Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy. Freeman Crofts Wills
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there and noticed it,’ He bent forward, and his thin face seemed more hawk-like than ever as he said impressively: ‘Oxley, that safe was fireproof!’
Mr Oxley started.
‘Good Heavens, Tarkington! Are you sure of that?’ he queried sharply.
‘Not absolutely,’ the other replied. ‘It was certainly my strong opinion and if I had been asked before the fire I should have had no doubt. When I heard the evidence at the inquest I concluded I had made a mistake. But now this affair of the twenty-pound note has reawakened all my suspicions.’ He paused, but as Oxley did not reply, continued: ‘Perhaps I’ve got a bee in my bonnet as you said, but I’m now wondering if Roper’s drunkenness doesn’t support the theory? Could he not have been enticed into Thirsby by some member of the gang and treated so as to make him sleep well and not hear what was going on? Remember, he was an absolutely temperate man.’
‘Not absolutely. Ruth had smelt drink on other occasions.’
‘You are right. Perhaps that is a trifle far-fetched. But what do you think on the main point, Oxley? Ought I to tell the police of my suspicions?’
Mr Oxley rose and began to pace the room. Then he went to the window and stood for some moments looking out. Finally he returned to his chair, and sat down again.
‘I declare, Tarkington, I think you ought,’ he said slowly. ‘When you first made your—I might perhaps say—your amazing suggestion I confess I thought it merely grotesque. But if you are right about the safe it certainly puts a different complexion on the whole business. I take it it’s not too late to ascertain? The safe is not too much damaged to trace the maker and find out from him?’
‘I should think the police could find the maker quite easily.’
‘Well, I think you should tell them. If you are wrong no harm is done. If not, there are murderers to be brought to justice and perhaps a fortune to be recovered for Ruth.’
Mr Tarkington rose.
‘I agree with you, Oxley. I’ll go down to the police station and tell Kent now.’
Mr Oxley waved him back into his seat.
‘Steady a moment,’ he said. ‘Don’t be in such a hurry.’ He drew slowly at his cigarette while the other sat down and waited expectantly.
‘It seems to me,’ went on Mr Oxley, ‘that if your suspicions are correct the thing should be kept absolutely quiet. Nothing should be said or done to put the criminals on their guard. Now Kent, you know as well as I do, is just a bungling ass. My suggestion is that we both take the afternoon off and go see Valentine. I know him pretty well and we could ring him up and make an appointment.’
‘Valentine, the chief constable of the County?’
‘Yes. He’s as cute as they’re made and he’ll do the right thing.’
‘Kent will never forgive us if we pass him over like that.’
‘Kent be hanged,’ Mr Oxley rejoined. ‘Can you come in by the three-thirty?’
‘Yes, I’ll manage it.’
‘Right. Then I shall ring up Valentine.’
Five hours later the two friends found their way into the strangers’ room of the Junior Services Club in Leeds. There in a few moments Chief Constable Valentine joined them, and soon they were settled in a private room with whisky and sodas at their elbows and three of the excellent cigars the chief constable favoured between their lips.
Mr Tarkington propounded his theory in detail, explaining that he was not sure enough of his facts even to put forward a definite suspicion, but that he and his friend Oxley agreed that Major Valentine ought to know what was in his mind. The major could then, if he thought fit, investigate the affair.
That the chief constable was impressed by the statement was obvious. He listened with the keenest interest, interjecting only an occasional ‘By Jove!’ as Mr Tarkington made his points. Then he thanked the two men for their information, and promised to institute inquiries into the whole matter without delay.
Two days later Mr Tarkington received a letter from Major Valentine saying that he thought it only fair to inform him in the strictest confidence that his belief that the safe was fireproof was well founded, that he, the chief constable, strongly suspected that more had taken place at Starvel on that tragic night than had come out in the inquest, and that as he considered the matter was rather outside the local men’s capacity he had applied to Scotland Yard for help in the investigation.
Mr Tarkington, honouring the spirit rather than the letter of the chief constable’s communication, showed the note to Mr Oxley, and the two men sat over the former’s study fire until late that night, discussing possible developments in the situation.
The stone which Messrs Tarkington and Oxley had thrown into the turbid waters of the British Police Administration produced ripples which, like other similar wave forms, spread slowly away from their point of disturbance. One of these ripples, penetrating into the grim fastness of the Criminal Investigation Department of New Scotland Yard, had the effect of ringing the bell of a telephone on the desk of Detective Inspector Joseph French and of causing that zealous and efficient officer, when he had duly applied his ear to the instrument, to leave his seat and proceed without loss of time to the room of his immediate superior.
‘Ah, French,’ Chief Inspector Mitchell remarked on his entry. ‘You should be about through with that Kensington case, I fancy?’
‘Just finished with it, sir,’ French answered. ‘I was putting the last of the papers in order when you rang.’
‘Well, you’ve had a lot of trouble with it and I should have liked to have given you a breather. But I’m afraid I can’t.’
‘Something come in, sir?’
‘A Yorkshire case. A place called Thirsby, up on the moors not far, I understand, from Hellifield. We’ve just had a request for a man and I can’t spare anyone else at present. So it’s you for it.’
‘What is the case, sir?’
‘Suspected murder, robbery and arson. The people there appear to know very little about it and the whole thing may turn out a mare’s nest. But they’re darned mysterious about it—say they don’t want it to be known that inquiries are being made and suggest our man might go to the Thirsdale Arms, the local hotel, in the guise of an angler or an artist. So, if you’re a fisherman, French, now’s your chance. You’re to call down at the police station after dark, when Sergeant Kent, who’s in charge, will give you the particulars.’
It was with mixed feelings that Inspector French received his instructions. He delighted in travelling and seeing new country, and the Yorkshire moors comprised a district which he had often heard spoken of enthusiastically, but had never visited. He was by no means averse, moreover, to getting away from town for a few days. It would be a welcome break in the monotony of the long winter. But on the other hand he loathed working away from headquarters, bereft of his trained staff and of the immediate backing of the huge machine of which he was a cog. Local men, he conceded, were ‘right enough,’ but they hadn’t the knowledge, the experience, the technique to be really helpful. And then the ‘Yard’ man in the country was usually up against jealousies and a more or less veiled obstruction, and to the worries of his case he had to add the effort always to be tactful and to carry his professed helpers with him.
However, none of these considerations affected his course of action. He had his orders and he must carry them out. He completed the filing of the papers in the Kensington murder case, handed over one or two other