The Girl in the Cellar

CHAPTER 21

Jim Fancourt went to Scotland Yard as soon as he got up to town. He walked in on Frank Abbott, who was writing, and said with hardly a preliminary, ‘She doesn’t know anything.’

Frank laid down his pen and lifted his eyebrows.

‘She?’ he said.

Jim frowned.

‘A

Frank’s brows went a little higher.

‘All?’ he said.

‘All I knew. I’ve got a little more, but not much.’

‘What have you got?’

‘I went down and saw A

‘No.’

‘When she was sure the girl was dead she put out the torch and came up the stairs. I told you about all that-her walking along the street, and getting on the bus, and meeting Miss Silver. Well, I went down yesterday and saw her. I told her that I’d been to look for the house, and I showed her the bead. She turned awfully pale when she saw it, and she said the beads that had been round the girl’s neck were like that. I pressed her, and she stuck to it. She said she was sure she had seen them. She shuddered violently when she said it-it evidently brought the whole thing back. She said, “They were there- but the string was broken!” I pressed her about going to the house. She couldn’t remember anything-anything at all- before the moment when she found herself on the cellar stairs with the consciousness that something dreadful had happened. It was after that that she sat down on the steps and waited for her head to clear. She found the bag, got out the torch, and saw the dead girl at the foot of the steps.’ He made an impatient gesture. ‘I told you all that! What’s the good of going over and over it! But it was then that she saw the beads that had been round the girl’s neck. And the string was broken-this one had rolled away and got behind some boards that were leaning up against the wall. Everything else had been cleaned up-washed-tidied away. There was just this one bead behind the boards, and it proves the whole story, doesn’t it?’

‘Well-we’d like to see the girl. Anything more?’

Jim frowned.

‘No-not really. She says that she thinks the house was empty when she was in it.’

‘Why?’

‘She says why didn’t they kill her too if they were there?’

‘How did she get into the house?’

‘She doesn’t know. Everything’s a blank up to the moment she came to in the dark on those steps-’ He paused, and then said, ‘I think she’d seen the dead girl and dropped her own torch-she thinks she had a torch. There was a broken one on the ground by the dead girl. The one she used afterwards was in the bag-the black bag which she thinks must have belonged to the dead A

Frank Abbott frowned.

‘Give me her description.’

‘Whose-the dead A

‘Both.’

Jim said, ‘This A

Frank Abbott said, ‘That’s nothing to go by. Very few girls let themselves have straight hair nowadays. Any distinguishing marks?’

‘No. How do you suppose I should know? There aren’t any that show.’

‘And the dead girl?’

Jim stared at him.

‘What’s the good of describing anyone? What’s the good of a description? The dead A

Frank Abbott looked up sharply and said, ‘Were you married to her-this girl who is dead?’

‘Not really-there was some kind of a ceremony.’

Frank’s hand lifted and fell again.

‘You told the Americans that she was your wife.’

‘Only way I could get them to take her.’

Frank remarked dispassionately, “There’ll be a row about that.’

‘Can’t be helped. If she’d been alive-but she isn’t, poor girl, she’s dead. It’s the other one, the living A

Frank said, ‘Go on.’

‘I said, “He’s frightened you-what did he say?” And she said-’ He paused.

For a moment he was back on the hillside. He was alone with A

Frank was looking at him. Jim went on speaking. He repeated her words, the description of the man, and his last words.

‘He said, “I’ll go for now. You’ll remember that we know where you are. And here are some orders for you. You’ll not tell anyone you’ve seen me, or what I’ve said. And when you get your orders you’ll do what you’re told right away, and no nonsense about it! Do you understand?” Then he said, “You’d better!” and he went away. And that was all.’

Frank Abbott said, ‘Very peremptory.’

Jim frowned and said, ‘Yes.’

CHAPTER 22

A

There was a girl, and she was yawning. Behind her there was a partly open door to a lighted room. The light was dangerous. It was the dead middle of the night. There oughtn’t to be any light in a sleeping house. She moved so quickly that she had no time for anything except that one thought. The darkness was safe, the light was dangerous. She was along the passage and at the door, and in the same moment she was in the room and the door shut on her and on the girl. She leaned against it, drawing quick breaths and saying the first thing that came into her mind to say.

‘I’m so sorry. There’s a man-chasing me. Oh, please do help me!’

The girl looked at her. She was a little thing, and plump. Her fair hair was untidy, as if she had been asleep on it. She had on a short skirt and a fla