Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City DetectiveForrester, Andrew
General
Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City Detective
Forrester, Andrew
Detective and mystery stories, English; Fiction; Short stories
The Newtons knew of Paterson's fraudulent trusteeship. They were
sufficiently in his confidence to have obtained nearly all the
information which enabled them to keep him at arm's length. And of
course Paterson also knew of the exaggerated claim which had been
presented to the insurance company, based upon inventories and papers
supplied to them by him on the transfer of the business. It is hard to
say that either was more deeply implicated in the villany than the
other; although it is clear that Paterson, who stood behind the scenes
and was screened from observation by the prominent defrauders, was, in
reality at least, as deep, and perhaps more deeply, involved in the
swindle and arson than either of the Newtons. The situation of the
parties towards each other was not very unlike that thieves ordinarily
stand in. One had reason to fear the other, and there was in consequence
mutual jealousy, distrust, and apprehension.
After leaving the Dove, I had no doubt that the Newtons hastened in the
direction that Paterson had, go homewards, and succeeded in overtaking
him; that, being partially intoxicated he was easily grasped and held
by his whilom confederates, one of whom probably held his hand over the
victim's mouth while the other hastily seized his pocket-book, removed
from it the acceptances which had been given him on the transfer of the
business, &c., after which he was pitched into the water. When taken
from the canal and searched, a pocket-book was found upon the person of
the murdered incendiary, and in it all the papers that he was known to
carry except the acceptances, which were, to the mind of Mrs. Paterson,
painfully conspicuous by their absence.
I have explained that the Newtons did not know that Mrs. Paterson was in
her husband's confidence; that they imagined she was not; and that he,
with a desire for counter-check which distinguishes the suspicious,
taught them so to believe. He would frequently say, when Mrs. Paterson's
name transpired in their conversations prior and subsequently to the
fire, that "he never trusted a woman with a secret of any importance, as
she was sure to blab or peach," &c. As I have said, however, he was all
the while disclosing to her the conspiracy and plot. She was thoroughly
informed of every circumstance, and knew all about their proceedings
from first to last as well as either of the Newtons did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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