Here Comes the Toff Read Online Free

…”
    Rollison stopped talking aloud, to read a long paragraph on the pictures which Renway owned, and which he kept in his London house. Disobligingly, the catalogue failed to give the address of that residence.
    â€œBut,” said the Toff, putting the catalogue aside, “we’re not going to worry about that, being owners of a telephone directory. You look up his address, Jolly, and go there quickly. Wait for an hour, or even two. If Irma comes out, follow her. If she doesn’t, make what inquiries you can and if you can – but do nothing to arouse suspicions. Mr. Renway is a man with a reputation, and we should hate to spoil it.”
    â€œOf course, sir.”
    â€œWhile I,” said the Toff, “will make myself pleasant at the Carlton Club. Waterer is a member there, and he haunts the place at night. He also owns Italian pictures, and he will doubtless give me the details of Renway’s collection, with many a hint on the dishonesty of his methods of obtaining Masters which he, Waterer, would gladly steal. A troubled world, Jolly, and – what are you waiting for?”
    â€œFor you to finish, sir,” said Jolly. He bowed and slipped out as the Toff sat back in an easy chair to consider the situation.
    Nothing that occurred to him suggested that his estimate of Irma Cardew’s return to London was erroneous. He remained surprised, for he had not thought it likely that she would show herself again for many years. The jury had acquitted her on the direction of a judge who had died soon afterwards. Although the Toff had wished the judge no harm, he was glad that, when Irma came up for trial again – as he believed she would – the same gentleman would not be in a position to help her escape.
    For undoubtedly Irma had been guilty.
    The police, including that gentleman who at once liked and detested the Toff – Chief Inspector McNab, to wit – knew all about Irma, knew that she had more than one murder to her discredit, and were aware of the most remarkable fact about her. She was that English rarity, a female gangster. The police and Rollison agreed on one point about her. The female of the species was more dangerous than the male.
    Irma could, and would, kill – and even had killed – as remorselessly as any Chicago big-shot, and more readily than any gangster’s moll. She was not a moll in the generally accepted sense of the word; her devotion to her brother, who had been killed in a gun fight with Rollison just before her arrest, had been one of several things to lift her out of the common rut.
    She had a good mind, for another thing.
    There had been times when the Toff had admired her, when he had known that had her moral make-up been different -and he was not thinking of her attitude towards sex – they could have been friends. But she possessed that something which had inspired a famous gentleman to coin the phrase, “an enemy of society.”
    Rollison had expected her to stay out of England.
    He knew that she had left the country immediately after the trial, and his interest in her had been so great that he had gone to the trouble of finding out that for some months she had been in Hamburg, for several more she had stayed in Paris, and then – under various names – she had visited New York, Monte Carlo, Venice, Calcutta and the Cape. It suggested that on the reasonable fortune she had illegally garnered, she was seeing the world and having a good time. As there was nothing he could do to prevent it, the Toff had not complained.
    Now, in London, she was a different proposition.
    It seemed likely that her funds had run low, if they had not run out completely. That was one of the few things that would have brought her back. Another was a collaborator, for he doubted whether Irma would start anything entirely on her own.
    Who, in London, was most likely to work with her?
    Rollison could think of no one, for Master Crooks – he