Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction; Police -- England -- Fiction
And then, with regard to Thursday and Thursday night. To have caught
the 9.00 a.m. from Charing Cross, Felix must have left St. Malo at
not later than 8.50. According to his statement, his breakfast was
left ready for him at 8.00, and there certainly would not have been
time for him to eat it. But there was nothing to prevent him having
in two or three minutes dirtied the plates and carried away some
food, to give the impression he had had his meal. Here there was hope
of help from the charwoman. Clifford could not decide the point till
he had interviewed her.
He turned back to his notes. After breakfast, Felix, according to his
statement, had painted without ceasing, except for a cup of cocoa at
lunch time, until half-past six. He had then changed and gone to
town, dining alone at the Gresham. Though he had seen no one he knew
at the famous restaurant, there was a chance that a waiter or
commissionaire or other official might have recognised him. He had
left about nine and, feeling tired, he had returned straight home.
There, no one could know of his presence till 7.30 the next morning,
when Mrs. Murphy would expect to hear him answer her knock.
But if he had been to Paris, meeting the cask at the Gare du Nord, he
could have been home equally at 7.30 a.m. Therefore the evidence of
his answering the knock would be immaterial. Certainly if Felix were
telling the truth, the manner in which confirmation was eluding him
was most unfortunate. But was Felix telling the truth? . . .
Then there were those three discoveries of Burnley at St. Malo, the
‘Emmie’ letter, the impression on the blotsheet, and the pin. Any one
of these alone would have been highly damaging to Felix’s case; the
three together seemed overwhelming. And yet Felix had not attempted a
word of explanation. He had simply denied knowledge of all three. If
the accused man could not explain these damaging facts, how was
Clifford to set about it?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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