The Middle of ThingsFletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
General
The Middle of Things
Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
Detective and mystery stories
"Oh--but I guess Mr. Felpham doesn't think that way?" replied Drillford
with a shrewd glance at the solicitor. "Mr. Felpham knows the value of
evidence, I believe!"
"What is it that's been found, exactly?" asked Felpham.
Drillford opened a locked drawer, lifted aside a sheet of cardboard, and
revealed a fine gold watch and chain and a diamond ring. These lay on two
or three sheets of much crumpled paper of a peculiar quality.
"There you are!" said Drillford. "Those belonged to Mr. Ashton; there's
his name on the watch, and a mark of his inside the ring. They were found
early this morning, hidden, in the very place in which Hyde confessed
that he spent most of the night after Ashton's murder--a shed belonging
to one Fisher, a greengrocer, up the Harrow Road.
"Who found them?" demanded Felpham.
"Fisher himself," answered Drillford. "He was pottering about in his
shed before going to Covent Garden. He wanted some empty boxes, and in
pulling things about he found--these! Couldn't have made a more important
find, I think.
"Were these things loose?" asked Viner.
"Wrapped loosely in the paper they're lying on," replied Drillford.
Viner took the paper out of the drawer, examined it and lifted it
to his nose.
"I wonder, if Hyde really did put those things there," he said, "how Hyde
came to be carrying about with him these sheets of paper which had
certainly been used before for the wrappings of chemicals or drugs?"
Felpham pricked his ears.
"Eh?" he said. "What's that?"
"Smell for yourself," answered Viner. "Let the inspector smell too. I
draw the attention to both of you to the fact, because we'll raise that
point whenever it's necessary. Those papers have at some time been used
to wrap some strong-smelling drug."
"No doubt of it!" said Felpham, who was applying the papers to his nose.
"Smell them, Drillford! As Mr. Viner says, what would Hyde be doing with
this stuff in his pocket?"
"That's a mere detail," remarked Drillford impatiently. "These chaps that
mooch about, as Hyde was doing, pick up all sorts of odds and ends. He
may have pinched them from a chemist's shop. Anyway, there's the
fact--and we'll hang him on it! You'll see!"
"We shall never see anything of the sort!" said Viner. "You're on the
wrong tack, Inspector. Let me put two or three things to your
intelligence. Where's Ashton's purse? I know for a fact that Ashton had a
purse full of money when he went out of his house that night--Mrs.
Killenhall and Miss Wickham saw him take it out just before he left to
give some cash to the parlourmaid, and they saw him replace it in his
trousers pocket; I also know for another fact where he spent money that
evening--in short, I know now a good deal about his movements for some
hours before his death."
"Then you ought to tell us, Mr. Viner," said Drillford a little sulkily.
"You oughtn't to keep any information to yourself."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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