The Toff and the Deadly Priest by John Creasey

day had been disappointing, Rollison was anxious to get his own story into the right perspective, and he knew of no better way than discussing it with Jolly.
    â€œAnd what is your view of Chumley’s opinions?” asked the valet, as Rollison finished. “Are they genuine, or are they intended to mislead you?”
    â€œThe main problem, yes,” said Rollison. “You’re good. Jolly, sometimes you’re very good. Chumley is showing unsuspected cunning, although he doesn’t like being called sly. There always seemed to be something fishy about the detention and arrest, and he was making sure that he didn’t take what raps were coming. I don’t know Sergeant Bray,” added Rollison. “It might do him good to be on the carpet, but it wasn’t a friendly thing for Chumley to do.”
    â€œOn the surface, no, sir,” said Jolly, getting up and taking the coffee percolator from the stove.
    â€œBut Chumley doesn’t stop there,” went on Rollison. “He knows that he is in deep waters. Very ingenuously, he wanted my opinion, hoping that I would either prove or disprove his own arguments. I couldn’t do either, but he doesn’t know that. The curious feature is the identity of Keller.”
    â€œIdentity, but also character, sir.”
    â€œEnlarge on that,” invited Rollison.
    â€œAs I see it, sir,” said Jolly, stirring his coffee, “Keller has built for himself a reputation of being something of a Robin Hood – an avenger, one might say, almost on the lines of your own activities some years ago! He has selected victims who would get no sympathy from the people or the police.”
    â€œGood point,” admitted Rollison. “Chumley went as far as to say that only rumour links the crimes with Keller. With the arrival of the pseudo-Keller, an explanation dawns. The beatings-up have been done not by the real Keller, but by the impersonator.”
    â€œUndoubtedly the situation is very complicated,” murmured Jolly.
    â€œFoggy, yes,” said Rollison. “But intriguing. Going further and guessing wildly, we might say that (a) the reputation for Keller was deliberately built up by his vis-a-vis, that (b) the assaults on the ‘swine’ were initiated so that when a victim was ready for attack, the police would be reluctant to assume that it was one of the same series, and (c) that it has all been built up with great and admirable cunning, in order to confuse the police, confuse the people, and—”
    â€œRid the district of Mr. Kemp,” Jolly completed.
    Rollison did not smile.
    â€œDo you think that’s possible?”
    â€œI do, sir. As I listened to you, I came to the conclusion that it is the most likely explanation. I hold no brief for Mr. Kemp, but it is a fact that he has been in the district for six months, that the Keller-crimes, as we may perhaps dub them, have also been in operation for six months. That is right, sir?”
    Rollison began to smile.
    â€œI’m glad we think alike. You see where this takes us?”
    â€œIf my memory serves me, Mr. Cartwright has been ill for nine or ten months, and he had been without a curate for some months before that,” Jolly said. “It is just possible that—”
    â€œStealing thunder,” said Rollison, “but go on.”
    â€œThank you, sir. I was about to say,” Jolly went on with gentle reproof, “that as I understand your surmise, between the time that Mr. Cartwright fell ill and the time that Mr. Kemp arrived, some crime, or series of crimes, was planned and put into effect. I do not think that they are necessarily the individual acts of violence. They are more likely to prove something of much greater importance or, perhaps I should say, much greater profit. The arrival of Mr. Kemp made it possible that the crimes would be discovered, and perhaps prevented, so it was decided to get rid of him. Is that your