* SNUFFLY GIRL
A WORKMAN *
* A MOTHER
A WORKMAN *
* HUGH ROLANDSON
THE VICAR *
* REFUGEE
H. J. GRAYLING X
* CPL. GEORGE RANSOM
G. J. F. EVETTS *
* SNUFFLY GIRL |
|
* A MOTHER |
|
* HUGH ROLANDSON |
THE VICAR * |
* REFUGEE |
H. J. GRAYLING X |
* CPL. GEORGE RANSOM |
G. J. F. EVETTS * |
“We musn’t,” said the Superintendent, “forget there are other people who would bear looking into. The trouble, in fact, seems to be that there may be too many. You’ve dug up a great deal of stuff. The Vicar: he was Grayling’s enemy and sat next him. He may have been fooling around with the gas, by his looks. Evetts—he’s a chemist, he seems equally likely to have been suffering from gas poisoning, and though you haven’t anything definite against him, you are suspicious of his manner. The German—well, we should get more on him soon, but Grayling may have had his knife into him. Corporal Ransom—a gas expert and short of money too. And no friend to the late lamented.
“You’ve got too many suspects. And I’m afraid you’ve got to add some more. Have you remembered the two workmen? One of them, the Vicar said, leant over his and Grayling’s shoulder on the pretext of reading a notice. Quite an opportunity for planting that handkerchief, if it existed.”
“Yes, sir; I had thought of that. But I’ve got nowhere,” said Holly. “The trains about that time are always full of returning workmen. Shifts are different from what they were and certain places” (he gave the names of four biggish establishments in the East and N.E. districts; and a smaller one south of the river) “let a large number out just at the time when they will pack the trains already crowded with office workers. The Ministry of War Transport is complaining, and I believe there is to be a change next month. But these men could have come from any of those places or indeed from anywhere in London. We’ve made inquiries without result in all these factories. We’ve asked at the stations further up the line; and the police there have done all they can. There are three stations that that train stopped at: Whetnow, Mayquarter, and Pulchayne. Each of them has a big dormitory population, of people who just go in to work in London and return only to sleep. A good proportion of them are new, since the war. The police are overworked too, as they’ve been having floods there and traffic has been all tangled up. But they tell me that even when things are normal they can’t hold out any hope of getting us information unless we can give them something more to go on.”