The Master Detective: Being Some Further Investigations of Christopher QuarlesBrebner, Percy James
General
The Master Detective: Being Some Further Investigations of Christopher Quarles
Brebner, Percy James
Detective and mystery stories
The servants had searched everywhere--in the house, in the grounds, and
in the ruins, and later the police had gone over the same ground, and
had searched everywhere on the estate; not a sign of the missing girl
had been found. A footman, however, said he had heard a motor-car in the
road about the time of the disappearance. He had listened, wondering who
was coming to Whiteladies at that hour. The house stood in one corner of
the estate, and there was a public road quite close to it, but it was a
road little frequented. The marks of a car, which had stopped and turned
at a point near the house, were plainly visible, and so far this was the
only clue forthcoming. It proved an important one, because a tramp was
found by the police who had seen a closed car traveling at a great speed
toward the London road. The time, which he was able to fix very
definitely, was about a quarter of an hour after Eva Wilkinson had gone
on to the terrace.
"Has the tramp been detained?" Quarles asked, and being answered in the
negative, said he ought to have been.
The professor examined the marks of the car minutely. There were two cars
at Whiteladies, but neither of the tire markings were those of the car
which had turned in the road.
It is only natural, I suppose, that when a number of persons are brought
in contact with a mystery their behavior should tend to become unnatural.
It is one of a detective's chief difficulties to determine between
innocent and suspicious actions, the latter being often the result of
temperament or of a desire to emphasize innocence. I never found a
decision more difficult than in the case of Eva Wilkinson's maid, a girl
named Joan Perry; and because I could not decide in her case I was also
suspicious of her young man Saunders, a gamekeeper on the estate. Joan
Perry, a little later in the day, claimed to have made a remarkable
discovery. A coat and skirt and a pair of walking shoes had been removed
from her mistress's wardrobe.
"What made you inspect her wardrobe?" I asked.
The question seemed to confuse her, but she finally said it was because
she wondered whether Miss Eva had gone away on purpose. According to
Perry the affair with Edward Cayley was a serious one. To some extent her
young mistress had confided in her, she declared.
"Then she would hardly have gone away without letting you into the
secret," I said.
"That is what I cannot understand," she answered.
Quarles agreed with me that this lent color to the idea that Eva
Wilkinson had gone of her own accord.
"It is possible--even probable," he said, "but if she did, I take it she
has been deceived and walked into a trap. If we can find that car we
shall be on the right road."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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