Killer Dolphin

“And I suppose,” Peregrine observed, “I now understand your extraordinary behaviour on Friday.”

“You may suppose so. On Friday,” Jeremy turned to Alleyn, “Peregrine informed me that Conducis had sold or as good as sold, to a private collector in the U.S.A.”

Jeremy got up and walked distractedly about the office. Alleyn rested his chin in his hand, Fox looked over the top of his spectacles and Peregrine ran his hands through his hair.

“You must have been out of your wits,” he said.

“Put it like that if you want to. You don’t need to tell me what I’ve done. Virtually, I’ve stolen the glove.”

“Virtually?” Alleyn repeated. “There’s no ‘virtually’ about it. That is precisely what you’ve done. If I understand you, you now decided to keep the real glove and let the collector spend a fortune on a fake.”

Jeremy threw up his hands: “I don’t know,” he said. “I hadn’t decided anything.”

“You don’t know what you proposed to do with young Hamnet Shakespeare’s glove?”

“Exactly. If this thing hadn’t happened to Jobbins and the boy and I’d been responsible for handing over the treasure: I don’t know, now, what I’d have done. I’d have brought Hamnet’s glove with me, I think. But whether I’d have replaced it—I expect I would but—I just do not know.”

“Did you seriously consider any other line of action? Suppose you hadn’t replaced the real glove—what then? You’d have stuck to it? Hoarded it for the rest of your life?”

“NO!” Jeremy shouted. “NO! Not that, I wouldn’t have done that. I’d have waited to see what happened, I think, and then—and then.”

“You realize that if the purchaser had your copy, good as it is, examined by an expert it would be spotted in no time?”

Jeremy actually gri

“What you would have done is more to the point.”

“I tell you I don’t know. Would I let it ride? See what happened? Do a kidnap sort of thing perhaps? Phoney voice on the telephone saying if he swore to give it to the Nation it would be returned? Then Conducis could do what he liked about it.”

“Swear, collect and sell,” Peregrine said. “You must be demented.”

“Where is this safe-deposit?” Alleyn asked. Jeremy told him. Not far from their flat in Blackfriars.

“Tell me,” Alleyn went on, “how am I to know you’ve been speaking the truth? After all you’ve only handed us this rigmarole after I’d discovered the fake. How am I to know you didn’t mean to flog the glove on the freak black market? Do you know there is such a market in historic treasures?”

Jeremy said loudly, “Yes, I do. Perfectly well.”

“For God’s sake, Jer, shut up. Shut up.”

“No, I won’t. Why should I? I’m not the only one in the company to hear of Mrs. Constantia Guzma

“Mrs. Constantia Guzma

“She’s a slightly mad millionairess with a flair for antiquities.”

“Yes?”

“Yes. Harry Grove knows all about her. So,” added Jeremy defiantly, “do Marco and Charlie Random.”

“What is the Guzma

“According to Harry,” Jeremy began in a high voice and with what sounded like insecure irony, “she entertained Marco very lavishly when he had that phenomenal season in New York three years ago. Harry was in the company. It appears that Mrs. Guzma

“I mean,” Jeremy said with dignity, “precisely and literally what I say. Behind locked doors Mrs. Guzma

“And how did you hear of it?”

Peregrine ejaculated: “I remember! When I told the company about the glove!”

“That’s right. Harry said Mrs. Constantia Guzma

Peregrine made an exasperated noise.

“Yes,” said Jeremy. “Well knowing your views on theatre gossip, I didn’t relay the story to you.”

“Have other people in the company heard it?” Alleyn asked.

Jeremy said, “Oh, yes. I imagine so.”

Peregrine said, “No doubt Harry has told Destiny,” and Jeremy looked miserable. “Yes,” he said. “He did. At a party.”

Alleyn said, “You will be required to go to your safe-deposit with two C.I.D. officers, uplift the glove and hand it over to them. You will also be asked to sign a full statement as to your activities. Whether a charge will be laid I can’t at the moment tell you. Your ongoings, in my opinion, fall little short of lunacy. Technically, on your own showing, you’re a thief.”

Jeremy, now so white that his freckles looked like brown confetti, turned on Peregrine and stammered:

“I’ve been so bloody miserable. It was a kind of diversion. I’ve been so filthily unhappy.”

He made for the door. Fox, a big man who moved quickly, was there before him. “Just a minute, sir, if you don’t mind,” he said mildly.

Alleyn said: “All right, Fox. Mr. Jones: will you go now to the safe-deposit? Two of our men will meet you there, take possession of the glove and ask you to return with them to the Yard. For the moment, that’s all that’ll happen. Good-day to you.”

Jeremy went out quickly. They heard him cross the foyer and run downstairs.

“Wait a moment, will you, Jay?” Alleyn said. “Fox, lay that on, please.”

Fox went to the telephone and established a sub-fusc conversation with the Yard.

“That young booby’s a close friend of yours, I gather,” Alleyn said.

“Yes, he is. Mr. Alleyn, I realize I’ve no hope of getting anywhere with this but if I may just say one thing—”

“Of course, why not?”

“Well,” Peregrine said, rather surprised, “thank you. Well, it’s two things, actually. First: from what Jeremy’s told you, there isn’t any motive whatever for him to burgle the safe last night. Is there?”

“If everything he has said is true — no. If he has only admitted what we were bound to find out and distorted the rest, it’s not difficult to imagine a motive. Motives, however, are a secondary consideration in police work. At the moment, we want a workable assemblage of cogent facts. What’s your second observation?”