“You mistake me,” replied the speaker. “My name is Zani Chada. You know
where I live. I shall not detain you more than five minutes if you will
do me the honour of calling upon me.”
Kerry chewed furiously for ten momentous seconds, then:
“I'll come!” he said.
He replaced the receiver on the hook, and, walking across to the charge
desk, took an official form and a pen. On the back of the form he
scribbled rapidly, watched with curiosity by the officer in charge.
“Give me an envelope,” he directed.
An envelope was found and handed to him. He placed the paper in the
envelope, gummed down the lapel, and addressed it in large, bold writing
to the Assistant Commissioner of the Criminal Investigation Department,
who was his chief. Finally:
“I'm going out,” he explained.
“After what I've said?”
“After what you've said. I'm going out. If I don't come back or don't
telephone within the next hour, you will know what to do with this.”
The Limehouse official stared perplexedly.
“But meanwhile,” he protested, “what steps am I to take about the
murder? Durham will be back with the body at any moment now, and you say
you've got a clue to the murderer.”
“I have,” said Kerry, “but I'm going to get definite evidence. Do
nothing until you hear from me.”
“Very good,” answered the other, and Kerry, tucking his malacca cane
under his arm, strode out into the fog.
His knowledge of the Limehouse area was extensive and peculiar, so that
twenty minutes later, having made only one mistake in the darkness, he
was pressing an electric bell set beside a door which alone broke the
expanse of a long and dreary brick wall, lining a street which neither
by day nor night would have seemed inviting to the casual visitor.
The door was opened by a Chinaman wearing national dress, revealing
a small, square lobby, warmly lighted and furnished Orientally. Kerry
stepped in briskly.
“I want to see Mr. Zani Chada. Tell him I am here. Chief Inspector Kerry
is my name.”
The Chinaman bowed, crossed the lobby, and, drawing some curtains aside,
walked up four carpeted stairs and disappeared into a short passage
revealed by the raising of the tapestry. As he did so Kerry stared about
him curiously.
He had never before entered the mystery house of Zani Chada, nor had he
personally encountered the Eurasian, reputed to be a millionaire,
but who chose, for some obscure reason, to make his abode in this old
rambling building, once a country mansion, which to-day was closely
invested by dockland and the narrow alleys of Chinatown. It was
curiously still in the lobby, and, as he determined, curiously Eastern.
He was conscious of a sense of exhilaration. That Zani Chada controlled
powerful influences, he knew well. But, reviewing the precautions
which he had taken, Kerry determined that the trump card was in his
possession.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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