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
"Exactly. We have to find some one who shared the knowledge with him. Let
me go back to the missing bag for a moment. Since it was on the
Chesterfield, Bridwell must have seen it. What would he do with it? What
would you have done with it, Wigan? I think you would have just put it on
a side table or in a handy drawer; yet it had gone. The fact of its
disappearance stuck in my mind from the first, although I did not at once
see the full significance of it. On the cover of the telephone directory
there were two or three numbers scribbled in pencil; I made a note of
them with the idea that the woman might be traced that way. However,
arguing that a man would be likely to know the telephone number of a
woman he was in love with, and have no necessity to write it down, I took
no trouble in this direction. I went to see Bridwell's solicitor instead.
I led him to suppose that I was interested in the study of the
Renaissance, and asked him if Bridwell had had a companion during his
wanderings in Italy three years ago. For part of the time, at any rate,
he had--a partner rather than a companion, a man named Ormrod--Peter
Ormrod. I knew the name at once, because Ormrod has written many
articles for the reviews, and all of them have been about Italy in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Ormrod's telephone number is 0054
Croydon, and he is married, and I think it was his wife who spoke to you
over the telephone. My theory is that Ormrod had discovered that his wife
was in love with his friend, and used his knowledge of this poisoning
method, which could not be detected, remember, to be revenged. I think he
came to the flat that evening after Bridwell's guests had gone, perhaps
he expected to find his wife there. I do not think he quarreled with his
false friend. I think he showed great friendliness, talked a little of
the past perhaps; and then, in examining some book or paper, leant over
his friend as he sat at the table, and the deed was done. If the bag was
lying on a side table he saw it and took it away; if it was lying in a
drawer no doubt he found it while he was looking for letters from his
wife to Bridwell, or for her photograph--anything which would connect her
name with Bridwell. Somehow, he found it and took it away. There is no
one else who would be likely to take it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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