanation that appears
plausible to me."
A new light of happiness was in her grey eyes, and she smiled. The
direct common sense of the detective had brought home to her the motive
for the portion of the mystery that until that moment had perplexed her.
Robert Grell had laid down everything for her sake. And she had never
thought--never dreamed.... The voice of Foyle, apparently distant and
far away, broke in on her thoughts.
"I have sent for Mr. Grell. He will be here shortly. There is still some
light that he may be disposed to throw on the affair--now. Meanwhile, if
you do not object, I should like to have the statement you have just
made put in writing. I will have a shorthand writer in and place this
room at your disposal."
She murmured some words of assent and he disappeared. In a few minutes
he returned with one of the junior men of the C.I.D., who carried a
reporter's notebook in one hand and a pencil in the other.
Heldon Foyle strolled away to Sir Hilary Thornton's room. The Assistant
Commissioner was just hanging up his overcoat. He turned quickly and
held out his hand to the superintendent.
"Congratulations, Foyle. I hear it's all plain sailing now. Come and
tell me all about it."