"Something of the sort happened, for Lola went to Lady Eileen, and we
were able to lay hands on her. But we failed to get her identified as
the veiled woman who had visited the house in Grosvenor Gardens. I will
confess that, at that time, I never had any suspicion that she was the
actual murderess. We had no adequate excuse for detaining her after she
handed the jewels over, with an explanation endorsed by Lady Eileen
Meredith. I had taken her finger-prints, and they did not agree.
"It was palpable that the attempt to baffle us was being shrewdly
organised. I tried a different way of getting information--an attack, so
to speak, by the back door. I enlisted the help of a criminal. He was
acting more or less blindly, but by his help we stopped the burglary
affair that was planned. In the pocket of one of the men we arrested, we
discovered two advertisements, worded so as to convey a cipher key
without exciting suspicion. We had them inserted, and naturally arranged
to keep an eye on the office--for the word to-morrow suggested one to be
inserted the following day.
"There is always wisdom in gaining the confidence of those concerned in
a case if you can. I was trying hard to establish friendly relations
with Lady Eileen and Sir Ralph Fairfield. Each was difficult to handle,
but with Sir Ralph I succeeded to some extent. I used him to try and
learn something from her. She realised that the cipher was known, and
went to the newspaper office to try and stop the insertion of the
advertisement that might enable us to find Grell. Of course she failed,
and we got a message which had been handed in by Petrovska. One of our
men followed her.
"We deciphered the message, and it enabled us to discover your
hiding-place on the river. But the business was muddled, and you got
away. We found the sheath of the knife used in the murder among other
belongings you left behind. By the way, we understand that that dagger
had belonged to Harry Goldenburg--how came it to be lying about your
room?"
Grell shook his head. "That is a mistake. The dagger was mine. It is
possible that he had a similar one."
"Yes, that is possible. But in the event, the point does not matter
much. What was more important was, that we had driven you out of a
secure hiding-place.
"Meanwhile, Pinkerton's had been hard at work on the other side of the
Atlantic, and many episodes of your private life were minutely examined.
Their detectives it was, too, who had discovered that Goldenburg and
Petrovska had in some way been associated with you. What they found out
pointed to blackmail. Here appeared an adequate motive for you to murder
Goldenburg."
Grell tapped impatiently on the table, but did not interrupt. Heldon
Foyle went on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account