Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction
Carmichael seemed destined to overwhelm them with surprises. At this
point he suddenly remarked, “You know, that’s not all the clues we’ve
got. There’s one that dropped out of poor Brotherhood’s pocket as the
caddies were carrying off the body to the tool-house. At least, the
caddies said so: my private impression is that the young ruffians
searched the pockets on their own——”
“Why on earth should they do that?” asked Reeves.
“Well, you know what caddies are—it’s a demoralizing profession. Not
that I believe much in boys going to school myself, but it does keep
them out of mischief. Those two boys, I think, went through the
pockets on their own.”
“They left four bob there,” suggested Gordon.
“Yes, boys are frightened of stealing money; they connect it with
going to prison. But they don’t mind stealing other things; I think
they could tell you why the pouch was empty, and why there was only
one cigarette left in the case—they were too clever to clear both
completely. After all, you know, it isn’t very long since people gave
up ‘wrecking’ in Cornwall. I remember a very interesting conversation
I had with a man down there in the _Lugger_ Inn at Fowey——”
“You were going to tell us something about a clue,” said Gordon
gently.
“Ah yes: one of them came up to me afterwards—it was the one they call
Ginger. I wonder why are boys with red hair called Ginger? Ginger is
of a greenish-yellow tinge, if you come to think of it. Where was I?
Yes, he came up to me with a photograph, and told me that it had
fallen out of one of the pockets as they carried the body. That is
almost impossible, you know, for a man always carries photographs in
his breast pocket, and a thing can’t fall out of a man’s breast pocket
unless you turn him upside down and shake him. Ginger was obviously
scared at the thought that he might be concealing a clue—he referred
to it as a ‘clue’ himself—and did not care to give it to the police;
so he handed it over to me.”
“And you?”
“I have it here in my pocket—the breast pocket, observe. To tell the
truth, I am a little absent-minded, and it was only during the inquest
that I remembered the photograph; it seemed to me too late then to
mention anything about it in public.”
“Carmichael,” said Gordon very seriously, “if you don’t produce that
photograph it will, I gather, be necessary to turn you upside down and
shake you.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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