Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction; Police -- England -- Fiction
‘I also have had some news,’ said M. Chauvet, when he had heard
Burnley’s and Lefarge’s reports. ‘I sent a man up to that pump
manufactory and he found out enough to substantiate entirely Boirac’s
statement of the hours at which he arrived there and left on the
night of the accident. There is also a despatch from Scotland Yard.
On receipt of Mr. Burnley’s wire immediate inquiries were made about
the cask sent by Havre and Southampton. It appears it arrived all
right at Waterloo on the morning after it was despatched from here.
It was booked through, as you know, to an address near Tottenham
Court Road, and the railway people would in the ordinary course have
delivered it by one of their lorries. But just as it was being
removed from the van of the train, a man stepped forward and claimed
it, saying he was the consignee, that he wished to take it to another
address, and that he had a cart and man there for the purpose. He was
a man of about medium height, with dark hair and beard, and the clerk
thought he was a foreigner, probably French. He gave his name as Léon
Felix and produced several envelopes addressed to himself at the
Tottenham Court Road address as identification. He signed for, and
was handed over the cask, and took it away. His movements after that
were completely lost sight of, and no further traces of him have been
discovered. A photo of Felix was shown to the Waterloo people, but
while the clerk said it was like the man, neither he nor any of the
others would swear to it.
‘Inquiries have also been made about Felix. It turns out he is an
artist or designer in Messrs. Greer and Hood’s, the advertisement and
poster people of Fleet Street. He is not married, but keeps an
elderly servant-housekeeper. This woman was on a fortnight’s holiday
from the 25th of March to the 8th of this month.
‘So much for London,’ continued M. Chauvet. ‘Now, let us see what we
have still to do. First, that lady’s maid at Dijon must be
interviewed. I think, Lefarge, you might do that. To-morrow is
Sunday. Suppose you go to-morrow. You can sleep at Dijon, and get
back as early as possible on Monday. Then, Mr. Burnley, that matter
of the statue sent to M. Boirac must be gone into. Perhaps you would
be good enough to make inquiries at Dupierre’s on Monday morning, and
please keep in touch with me by phone. I will look into some other
points, and we shall meet here at the same time that evening.’
The detective took the Metro at Châtelet, Burnley going west to his
hotel in the rue Castiglione, and Lefarge east to the Gare de Lyons.
On Monday morning Burnley called to see M. Thomas at the showroom in
the Boulevard des Capucines.
‘I’m back again, M. Thomas,’ he said, as they greeted one another. He
explained what had been learned about the casks at the Gare St.
Lazare, continuing, ‘So you see, two must have been sent out. Now,
can you give me any information about the sending out of the second
cask?’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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