"Good afternoon, Inspector," she said, in her rampant Cockney. "I came because I think this business has gone far enough. I killed Bert Sorrell, and I'm not going to let any one suffer for it if I can 'elp it."
"You—" said Grant, and stopped, staring at her fat shining face, beady eyes, tight black satin coat, and black satin toque.
Barker glanced at his subordinate and, seeing him utterly at a loss—really, Grant must have a holiday—he took command of the situation. "Sit down, Mrs.—Wallis," he said kindly. "You've been thinking too much about this affair, haven't you?" He brought forward a chair and settled her into it rather as though she had come to consult him about heartburn. "It isn't good to brood over nasty things like murders. What makes you think you killed Sorrell?"
"I don't think," she said rather tartly. "I didn't make any doubt about it, did I? A very good job it was."
"Well, well," said Barker indulgently, "let us say how do we know you did it?"
"How do you know?" she repeated. "What do you mean? You didn't know till now, but now I've told you and you know."
"But, you know, just because you say you've done it is no reason that we should believe you have," Barker said.
"Not believe me!" she said, her voice rising. "Do people usually come and con-fess to murdering people when they didn't?"
"Oh, quite often," said Barker.
She sat in surprised silence, her bright, expressionless dark eyes darting swiftly from one face to the other. Barker raised a comical eyebrow at the still silent Grant, but Grant hardly noticed him. He came from behind the desk as if loosed suddenly from a spell that had held him motionless, and came up to the woman.
"Mrs. Wallis," he said, "will you take off your gloves a moment?"
"Come now, that's a bit more sensible," she said, as she drew off her black cotton gloves. "I know what you're looking for, but it's nearly gone now."
She held out her left hand, gloveless, to him. On the side of her first finger, healed but still visible in the rough skin of her hard-worked hand, was the mark of a jagged scar. Grant expelled a long breath, and Barker came over and bent to examine the woman's hand.
"But, Mrs. Wallis," he said, "why should you want to kill Sorrell?"
"Never you mind," she said. "I killed 'im, and that's enough."
"I'm afraid it isn't," Barker said. "The fact that you have a small scar on your finger is no proof at all that you had anything to do with Sorrell's death."
"But I tell you I killed 'im!" she said. "Why won't you believe me? I killed 'im with the little knife my 'usband brought home from Spain."
"So you say, but we have no proof that what you say is true."
She stared hostilely at them both. "You'd think you weren't police at all to listen to you," she remarked. "If it weren't for that young man you've got, I'd walk home right now. I never knew such fools. What more do you want when I've confessed?"
"Oh, quite a lot more," Barker said, as Grant was still silent. "For instance, how could you have killed Sorrell when you were in front of him in the queue?"
"I wasn't in front of 'im. I was standing behind 'im all the time till the queue began to move up tight. Then I stuck the knife in and after a little I shoved in front, keepin' close to 'im all the time so he shouldn't fall."
This time Barker dropped his complaisant manner and looked at her keenly. "And what was Sorrell to you that you should stick a knife in him?" he asked.
"Bert Sorrell wasn't anything to me, but he 'ad to be killed and I killed 'im, see? That's all."
"Did you know Sorrell?"
"Yes."
"How long have you known him?"
Something in that question made her hesitate. "Some time," she said.
"Had he wronged you somehow?"
But her tight mouth shut still more tightly. Barker looked at her rather helplessly, and then Grant could see him turning on the other tack.
"Well, I'm very sorry, Mrs. Wallis," he said, as if the interview were ended, "but we can't put any belief in your story. It has all the appearance of a cock-and-bull yarn. You've been thinking too much about the affair. People do that, you know, quite often, and then they begin to imagine that they did the thing themselves. The best thing you can do is to go home and think no more about it."
As Barker had expected, that got her. A faint alarm appeared on her red face. Then her shrewd black eyes went to Grant and examined him. "I don't know who you may be," she said to Barker, "but Inspector Grant believes me all right."
"This is Superintendent Barker," Grant said, "and my chief. You'll have to tell the superintendent a lot more than that, Mrs. Wallis, before he can believe you."
She recognized the rebuff, and before she had recovered Barker said again, "Why did you kill Sorrell? Unless you give us an adequate reason, I'm afraid we can't believe you. There's nothing at all to connect you with the murder except that little scar. I expect it's that little scar that has set you thinking about all this, isn't it, now?"
"Not it!" she said. "D'you think I'm crazy? Well, I'm not. I did it all right, and I've told you how I did it exactly. Isn't that enough?"
"Oh, no, you could quite easily have made up the tale of how you did it. We've got to have
proof
."
"Well, I've got the sheath of the knife at home," she said in sudden triumph. "There's your proof for you."
"I'm afraid that's no good either," Barker said, with a very good imitation of regret. "Any one could have the sheath of the knife. You'll have to give a reason for killing Sorrell before we'll even begin to believe you."
"Well," she said sullenly after a long silence, "if you must 'ave it, I killed 'im because 'e was going to shoot my Rosie."
"Who is Rosie?"
"My daughter."
"Why should he shoot your daughter?"
"Because she wouldn't have anything to do with the likes of 'im."
"Does your daughter live with you?"
"No."
"Then perhaps you'll let me have her address."
"No; you can't have 'er address. She's gone abroad."
"But if she has gone abroad, how could Sorrell be able to harm her?"
"She hadn't gone abroad when I killed Bert Sorrell."
"Then—" began Barker. But Grant interrupted him.
"Mrs. Wallis," he said slowly, "is Ray Marcable your daughter?"
The woman was on her feet with a swiftness amazing in a person of her bulk. Her tight mouth was suddenly slack, and inarticulate sounds came from her throat.
"Sit down," said Grant gently, and pushed her back into her chair—"sit down and tell us all about it. Take your time."
"'Ow did you know?" she asked, when she had recovered herself. "'Ow
could
you know?"
Grant ignored the question. "What made you think that Sorrell intended harm to your daughter?"
"Because I met 'im one day in the street. I 'adn't seen 'im for years, and I said some-thing about Rosie going to America. And 'e said, 'So am I.' And I didn't like that, be-cause I knew 'e was a nuisance to Rosie. And then 'e smiled kind of queer at me and said, 'At least, it isn't certain. Either we're both going or neither of us is going.' An' I said, 'What do you mean? Rosie's going for sure. She's got a contract and she can't break it.' And he said, 'She has a previous contract with me. Do you think she'll keep to that too?' And I said not to be foolish. Boy-and-girl affairs were best forgotten, I said. And 'e just smiled again, that horrid queer way, and said, 'Well, wherever she's goin' we're goin' together.' And 'e went away."
"When was that?" Grant asked.
"It was three weeks today—the Friday before I killed 'im."
The day after Sorrell had received the little parcel at Mrs. Everett's. "All right. Go on.
"Well, I went 'ome and thought about it. I kept seeing 'is face. It had a bad grey kind of look in spite of its bein' so pleasant and all that. And I began to be sure that he meant to do Rosie in."
"Had your daughter been engaged to him?"
"Well,
'e
said so. It was a boy-and-girl affair. They'd known each other ever since they were kids. Of course, Rosie wouldn't dream of marrying 'im now."
"All right. Go on."
"Well, I thought the only place 'e would be able to see 'er would be the theatre. You see, I went round specially to tell Rosie about it—I didn't see 'er very often—but she didn't seem to worry. She just said. 'Oh, Bert always talked through his hat anyway, and anyhow I don't see him any more.' She 'ad such a lot of other things to think of, she wasn't worried. But I was, I tell you. I went that night and stood on the opposite side of the street, watching the people coming to the queues. But 'e didn't come. And I went to the matinee on Saturday and again in the evening, but 'e didn't come. And again on Monday night, and on Tuesday afternoon. And then on Tuesday night I saw 'im come alone, and I went and stood behind 'im in the queue at the pit door. After a while I saw a bulge in 'is right-'and coat pocket, and I felt it and it was hard. I was sure then that it was a revolver and that he was going to do Rosie in. So I just waited till the queue moved tight, like I said, and stuck the knife in 'im. He didn't make a sound. You'd think he didn't know anything had happened. And then I shoved in front, like I told you."
"Was Sorrell alone?"
"Yes."
"Who was standing alongside him?"
"For a while there was a dark young gentleman, very good-looking. And then an-other man came to talk to Bert, and pushed the young gentleman back next me."
"And who was behind you?"
"The lady and gentleman who gave evidence at the inquest."
"How is Rosie Markham your daughter?"
"Well, you see, my 'usband was a sailor—that's 'ow I got the knife from Spain—brought me lots of things, 'e did. But when Rosie was little, 'e got drowned; and 'is sister, who was very well married to Markham, offered to take 'er and bring 'er up as their own, 'cause they had no kids. So I let 'er go. And they brought 'er up proper, I'll say that for them. A real lady, my Rosie is. I went out charring for years, but since Rosie got money she bought what they call an annuity for me, and I live on that mostly now."
"How did your daughter know Sorrell?"
"The aunt that brought Bert up used to live next door to the Markhams, and Bert and Rosie went to the same school. They were very friendly then, of course. Then the aunt died when Bert was at the War."
"But it was after the War that they got engaged, surely?"
"They weren't what you would call engaged. They just had a notion for each other. Rosie was on tour in
The Green Sunshade
then, and they used to see each other when she was in town or near it."
"But Sorrell considered himself engaged?"
"Perhaps. Lots of men would like to be engaged to Rosie. As if Rosie would think of the likes of him!"
"But they kept up some kind of acquaintance?"
"Oh, yes, she let 'im come to see 'er at 'er flat sometimes, but she wouldn't go out with him, or anything like that. And she didn't 'ave 'im very often. I don't think she 'ad the heart to send him away for good, you see. She was letting 'im down gently, I think. But I'm not sure about all that, you know. I didn't go to see Rosie often myself. Not that she wasn't nice to me, but it wasn't fair on 'er. She didn't want a common old woman like me round, and 'er hobnobbin' with lords and things."
"Why did you not tell the police at once that Sorrell was threatening your daughter?"
"I thought about it, and then I thought, in the first place, I 'adn't any proof. Judging by the way you treated me today, I should think I was right. And in the second place, even supposing the police shut 'im up, they couldn't shut 'im up for good. He would just do 'er in when he came out. And I couldn't be always round watching 'im. So I thought it best to do it when I could. I 'ad that little knife, and I thought that would be a good way. I don't know anything about pistols and things."
"Tell me, Mrs. Wallis, did your daughter ever see that dagger?"
"No."
"Are you quite sure? Think a little."
"Yes; she did. I'm telling you a lie. When she was quite big, before she left school, they had a play of Shakespeare that had a dagger in it. I don't remember the name of it."
"
Macbeth?
" suggested Grant.
"Yes; that was it. And she was the heroine. She was always wonderful at acting, you know. Even when she was a little thing she was a fairy in a school pantomime. And I always went to see 'er. And when they were playing that thing
Macbeth
, I gave 'er a loan of the little dagger 'er father 'ad brought from Spain. Just for luck, you know. She gave it back to me when the play was over. But she kept the luck, all right. All 'er life she's been lucky. It was just luck that made Ladds see 'er when she was on tour, so that 'e told Barron about 'er, and Barron gave 'er an interview. That's 'ow she got 'er name—Ray Marcable. All the time she was dancing and singing and what not for him 'e kept saying, 'Remarkable!' and so Rosie took that for 'er name. It's the same initials as 'er own—at least, as 'er adopted name, see?"
There was a silence. Both Barker, who had been wordless for some time, and Grant seemed to be temporarily at a loss. Only the fat woman with the red face seemed to be completely at her ease.
"There's one thing you must remember," she said. "Rosie's name must be kept out of this. Not a word about Rosie. You can say that I killed 'im because of 'im threatening my daughter, who is abroad."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Wallis, I can't hold out any hope of that. Miss Marcable's name is sure to come out."
"But it mustn't!" she said. "It mustn't! It'll spoil it all if she's dragged into it. Think of the scandal and the talk. Surely you gentlemen are clever enough to think of a way of avoiding that?"
"I'm afraid not, Mrs. Wallis. We would if we could, but it won't be possible if your story is true."
"Oh, well," she said, with surprising equanimity, considering her former vehemence, "I don't suppose it will make such a very great difference to Rosie. Rosie is the greatest actress in Britain at the present time, and 'er position is too good for any-thing like that to spoil it. Only you must hang me before she comes back from America."