A Woman Unknown Page 0,94

there anything else, Mr Duffield?’

‘I left something in the locker, too. That was another reason I wanted to see you. Tom will be in later today, seeing whether he has his promised locker. Will you come down to the basement?’

My heart began to beat faster, perhaps at the thought of looking at something Diamond had wanted to keep private.

Mr Duffield locked the brown paper bag in his bottom drawer and slipped the key in his waistcoat pocket.

We walked to the lift in silence. The clang of the doors had never seemed so loud. We stepped out into the dim basement corridor. There was a row of metal lockers against the opposite wall.

Mr Duffield inserted a small key into the third locker. The door swung open. A brown paper package tied with string was marked ‘Finished Negatives’.

‘They’re on newspaper property,’ Mr Duffield said, ‘so I expect I should take them to the dark room. It’s just along here.’

‘It’s either that or hand them in to the police, but I can’t see they will want to be making prints along with everything else they have to do. Why don’t you put them in at the dark room, and tell your chap it’s urgent.’

He nodded. ‘I’ll do that.’

‘Good. And I’ll hand the contents of the bag to the investigating officers.’

Mr Duffield sighed with relief. ‘That’s why I telephoned to you. Since the old chaps have died, Len was the closest person I had to a friend in this building. I should hate to let him down in any way, even if he has been mixed up in something unsavoury.’

‘Ask the dark room assistant to make two copies. Then if there is anything of interest to the police, it can be passed on.’

Mr Duffield nodded. ‘I’ll do it now, if you don’t mind waiting.’

‘That’s all right.’

‘And I expect I should leave the camera for the new chap.’

Mr Duffield walked along to the dark room.

I picked up the camera that had been left in the locker. It was a simple reflex camera, with an Aldis-Butcher lens, but on closer examination I saw that it had been skilfully adapted, with another lens on the side. Shutter and lens appeared to be in the correct place at the front of the camera, but had been moved, and replaced with a dummy lens. Len Diamond had been able to point the camera in one direction, and take a picture of something, or someone, off to the side. A French photographer who liked to take candid shots unobserved had secretly used this method years ago. Len Diamond had copied him.

That explained how, when he came to talk to the photographic club, he had shown such an array of photographs of individuals in unguarded moments. ‘How did you do it?’ people had asked. But he kept his secret, until now.

Mr Duffield walked with me along Albion Street. He was nervy because of his shock at uncovering Leonard Diamond’s blackmailing. I was nervy because of having almost lost my satchel to a rascal on the Bank yesterday.

Mr Duffield hugged the brown paper carrier bag of money and photographs to his chest. Len Diamond’s specially adapted camera bulged in my satchel.

Not until the doorman at the Metropole ushered us inside did we come close to relaxing. Mr Duffield handed me the paper bag and took his leave.

The manager provided sanctuary in his office while he went upstairs with my message that I must see the chief inspector in person.

Eventually, Marcus appeared, and glanced at the stuff on the table. He gave me a tired smile. ‘What have you got for me, Kate?’

I told him about the photographs, and the new notes. ‘Neither Mr Duffield nor I have handled them.’

Marcus carefully took out the envelope of money. He picked up a letter opener from the desk and used it to separate and peer at the crisp white fivers. ‘Issued by Becketts Bank. Where is that?’

‘Park Row. It’s my bank, as it happens.’

‘So you’ll know the manager.’

‘Slightly. But I don’t usually rise to such dizzy heights. I deal with the clerks.’

The sight of the notes cheered Marcus enormously. Whether this was because it represented some new line of enquiry, or whether he was one of those people who cannot help being delighted at the sight of cash, I could not tell.

‘We’re going to note these serial numbers, Kate. I’ll write a brief letter to the manager, authorising him to tell us who they were issued to. You can follow this through for me if