Chapter VI

IN WHICH MR. FRANKLIN EXPLAINS THE WILL OF A MILLIONAIRE, AND
SUGGESTS A MOTIVE

While Inspector Blaikie was pursuing his inquiries at the hotel, Superintendent Wilson's emissary had found the lawyer of whom he had been sent in search, and had brought him back post haste to Scotland Yard. Hugh Radlett's solicitor was personally an insignificant little rat of a man, very thin and meagre, with a dry, wrinkled face like parchment, and a pair of very bright, deep-sunken eyes, that darted restlessly about, flashing and twinkling, as it seemed, from somewhere deep inside his head. He was clean-shaven, and sharp-featured--a lawyer confessed in every detail of his appearance. His clothes were good, but worn ill and hanging loosely on him, crumpled and awry. Only his top hat was immaculately bright.

As Mr. Wilbraham Franklin entered Wilson's room, he gave a series of sharp glances round him, as if he were taking a quick mental inventory of his surroundings. He spoke in answer to Wilson's greetings; his voice was hard, precise, incisive.

"Morning, morning. Met you before, Superintendent. Chilcot case, yes. Terrible business this--terrible. Mr. Radlett--hey--murdered? So your man tells me. Terrible, terrible."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Franklin, I remember you. You held a watching brief. Quite so. Yes, I fear Mr. Radlett has been made away with. I had better give you an outline of the case. You were acting, I believe, for Mr. Radlett?"

Franklin said he was, and Wilson then gave him a brief general account of the case, ending up with the discovery, in Radlett's rooms, of the letter addressed to his lawyer, with the remarkable enclosure.

"A piece of luck, sir, that it escaped the murderer's notice. I understand you saw Mr. Radlett yesterday?"

"Yes, he called on me yesterday afternoon, at about five o'clock. He asked me to act as his legal adviser in this country. As he brought a letter of introduction from Lord Ealing, who had mentioned the matter to me previously, I at once agreed."

"I should like you to tell me exactly what took place between you."

"Of course, Superintendent, our clients' business is strictly confidential as a rule. But, as it happens, Mr. Radlett himself told me, if any trouble arose, to give the fullest information to the police." Franklin said this very quietly, as if it were not at all a startling piece of information.

Wilson sat up straight, showing surprise. "Do you mean he anticipated trouble?" he asked.

"Undoubtedly he thought it possible. He was even coming round to Scotland Yard this morning to ask for police protection."

"Police protection? What was he afraid of?"

"He said he had been pursued to this country by enemies who would stick at nothing, and meant to put him out of the way if they could."

"Enemies? What sort of enemies?"

Franklin's beady little eyes fixed themselves on Wilson as he replied.

"Bolsheviks! You know, I expect, that he was engaged in a big business deal with Russia--a mining concession." Wilson nodded. "He said that, while he had secured the concession from the Soviet Government, there was a group among the Bolsheviks very anxious to prevent it from going through. They tried to get him in Reval, and failed, and he said they had pursued him here in order to get hold of certain papers, and very likely kill him into the bargain."

"Ah, yes. It was evident the murderer had been searching for certain papers. Have you any idea what they were?"

"An excellent idea, I should suppose. Mr. Radlett deposited with me yesterday--here it is--a concession, duly signed and sealed, from the Council of People's Commissaries to Hugh Radlett, John Pasquett, and such partners as they may, with the consent of the said Council, hereafter associate with themselves. The document grants to the assignees a thirty years' lease, renewable on certain conditions for a further term of thirty years, of a large tract of country, situate on the Lower Yenisei River, with rights of exploitation over all metals and minerals found therein. It is personally signed by Lenin--Vladimir Ulianov there, I understand, is his signature--and other commissaries of the one part, and by Hugh Radlett and John Pasquett of the other part. You had better look at it yourself. Mr. Radlett left it with me for safe keeping yesterday afternoon."

Wilson took the document and glanced through it. It was a large official-looking paper, written, in parallel columns, in both Russian and English. The witnesses to the signatures were Russians. The paper bore the official seal of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.

"Lord Ealing spoke to me of this," said the Superintendent. "I think he was afraid it had fallen into the murderer's hands. It is a very big thing, I understand, this concession?"

"Immense."

"He was proposing to work it in partnership with the Anglo-Asiatic, was he not?"

"Quite, quite. He had come here to settle the matter with Lord Ealing."

"Now, as for this information Mr. Radlett was proposing to convey to Scotland Yard. Can you tell me what it was?"

"Unfortunately, no. He gave me no details. He only said he had received several threatening letters."

Wilson sighed. "There's valuable evidence gone west," he said. "It may be hard to pick up the trail now. Unless this Rosenbaum----By the way, did he mention to you his secretary--a Mr. Ivan Rosenbaum--the fellow who seems to be the murderer?"

"Yes, he spoke of him very warmly. He said he had picked him up in Russia only a little while ago. A wonderful man, he called him, for getting round people, and a marvellous worker. I remember he said the Russians were the most intelligent people on earth except the Jews--and his secretary had the advantage of being both."

"Rosenbaum was not with him when he called on you, I suppose?"

"No. Mr. Radlett came alone. But he arranged to send his secretary round to-day with a number of important papers he wanted me to take care of."

"Then Radlett left no documents with you except the concession?"

"I beg your pardon, several. He left his will."

"His will?"

"Yes. The will was made in Russia some years ago--while he was in prison, he said--and duly witnessed by two of his fellow-prisoners. He handed it over to me with the concession, asking me whether it was in order. I said it was informal, but apparently in order--only there was the difficulty of producing the witnesses in case of need. 'I should say there was,' he said, 'they're both dead. What had I better do about it?' I suggested that I should draw him out a new will in proper form. He agreed; but then he said, 'Look here, Franklin, my life's in danger. What happens if I die before I've signed the new will?' I said I would have it ready to-day, but he wasn't satisfied with that. He added a footnote to the old will accepting it, as from yesterday, as his last will and testament, and signed it again in the presence of two of my clerks. He said that would let him sleep easy till the new will was ready. I asked him whether he wanted any changes made, and he said I might as well delete the legacy to his daughter, but the rest held good. I was intending to make the new draft to-day."

"Can you tell me the purport of the will?"

"Yes. He had written that his fortune in America now in the hands of trustees amounted to about thirty million dollars, to the best of his belief. The will went on to say that he had already provided fully for his wife at the time of their parting, and that this money--ten million dollars--came to his daughter on his wife's death. 'It's come to her already,' he told me yesterday, 'my wife died two years ago.' To his daughter, Irene Philippa Radlett, the will left fifty thousand dollars in trust, the interest to be used on her behalf by the trustees, and the principal to be hers at twenty-one or marriage--the earlier date. This legacy he instructed me to strike out. 'She won't need it,' he said, 'now that she has her mother's money.' The whole residue of his great fortune he left to 'my friend and partner, John Pasquett, in memory of our many adventures together, and in the hope he will have better luck with it than I.' There were no other legacies, save honoraria to the trustees."

Wilson nodded reflectively. "Practically, Pasquett gets everything," he said. "I understand he is due to arrive here in a week or so. Did Radlett say anything of him?"

"Yes. He spoke of him in terms of the warmest affection. He said Pasquett was the one real friend he had. They had spent, he told me, many years together."

"We are very anxious to get into touch with Mr. Pasquett. Do you know where he is?"

Franklin seemed to Wilson to hesitate oddly before he answered in the negative. "Did not Radlett tell you?" Wilson added.

"No. He only said he would be arriving in England shortly, and would be staying with him at Sugden's Hotel."

"Of course, if you hear from Pasquett or get to know where he is, you will let us know at once."

"Certainly. Lord Ealing may have his address." Again as Franklin said this, something in the way he said it made Wilson suspicious. Yet the remark seemed innocent enough.

"Lord Ealing," Wilson answered, "has only an address at Reval. We are trying there, of course. Now, Mr. Franklin, is there anything else you can tell us?"

"Yes. The paper on which the will was written contained on the other side a further document. It was addressed to his lawyer in New York, and instructed him, if at any time he failed to hear from him for any consecutive period of two years, to put the terms of the will at once into execution as a deed of gift, without waiting for leave to presume death from the courts. He said he had meant this to cover the contingency of his death in prison in Siberia. This document further gave John Pasquett, whose signature was appended to it, full power to sign all or any documents on his behalf, and to make any investments or assignments in his name at any time. This last provision was added at Reval about six months ago, in order, he said, to provide for the working of the concession by either partner in the absence of the other. He again signed both these documents yesterday in the presence of myself and one of my clerks."

"Then Pasquett can at once get control of Radlett's fortune, and will become absolute owner of it in two years' time, or on proof of Radlett's death?"

"That is so. There is no doubt about the validity of the documents, although they are not in proper legal form."

"Have you the paper there?"

The lawyer handed it over. "I think I am acting on Mr. Radlett's wishes in placing this in your hands. I have kept a copy, of course."

"You have no other papers?"

"None of importance. I am somewhat anxious, as I am the guardian of Mr. Radlett's interests, about the safety of the other papers he was to let me have to-day. Were they found at his hotel?"

"A number of papers--yes. Of course I cannot say whether any are missing. Now, about Rosenbaum. Have you any idea where he was going this morning?"

"He was to have come to my office to-day, as I told you."

"Yes; but it is clear that Radlett arranged for him to go off somewhere this morning by train. He booked a taxi for him overnight, and Rosenbaum left at seven, and drove to Victoria Station. Where was he supposed to be going?"

"I have no idea. Mr. Radlett mentioned no such journey."

"I see. It was not likely you would be able to tell me. I think that is all, unless you have any further point."

But Franklin apparently had no more to tell. A few minutes later he took leave of Wilson. Taking a taxi outside, he drove straight to the offices of the Anglo-Asiatic Corporation. There was something he particularly desired to say to his best client, Lord Ealing.

* * * * *

Superintendent Wilson was left wondering. "Now why," he said to himself, "did that fellow give me the impression of having something up his sleeve? Was it just imagination? Or what the devil could he have wanted to hide? And Lord Ealing somehow gave me just the same impression. The case seems plain enough, unless there's something further behind it. I must find out more about this fellow Pasquett. Though it looks as if Rosenbaum did it, beyond a doubt."