‘And you want to fred her?’ ‘I don’t think it sounds as though I’m going to be much good to you. Eccles is a very respectable, sound solicitor who makes a large income; has a good many highly respectable clients, works for the landed gentry, professional classes and retired soldiers and sailors, generals and admirals and all that sort of thing. He’s the acme of respectability. I should imagine from what you’re talking about, that he was strictly within his lawful activities.’
‘But you’re – interested in him,’ suggested Tommy.
‘Yes, we’re very interested in Mr James Eccles.’ He sighed.
‘We’ve been interested in him for at least six years. We haven’t progressed very far.’
‘Very interesting,’ said Tommy. ‘I’ll ask you again. Who exactly is Mr Ecdes?’
‘You mean what do we suspect Eccles of? Well, to put it in a sentence, we suspect him of being one of the best orgnl ng brains in criminal activity in this country.’
‘Criminal activity?’ Tommy looked surprised.
‘Oh yes, yes. No cloak and dagger. No espionage, no counter-espionage. No, plain criminal activity. He is a man who has so far as we can discover never performed a criminal act in his life. He has never stolen anything, he’s never forged anything, he’s never convened funds, we can’t get any kind of evidence against him. But all the same whenever there’s a big planned organized robbery, there we fred, somewhere in the background, Mr Eccles leading a blameless life.’
‘Six years,’ said Tommy thoughtfully.
‘Possibly even longer than that. It took a little time, to get on to the pattern of things. Bank holdups, robberies of private jewels, all sons of things where the big money was. They’re all jobs that followed a certain pattern. You couldn’t help fecl/ng that the same mind had planned them. The people who directed them and who carried them out never had to do any planning at all. They went where they were told, they did what they were ordered, they never had to think. Somebody else was doing the thinking.’
‘And what made you hit on Eccles?’
Ivor Smith shook his head thoughtfully. ‘It would take too long to tell you. He’s a man who has a lot of acquaintances, a lot of friends. There are people he plays golf with, there are people who service his car, there are pounds ‘ms of stockbrokers who act for him. There are companies doing a blameless business in which he is interested. The plan is ge.ttng ??er but his p. art in.it hasn’t got much clearer, except mat ne s very conspcnousy absent on certain occasions. A big bank robbery cleverly planned (and no expense spared, mind you), consolidating the get-away and all the rest of it, and where’s Mr Eccles when it happens? Monte Carlo or Zurich or possibly even fishing for salmon in Norway. You can be quite sure Mr Eccles is never within a hundred miles of where criminal activities are happening.’ ‘Yet you suspect him?’ ‘Oh yes. I’m quite sure in my own mind. But whether we’ll ever catch him I don’t know. The man who tunnelled through the floor of a bank, the man who knocked out the night watchman, the cashier who was in it from the beginning, the bank manager who supplied the information, none of them know Eccles, probably they’ve never even seen him. There’s a long chain leading away – and no one seems to know more than just one link beyond themselves.’ ‘The good old plan of the cell?’ ‘More or less, yes, but there’s some original fifinking. Some day we’ll get a chance. Somebody who oughm’t to know anything, will know something. Something silly and trivial, perhaps, but something that strangely enough may be evidence at last.’ ‘Is he married – got a family?’ ‘No, he has never taken risks like that. He lives alone with a housekeeper and a gardener and a buffer-valet. He entertains in a mild and pleasant way, and I dare swear that every single person who’s entered his house as his guest is beyond suspicion.’ ‘And nobody’s getting rich?’ ‘That’s a good point you’ve put your finger on, Thomas.
Somebody ought to be getting rich. Somebody ought to be seen to be getting rich. But that part of it’s very cleverly arranged.