The Man Who Knew - ebook

CHAPTER I

THE clock in the tower of St. Botolph’s was booming the hour after midnight, as Acting-Sergeant Philip Lashbrook came slowly along Orford street, having accomplished the mission delegated to him by his superior officer, and, therefore, being now more or less off duty, although he was still wearing the badge of his office. So far as he could see, there was not a soul in sight, not a sound to be heard either, except the distant hum of traffic that came from Regent Crescent on his far right. He gave a casual, but professional eye to the various shops as he walked along. For Orford street is one of fashion, and some of the establishments there are of world-wide renown. In a few moments now he would be back at headquarters, and then free to seek his lodgings.

He came at length to the spot where Mansfield street crosses Orford street at right angles. Along this former thoroughfare he flashed a fleeting glance, and then, crossing the road, was about to resume his patrol on the far side of Orford street, when he was suddenly pulled up by a call that seemed to come to him from some spot in Mansfield street, where he could dimly make out the figure of a man standing there.

“Hi, constable!” came a clear voice with no suggestion of agitation. “You are wanted. Come this way.”

Lashbrook turned in his tracks and approached the man who had hailed him. By the light of a street lamp close by he saw a tall, wiry-looking figure in evening dress, over which a light summer overcoat was carelessly flung.

“What’s the trouble, sir?” Lashbrook asked.

“Well, it seems to be this,” the tall man said almost casually, as he pointed down to an object lying half on the pavement, and half in the gutter. “Unless I am greatly mistaken, it seems to me that I have found a dead body.”

Without comment, Lashbrook bent down over the inanimate object lying there so silently. As he did so, he stiffened.

“Dead enough, sir!” he said. “And, if I am not greatly mistaken, murdered.”

Saying this, Lashbrook held up a hand which was smeared with blood. Then he turned his lantern and flashed it full on the figure of the man in evening dress, and immediately registered a mental photograph of what he saw.

What he saw was a tall, athletic-looking individual of some fifty years of age, with thin, aquiline features, and a resolute mouth under a close-clipped military moustache. A man of some position, evidently, by his easy carriage, and the accent in which he spoke. In that flash of the lantern, Acting-Sergeant Lashbrook had visualised everything connected with the man who stood opposite to him, noted one or two peculiarities, and then had become the ordinary policeman once more.

“Perhaps you had better explain, sir,” he said.

“I am afraid there is nothing to explain,” the stranger said. “I was coming along the road just now from spending the evening with a friend, and was on my way to my club, thinking of nothing in particular, except that I was feeling rather tired, when I came suddenly on this.”

“Indeed, sir,” Lashbrook said. “You saw nothing, I suppose? No sign of a struggle or anything of that sort?”

“I have already told you that I saw and heard no sound of any sort. I just blundered on this figure, lying in the gutter, indeed, I almost passed it without noticing anything.”

Once more Lashbrook bent over the body.

“A bit strange, sir, isn’t it?” he said. “I mean, this poor fellow can’t have been dead many minutes. There is still a movement of the muscles, and the body is quite warm. Are you quite sure, sir, that you heard nothing?”

“Absolutely, my dear officer,” the stranger said calmly. “It may seem strange, to you that I didn’t hear a shot fired.”

“I said nothing about a shot,” Lashbrook pointed out. “I don’t know yet whether the man was shot or stabbed.”

“Oh, don’t you?” the stranger asked indifferently. “One naturally concludes, in a case of this sort, that either a revolver or automatic has been used.”

Lashbrook made no reply for a moment, but once more, with the aid of his lantern, he examined the prone figure in the gutter.

“I think you are right, sir,” he said presently. “This man has been shot. Shot by somebody who came up behind him and murdered him at fairly close quarters. If you look, you will see where the bullet entered under the left shoulder blade. If it had been a knife, there would have been a deeper cut in the deceased’s overcoat. I am afraid I shall have to ask you to give me your name and address and, perhaps, invite your company with me as far as Wine street police station.”

“Oh, certainly,” the stranger said. “My name is Crafton, Selby Crafton, and my address is the Wanderlust Club. Here is my card. Of course, I will gladly give you all the assistance I can, which will not be very much, I am afraid.”

With that, the speaker handed over a visiting card which Lashbrook put in his pocket. Then he put a whistle to his lips, and, almost instantly, two policemen appeared, as if out of nowhere. The man stared at the blue coated officers in amazement. He was evidently wondering where they came from and where they had been hidden, for he had not seen a ghost of a uniformed officer during the whole of his walk.

“Now, get busy,” Lashbrook said curtly. “A man has been murdered here. Shot in the last few minutes. This gentleman who found the body must have come across it almost before the crime was committed and yet he declares that he heard no sound of a shot and saw no one along the whole length of the street. Call up the ambulance and let us get along to Wine Street.”

A few minutes later, the body of the murdered man had been conveyed to the mortuary behind the police station, and there the sergeant in charge proceeded to interrogate the man who had given the name of Crafton. The latter, who seemed to be utterly unconcerned, answered every question put to him readily enough and even smiled at a certain interrogation that came from the lips of the sergeant.

“I have told you everything I can, officer,” he said. “I heard no shot fired and I saw no sign of a disturbance or struggle. I know you must do your duty, but don’t make it any harder for an unfortunate individual like myself if you can help it. I might easily have ignored the body at my feet as I passed it and left the finding of it to somebody else. But, dash it all, officer, there is a certain duty one owes to society. That last question you put to me had a most unpleasant suggestion about it. You don’t suppose I had anything to do with the crime, what?”

“I didn’t infer that you had, sir,” the sergeant in charge said.

“Oh, didn’t you? Sounded like it, anyway. Just try and realise how easy it would have been for me to have walked on down the road and said nothing. There was not a soul in sight, except this officer here, and he would have been none the wiser if I hadn’t called him back. And now, if you don’t mind, I should like to get along as far as my club. What about it?”

The sergeant in charge reddened slightly.

“No offence, sir,” he said. “No offence. It’s all right, Mr. Crafton. I have your address, so that I shall know where to find you when the inquest takes place. Of course, you understand that you will be called as a witness.”

Crafton intimated that he was quite aware of that and, after pausing just a moment to light a cigarette, nodded generally in the direction of the officers present and swaggered out of the station. He had hardly disappeared when one of the men, who had been sitting quietly at the table, rose and glanced significantly in the direction of his superior.

“All right, Simmons,” the latter said. “Better follow him at a discreet distance and see if he really does go into the Wanderlust Club. One can’t be too careful.”

“But you don’t suspect anything!” Lashbrook asked.

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