"Once I get hold of the first the other two won't be very hard to find
out, for one can tell pretty well from a man's life whether it's to
anyone's interest that he should be got off the books. The man that
murdered that chap must have had some strong motive, and I must find
out what that motive was. Love? No, it wasn't that--men in love don't
go to such lengths in real life--they do in novels and plays, but I've
never seen it occurring in my experience. Robbery? No, there was plenty
of money in his pocket. Revenge? Now, really it might be that--it's a
kind of thing that carries most people further than they want to go.
There was no violence used, for his clothes weren't torn, so he must
have been taken sudden, and before he knew what the other chap was up
to. By the way, I don't think I examined his clothes sufficiently,
there might be something about them to give a clue; at any rate it's
worth looking after, so I'll start with his clothes."
So Mr. Gorby, having dressed and breakfasted, walked quickly to the
police station, where he asked for the clothes of the deceased to be
shown to him. When he received them he retired into a corner, and
commenced an exhaustive examination of them.
There was nothing remarkable about the coat. It was merely a well-cut
and well-made dress coat; so with a grunt of dissatisfaction Mr. Gorby
threw it aside, and picked up the waistcoat. Here he found something to
interest him, in the shape of a pocket made on the left-hand side and
on the inside, of the garment.
"Now, what the deuce is this for?" said Mr. Gorby, scratching his head;
"it ain't usual for a dress waistcoat to have a pocket on its inside as
I'm aware of; and," continued the detective, greatly excited, "this
ain't tailor's work, he did it himself, and jolly badly he did it too.
Now he must have taken the trouble to make this pocket himself, so that
no one else would know anything about it, and it was made to carry
something valuable--so valuable that he had to carry it with him even
when he wore evening clothes. Ah! here's a tear on the side nearest the
outside of the waistcoat; something has been pulled out roughly. I
begin to see now. The dead man possessed something which the other man
wanted, and which he knew the dead one carried about with him. He sees
him drunk, gets into the cab with him, and tries to get what he wants.
The dead man resists, upon which the other kills him by means of the
chloroform which he had with him, and being afraid that the cab will
stop, and he will be found out, snatches what he wants out of the
pocket so quickly that he tears the waistcoat and then makes off.
That's clear enough, but the question is, What was it he wanted? A case
with jewels? No! It could not have been anything so bulky, or the dead
man would never have carried it about inside his waistcoat. It was
something flat, which could easily lie in the pocket--a paper--some
valuable paper which the assassin wanted, and for which he killed the
other."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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