Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction; Police -- England -- Fiction
He remembered that he had already learnt the trains by which the
murdered man had travelled to town. He could thus start with the
practical certainty that Sir William had arrived at St Pancras at
11.40 on the Saturday and the Monday before the crime.
By what means would the deceased leave the station? Tanner did not
think a man of his position would walk or go by bus or tube. No, as
his private car was not available he would take a taxi. ‘I must find
the man who drove him,’ the Inspector thought.
He gave his bell a code ring, and instructed the assistant who
answered to undertake the inquiry. From the constables on station duty
the numbers of the vehicles which left on the arrival of the train in
question could be obtained, and it would be a simple matter to find
the drivers and learn by means of a photograph which of them had
driven Sir William, and to what point.
But Tanner was by no means sanguine that such an inquiry would bear
fruit. He believed that the deceased had not used his own car because
he wished to cover his traces. And if so he would probably have
avoided taking a taxi at the station. It would have been safer for him
to have picked one up in the street outside. Tanner therefore felt he
should if possible have another string to his bow. Where could such be
found?
A second line of inquiry soon suggested itself. Sir William would not
have passed the day without food. If Tanner could find where he
lunched, it would give him another point of attack.
The Inspector had learned from Innes his master’s usual restaurants,
as well as the names of his two clubs. As all these were extremely
expensive and exclusive, Tanner felt he might confine his researches
to places of the same type.
He began at once. Driving to the first club, he made exhaustive
inquiries. Sir William was a well-known figure there, and his death
had caused some of the attendants to recall in conversation the
occasion of his last visit. But this had been three weeks before the
murder. The men were positive he had not been there either the
Saturday or Monday in question.
At the second club Tanner received similar information. Here Sir
William had not been seen for over two months prior to his death.
The Inspector then began on the restaurants. By the time he had
visited the Carlton, the Savoy, and one or two others it was after
eight o’clock. He therefore gave up for the night and, going home,
busied himself in making out a list of other possible places at which
he would inquire on the following day.
Next morning he was early at work. He was very thorough and
painstaking, leaving no restaurant till he had interviewed every one
who might conceivably help him, from the manager down to the cloakroom
attendant. For a long time he had no luck. But at last in the late
afternoon, when he had worked half down his list and visited no less
than seventeen restaurants, he found what he wanted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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