The Mystery of the Hasty ArrowGreen, Anna Katharine
General
The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow
Green, Anna Katharine
Detective and mystery stories
As he expected, he found the Chief Inspector awaiting him. The death of
Madame Duclos had added still another serious complication to the many
with which this difficult affair was already encumbered, and he was
anxious to talk over the matter with one who had been on the spot and
upon whose impressions he consequently could rely.
But when he heard all that Mr. Gryce had to say on the subject, he grew
as serious as the detective himself could wish, even going so far as to
propose an immediate ride over to the District Attorney's office.
Fortunately, they found that gentleman in and ready to listen, though
it was evident he expected little from the conference. But his temper
changed as Mr. Gryce opened up his theory and began to substantiate it
with facts. The looks which he exchanged with the Chief Inspector grew
more and more earnest and inquiring, and when Mr. Gryce reached that
portion of his report which connected Mr. Roberts so indisputably with
the arrow, he called in his assistant and together they listened to what
Mr. Gryce had further to say.
With this addition to his audience, the old man's manner changed and
became a trifle more formal. He related the fact, not generally known, of
Mr. Roberts' engagement to a young girl residing on Long Island, and how
this was broken off immediately after the occurrence at the museum,
seemingly from no other reason than the unhappy condition of mind in
which he found himself, a condition added to if not explained by the
pertinacity with which he had haunted the morgue and dwelt upon the image
of the young girl who had perished under no random shot.
Here the old man paused, shrinking as much from what he had yet to say as
they from the hearing of it. It was not till the Chief Inspector had made
him an encouraging gesture that he found the requisite courage to
proceed. He did so, in these words:
"I know that the evidence I have thus far advanced is of a purely
circumstantial nature, capable, perhaps, of a more or less satisfactory
explanation. But what I have to add cannot be so easily disposed of.
Connections have developed between persons we thought strangers which
have opened up a field of inquiry which brings the doubts and surmises
of an old detective within the scope of this office. I do not know what
to make of them; perhaps their full meaning can only be found out here.
Of this only I am assured. The gentleman whom it seems presumptuous on my
part to connect even in a casual way with crime has not gained but lost
by what I have to tell of Madame Duclos' suicidal death. To those who see
no association between the two, it looks like the opening of a new lead,
but when I tell you that they knew each other, or at all events that she
knew him and in the way of actual hatred, it looks more like a deepening
of the old one. See here, gentlemen."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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