Mystery on Southampton Water

by Freeman Wills Crofts

Brand was faintly comforted by these arguments, but he still remained horribly upset by the idea of what might be coming. It was with misgiving that he braced himself to meet the amount of enquiry which was certain.

  All three men were surprised to hear nothing further from the police that day. It was not till the following morning that the affair was followed up. Then Brand got another shock. It was not the local Superintendent who called, but no less a person than the Scotland Yard officer who had acted in the Clay case.

  However, the enquiry, when it came, was mild and reassuring. Chief-Inspector French was civil and obviously accepted their statements. All three were sure that the idea of foul play had either not occurred to him, or had been dismissed from his mind. He laid no stress on the nature of the proposed agreement with Chayle, clearly taking it for granted that it was quite ordinary. He was thorough enough in getting an account of the visit and details of the start, but he touched on no other subject. On departure he thanked them for their help, saying that one or more would be called to give evidence at the inquest, the date of which was not yet settled.

  Brand was greatly relieved when he and his sergeant had gone, for though their visit had turned out so much less trying than he had expected, it still had been an ordeal. It was evident that, in spite of the confident way in which they had talked, both Tasker and King had found it so too.

  This feeling of confidence continued to grow as the days passed and no further communications were received from the police. They had not been called to the inquest, which, they saw by the papers, had been opened and adjourned. Doubtless, however, they would be called later.

  Once again what had been a bad period in Brand’s life seemed to be drawing to an end. The adjourned inquest once over, he need have no further fears. Once again the men of Joymount began to settle down and to enjoy their profits.

  PART IV

  Elucidation

  17

  French Returns to the Assault

  The rapid progress he had made at the commencement of the case of Clay and the burnt car had made Chief-Inspector French superstitiously fearful lest this good luck should not continue. He had noticed that when things went well at first, some serious snag not unusually developed later on. If the converse had proved true he would not have so much minded, but unhappily a bad beginning did not necessarily mean a satisfactory finish. Sometimes he became despondent and thought that the balances of Chance were unequally weighted against him.

  In this instance, his fears did really seem to have been justified. The case had had a brilliant opening. In the first few hours he had proved that Clay had been murdered and that the car accident had been a fake. Almost immediately after that he had developed an excellent theory of the guilt of two of the members of the Joymount staff, a theory which had seemed to cover all the circumstances.

  But at this point his progress had ceased. His theory remained a theory. He did not abandon it; it seemed to him as good as ever. But try as he would, he could get nothing which proved its truth.

  One of his fundamental ideas was that the process had been stolen by some person or persons connected with the manufacture of rapid-hardening cement. But here again he could learn nothing. If such a theft had taken place, he might expect to find some other firm putting out cement at a cheaper rate than the rest. But none appeared to be doing so. He had discussed the point with Haviland and Mairs, and they had agreed with him. They had indeed expressed the view that if any firm were found selling below the general level, it would be proof of guilt.

  They had gone on to make an important offer, which French had accepted. They had, they said, an elaborate machinery for watching the market, which would immediately bring any such development to their notice. They promised to have this machinery operated with the greatest vigilance, and they undertook immediately to advise French if they learned of any firm offering cuts in prices. For the moment, therefore, he was satisfied to leave this matter in the Chayle hands, their interests and his own being so obviously identical.

  He did not, however, rely for a long time on Chayle’s detective organisation. As soon as he had completed the more immediate enquiries and was free to look further afield, he arranged through the Yard for an exhaustive watch to be kept, not only on rapid-hardening cement prices in the open market, but also on the possibility of secret rebates. So far as he could learn, however, the Chayle men were correct in saying that no such cuts had been made.

  He had then turned his serious attention to Joymount. He had not exactly suspected the Joymount men, but he had considered them in connection with the affair, principally because of the geographical position of their works. Besides being near Chayle, they had a launch by which the body could have been transported from the Island to the mainland. But in the absence of reason to suppose they had obtained the process, French saw that his other suspicions did not amount to anything at all. The men of any other firm were equally likely to be guilty.

  All the same, he had made a number of unobtrusive enquiries at Joymount, mostly from workmen. Especially he had questioned the night watchman, and the skippers and crews of two small steamers which had been moored at the Joymount wharf on the night of Clay’s presumed murder. From them he had obtained information which seemed to prove he was working on the wrong lines.

  From the night watchman he had learned that some technical investigation had been in progress for a month prior to the tragedy, involving a certain amount of night work. Further that during the night of the tragedy itself both King and Brand had been in the building. They had arrived about ten o’clock and had left about three in the morning. They had been in the chemical laboratory, and it would have been impossible for them to have left between these hours, unknown to the watchman. Obviously, if this testimony were correct, they could not have gone to Chayle.

  French did not really suspect the other two men of the four on the Joymount photograph, any one of whom Fisher of the Southampton garage had said might have bought the car. These were Campbell, a fitter, and Armour, a fireman. All the same, French had made it his business to find out where both of them had been on the night in question. Both, he had ample proof, were at home.

  French had then considered the question of a boat or launch. He had inspected the Joymount boathouse, in which all the craft used by those connected with the works were kept. He had seen that it would be difficult—though not impossible—to take out a boat unnoticed by a person on the wharf. Discreet enquiries had found the two steamers which had been at Joymount on the night in question, and none of those on board had seen or heard any such boat. He learned, moreover, that on that Sunday night there had been a thick fog, and because of it all the longshoremen and coastguards he spoke to were doubtful as to the possibility of navigation.

  These researches seemed to French provisionally to eliminate the Joymount staff. He was not greatly impressed by the evidence that Brand and King could not have left the works during the night, but the difficulty of crossing to and from Chayle in the fog seemed pretty considerable. If Joymount had been putting out a cheap cement, he would have assumed that in some way these difficulties had been overcome, but as they were not, his suspicions seemed rather gratuitous.

  The affair had dragged on in this way for some time, and then French had returned to Town and reported to Sir Mortimer Ellison. The Assistant-Commissioner had listened and then shrugged. As a result of that shrug French had let the case stand and had taken up other work. It was understood, however, that if price fluctuations occurred in the cement market, he would immediately resume the investigation. It was admittedly a most unsatisfactory result, but no one concerned could see any way to improve it.

  Then one night some three months later, the case was again brought to his notice, and in a most dramatic way.

  It was getting on towards four in the morning when his telephone rang. Practice had taught him to waken instantly at such a summons, and by the time he had learned that the call was from the Yard, he was his usual quiet, effici
ent self. A message from the police station at Cowes had just come in. Would French take it and they would put it through?

  It was his friend Superintendent Hanbury, and he had startling news. Haviland and Mairs of the Chayle Works had been drowned on the previous evening by an explosion on their motor launch, and Samson had been picked up just as he was about to sink. At first sight there were certain suspicious features in the case, and he had communicated with his Chief Constable. From him he had received instructions to get in touch with French, and ask him to go down as soon as possible. The Chief Constable was himself communicating with the heads of the Yard.

  As a result of this communication, French found on reaching headquarters that orders had come for him to go down at once. Sergeant Carter had also been sent for and was ready to accompany him.

  The first train for the Isle of Wight left Waterloo at 5.40 a.m., and by hurrying, French was able to make his preparations and catch it. He rang up to advise Hanbury, and the Superintendent replied that breakfast would be ready on their arrival, and that over the meal he would tell what had happened.

  The journey was uneventful. The two men reached Southampton just before eight, walked down to the harbour and caught the 8.15 boat for Cowes, where they arrived in an hour. A few minutes later they saw the welcome sight of coffee and ham and eggs, and Hanbury began his story.

  Beyond the main fact, however, that an accident had taken place, he had not much to tell. It appeared that about 11.45 on the previous evening an explosion had been observed about a mile north-west of the Egypt Point Light. It happened that a resident living above the Esplanade was taking a last breather at his hall door before turning in, when he saw a flame suddenly rise from the sea, flicker for a moment, and then vanish, while four or five seconds later came a dull boom. Believing something must be seriously wrong, this gentleman had rung up the police. Information was at once conveyed to the harbour, and within a comparatively short time four launches had put out. Three of these had searched the area in question without finding anything, but the fourth obtained some information.

  A small coasting steamer was lying in the area, apparently at anchor, and when Mr Locke, the owner and navigator of the fourth launch, came nearer, he saw that she had lowered a boat. He accordingly drew alongside to make enquiries. From the skipper he learned that she was the S.S. Benbolt, on a voyage from Cardiff to Gosport with coal. When about a mile off the Egypt Point Light he, the skipper, noticed a small vessel coming towards them. He expected her to pass about a hundred yards to port. As she came abeam he saw she was a small petrol launch. She was tumbling about a good deal in the choppy sea. He paid her no particular attention, but he happened to be actually looking at her when a tremendous explosion occurred on board. Its centre was in the stern, and so far as he could see, the whole stern was blown to bits. In a moment the flame went out, leaving the area black as jet. He at once reversed his engines and got his boat out. The boat, he estimated, reached the scene of the disaster within five minutes of the crash. It cruised around and almost at once came on a man clinging to a lifebuoy. He took him aboard, transferred him to the steamer, and went back to search for more survivors. He had been searching ever since, but without further result. The launch must have sunk, carrying down with her the remainder of those on board, if any.

  Meanwhile a stiff glass of grog and dry clothes had enabled the survivor to give some account of himself. His name, he said, was Noel Samson, and he was chemical engineer to Messrs Haviland & Mairs, of Chayle. He, Haviland and Mairs, had been over at the Joymount Company’s works on the Hamble, and were returning to Chayle. The launch was his, and he had been steering. When they had come off Cowes, he noticed that their grappling had broken adrift owing to the rough sea, and was knocking about in the bows. He had accordingly handed over the wheel to his principal, Mr Haviland, and had himself gone forward into the bows to make the grappling fast. He was stooping down in the bows to lift it back into its chocks when there had come an appalling explosion in the stern. Immediately he had found himself struggling in the water. How he got there, or what became of the launch, he did not know. He struggled against the high sea for some moments, and though he was a swimmer, he felt himself being overcome. He was sure he would have been drowned, had not he happened to touch something which, when he had grasped it, he found to be a lifebuoy. This had supported him till a boat had come and he had been lifted out of the water.

  Locke had taken Samson aboard his launch and run him back to Cowes, where the coastguards and police had asked for a statement. Samson had appeared completely mystified by the occurrence. He supposed the petrol must have in some way got alight, but this did not seem to meet the case for three reasons. First, there was no reason why it should have either leaked or gone on fire. He had had the launch for some years, and till then everything had functioned perfectly. On many occasions he had been out in worse weather, so he did not believe the motion could have had anything to do with it. The second reason was more puzzling still. The explosion had not seemed to Samson like burning petrol. When petrol gets alight the fire is undoubtedly rapid, but still there is a definite process of bursting into flame. In this explosion there was none. It had been instantaneous. It had gone with a crack, as if some high-power explosive like dynamite had been used. Thirdly, and most convincing of all, it seemed evident that the stern must have been blown off the launch, so rapidly had it sunk. This would not have obtained if the affair had been due to petrol.

  Against this view, however, Samson stated most positively that no explosive of any kind had been on board.

  Hanbury had thought this statement very unsatisfactory and his uneasiness had been increased by the fact that here were three of the men who had figured in the Clay affair. He had therefore rung up his Chief Constable, and after a telephonic discussion the latter had determined to recall French, if he were available.

  ‘Have you communicated with the Joymount people?’ French asked when Hanbury’s recital came to an end.

  ‘Yes, first thing this morning. I rang up Tasker, their managing director. He confirmed Samson’s statement. Haviland, Mairs and Samson were over with them at Joymount last night from shortly before nine till about half past ten. They were discussing some business which Tasker wanted kept secret, but which he had no objection to explaining in confidence. The two firms were considering a working agreement, and it was to talk about this that they had met at that late hour. The three men left at the hour stated. They had all seemed perfectly normal—perfectly sober and all that sort of thing, and the launch had appeared to be in perfectly good order.’

  ‘It doesn’t look too well,’ said French after a pause.

  ‘That’s what the Chief Constable and I thought,’ Hanbury returned. ‘We decided at all events that it should be looked into. And we thought that in case there might be come connection with that previous affair, you were the man to do it.’

  ‘At first sight it would look as if there must be some connection,’ French went on. ‘It would be something of a coincidence if there were two separate tragedies in the same firm within three months of each other.’ He paused in thought, then went on. ‘There’s another interesting thing in it, Super, and that is that they were coming from Joymount. We’ve been looking for another firm of rapid-hardening cement manufacturers who were connected with the Clay affair, and as you know, had Joymount in our minds. Yes, I agree: the thing should certainly be looked into.’

  During the progress of the Super’s story French had obtained the necessary details, such as addresses, all of which had been noted by Carter. Breakfast by this time having been finished, French stood up.

  ‘Well,’ he said pleasantly, ‘that’s a good start you’ve given us, Super,’ though whether he was referring to the story or the meal he didn’t say. ‘I’ll begin by going round all these people you’ve mentioned. Can you run me out to Chayle or shall I hire a car in the town?’

  ‘I’ll run you out,’ Hanbury returned, and was proceeding with
another remark when a constable entered the restaurant and whispered to him.

  ‘Is that so? Right. I’ll go back directly,’ he answered. Then he turned to French. ‘They’ve found one of the bodies, it seems. The coastguards were out searching and they’re just bringing it in. I suppose you’ll wait and see it?’

  French agreed, and the three men walked back to the police station. Hanbury rang up the police doctor, and when the remains were brought in they proceeded at once to make an examination.

  The body was Mairs’s, and it was evident that death had occurred from drowning. He was uninjured save for the feet, one of which was almost blown off and the other cut and lacerated. This showed the force of the explosion, and also that it must have been centred in the bottom of the boat.

  While the doctor was examining the remains, French busied himself with the clothes. He went through the pockets carefully, but without finding anything which threw light on the tragedy. There were a number of papers and these, though sodden, were still legible. But there was nothing helpful in any of them.

  French thereupon borrowed Hanbury’s car and he and Carter were driven out to Chayle. French had rung up Samson’s private house, but the engineer had replied that he was just about to start for the works. It was therefore in his own office that French found him.

  After the introductory remarks demanded by courtesy, French turned to business. Would Mr Samson please tell him all he could about the affair?

  It was evident that Samson had had a severe shock, from which he had by no means recovered. His manner was nervous, his hands shook, and more than once he lost the thread of his story.

  He had not really a very great deal to tell. He said that for some time they had been considering extending their business, and as Joymount was close by and therefore convenient, they had thought of taking the place over as a going concern. For various reasons this had not afterwards seemed feasible, and they had turned their attention instead towards a working agreement. They had accordingly entered into negotiations with Joymount, and on the previous evening they had come to provisional terms. He used the word provisional, because the agreement had to be submitted to the Joymount board of directors. But Tasker had had no doubt that it would be approved.