London (England) -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Mystery fiction
"Nothing at all?" he demanded.
"Oh! a knife, a piece of pencil, a little money and a few odds and ends.
But nothing of any use to us."
"Then you can't identify him?"
"Unfortunately we can't, sir," was the man's reply.
"We hope to find out who he is, but from all appearances he's a total
stranger in these parts."
"It's very evident that the murderer searched the poor fellow's
pockets," Jack said. "He was afraid lest his victim might be
identified."
"That's what we think, m'lord," remarked one of Booth's companions.
"The tab off the back of his jacket, which bore the maker's name, has
been cut out."
"By the murderer?" asked Wydcombe.
"Probably so, m'lord."
"Then whoever killed him took good care to remove every scrap of
evidence which might lead to his victim's identification," Ellice
Winsloe remarked, standing with his eyes fixed steadily upon the dead
face.
"That's what our superintendent thinks. He believes that if we
establish who the poor fellow is, that we shall have no difficulty in
putting our hand upon the guilty person."
"But did no one hear the shot?" Winsloe inquired.
"Nobody. The doctor thinks the affair took place late in the
afternoon," answered Booth.
Winsloe pursed his white lips, and turned away. For an instant a
haggard, fearsome look crossed his hard countenance--the look of a man
haunted by a guilty secret--but a moment later, when Wydcombe turned to
join him, his face changed, and he exclaimed lightly,--
"Let's get out of this. The thing's a complete mystery, and we must
leave it to the police to puzzle it all out. Of course, there'll be an
inquest, and then we may hear something further."
"At present the affair is a complete enigma," Jack remarked. Then,
bending again towards the dead man's face, he added, "Do you know,
Ellice, I can't help thinking that I've seen him before somewhere, but
where, I can't for the life of me recollect."
I saw that Winsloe started, and he turned again. "I don't recognise him
in the least," he said quickly. "A face is always altered by death. He
now resembles, perhaps, somebody you've known."
"Ah, perhaps so," remarked the young viscount. "Yet I certainly have a
faint impression of having seen him somewhere before--or somebody very
like him."
"I hope your lordship will try and remember," urged the village
constable. "It would be of the greatest assistance to us."
"I'll try and think, Booth. If I recollect I'll send for you," he
answered.
"Thank you, m'lord," the constable replied, and as I glanced covertly at
Winsloe I saw that his face had fallen.
Would Scarcliff recall who he really was?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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