Criminals -- England -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories
In spite of his remissness, the aged millionaire was escorted to the
door by the three chief waiters, his top-coat, silk hat and
walking-stick were brought to him, and he was out of Dick Gordon’s sight
before the bowing servants had straightened themselves.
Elk looked at his watch: it wanted five minutes of one. Hagn had not
returned—a circumstance which irritated the detective and was a source
of uneasiness to Dick Gordon. The merriment again worked up to its
highest point, when the two men rose from the table and strolled toward
the door. A waiter came after them hurriedly.
“Monsieur has not paid his bill.”
“We will pay that later,” said Dick, and at that moment the hands of the
clock pointed to the hour.
Precisely five minutes later the club was in the hands of the police. By
1.15 it was empty, save for the thirty raiding detectives and the staff.
“Where is Hagn?” Dick asked the chief waiter.
“He has gone home, monsieur,” said the man sullenly. “He always goes
home early.”
“That’s a lie,” said Elk. “Show me to his room.”
Hagn’s office was in the basement, a part of the old mission hall that
had remained untouched. They were shown to a large, windowless cubicle,
comfortably furnished, which was Hagn’s private bureau, but the man had
disappeared. Whilst his subordinates were searching for the books and
examining, sheet by sheet, the documents in the clerk’s office, Elk made
an examination of the room. In one corner was a small safe, upon which
he put the police seal; and lying on a sofa in some disorder was a suit
of clothes, evidently discarded in a hurry. Elk looked at them, carried
them under the ceiling light, and examined them. It was the suit Hagn
had been wearing when he had shown them to their seats.
“Bring in that head waiter,” said Elk.
The head waiter either wouldn’t or couldn’t give information.
“Mr. Hagn always changes his clothes before he goes home,” he said.
“Why did he go before the club was closed?”
The man shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know anything about his private affairs,” he said, and Elk
dismissed him.
Against the wall was a dressing-table and a mirror, and on each side of
the mirror stood a small table-lamp, which differed from other
table-lamps in that it was not shaded. Elk turned the switch, and in the
glaring light scrutinized the table. Presently he found two wisps of
hair, and held them against the sleeve of his black coat. In the drawer
he found a small bottle of spirit gum, and examined the brush. Then he
picked up a little wastepaper basket and turned its contents upon the
table. He found a few torn bills, business letters, a tradesman’s
advertisement, three charred cigarette ends, and some odd scraps of
paper. One of these was covered with gum and stuck together.
“I reckon he wiped the brush on this,” said Elk, and with some
difficulty pulled the folded slip apart.
It was typewritten, and consisted of three lines:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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