Page 23 of N or M? (Tommy & Tuppence 3)

"Oh, no! Only those rifles at regattas - at fairs - when you shoot at booths, and even then I never used to hit anything. Oh, dear - I feel as though I'd murdered someone."

The Coroner soothed her and asked if she had ever come in contact with the dead woman.

"Oh, no. I'd never seen her in my life. I think she must have been quite mad - because she didn't even know me or Betty."

In reply to further questions, Mrs Sprot said that she had attended a sewing party for comforts for Polish refugees, but that that was the extent of her connection with Poles in this country.

Haydock was the next witness, and he described the steps he had taken tot rack down the kidnapper and what had eventually happened.

"You are clear in your mind that the woman was definitely preparing to jump over the cliff?"

"Either that or throw the child over. She seemed to me quite demented with hate. It would have been impossible to reason with her. It was a moment for immediate action. I myself conceived the idea of firing and crippling her, but she was holding up the child as a shield. I was afraid of killing the child if I fired. Mrs Sprot took the risk and was successful in saving her little girl's life."

Mrs Sprot began to cry again.

Mrs Blenkensop's evidence was short - a mere confirming of the Commander's evidence.

Mr Meadowes followed.

"You agree with Commander Haydock and Mrs Blenkensop as to what occurred?"

"I do. The woman was definitely so distraught that it was impossible to get near her. She was about to throw herself and the child over the cliff."

There was little more evidence. The Coroner directed the jury that Vanda Polonska came to her death by the hand of Mrs Sprot and formally exonerated the latter from blame. There was no evidence to show what was the state of the dead woman's mind. She might have been actuated by hate of England. Some of the Polish "comforts" distributed to refugees bore the name of the ladies sending them, and it was possible that the woman got Mrs Sprot's name and address this way, but it was not easy to get at her reason for kidnapping the child - possibly some crazy motive quite incomprehensible to the normal mind. Polonska, according to her own story, had suffered great bereavement in her own country, and that might have turned her brain. On the other hand, she might be an enemy agent.

The verdict was in accordance with the Coroner's summing up.

II

On the day following the inquest Mrs Blenkensop and Mr Meadowes met to compare notes.

"Exit Vanda Polonska and a blank wall as usual," said Tommy gloomily.

Tuppence nodded.

"Yes, they seal up both ends, don't they? No papers, no hints of any kind as to where the money came from that she and her cousins had, no record of whom they had dealings with."

"Too damned efficient," said Tommy.

He added: "You know, Tuppence, I don't like the look of things."

Tuppence assented. The news was indeed far from reassuring.

The French Army was in retreat and it seemed doubtful if the tide could be turned. Evacuation from Dunkirk was in progress. It was clearly a matter of a few days only before Paris fell. There was a general dismay at the revelation of lack of equipment and of material for resisting the Germans' great mechanized units.

Tommy said:

"Is it only our usual muddling and slowness? Or has there been deliberate engineering behind this?"

"The latter, I think, but they'll never be able to prove it."

"No. Our adversaries are too darned clever for that."

"We are combing out a lot of the rot now."

"Oh, yes, we're rounding up the obvious people, but I don't believe we've got at the brains that are behind it all. Brains, organization, a whole carefully thought-out plan - a plan which uses our habits of dilatoriness, and our petty feuds, and our slowness for its own ends."

Tuppence said:

"That's what we're here for - and we haven't got results."

"We've done something," Tommy reminded her.

"Carl von Deinim and Vanda Polonska, yes. The small fry."

"You think they were working together?"

"I think they must have been," said Tuppence thoughtfully. "Remember, I saw them talking."

"Then Carl von Deinim must have engineered the kidnapping."

"I suppose so."

"But why?"

"I know," said Tuppence. "That's what I keep thinking and thinking about. It doesn't make sense."

"Why kidnap that particular child? Who are the Sprots? They've no money - so it isn't ransom. They're neither of them employed by the Government in any capacity."

"I know, Tommy. It just doesn't make any sense at all."

"Hasn't Mrs Sprot any idea herself?"

"That woman," said Tuppence scornfully, "hasn't got the brains of a hen. She doesn't think at all. Just says it's the sort of thing the wicked Germans would do."

"Silly ass," said Tommy. "The Germans are efficient. If they send one of their agents to kidnap a brat, it's for some reason."

"I've a feeling, you know," said Tuppence, "that Mrs Sprot could get at the reason if only she'd think about it. There must be something - some piece of information that she herself has inadvertently got hold of, perhaps without knowing what it is exactly."

"Say nothing. Wait for instructions," Tommy quoted from the note found on Mrs Sprot's bedroom floor. "Damn it all, that means something."

"Of course it does - it must. The only thing I can think of is that Mrs Sprot, or her husband, has been given something to keep by someone else - given it, perhaps, just because they are such humdrum ordinary people that no one would ever suspect they had it - whatever 'it' may be."

"It's an idea, that."

"I know - but it's awfully like a spy story. It doesn't seem real somehow."

"Have you asked Mrs Sprot to rack her brains a bit?"

"Yes, the trouble is that she isn't really interested. All she cares about is getting Betty back - that, and having hysterics because she's shot someone."

"Funny creatures, women," mused Tommy. "There was that woman, went out that day like an avenging fury, she'd have shot down a regiment in cold blood without turning a hair just to get her child back, and then, having shot the kidnapper by a perfectly incredible fluke, she breaks down and comes all over squeamish about it."

"The coroner exonerated her all right," said Tuppence.

"Naturally. By jove, I wouldn't have risked firing when she did."

Tuppence said:

"No more would she, probably, if she'd known more about it. It was sheer ignorance of the difficulty of the shot that made her bring it off."

Tommy nodded.

"Quite Biblical," he said. "David and Goliath."

"Oh!" said Tuppence.

"What is it, old thing?"

"I don't quite know. When you said that something twanged somewhere in my brain, and now it's gone again!"

"Very useful," said Tommy.

"Don't be scathing. That sort of thing does happen sometimes."

"Gentleman who draw a bow at a venture, was that it?"

"No, it was - wait a minute - I think it was something to do with Solomon."

"Cedars, temples, a lot of wives and concubines?"

"Stop," said Tuppence, putting her hands to her ears. "You'r

e making it worse."

"Jews?" said Tommy hopefully. "Tribes of Israel?"

But Tuppence shook her had. After a minute or two she said:

"I wish I could remember who it was that woman reminded me of."

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