Country homes -- England -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction
He took a case which one of the constables had carried and produced
from it one of the largest-sized Kodaks. Then, by the marks of the
feet in the grass, he replaced the overturned chair in its proper
position; and finally he marked the position of the loophole in the
hedge by means of a scrap of paper.
“I want something to give the scale,” he explained, at the last
moment. “Would you mind sitting in the chair, Mr. Stenness? And
perhaps you’d stand by the loophole, Mr. Torrance?”
He looked round the enclosure for an instant.
“And here, Costock, you get over into that corner. It’ll give some
notion of the distance.”
When they had placed themselves, he took several photographs from
various positions.
“Now, doctor, you can get to work if you like.”
The doctor made only a cursory examination.
“I think it would be best to shift the body up to the house. The
light’s not very good here, now the sun’s going down. Besides, I’ll
need to do more than I can do in this place.”
“There’s a second body waiting for you,” Sir Clinton explained. “We’ve
the whole thing to do over again.”
The doctor, a taciturn man, shrugged his shoulders without making any
audible comment and they made their way, guided by Stenness, to the
Pool of Narcissus. Sir Clinton gave some directions to his constables
and despatched the gardener to the house to bring down something on
which the bodies could be carried. Then the photographic procedure was
repeated; and the doctor made his examination of Neville Shandon’s
corpse.
“There must be a loophole in this hedge as well,” the Chief Constable
mused aloud, “but it’s not worth while hunting for it at present. It
won’t run away.”
The constables reported the discovery of several fresh darts which had
fallen either into the hedge itself or among the roots on the outer
side. Skene, it appeared, had secured all those on the inner border.
Sir Clinton counted the tiny projectiles carefully, dropped them into
the tin box, and put the box in his pocket.
“That’s eleven altogether. Go back and hunt for anything more. I must
have every one of these darts if you have to finish the search by
lamplight. Make absolutely certain that you miss nothing.”
Skene arrived shortly afterwards with two other gardeners carrying
hurdles; and the two bodies were transported to the cars and so
conveyed to the house. Two more constables had arrived, and these were
put under the guidance of Skene and given instructions to search the
whole of the Maze for anything suspicious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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