The sea mystery : $b An Inspector French detective storyCrofts, Freeman Wills
General
The sea mystery : $b An Inspector French detective story
Crofts, Freeman Wills
Detective and mystery stories; French, Joseph (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Police -- Great Britain -- Fiction
In considering Mrs. Berlyn as her husband’s accomplice he had been
doubtful whether there would have been sufficient time for the various
actions. If after Berlyn’s arrival at the works with the body Mrs.
Berlyn had driven the car back to where it was found, changed the
magneto, and made the footprints, he did not believe she could have
walked home in time to wake the servants at the hour stated. Nor did
he believe that Berlyn, after disposing of the body in the works,
could have been able on foot to make Domlio’s in time to hide the
clothes in the well before the sergeant’s call.
He now wondered whether Mrs. Berlyn’s bicycle could have been pressed
into the service. Could the lady have brought the machine to the
works, lifted it into the tonneau of the car, carried it out on the
moor, and ridden back on it to the works? And could her husband have
used it to reach first Domlio’s and then Plymouth or some other large
town from which he had escaped?
To test the matter, French returned to Lizzie Johnston and asked her
if she knew what had become of the bicycle.
But the girl could not tell him. Nor could she recall when or where
she had seen it last. She supposed it had been sold at the auction,
but in the excitement of that time she had not noticed it.
“Where did Mrs. Berlyn get it, do you know?”
“From Makepeace’s. He has bicycles same as motors. He’ll tell you
about it.”
Half an hour later French was talking to Mr. Makepeace. He remembered
having some five years earlier sold the machine to Mrs. Berlyn. He
looked up his records, and after considerable trouble found a note of
the transaction. The bicycle was a Swift, and number 35,721. It had
certain dimensions and peculiarities of which he gave French details.
French’s next call was on the auctioneer who had conducted the sale of
the Berlyn effects. Mr. Nankivell appeared _au fait_ with the whole
case and was obviously thrilled to meet French. He made no difficulty
about giving the required information. A bicycle had not been among
the articles auctioned, nor had he seen one during his visits to the
house.
This was all very well as far as it went, but it was negative. French
wanted to find some one who could say definitely what had happened to
the machine. He consulted with Sergeant Daw and at last came to the
conclusion that if Peter Swann, the gardener-chauffeur, could be
found, he might be able to give the information. Daw believed he had
gone to Chagford, and he telephoned to the sergeant there, asking him
to make enquiries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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