into the great big hairy bears. I’ve had the best part of thirty years at the game, but most times I’ve gone in a tank with plenty of air cover. All the same, I still look on myself as a learner, and I’d be awfully interested to hear how you propose to set about it.’
She passed him his cup. ‘Elementary, my dear Watson! I shall find out all I can about everyone with whom Teddy had anything to do these past few months.’
‘Did he tell you anything about the job he was on?’
‘No, not a thing. He was terribly security-minded.’
‘Then that won’t get you anywhere; because you can have no line on the people he was after.’
‘You can’t be certain that it won’t. And I have got one line that might lead to something. It wasn’t at all in keeping with his character, but some time back he suddenly became deeply interested in Spiritualism.’
Had it not been for his long training at suppressing all signs of emotion while interrogating people, C.B. might well have dropped his tea-cup. As it was his long face remained impassive as he said, ‘Really; and he made no secret about that?’
‘He would have, but a mutual friend of ours happened to see him at a séance, and told me about it. When I tackled him he came clean and admitted that he had been to several. I tried to persuade him to drop it. After all, his work took him out at night often enough without his spending an evening or two a week attending séances. Besides, I am a Roman Catholic. Not a very good one, I’m afraid. In fact, we were married at a Registry Office and I haven’t been inside a church for years. All the same, I still believe in its teaching, and that Spritualism is wrong. Teddy knew that, of course; otherwise he would probably have suggested my going with him. As it was, he seemed absolutely fascinated by this new interest. He wouldn’t listen to me and continued to go to the meetings in spite of all I could say.’
‘But what leads you to think that his interest in Spiritualism had any bearing on his death?’
Mary Morden’s fair eyelashes fluttered and for a moment veiled her deep blue eyes as she replied, a shade uncomfortably: ‘Because there was something behind it – something very unpleasant.’
C.B. had to keep a tight hold on himself in order not to show the intense interest which gripped him as he asked in his low voice: ‘What sort of thing?’
‘I don’t really know. Teddy used to talk in his sleep. He never gave away any office secrets, and mostly it was incoherent muttering. But during the last few weeks he began to have nightmares. He seemed to be struggling in a sort of medieval hell. He raved about the Devil taking the form of a small black imp, and of a Temple where animalswere sacrificed. An Indian was mixed up in it, and someone whom he referred to as “the Master”. When he woke from these nightmares, or I woke him, he was drenched in sweat. But he wouldn’t tell me their cause. He used to shrug them off by saying that he was making a study of the occult and had been reading a lot about the bad side of it.’
‘That may have been true. On the other hand, one can’t rule out the possibility that he had got in with some bad hats at these séances and that they introduced him into a Black Magic circle.’
‘That’s what I think.’
‘And you intend to follow this up?’
‘Yes.’
For a moment C.B. was silent. All she had said fitted in so well with his own theory of what lay behind Morden’s death that he was greatly tempted to tell her to go ahead. Yet few people knew better than he did the terrible danger to which she would be exposing herself if she did. Having decided that he must do his best to stop her, he said:
‘Listen, lady. In my work I’ve been up against this sort of thing before; yet I’ve never succeeded in bringing a big Black to justice. They are incredibly cunning and utterly unscrupulous. If I, with all the resources of my department, can’t get the goods on them,
She passed him his cup. ‘Elementary, my dear Watson! I shall find out all I can about everyone with whom Teddy had anything to do these past few months.’
‘Did he tell you anything about the job he was on?’
‘No, not a thing. He was terribly security-minded.’
‘Then that won’t get you anywhere; because you can have no line on the people he was after.’
‘You can’t be certain that it won’t. And I have got one line that might lead to something. It wasn’t at all in keeping with his character, but some time back he suddenly became deeply interested in Spiritualism.’
Had it not been for his long training at suppressing all signs of emotion while interrogating people, C.B. might well have dropped his tea-cup. As it was his long face remained impassive as he said, ‘Really; and he made no secret about that?’
‘He would have, but a mutual friend of ours happened to see him at a séance, and told me about it. When I tackled him he came clean and admitted that he had been to several. I tried to persuade him to drop it. After all, his work took him out at night often enough without his spending an evening or two a week attending séances. Besides, I am a Roman Catholic. Not a very good one, I’m afraid. In fact, we were married at a Registry Office and I haven’t been inside a church for years. All the same, I still believe in its teaching, and that Spritualism is wrong. Teddy knew that, of course; otherwise he would probably have suggested my going with him. As it was, he seemed absolutely fascinated by this new interest. He wouldn’t listen to me and continued to go to the meetings in spite of all I could say.’
‘But what leads you to think that his interest in Spiritualism had any bearing on his death?’
Mary Morden’s fair eyelashes fluttered and for a moment veiled her deep blue eyes as she replied, a shade uncomfortably: ‘Because there was something behind it – something very unpleasant.’
C.B. had to keep a tight hold on himself in order not to show the intense interest which gripped him as he asked in his low voice: ‘What sort of thing?’
‘I don’t really know. Teddy used to talk in his sleep. He never gave away any office secrets, and mostly it was incoherent muttering. But during the last few weeks he began to have nightmares. He seemed to be struggling in a sort of medieval hell. He raved about the Devil taking the form of a small black imp, and of a Temple where animalswere sacrificed. An Indian was mixed up in it, and someone whom he referred to as “the Master”. When he woke from these nightmares, or I woke him, he was drenched in sweat. But he wouldn’t tell me their cause. He used to shrug them off by saying that he was making a study of the occult and had been reading a lot about the bad side of it.’
‘That may have been true. On the other hand, one can’t rule out the possibility that he had got in with some bad hats at these séances and that they introduced him into a Black Magic circle.’
‘That’s what I think.’
‘And you intend to follow this up?’
‘Yes.’
For a moment C.B. was silent. All she had said fitted in so well with his own theory of what lay behind Morden’s death that he was greatly tempted to tell her to go ahead. Yet few people knew better than he did the terrible danger to which she would be exposing herself if she did. Having decided that he must do his best to stop her, he said:
‘Listen, lady. In my work I’ve been up against this sort of thing before; yet I’ve never succeeded in bringing a big Black to justice. They are incredibly cunning and utterly unscrupulous. If I, with all the resources of my department, can’t get the goods on them,
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