“Hayes’s story may prove important,” the colonel remarked as they walked along, “but we’ll have to find if there’s any link between Thoms and Bennett. Luckily there’s the Cut and Come Again affair to start from. May have been some quite casual drunken quarrel, of course. But it may mean a previous connection. As soon as we get the firearms expert’s report in, we shall know if Hayes’s automatic was the one used. What he said about the flashlight made to look like an automatic seemed to clear up the maid’s story about the two pistols.”
“Yes, sir,” agreed Bobby. “Mr. Hayes has a way of clearing up doubtful points before he is even asked about them.”
The colonel made no reply to this except to scratch his chin thoughtfully. Then he said:
“You asked him something about his keys?”
“Yes, sir. I noticed he said he remembered dropping the key of the drawer on the floor, as if he were speaking of a single key. Afterwards he said he kept the drawer key on the bunch he showed us, with others. Nothing in it, very likely.”
The colonel looked more thoughtful still, but by now they were at the garage door and he made no comment. The door was not fastened, and opened at once to their touch. Just within was a flight of steps leading to the upper part used as Thoms’s living-quarters. At the top of the stairs was a small landing and a door, beneath which showed a thread of light. Thoms had apparently heard their entrance, and, as the colonel and Bobby reached this landing, he opened the door, switched on the bulb that lighted stairs and landing, and stood there, scowling at them.
“You again,” he said.
“There are just a few questions I would like to ask you, Thoms,” the colonel said briskly.
Thoms went back into the room and they followed him. It was a fair sized apartment, plainly though quite comfortably furnished. Heat was provided by an electric fire, with an attachment for a kettle, so that Thoms could evidently make himself a cup of tea or warm water for washing or shaving when he wished. But there was little in the room to indicate personal habits or history. There was a row of pipes – a strong odour of tobacco in the room suggested that Thoms was a heavy smoker – and there were a few books, mostly technical, a few magazines, a pile of newspapers, motor periodicals, and catalogues, that seemed die total of his personal possessions. There was not even a photograph to give a single intimate touch to the bare apartment; and all his clothing seemed either hanging on pegs or put away in a plain deal chest of drawers opposite the window. Bobby could see no suitcase or box or trunk of any kind. If Thoms chose to walk out at any minute, there would be little he need take, nothing left behind to trace him by.
Thoms had not asked them to sit down. He stood in the middle of the room, his hands deep in his pockets, glowering at them.
“I’m answering no questions,” he said abruptly and angrily. “That’s final.”
“Which means, I suppose,” the colonel rapped out, “you have something to conceal?”
“Suppose what you like,” Thoms retorted.
“For one thing,” the colonel went on, “why did you try to murder Bennett the other day at the Cut and Come Again club?”
Thoms thrust his hands deeper still into his pocket, thrust his chin still further, still more aggressively forward.
“I’m answering no questions,” he repeated.
“You prefer,” the colonel asked, “that we should form our own conclusions?”
That remark was a favourite police card; it was a kind of general ace of trumps, bound to take the trick. No one, innocent or guilty, wished the police to form their own conclusions. Only this time Thoms did not seem to notice that the trick was taken.
“Free country,” he growled. “No law against forming conclusions.”
The colonel was beginning to lose his temper.
“You are making me consider your behaviour extremely suspicious,” he said sternly.
“Don’t let me keep you,” Thoms answered. “I’m sure your time is fully occupied.”
The colonel had one more shot to fire.
“Why did you lie when you said you didn’t recognise Bennett?” he asked. “We have proof you met him at the Cut and Come Again, quarrelled with him, tried to murder him. What have you to say to that?”
“Do you want me to go on repeating that I don’t mean to answer any questions?” Thoms retorted. “There’s the door,” he added.
“You understand,” demanded the colonel, “that we are officers of police acting under authority and investigating a case of murder? You are making me take a most serious view of your behaviour.”
“For which,” retorted Thoms, “you are responsible, not me. And as you are officers of police you know quite well there is no authority in law to examine anyone till an actual charge has been preferred. And then no one so charged is bound to answer any questions or to give any reason for his refusal.”
“You are evidently well acquainted with the law, Mr. Thoms,” said the colonel grimly. “As a rule only professional lawyers – and habitual criminals – know so much. But you’ve forgotten one thing. The coroner has authority to ask questions. At the adjourned inquest, you will certainly be called as a witness – and questioned.”
He watched for the effect of this shot. Apparently it had none.
“May I again remind you,” Thoms said calmly, “that there is a door behind you? I take it you have no search-warrant? No? I thought not. And I am sure I may take it, too, that you and I would both regret it if I had to throw you out because of your obstinate refusal to go. You are trespassers here, you know.”
The colonel went red – or, rather, he went a deeper red, little though that, the moment before, had seemed possible. Bobby appeared uninterested, though he watched Thoms warily, for he was not sure the truculent-looking chauffeur might not attempt to carry out his threat. With what dignity he might the colonel turned and strode out of the room and down the stairs. Bobby started to follow, and in the doorway turned and looked back.
“Oh,” he said, “I wonder why young Noll Moffatt asked if you were going to throw him down the chalk-pit – too? Think up an answer, won’t you, ready for the coroner?”
Without waiting for a reply – which in fact did not come, for Thoms took no notice – Bobby ran down the stairs after the colonel, to whom he thought it prudent not to speak just then. Indeed, the silence between them was not broken till they were back in their car and well on their way home, when at last the colonel said:
“Mere insolence, cheek, defiance. He has heard the best plan is simply to refuse to speak. But they can’t keep it up. When they have a good satisfactory explanation, they can’t help giving it, and, once they begin to explain, we have them.”
“Yes, sir,” agreed Bobby, whose experience was indeed much the same.
“Makes it pretty plain he’s our man, though,” pronounced the colonel. “Of course, we want more evidence, but we shall get it.”
“Yes, sir,” agreed Bobby once again.
CHAPTER 17
ANALYSIS
A day or two went by with no fresh development, and, as there seemed nothing else for him to do, Bobby was sitting this morning in his room in the house where he was staying – that of one of the members of the county police force. Before him lay a blank sheet of paper at which as blankly he was staring, and now and again he scratched reflectively the end of his nose.
These were occupations in which he had been engaged ever since breakfast, and now it was nearly noon. After dinner he had to report to Colonel Warden, and he was a little afraid that this might mean he was to be taken off a case to the elucidation of which he had so far contributed but little, and sent back to more humdrum duties in town, where, however, the squad for which he, as sergeant, was primarily responsible seemed to be getting along quite nicely without him. But, then, he had an idea that some of those at headquarters were not too grieved at his continued absence.
A horrible legend was growing up there that he was a favourite, a “pet”; that he took aftern
oon tea regularly with Cabinet Ministers; that the Home Secretary in especial was his dearest friend; that as a consequence all the plums came naturally his way. All quite unfounded, of course; especially that hateful yarn about the Home Secretary he knew he would never be able to live down, and that was spoiling all his chances of promotion, since his superiors simply dared not risk the comment running all through the force:
“Oh, yes, the Home Sec’s pet – that’s the way to get on. Be in with the nobs and nothing else matters.”
So there were influences more than favourable to keeping him out of the way in the country. Then, too, the county chief constable seemed willing enough for him to remain.
“Just potter round a bit and see what comes of it,” Colonel Warden had said, leaving him the free hand Bobby’s somewhat lonely and independent nature always made him long for and that he so seldom secured.
For the case interested him, as did the personalities concerned in it, and, if it could lead to the identification of the confidence man the American police described as a “killer,” that would be a highly desirable result, and mean the removal of one who seemed a standing danger to society. Not to mention that it would be pleasing to inform the newly established, highly successful – and well aware of it – Federal Board of Investigation of the United States that the man they had inquired about, and seemed to have so little knowledge of, was now safe under arrest. Professional pride, not to say swagger, of course, but pleasing to bring off, all the same. Bobby, therefore, had been glad to accept the suggestion that he might “potter around” a bit, even though his “pottering” this morning had consisted in sitting in a chilly bedroom, inadequately warmed by a smoky oil-stove, on a hard and rickety chair, before a washstand turned for the occasion into a writing-table, staring solemnly at an entirely blank sheet of paper.
True, his landlady had somewhat hesitatingly offered him the use of the front sitting-room, but Bobby knew well that apartment was for Sundays and for company alone, and he had been tactful enough to decline her offer to light a fire for him there when she knew he meant to spend the morning writing.
“More forms, I suppose,” she said. “My man’s always saying that’s all police work is now – just filling up forms.”
Bobby agreed that that is indeed half the work of the modern world, so that to-day we live not so much by taking in each other’s washing as by filling up forms about each other and ourselves.
The church clock in the distance struck twelve. Bobby started convulsively, grabbed his pen, thrust it into the inkpot, and began hurriedly to write.
He headed the paper:
THE BENNETT CASE SO FAR
He paused, frowned, took another sheet of paper, and wrote:
RE BENNETT CASE
He paused again, and surveyed this new heading with a satisfied smile. It seemed so much more official.
He continued:
A
STARTING POINTS.
A1. Inquiry from America about British-born confidence man, said to have secured large sums in the States. Described as cool, reckless, and dangerous, suspected of one or more killings. No personal description.
A2. Bennett known to have recently returned from America and believed to have been engaged in “share-pushing”; showed interest in the Sevens party and asked to be directed to Way Side.
Deductions.
A1a. Bennett either confidence man wanted by F.B.I. or killed by him.
A2a. Concentrate on trying to find out whether the Molly Oulton drawings, any member of the Sevens party, or Way Side, was chief attraction in bringing Bennett to the neighbourhood, or if they interlock in any way.
Note. – At present Colonel Warden seems inclined to suspect Thoms. The fight between Thoms and Bennett at the Cut and Come Again undoubtedly suggestive.
B
MATERIAL CLUES.
B1. Lipstick.
B2. Photographic film wrapper (fragment).
B3. Bullets – found in body and recovered from trees near Sevens.
B4. Car.
B5. Body of victim.
Notes on Above Clues.
B1a. Lipstick common type and unidentifiable.
B2a. Wrapper fragment unidentifiable.
B3a. Report from firearms expert not yet received, but Mr. Moffatt’s automatic known to be missing.
B4a. Car hired. Nothing known at garage. Dead end.
B5a. Everything likely to help identification removed from body.
Deductions from Above.
B1a1. Lipstick suggests presence of woman. Women connected with case: Ena Moffatt, Mrs. (Laddy) O’Brien, Henrietta Towers, Molly Oulton.
B2a1. Film wrapper suggests presence of photographer. Accidental or purposed? Why purposed? Probably, then, accidental. Who? Oliver Moffatt known to be keen photographer and to have been out in the neighbourhood that afternoon, taking snaps. Fellow member with Bennett of Cut and Come Again, but no proof they had ever met there. Note that many people besides Oliver Moffatt take photos. Are any of the above-mentioned women interested in photography?
B3a1. Wait report from expert.
B4a1. These taken together suggest that Bennett was alarmed on finding police inquiries were being made about him and had himself taken precaution to cover his tracks and to destroy all means of identification. This would mean that he himself – not his murderer – removed tabs from clothing and so on. This is the more probable, as the murderer would hardly have had time; the noise of the falling of the car over the edge of the chalk-pit seems to have followed almost immediately on the sound of firearms.
C
FACTS KNOWN (as established by evidence of witnesses).
C1. Bennett showed interest in Sevens party. Proved by evidence of Norris, who saw him watching Sevens through field-glasses. Also interested in Way Side, as he had asked what was the best road to take to get there (Oakley Road House evidence). Had also seemed interested in Molly Oulton’s drawings (Cut and Come Again evidence).
C2. Time of murder established as four in the afternoon (evidence of driver of tradesman’s delivery– van). Corroborated by labourer who also saw a man leaving the copse holding a hat before his face, presumably to avoid risk of recognition.
Deductions.
C1a. Bennett must have had something to do with someone at Sevens and with someone at Way Side, since he showed interest in both houses. Mrs. O’Brien’s name was written on the back of one or two of Miss Oulton’s sketches, and she may therefore be the link with Way Side. But who is link between Sevens and Way Side?
C2a. As a man was seen leaving the copse, none of the women mentioned is likely to have been the actual murderer. But she may have been an active accomplice.
D
PERSONALITIES CONCERNED
D1. Mr. Moffatt.
D2. Oliver Moffatt, son of above.
D3. Ena Moffatt, daughter and sister of above-mentioned.
D4. Leopold Leonard Larson, guest at Sevens.
D5. Edward George Pegley, visitor at Sevens.
D6. Henrietta Towers, Towers Poultry Farm.
D7. Edward Thoms, chauffeur at Way Side.
D8. John Hayes, tenant of Way Side.
D9. (Mrs (Laddy) O’Brien, Mr Hayes’s dismissed housekeeper).
D10. Reeves, butler at Sevens.
Points for and against above.
D1a (Mr. Moffatt, senior).
Against.
Blacklisted by steamship companies on suspicion of card-sharping. Known to have made secret visits to America and to have possessed an automatic now missing. No alibi.
For.
Country gentleman of old family and good standing it is difficult to imagine as card-sharper or confidence trickster. Said to be well off and to have a large sum invested in consols.
Deductions.
The secrecy about Mr. Moffatt’s American visits suggests discreditable reason and possibility of connection with Bennett. The blacklisting provides obvious opportunity for blackmail. The disappearance of Moffatt’
s automatic suggests it may be the one used. His true financial position must be ascertained, if possible. As card-sharper and so on, a country gentleman seems incredible, but the impossible must not be deduced from the merely incredible, which sometimes turns out to be the actual.
D2a (Oliver Moffatt).
Against.
Amateur photographer, known to have been taking snaps at the time and in the vicinity of the murder. Liable to have dropped fragment of wrapper. Fellow member with Bennett of Cut and Come Again club. Sulky and refuses to answer questions or explain quarrel with Thoms. No alibi.
For.
General character inconsistent with murder, but, then, so is everyone’s.
Deductions.
As he is the elder Moffatt’s son, he may very well have known of the secret American visits and may have known of – resented – feared – connection between his father and Bennett. The common membership of the Cut and Come Again gives also the possibility of direct connection between him and Bennett. Another line to be followed up.
D3a (Ena Moffatt).
Against.
Only the lipstick incident and the fact that she is, like her brother, a member of the Cut and Come Again. Alibi supported by Mrs. Markham’s evidence, but not conclusive, as distance might have been covered in time. Nervous manner suggesting she knows more than she has said.
For.
Some nervousness perfectly natural. Girls don’t shoot.
Deductions.
The Cut and Come Again people must be questioned to see if there is any suggestion of a connection between her and Bennett. If there was any connection, and Bennett’s visit was to meet her, her brother may have known, objected, and there may have been a quarrel between the two men on her account.
The Dusky Hour Page 14