Lowering the photograph, Harvey said, ‘You are right to be concerned about him. We can be absolutely certain Jimmy Banks wasn’t working at Laneglos because he fancied a footman’s life. He and his friends are up to something - and I think we need to find out what it is.’
The housekeeper’s dignified air of authority had dissipated while Harvey was talking and now she groped for a chair that was behind her. Finding it, she sat down heavily and gasped, ‘I am sorry, gentlemen . . . I feel suddenly faint!’
‘I met one of your ex-pupils today, Talwyn, a rather simple young girl named Enid who used to live at Porthpean.’
Amos was speaking to his wife that evening in the kitchen of their home as she prepared the evening meal. They had been I married for little more than a year and, after spending almost half of his twenty-nine years in the Royal Marines and a couple of years in bachelor lodgings when he was a Scotland Yard detective, the mundane details of domestic life were still very much a novelty to him. He also enjoyed watching Talwyn, whatever she was doing.
‘You must be speaking of Enid Merryn. Yes, she is a simple girl, but she has a lovely gentle nature. She was only at the school for a year or so but I grew very fond of her. I hope she isn’t in any trouble?’
‘I hope so too,’ Amos replied. He told her of his meeting with the Laneglos scullery-maid and of her involvement with Jimmy Banks, alias Jem Smith.
‘Oh dear, poor Enid, she is such a warm little soul, she’d give her heart to any young man who said he loved her. If he’s gone off with her savings and let her down she’ll be heart-broken’
‘I fear it might be far more serious than a broken heart and a few stolen pounds,’ Amos replied, gravely, ‘I believe this young man might be in league with others who are planning some villainy against Laneglos House. He doesn’t sound the type to desert the life he’s been leading in London in order to work as a poorly paid footman in a Cornish country mansion - or go to the length of having a letter of reference forged in order to do so. The letter has been written by an educated man on headed notepaper. Such things aren’t difficult to obtain in London, but they don’t come cheap.’
‘Do you think he and the others are planning to burgle Laneglos? They will need to be very bold, there are a great many staff employed there.’
‘That’s quite true.’ Amos agreed, ‘and the housekeeper told me her employer insists on having two armed gamekeepers patrolling the estate at night, that’s why I believe something more than burglary is being planned. It seems the man who was with this young ex-footman when Enid surprised them in the Laneglos grounds yesterday was asking questions about a grand summer ball that’s being held there in a couple of weeks time. Do you know anything about it?’
‘Of course!’ Talwyn stopped what she was doing in order to enlighten Amos. ‘It’s an annual charity event. I have never attended it myself but it is the social event of the year. Everyone who lays claim to being part of Cornish society will be there, showing off the latest fashions.’
‘. . . And no doubt displaying their most expensive jewellery too.’ Amos mused. ‘It would make a tempting target for a gang of well organised thieves. I’ll have a word with the Chief Constable tomorrow and see if he’ll agree to me making a trip to London to find out all I can about young Jimmy Banks and his dubious friends.’
CHAPTER 3
Four days after their visit to Laneglos, Amos travelled by train with Harvey Halloran to London. They crossed from Cornwall to Devon via the newly-opened railway bridge that now towered above the River Tamar, the waterway which formed a natural border between the two counties.
Amos had reported the happenings at Laneglos, together with his suspicion that a major crime was being planned, to the Cornwall Chief Constable. An ex-army man, the County’s senior policeman was having a great many problems recruiting for his force, not least the opposition of many of the gentry at having such a force imposed upon them. He was alarmed at the prospect of a serious crime being perpetrated against one of Cornwall’s most influential landowners and readily gave Amos permission to go to London to meet with Constable Churchyard of the Metropolitan Police taking Harvey with him, the drilling of new recruits being suspended for the immediate future.
Tom Churchyard met the two Cornish policemen at Paddington Station, in London. He was younger than Amos had expected, being no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, but en route to Scotland Yard where they were to have a meeting with a senior detective, Amos learned that Churchyard, like himself, had joined the Royal Marines as a young boy and seen action in a number of places in the world before leaving to join the Metropolitan Police three years before.
Brought up in the East End of London prior to joining the Royal Marines, he was immediately sent back to his birthplace to help keep order in the most lawless district of the whole of London.
Churchyard’s knowledge of the area and the families who resided there gave him a distinct advantage over most of his colleagues and he quickly gained a reputation as the man to speak to if information was needed about any of the many criminals dwelling in the warren of dingy streets and alleyways of Hoxton.
The young policeman was tall and clean cut and, although he addressed the Cornish police superintendent as ‘sir’ and showed him the deference his rank demanded, his manner was in no way servile. Amos thought that despite his lowly origins Tom Churchyard considered himself the equal of anyone he was likely to meet with, whatever the other’s station in life.
As an ex-member of the Metropolitan Police himself, Amos realized it was an attitude that would not please Tom Churchyard’s superior officers. His knowledge of the notorious Hoxton area and the fact that he was exceptionally good at his work secured his place in the London force, but it was unlikely he would ever gain promotion.
Nevertheless, Amos took an instant liking to the young Constable and on the way to Scotland Yard in a Hackney carriage, asked him how well he knew Jimmy Banks, alias Jem Smith.
‘Well enough,’ Churchyard replied, ‘Although I’ve never arrested him I’ve taken most of his family in at one time or another. They’re a thoroughly nasty lot who between them have been guilty of just about every crime in the book. Jimmy is a thief too - he could hardly be anything else with his background - but he’s probably the best of a bad lot. . . .’
Breaking off and showing signs of embarrassment, he added, ‘. . . but if you don’t mind, sir, I would rather wait until we get to Scotland Yard before going into detail about the Banks family and their accomplices. Detective Inspector Dyson is in charge of plain clothes police at Scotland Yard and has left word that he wants to be present when we discuss them.’
‘So Dyson is still there!’ Ames commented, ‘I thought he might have moved on to less demanding work.’
Herbert Dyson had been a detective sergeant on one of the Metropolitan Districts when Amos had been at Scotland Yard. Amos liked neither the man, nor the methods he was rumoured to employ in order to secure convictions.
When Amos had been sent to Cornwall to investigate a number of brutal murders, including that of the officer who was then in charge of London’s detectives, he had been made an acting detective inspector and it was expected he would take over the detective branch upon his return. Instead, the post had been given to Dyson - who was married to the daughter of one of the Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioners.
It gave Amos a moment of wry satisfaction that it was because of this he had accepted his present post with the Cornwall Constabulary. He now held a rank senior to that of Inspector Dyson . . . but Constable Churchyard was talking to him once more.
‘. . . I was forgetting you were once a Metropolitan detective too, sir. I expect you and Inspector Dyson will have a lot to talk about.’
‘I doubt it.’ Amos said, ‘we never worked together on any cases of importance.’
There was something in Amos’s short reply that emboldened the young constable to say, ‘I’ve heard many of those who did work with you in those days say it should be you heading the detective branch now.’
Amos shook his head, ‘I am quite happy where I am - and I have no doubt Inspector Dyson is doing all that was expected of him when he was appointed.’
Tom Churchyard was a bright young man. He realized that Amos’s reply was a diplomatic one and not an endorsement of Inspector Dyson’s suitability for the post he held.
Equally non-committal, he said, ‘I’m sure everyone at Scotland Yard would agree with you, sir.’
It was enough. Without saying a word against the officer in charge of the Metropolitan detectives, each man was made fully aware of the other’s opinion of him.
Arriving at Scotland Yard, Amos and his two companions were shown into Inspector Dyson’s spacious office on the ground floor and Amos thought ruefully that it was a far cry from the cramped attic office he had occupied when stationed here.
Dyson was not in the office and did not put in an appearance for another twenty minutes. When he did finally arrive he showed no sign of having been hurried and made only a cursory apology, saying, ‘Sorry I’m late, Hawke, there was something that required my attention.’
It was quite apparent to Amos that the detective inspector had deliberately kept him waiting and that his mode of address was intended as a reminder that he had once been the senior of the two. However, the situation had changed and Amos thought he needed to make this clear to Dyson immediately.
Without any apparent rancour, he said easily, ‘It’s Superintendent Hawke now, Inspector Dyson and I have no wish to waste any more of your time than is absolutely necessary. Indeed, it’s Constable Churchyard I have come to London to speak with. I think he might have information that can assist an investigation my force is carrying out, so if you’d rather I returned to "K" Division with him. . . ?’
Dyson was aware of the justifiable rebuke implicit in Amos’s words, but "Superintendent" Hawke stuck in his throat. ‘As the officer in charge of detectives it is important that I am aware of the activities of any criminals who reside in the Metropolitan Police area.’ With a smirk, he added, ‘Besides, next month I am to be promoted to superintendent and will be taking over "K" Division, so I need to know anything likely to involve one of my officers there.’
Amos realized that Dyson’s father-in-law had far more to do with the proposed promotion than Dyson’s ability, but he made no comment that might alienate the detective chief any more than he had already. He needed all the help that Tom Churchyard was able to give to him.
In the event the meeting proved to be a frustrating one. The Hoxton constable was so vague in his replies to Amos’s questions about the activities of Jimmy Banks, his relatives and their accomplices that Amos eventually brought the meeting to a close, expressing regret that Churchyard had been unable to provide as much information as he had been led to expect.
‘Well, of course he is not a detective.’ Dyson said smugly, ‘but if Scotland Yard is able to be of assistance while I remain in charge you may make an application to me - via the Commissioner, of course.’
With this, Dyson ushered the two men from Cornwall out of his office, keeping Churchyard behind.
Walking away from Scotland Yard, Amos commented bitterly, ‘We’ve had a wasted journey, Harvey. I thought Tom Churchyard would be able to tell us a great deal more than he did.’
‘He should have done. . . and still might.’ Harvey said. ‘When you and Inspector Dyson were leaving the office and I was saying goodbye to him he asked where we were staying. When I told him, he whispered he would come there as soon as he could get away from Scotland Yard.’
‘Why the need for such secrecy? If he had something to tell us why didn’t he speak when we were back there in the office?’
‘I believe it’s because he doesn’t trust Dyson,’ Harvey declared, ‘Did you see how dismayed he looked when Dyson said he was to take over as superintendent of "K" Division?’
‘No, I had other things on my mind.’ Amos replied. ‘I don’t like Dyson and never have. His methods of policing are not to my liking - but he’s still a policeman and we are both pursuing the same ends.’
‘Well, let’s wait and see what Tom has to say when he comes to the hotel,’ Harvey suggested.
CHAPTER 4
The hotel where Amos and Harvey were staying overlooked St James’s Park and was only a short distance from Scotland Yard. Nevertheless, they were kept waiting for half-an-hour before Tom Churchyard joined them there.
He explained that he had been detained by Inspector Dyson, who questioned him about what had been discussed between himself and the two Cornish policemen. Dyson seemed delighted that Amos had not gained the information for which he had come to London, adding his opinion that the Chief Constable of the Cornwall Constabulary should have requested the assistance of Scotland Yard and not sent Amos to London seeking information from a uniform policeman.
‘I was not sent to London.’ said Amos, ‘I came with my Chief Constable’s blessing to follow up my own enquiries. . . but you haven’t come here to discuss any differences that may exist between Inspector Dyson and myself’
‘Well. . . in a way I have.’ the London Constable declared, ‘I didn’t tell you very much on the way to Scotland Yard because I’d been ordered not to. The order was given to me by my inspector, but it came from Dyson. When I queried the reason for it I was told that any information about London criminals should be given in the presence of a London detective.’
‘It seems such an order was unnecessary,’ Amos shrugged, ‘You don’t have any information that could be of use to me.’
Suddenly ill-at-ease, Churchyard said, ‘That isn’t strictly true, sir. I know Jimmy Banks well enough and I know those he goes around with - and what their specialities are.’
‘Then why did you say nothing when we were at Scotland Yard?’ Amos demanded.
Even more uncomfortable now, Tom Churchyard replied, ‘If I speak honestly will you promise that nothing I say will get back to Inspector Dyson? I enjoy police work and I would be dismissed immediately. As it is, he’s ordered me to go straight back to Hackney police station and have the station sergeant record the time I arrive, so I’ll probably need to run most of the way when I leave here.’