The Shop Window Murders. Vernon Loder
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to me the reason why the discovery of the woman’s body proved a much greater shock to you than that of Mr Mander?’
Kephim’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I—we—were engaged to be married,’ he said in a very low voice. ‘A week ago,’ he added.
Devenish looked sympathetic. ‘I am sorry. That is indeed a tragic thing for you. Take your time, sir, and try, if you can, to let me hear a little about her. I won’t keep you any longer than I can help.’
Kephim pulled himself together with a visible effort. ‘Her name is—was Effie Tumour, inspector,’ he said. ‘She came here from Soutar’s, where she was second-buyer in the millinery. Mr Mander made her chief-buyer.’
Devenish had heard of Mander’s methods, and nodded. ‘Promotion, of course. I suppose he did not know her prior to making her this offer?’
‘I am sure he didn’t, inspector. She would have told me. I have known her for three years.’
‘She seems to have been a very handsome girl,’ said Devenish, looking at him thoughtfully.
Kephim coloured, and looked slightly indignant. ‘She wasn’t that kind of girl, and Mr Mander wasn’t that kind of man,’ he snapped. ‘Mr Mander was mad about aeroplanes. He has a kind of laboratory and workshop up here in the flat.’
‘I’ll have a look at that presently,’ replied the detective. ‘I am making no aspersions, remember. Only it seems rather odd that Mr Mander should have had two entrances, one from the rear.’
‘Three entrances,’ said Kephim; ‘there’s the stairs down from the flat roof, where the gyroplane landed the other day.’
‘Ah, the new gyrocopter,’ said Devenish. ‘But let us get back to Miss Tumour, if you please. In spite of Mr Mander’s absorption in aeroplanes, it is pretty obvious that she must have visited Mr Mander here during the weekend.’
‘She was up the river with me yesterday,’ replied Kephim, and drew a long shuddering breath. ‘I left her at eight o’clock at her flat.’
‘Where is that?’
‘No. 22 Capperly Mansions, Pulsey Street.’
‘Thank you. You left her at eight last night. After that she must have come here.’
‘I—yes. I suppose she must.’
Devenish got up, and crossed the room to ring the bell. The butler presented himself a minute later.
‘Did you wish to see me now, sir?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Did you admit anyone to this flat after, say, a quarter-past eight last night?’
‘No one whatever, sir. I am sure of that. Mr Mander had been at Gelover Manor, his country place, during the day. He came in at half-past seven, and dined at eight. He was alone, sir, and had no visitors that I know of last night. I never come in here after ten, unless I have special instructions.’
‘But you heard nothing during the evening, nothing during the night? Nothing out of the common I mean?’
The butler reflected. ‘Unless you mean that engine kind of noise, sir, I didn’t. But then this part is sound-proof from our part.’
‘What do you mean by the engine sound?’
‘Well, it was just like the noise that gyro thing made, sir; when it dropped on the roof, and there was so much fuss about it.’
Devenish nodded. Kephim stared.
The butler went on. ‘Do you want to see the rest of the staff now, sir? I may tell you, that when I lock the communicating door from our part at night, I keep the key under my pillow.’
‘Oh, you lock it from your side?’
‘Yes, sir, but Mr Mander generally shoots the bolts on his side as well.’
‘Awkward, if he lies late?’
‘Well, no, sir. He had a button by his bed, and if he presses it, a mechanic withdraws the bolts.’
‘Thank you. That will do. I’ll send my sergeant up presently to interview the staff.’
When the butler had gone once more, Devenish looked at Kephim. ‘I wonder, sir, if you are the gentleman who figures so well at Bisley every year?’
Kephim’s jaw dropped a little. ‘I am fond of rifle shooting; yes.’
‘I thought so, sir. Your name is not a common one. But now we’ll go through the flat, and end up on the roof.’
‘Do you believe anyone could have landed on the roof last night?’ Kephim demanded quickly, as he rose.
‘It seems to be a possible thing,’ said Devenish.
With Kephim looking on, he made a rapid but careful survey of the big drawing-room, then passed on to a dining-room that opened out of it. There was nothing in either to suggest a crime, or to hint that a woman had visited it lately. From there they entered the billiard-room, and a study. But Devenish did not linger long at any particular spot. His assistants, when they had finished below, would make a minute search, and photograph whatever was necessary for the exposure of finger-prints.
Then they visited four bedrooms, and ended up in a room, with two windows facing to the rear of the Store, one of which was fitted up as a workshop, and the other as a sort of store for metal and spare parts. In the workshop proper, there was a lathe, two benches, various band-saws for cutting metal, and an aero-engine of a rather unusual kind.
‘Is it possible that the engine noise the butler heard was made by one of these saws, or the lathe running?’ asked the detective.
‘I don’t think so,’ replied Kephim. ‘There are dynamos, I think they call them, in the basement. Mr Mander used power from them to work his machines here, but you wouldn’t hear them so far up.’
Devenish looked at a large switch-plate on the wall, ‘I suppose not. But what about this engine. It seems as if it had been strapped—fastened down for a bench test. It may have been that the butler heard.’
Kephim approached. ‘I don’t think so. Look here—there are three sparking-plugs missing. I know a little about cars, if not about aeroplanes.’
The inspector agreed. ‘Couldn’t fire without those, of course. Well, my people will go over this presently, and I think we had better have a look at the roof.’
A stairway led from the flat to the roof, the door let in to the panelling. It was unlocked, and Devenish put his handkerchief over the handle and turned it gently. Then he prepared to mount the stairs.
‘Seems to be the only way up,’ he remarked. ‘Anyone else wanting to get there would have to land from the sky.’
The flat roof of the Stores was a hundred and twenty yards long by fifty wide. It was covered with a rough-surfaced material, to enable an aeroplane to draw up more easily on landing, and, about thirty feet from the parapet at either end, there were banks of sand about two feet high, that had the appearance of emergency buffers.
‘By the way, Mr Kephim,’ said the inspector, as they walked slowly across the roof, ‘November is rather an off month for the river.’
Kephim looked at him resentfully. ‘I did not say we went boating. I meant up the Thames valley in my car. You can check that, I think.’
But Devenish seemed suddenly to have forgotten the point. He looked down at the roof, and raised his eyebrows.
‘Speaking as a layman, those look to me remarkable like the tracks of an aeroplane, which took off from a rather clayey field,’ he said.
Kephim stared at the tracks indicated. ‘That is odd. We have, as you know, had wonderfully dry weather for the past fortnight.’
Devenish went down on his knees, and carefully collected some of the dry clay with the blade of his