Salute the Toff by John Creasey Read Free Book Online Page A

it.”
    â€œWell, look for it,” said the Toff dryly. “Lorne and Myra were interested in me, and presumably the reason for their interest was Fay’s call earlier in the evening. Obviously, she’d been followed.”
    â€œAll right, there’s no need to be so clever about it. I’m not used to working these things out like you. But why should anyone follow Fay?”
    â€œBecause they wanted to know why she was interested in the flat at Grey Street, and whether she would discover the dead body.”
    â€œThat seems to fit,” acknowledged Harrison.
    â€œThanks,” said the Toff sardonically. “However, we can safely say that Fay was followed, and that the Lornes wanted to know whom she had come to see. Consequently Myra put over her act, but she was startled when she learned who I was. That’s the queerest thing yet. Why should anyone suspect that I would become interested?”
    â€œI don’t know,” said Harrison. “Except that you do turn up at awkward moments, don’t you?”
    â€œIt has been known,” said the Toff, with considerable understatement. “But even that doesn’t explain why anyone should suspect that I might be involved in this particular case. The other factor is that there’s someone who can give the Lornes orders.”
    â€œI suppose that is implied.”
    â€œIt’s more than implied, it’s shouted at us,” said the Toff. “But I think Bert Ebbutt’s boys will look after the Lornes. Our worry is Draycott, or, more correctly, Fay. How well do you know her?”
    â€œWe’ve been friends for years.”
    â€œGood friends?”
    â€œAs good as I could make it. If I’d had my way, we would have been married a couple of years ago. But Fay always says ‘No’ in the nicest of ways. It wouldn’t have been so bad,” added Harrison quietly, “if there’d been someone else, but she just told me that she was never likely to feel more than—well, friendly. She had a tough time a year ago, and was six months without a job. She didn’t tell me about it, but I discovered it by accident. I put her on to Draycott right away, and he fixed her up.”
    â€œWhy didn’t she tell you how things were?”
    â€œIt was my own fault, I suppose. She knew that I would start the old ‘marry-me-and-have-no-worries’ tune, and she preferred not to risk it. Anyhow, that’s nothing to do with the case in hand.”
    â€œExcept one angle,” said the Toff.
    â€œI’d rather not discuss it,” said Harrison.
    â€œIt needn’t take long. You’ve known Draycott for a long time, and you’ll know whether he’s the type to appeal to Fay.”
    â€œDo we have to go into that?”
    â€œI’d like to.”
    â€œOh, all right,” growled Harrison. “I don’t know about the ‘type’ to appeal, but I gathered that Fay had fallen for him. I worried her for years, and she kept putting me off, but she meets a man, her employer who’s engaged, and she loses her head. I met her a fortnight after she’d taken the job, and …” Harrison cleared his throat and looked out of the window, and the moon shining on pale fields. “Jokingly I asked her whether she would give it up and change her mind about me. She just said: ‘Especially not now, Ted. I’m sorry.’ And that,” went on Harrison, with a harsh note in his voice, “gave me a bad time for a day or so. I knew Jimmy Draycott wasn’t the man to let anyone down, and even if he did respond to Fay’s feelings nothing could come of it. Not that I think he dreamed—dreams, I mean—of what she thinks.”
    Rollison said reflectively: “Well, it’s an odd mix-up, and a month—she’s been working for him for a month, hasn’t she?”
    â€œIt might be five weeks.”
    â€œA month isn’t