Revenge of the Adventurer! 9.

"Mr. Norman Walker?" I asked. There was no need to ask. His face was still swathed in bandages, hiding his injuries.
"Yes, madam," he took my hand and kissed it. Which was odd enough with me, but when he repeated the action with Scruff, that seemed very funny. Scruff, after all, is hardly that sort of girl.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Scruff, this is my sister Jane. We were just with Mr. Barton..."
"Yes, poor John. He lost almost everything. And that wretched man Galliard used the loss to torment him! Come in."
We entered. Music which had been faint before was now louder and identifiable.
"Hey! That's your theme tune!" Scruff exclaimed. Walker nodded. Looking around I could see everywhere pictures from his days as a star. His days as 'The Adventurer'.
"Of course, Coventry married in the last film," Walker told us. "He was going to move out of London. And this, I think, is the huse he would have bought. It has everything - including the seclusion I need. I was the Adventurer, you know. I lived the life, and I'm still living it. But Galliard wants to cast Jackson Hughes! Pah! Hughes is good at what he does, but he could never be the Adventurer! He's a tough guy, a violent man. There's no humour in him! As for Lana, Alice Slate! She's a loose woman! Lana was pure, virginal, unsullied. But no, Galliard has to cheapen her too. Have you heard of the Midas Touch, Scruff?"
"Yes," she nodded. Apparently Walker preferred to talk to her. "According to legend king Midas could turn everything he touched into gold."
"Well, Galliard has a sort of reverse Midas touch. Everything he touches turns to filth. I wasn't surprised when I heard that Stock had been murdered. Working for Galliard's a big mistake. Yes, I know he makes money, but have you seen his films? No, of course not, you're far too young and much too sensible. Girls your age shouldn't watch them anyhow. Hugely bad idea. Corrupting influence."
"And we don't want Scruff corrupted," I agreed.
"Definitely not. You don't know when you might want her not corrupted again. So keep her away from Galliard. I tell you, he's going to have something terrible happen to him, mark my words!"
I nodded. Walker led us into a drawing-room that was furnished exactly like Richard Coventry's apartment in the TV show (like most shows of the period, it only ever showed one room of the apartment, and definitely not the bedroom). The only difference was that the mirror had been replaced by a blown-up photograph of Walker as Coventry.
He was definitely a suspect, I thought. He clearly wasn't sane any more.

We left him after a rather nice afternoon tea and raced back towards London, Scruff already had the addresses for the three persons at risk of horrible death that night, and forunately all three were in Central London. All we had to do was get home and get ready.
Someone was going to die that night.