Brown assented. He did not talk as much as his quicker-witted
colleague, but his rather slow mind was working at its normal speed.
"We've got to examine the other floors, you know. I've made up my mind
to one thing--whoever came in here, robbery wasn't the object."
"There I quite agree," remarked the younger man.
They made their way down from the top floor, which consisted of three
attics. On the floor beneath this, they searched every room and found
nothing.
But on the floor underneath their search was rewarded. In a small
dressing-room, leading off the bedroom which fronted the square, they
found a gruesome sight--the lifeless body of a man, comparatively young,
somewhere about thirty-five or so, a deep gash in his throat, in his
stiffened hand a razor.
The two men gazed, horrified. It was an early summer morning, the sun
was shining through the windows, the birds were twittering in the trees.
Shortly the whole world would be astir. And here, in the small room,
lay the senseless clay, oblivious of all these signs of awakening life
and vigour.
Brown was the first to speak. "Suicide!" he said hoarsely. "The poor
devil wanted to make an end of it, and crept in here, knowing it was an
empty house."
The younger man spoke less convincingly. "It looks like it. Suicide,
as you say." He paused a moment, and then spoke slowly: "I think it's
suicide, but it might be--mind you, I only say might be--a very
carefully planned murder. And now, let us overhaul his pockets, we may
find something to establish identification."
Together they bent down, and rummaged the dead man's pockets. They
found plenty of material for identification.
As they were engaged in their gruesome task, they heard the sound of a
latch-key being put in the front-door. They heard the door banged to,
and heavy footsteps ascended the staircase.
"Miles come back after his spree," whispered Constable Brown to the
younger man.
Miles, all unsuspecting of what had taken place during his absence, came
heavily up the stairs. It could not be said that he was by any means
drunk, but he was not absolutely sober. He was slowly recovering from
the previous night's debauch.
Arrived on the floor where the two policemen were conducting their
investigations, absolute sobriety came back to him. He saw the open
door of the dressing-room, two men in uniform kneeling by the side of an
inanimate object. His brain cleared as if by magic. He recognised in
one of the kneeling constables his old friend Brown.
He indulged in a little profanity, born of his emotion, which need not
be set down here. Shorn of certain expletives, natural to a man of his
class, he inquired of Brown what was the matter.
Brown on his side was cool and explicit, and instead of answering the
caretaker's questions, he preferred to put a few of his own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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