Read Ebook: Inspector French's Greatest Case by Crofts Freeman Wills

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Ebook has 340 lines and 25456 words, and 7 pages

iams pressed for details, but French was reticent. However, before leaving he promised to let the other know the result of his further inquiries.

From Cockspur Street it was but a short distance to the office of the house agents, Messrs. Findlater & Hynd. Here French saw Mr. Hynd, and learned that the firm were agents for Crewe Lodge. But beyond this fact he learned little of interest and nothing helpful. The house had been taken five years previously by Mrs. Vane, though Mr. Vane had signed the lease. They were very desirable tenants, paying their rent promptly and not demanding continual repairs.

"One more call before lunch," French thought, and a few minutes later he turned into the office of the White Star line. Here, though it did not exactly surprise him, he received some information which gave him considerably to think, and incidentally reassured him that at last he was on the right track. No steamer, either of the White Star or of any other line, had left Liverpool for America before the previous Saturday afternoon, and there was no boat train from Euston on the Friday night.

Mrs. Vane was therefore without any doubt the woman of whom he was in search, and her departure was definitely a flight.

INSPECTOR FRENCH had now so many points of attack in his inquiry that he felt somewhat at a loss as to which he should proceed with first. The tracing of Mrs. Vane was the immediate goal, but it was by no means clear which particular line of inquiry would most surely and rapidly lead to that end. Nothing would be easier than to spend time on side issues, and in this case a few hours might make all the difference between success and failure. The lady had already had five days' start, and he could not afford to allow her to increase her lead by a single unnecessary minute.

He considered the matter while he lunched, eventually concluding that the first step was the discovery of the maid, Susan Scott. The preliminary spadework of this required no skill and could be done by an assistant, leaving himself free for other inquiries.

Accordingly he returned to the Yard and set two men to work, one to make a list of all the registry offices in the Edgware Road district, the other to ring up those agencies one by one and inquire if the girl's name was on their books. Then he went in to see his chief, told him of his discoveries, and obtained the necessary authority to interrogate the manager of Mrs. Vane's bank on the affairs of that lady.

He reached the bank just before closing time and was soon closeted with the manager. Mr. Harrod, once satisfied that his usual professional reticence might in this case be set aside, gave him some quite interesting information. Mrs. Vane had opened an account with him some five years earlier, about the same time, French noted, as the house in St. John's Wood Road had been leased. Her deposit had not been large, seldom amounting to and never exceeding a thousand pounds. It had stood at from four to eight hundred until comparatively recently, but within the past few months it had dwindled until some ten weeks earlier it had vanished altogether. Indeed, the payment of a cheque presented at this period had involved an overdraft of some fifteen pounds, and the teller had consulted Mr. Harrod before cashing it. Mr. Harrod, knowing Crewe Lodge and the scale on which the Vanes lived, had not hesitated in giving the necessary authority, and his judgment had proved correct, for some three days later Mrs. Vane had personally lodged over ?100. This had since been drawn upon, and there remained at the present time a balance of eleven pounds odd in the lady's favour.

All this information seemed to French to work in with the case he was endeavouring to make. The Vanes had apparently been living beyond their income, or at least Mrs. Vane had been living beyond hers, and she was finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. He did not see that any other interpretation of the dwindling balance and the overdraft could be found. That overdraft represented, he imagined, part of the lady's ticket to America. Then a hundred pounds was paid in on the very next day, as he soon saw, to that on which Mr. Williams had paid Mrs. X her ?3000. Here was at least a suggestion of motive for the robbery, and also the first fruits of its accomplishment. Moreover the subsequent withdrawal of all but a small balance, left doubtless to disarm suspicion, would unquestionably work in with the theory of flight. On the whole, French was well pleased with the results of his call.

The address was Mrs. Gill, 75 Horsewell Street, Edgware Road, and thither before many minutes had passed Inspector French was wending his way. The registry office was a small concern, consisting of only two rooms in a private house in a quiet street running out of Edgware Road. In the outer were two young women of the servant class, and these eyed French curiously, evidently seeing in him a prospective employer. Mrs. Gill was engaged with a third girl, but a few seconds after French's arrival she took her departure and he was called into the private room.

The lady was not at first inclined to be communicative. But when French revealed his profession and threatened her with the powers and majesty of the law, she became profusely apologetic and anxious to help. She looked up her books and informed him that the girl was lodging at No. 31 Norfolk Terrace, Mistletoe Road.

As it was close by, French walked to the place. Here again his luck held in a way that he began to consider almost uncanny. A tall, coarsely good-looking blonde opened the door and announced in answer to his inquiry that she herself was Miss Scott. Soon he was sitting opposite to her in a tiny parlour, while she stared at him with something approaching insolence out of her rather bold eyes.

"Now, Miss Scott," he announced briskly, "I am Inspector French from Scotland Yard, and I am investigating a case of murder and robbery." He paused, and seeing the girl was duly impressed, continued, "It happens that your recent mistress, Mrs. Vane, is wanted to give evidence in the case, and I have come to you for some information about where to find her."

The girl made an exclamation of surprise, and a look, partly of fear and partly of thrilled delight, appeared in her blue eyes.

"I don't know anything about her," she declared.

"I'm sure you know quite a lot," French returned. "All I want is to ask you some questions. If you answer them truly, you have nothing to fear, but, as you probably know, there are very serious penalties indeed for keeping back evidence. You could be sent to prison for that."

Having by these remarks banished the girl's look of insolence and reduced her to a suitable frame of mind, French got on to business.

"Am I right in believing that you have been until last Friday house and parlourmaid to Mrs. Vane, of Crewe Lodge, St. John's Wood Road?"

"Yes, I was there for about three months."

French, to assist not only his own memory but the impressiveness of the interview, noted the reply in his book.

"Three months," he repeated deliberately. "Very good. Now, why did you leave?"

"Because I had to," the girl said sulkily. "Mrs. Vane was closing the house."

French nodded.

"So I understood. Tell me what happened, please; just in your own words."

"What time was that?"

"About half-past four, I should think. I didn't look."

"Where did you get the taxis?"

"On the stand at the end of Gardiner Street."

"Who gave Mrs. Vane's taxi man his address?"

"I did. It was Euston."

"It was rather hard lines on you and the cook, turning you out like that at a moment's notice. I hope she made it up to you?"

Miss Scott smiled scornfully.

"That was all right," she answered. "We told her about it, and she gave us a fiver apiece, as well as our month's wages."

"Not so bad," French admitted. "Who locked up the house?"

"She did, and took the key."

"And what happened to you and cook?"

"We drove on here and I got out. This is my sister's house, you understand. Cook went on to Paddington. She lives in Reading or somewhere down that way. Mrs. Vane said that when she came back she would look us up, and if we were disengaged we could come back to her. But she said not to keep out of a place for her, as she didn't know how long she might have to stay in America."

French paused in thought, then went on:

"Was Mrs. Vane much from home while you were with her?"

"No, she was only away once. But she stayed over three weeks that time. It's a bit strange that it was an accident, too. Her sister in Scotland fell and broke her collar bone, so she told us, and she had to go to keep house till she was better. Somewhere in Scotland, she said."

"When was that?"

The girl hesitated.

"I don't know that I could say exactly," she answered at last. "She's back about six weeks or two months, and she left over three weeks before that, about a couple of weeks after I went. Say about ten weeks altogether."

This was distinctly satisfactory. Mrs. Vane's absence seemed to cover the period of Mrs. X's visit to America.

"I should like to fix the exact dates if I could," French persisted, "or at least the date she came back. Just think, will you, please. Is there nothing you can remember by?"

The girl presumably thought, for she was silent for some moments, but her cogitations were unproductive. She shook her head.

"Did you stay in the house while she was away?"

"No. I came here and cook went home."

This was better. The attention of a number of people had been drawn to the date, and some one of them should surely be able to fix it.

"On what day of the week did you go back?" French prompted.

The girl considered this.

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