Inspector French and the Sea Mystery Read online

  5

  Messrs Berlyn and Pyke

  Shortly before six o’clock that evening French stepped out of the train at the little terminus of Ashburton.

  He had enjoyed his run, particularly the latter portion through the charming South Devonshire scenery, along the coast under the red cliffs of Dawlish and Teignmouth, and then inland through the well-wooded hills of Newton Abbot and Totnes. He was pleased, too, with the appearance of Ashburton, a town T-shaped in plan and squeezed down into the narrow Valleys between three hills. He admired its old-world air and its pleasant situation as he walked up the street to the Silver Tiger, the hotel to which he had been recommended.

  After a leisurely dinner he went out for a stroll, ending up shortly after dark at the police station. Sergeant Daw had gone home, but a constable was despatched for him and presently he turned up.

  ‘I went to the works at once, sir,’ he explained in answer to French’s question. ‘They’re out at the end of North Street. A big place for so small a town. They employ a hundred or more men, and a lot of women and girls. A great benefit to the town, sir.’

  ‘And whom did you see?’

  ‘I saw Mr Fogden, the manager. He turned up the information without delay. The duplicator was ordered from London and he showed me the letter. You can see it if you go up tomorrow. There was nothing out of the way about the transaction. They packed the machine and sent it off, and that was all they could tell me.’

  Suspiciously like a wild-goose-chase, thought French, as he chatted pleasantly to the sergeant. Like his confrère at Burry Port, the man seemed more intelligent and better educated than most rural policemen. They discussed the weather and the country for some time, and then French said:

  ‘By the way, Sergeant, the name of this Vida Works seemed vaguely familiar when you telephoned it. Has it been in the papers lately, or can you explain how I should know it?’

  ‘No doubt, sir, you read of the sad accident we had here about six weeks ago—a tragedy, if I may put it so. Two of the gentlemen belonging to the works—Mr Berlyn, the junior partner, and Mr Pyke, the travelling representative—lost their lives on the moor. Perhaps you remember it, sir?’

  Of course! The affair now came back to French. So far as he could recall the circumstances, the two men had been driving across Dartmoor at night, and while still several miles from home their car had broken down. They had attempted to reach the house of a friend by crossing a bit of the moor, but in the dark they had missed their way, and getting into one of the soft ‘mires,’ had been sucked down and lost.

  ‘I read of it, yes. Very sad thing. Unusual too, was it not?’

  ‘Yes, sir, for those who live about here know the danger and they don’t go near these doubtful places at night. But animals sometimes get caught. I’ve seen a pony go down myself, and I can tell you, sir, I don’t wish to see another. It was a slow business, and the worse the creature struggled the tighter it got held. But when it comes to human beings it’s a thing you don’t like to think about.’

  ‘That’s a fact, Sergeant. By the way, it’s like a dream to me that I once met those two gentlemen. I wish you’d describe them.’

  ‘They were not unlike, so far as figure and build were concerned; about five feet nine or five feet ten in height, I should say, though Mr Berlyn was slightly the bigger man. But their colouring was different. Mr Berlyn had a high colour and blue eyes and reddish hair, while Mr Pyke was sallow with brown eyes and hair.’

  ‘Did Mr Berlyn wear glasses?’ French asked, with difficulty keeping the eagerness out of his voice.

  ‘No, sir. Neither of them did that.’

  ‘I don’t think they can be the men I met. Well, I’ll go up and see this Mr Fogden in the morning. Goodnight, Sergeant.’

  ‘Goodnight, sir. If there’s anything I can do I take it you’ll let me know.’

  But French next morning did not go to the office equipment works. Instead he took an early bus to Torquay, and calling at the local office of the Western Morning News, asked to see their recent files. These he looked over, finally buying all the papers which contained any reference to the tragic deaths of Messrs Berlyn and Pyke.

  He had no suspicions in the matter except that here was a disappearance of two persons about the time of the murder, one of whom answered to the description of the man who had called for the crate. No one appeared to doubt their death on the moor, but—their bodies had not been found. French wished to know what was to be known about the affair before going to the works, simply to be on the safe side.

  He retired to the smoking room of the nearest hotel and began to read up his papers. At once he discovered a fact which he thought deeply significant. The tragedy had taken place on the night of Monday, the 15th August. And it was on the following day, Tuesday, the 16th, that the crate had been despatched from Ashburton.

  The case was exhaustively reported, and after half an hour’s reading French knew all that the reporters had gleaned. Briefly the circumstances were as follow:

  Charles Berlyn, as has been said, was junior partner of the firm. He was a man of about forty and he looked after the commercial side of the undertaking. Stanley Pyke was an engineer who acted as technical travelling representative, a younger man, not more than five-and-thirty. Each had a high reputation for character and business efficiency.

  It happened that for some time previous to the date in question the Urban District Council of Tavistock had been in communication with the Vida Works relative to the purchase of filing cabinets and other office appliances for their clerk. There had been a hitch in the negotiations, and Mr Berlyn had arranged to attend the next meeting of the council in the hope of settling the matter. As some of the council members were farmers, busy during that season in the daytime, the meeting was held in the evening. Mr Berlyn arranged to motor over, Mr Pyke accompanying him.

  The two men left the works at half-past five, their usual hour. Each dined early, and they set out in Mr Berlyn’s car about seven. They expected to reach Tavistock at eight, at which hour the meeting was to begin. After their business was finished they intended to call on a mill-owner just outside Tavistock in connection with a set of loose-leaf forms he had ordered. The mill-owner was a personal friend of Mr Berlyn, and they intended to spend the evening with him, leaving about eleven and reaching home about midnight.

  This programme they carried out faithfully, at least in its earlier stages. They reached Tavistock just as the meeting of the Urban Council was beginning, and settled the business of the office appliances. Then they went on to the mill-owner’s, arranged about the loose leaf forms, and sat chatting over, cigars and drinks until shortly before eleven. At precisely ten-fifty they set off on their return journey, everything connected with them being perfectly normal and in order.

  They were never seen again.

  Mrs Berlyn went to bed at her ordinary time, but waking up shortly before three and finding that Mr Berlyn had not returned, she immediately grew anxious. It was so unlike him to fail to carry out his plans that his absence suggested disaster. She hastily put on some clothes and went out to the garage, and on finding that the car was not there she woke the servant and said she was going to the police. Without waiting for the girl to dress she went out and knocked up Sergeant Daw at his little cottage.

  Though the sergeant did his best to reassure her, he was by no means easy in his own mind. The road from Tavistock to Ashburton is far from safe, especially for night motoring. It is terribly hilly and winding, and at night extraordinarily deserted. An accident might easily happen, and in such lonely country hours might pass before its discovery.

  The sergeant at once called a colleague, and the two men started off on motor bicycles to investigate. About eight miles out on the moor they came to Mr Berlyn’s car standing close up to the side of the road, as if drawn out of the way of passing traffic. It was heavily coated with dew, and looked as if it had been there for hours. The engine and radiator were cold, and there was no sign of either
of its occupants.

  At the side of the road was a patch of gravelly soil mixed with peat, and across it, leading from the road out over the moor, were two lines of footsteps. The prints were not sufficiently sharp to give detailed impressions, but the sergeant had no doubt as to whom they belonged. He tried to follow them over the moor, but the grass was too rough to allow of this being done.

  But he soon realised what had happened. Three-quarters of a mile across the moor in the direction in which the footsteps pointed lived the senior partner of the Vida Company, Colonel Domlio. His was the only house in the neighbourhood, and it was therefore natural that if from a breakdown of the car or other reason the travellers had got into difficulties, they should go to him for help. But the house was not approached from the road on which they were travelling. The drive started from that which diverged at Two Bridges and led northwards to Moretonhampstead. To have gone round by the road, would therefore have meant a walk of nearly five miles, whereas fifteen minutes would have taken them across the moor. It was evident that they had adopted the latter course.

  And therein lay their fate. Some quarter of a mile from the road were a number of those treacherous, vivid green areas of quagmire, to stumble into which is to run the risk of a horrible death. They were not quite in the direct line to the house, but in one of the mists which come up so frequently and unexpectedly it would not have been difficult for the men to lose their way. The sergeant at once knocked up Colonel Domlio, only to learn that he had not seen or heard of either.

  When the car was examined the cause of the stoppage was discovered. A short circuit had developed in the magneto which interfered with the sparking to such an extent that the cylinder charges could not be ignited.

  French was a good deal disappointed by the account. He had hoped that he was on to the solution of his problem, but now he doubted it. That Berlyn had murdered Pyke and sent off his body in the crate had seemed at first sight a promising theory. But French could see no evidence of foul play in the story. It read merely as a straightforward narrative of an unfortunate mishap.

  At the same time the coincidence of the dates was remarkable, and French felt that he could not dismiss the matter from his mind until he had satisfied himself that it really was the accident for which it had been taken.

  He wondered if any tests were possible, and gradually four considerations occurred to him.

  First, there was the breakdown of the car. If the breakdown had been an accident the whole affair was almost certainly an accident, for he did not think it possible that advantage could have been taken of an unexpected incident to commit the murder. The details of the disposal of the crate had been too well worked out to have been improvised. But if the breakdown had been faked it meant foul play.

  Secondly, a valuable check in all such investigations was the making of a time-table. French felt sure that if murder had been committed the car must have gone from Tavistock to the works and back to where it was found. If not, he did not see how the body could have been taken to the works. Probably also it had waited at the works while the murderer was substituting the body for the duplicator. Then the radiator must have been hot when the car was abandoned, and it was cold when Sergeant Daw arrived on the scene. If French could find out how long all these operations would have taken he might find that they could not have been carried out in the time available.

  Thirdly, French wondered if in a place of the size of the Vida Works there was no night watchman, and if there was, how the contents of the crate could have been changed without his knowledge.

  Lastly, there was the question of the disposal of the duplicator. Assuming that murder had been done, it was extremely probable that the murderer had found the duplicator packed in the crate. How could he have got rid of so heavy and cumbrous an object?

  If these four points were investigated French thought he would obtain sufficient information to settle the main question. It was therefore with a second line of inquiries in his mind that he returned to Ashburton and walked out to the Vida Works.

  These stood a short distance beyond the town at the end of North Street, and formed a rather imposing collection of buildings, small but modern and well designed. The principal block was of five storeys, showing narrow plasters of cream-coloured concrete separating wide glazed panels. The remaining buildings were single storey sheds. The place seemed spotlessly clean and tidy.

  French entered a door labelled ‘Office,’ and sending in his private card, asked for Mr Fogden. He was shown into a comfortably furnished room in which a youngish man with a pleasant face sat at a table desk.

  ‘Good afternoon, Mr French; won’t you sit down? What can I do for you, sir?’

  ‘I should explain first who I am, Mr Fogden.’ French handed over his official card. ‘I have called on business which has already been brought to your notice by the local sergeant. It is about the crate which was sent by your firm to Mr James S. Stephenson at the Great Western Goods Station at Swansea.’

  ‘I saw the sergeant when he called,’ Mr Fogden answered a trifle shortly. ‘That was yesterday, and I gave him all the information at my disposal.’

  ‘So he told me, sir.’ French’s manner was very suave. ‘My troubling you on the same business therefore requires a little explanation. I must ask you, however, to consider what I have to tell you confidential. That crate which you sent to Swansea was duly called for. It eventually reached Burry Port. There it was opened—by the police. And do you know what was found in it?’

  Mr Fogden stared at the other with a rapidly growing interest.

  ‘Good heavens!’ he cried. ‘You surely don’t mean to say that it contained that body that we have been reading so much about in the papers recently?’

  French nodded.

  ‘That’s it, Mr Fogden. So you will see now that it’s not idle curiosity which brings me here. The matter is so serious that I must go into it personally. I shall have to investigate the entire history of that crate.’

  ‘By Jove! I should think so. You don’t imagine, I take it, that the body was in it when it left the works?’

  ‘I don’t, but of course I can’t be sure. I must investigate all the possibilities.’

  ‘That is reasonable.’ Mr Fogden paused, then continued: ‘Now tell me what you want me to do and I will carry out your wishes as well as I can. I have already explained to the sergeant that the crate contained a Vida No. 3 Duplicator, a special product of the firm, and that it was ordered by this Mr Stephenson in a letter written from the Euston Hotel. I can turn up the letter for you.’

  ‘Thank you, I should like to see the letter, but as a matter of fact I should like a good deal more. I am afraid I must follow the whole transaction right through and interview everyone who dealt with it.’

  ‘I get you. Right, I’ll arrange it. Now, first as to the letter.’

  He touched a bell and ordered a certain file to be brought him. From this he took out a letter and passed it to French.

  6

  The Despatch of the Crate

  The letter was written on a single sheet of cream laid, court-sized paper, and bore the legend ‘Euston Hotel, London, N.W.1’ in blue type on its right top corner. It was typed in black and French could see that the machine used was not new and that some of the letters were defective and out of place. It was signed ‘James S. Stephenson’ in a hand which French instinctively felt was disguised, with blue black ink apparently of the fountain pen type. It read:

  ‘12th August.

  ‘MESSRS. THE VIDA OFFICE EQUIPMENT

  MANUFACTURING CO. LTD.,

  ASHBURTON, SOUTH DEVON.

  ‘Dear Sirs,—I should be obliged if you would kindly forward to Mr James S. Stephenson, Great Western Railway Goods Station, Morriston Road, Swansea, marked “To be kept till called for,” one of your patent Vida Electric Duplicators, No. 3, to take brief size. The motor to be wound for 220 volts D.C., and to have a flexible cord to plug into the main.

  ‘Please have the mac
hine delivered at Swansea not later than 19th inst., as I wish to ship it from there on the following day.

  ‘I enclose herewith money order value £62 10s., the price, less discount, as given in your catalogue. Please advise receipt of money and despatch of duplicator to this hotel.

  ‘Yours faithfully,

  ‘JAMES S. STEPHENSON.’

  There were here, French realised, several lines of inquiry. Something might be learned at the Euston Hotel. Unfortunately the fact that the letter was written on the hotel paper and the reply was to be sent there, did not mean that ‘Stephenson’ had stayed there: French remembered his own letter from the Charing Cross hotel to Dr Philpot in the Starvel case up in Yorkshire. But inquiries could not be omitted. Then there was the money order. It would be easy to learn the office at which it had been obtained, and there was at least the possibility that the purchaser had been observed. Lastly there was the typewriter. French felt sure that it could be identified from the irregularities of the type.

  ‘I may have this letter, I suppose?’ he asked.

  ‘Of course.’

  He put the paper slowly away in his pocket-book and then in his careful, competent way began to ask questions.

  ‘You sent the receipt and notification of the despatch of the crate to the Euston Hotel?’

  ‘Certainly.’

  ‘What is the process of despatch? When that order came in, to whom did it go?’

  ‘Well, I read it first and dropped it into a basket, from which it went automatically to the accounts department. Following the ordinary routine the money would be collected, and if all was O.K. an order would go to the sales department for the despatch of the goods. When the despatch had taken place a notification in duplicate would be returned to the office, and one copy, with the receipt, would be mailed to the purchaser. The whole thing is, of course, routine, and so far as I know that routine was carried out in this case. But we can see all concerned if you like.’