One was his signed statement of events on the night of the tragedy. The
last time he had seen Grell alive was at half-past six, when his
employer had left for the St. Jermyn's Club. He himself had gone to the
Savoy Theatre, and, returning some time after eleven, had let himself in
with his own key and gone straight to bed. He had only been aroused when
the police took possession of the house. The third was headed:
"Inquiries as to career of, and corroboration of statements made by,
James Lomont."
The curtains had remained drawn, and only a dim light filtered through
into the room. Foyle lifted a little green-shaded electric lamp from the
table, and switched on the light so that it fell on the face of the dead
man.
"Look," he said, in a quiet voice, "do you recognise your chief?"
The young man flung back his shoulders with a jerk, as though overcoming
his own feelings, and approached the body with evident distaste. His
hands, slender as a woman's, were tight-clenched, and his breath came
and went in nervous spasms. For a moment he gazed, and then shook his
head weakly.
"It is not," he whispered with dry lips. "There is an old scar across
the temple. Mr. Grell's face was not disfigured." He stretched out a
hand and clutched the superintendent nervously by the shoulder. "Who is
this man, Mr. Foyle? What does it all mean? Where is Mr. Grell?"
Foyle's hand had stolen to his chin and he rubbed it vigorously.
"I don't know what it means," he confessed irritably. "You know as much
as I do now. This man is not Robert Grell, though he is astonishingly
like him. Now, Mr. Lomont, I rely on you not to breathe a word of this
to a living soul until I give you permission. This secret must remain
between our two selves for the time being."
"Certainly."
In spite of his air of candour, Heldon Foyle had not revealed all he
knew. He left the house pondering deeply.
"You see, sir," he explained to the Assistant Commissioner later, "no
one who knew Grell had seen the body closely. The butler had taken it
for granted that it was his master. It was pure luck with me. In looking
through the records in search of this woman Petrovska, I hit against the
picture of Goldenburg. It was so like Grell that I went off at once to
compare finger-prints. They tallied; and then young Lomont spoke of the
scar. Though what Harry Goldenburg should be doing in Grell's house,
with Grell's clothes, and with Grell's property in the pockets, is more
than I can fathom."
Sir Hilary Thornton drummed on his desk with his right hand.
"Isn't this the Goldenburg who engineered the South American gold mine
swindle?" he asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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