Inspector French and the Sea Mystery. Freeman Crofts Wills
height and build, with reddish hair and a high colour and wore glasses. He sounded to Evans like a Londoner: at all events he was not a native. Evans had looked up the waybills and had found that a package had been invoiced to someone of the name given. The crate answered the man’s description and was carriage paid and addressed ‘To be called for.’ Evans had therefore no hesitation in letting him have it. Unfortunately he could not remember the stranger’s name, but he would search for it through the old waybills.
He vanished for a few minutes, then returned with a bulky volume which he set down triumphantly before French.
‘There you are,’ he exclaimed, pointing to an item. ‘“Mr James S. Stephenson, Great Western Railway Goods Station, Morriston Road, Swansea. To be called for.” “Stephenson” was the name. I remember it now.’
This was good enough as far as it went, but Evans’ next answer was the one that really mattered.
‘Who was the sender?’ French asked, with thinly veiled eagerness.
‘“The Vida Office Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Ashburton, South Devon,”’ read Evans.
The name seemed dimly familiar to French, but he could not remember where he had heard it. Evans went on to say that the crate was invoiced from Ashburton on Tuesday, 16th August, and had reached Swansea on Saturday, 20th. Carriage had been paid by the Vida Company, and the whole transaction had been conducted in a perfectly ordinary and regular way.
French left the goods office, and at the nearest telephone call office rang up the police station in Ashburton. After a considerable delay he got through. Would the sergeant inquire for him whether the Vida Company had sent out a crate on the 16th August last, addressed to the Morriston Road Goods Station, Swansea, to be called for, and if so, what was in this crate and who had ordered it.
For nearly three hours he hung about the police station before being recalled to the telephone. The Ashburton sergeant reported that he had been to the Vida Works and that the manager confirmed the sending out of the crate. It contained a large duplicator, a speciality of the firm’s. The machine had been ordered by letter from the Euston Hotel by a Mr James S. Stephenson. He enclosed the money, £62 10s., stating that they were to send it to the Morriston Road Goods Station in Swansea, labelled ‘To be kept till called for.’ It was to be there not later than on the 20th August, and he would call for it when the ship by which he intended to despatch it was ready to sail.
The news did not seem very hopeful to French, as over a belated lunch he discussed it with Howells.
‘This opens a second line of inquiry at Ashburton,’ he began, ‘but I do not think somehow that we shall get much from it. I believe the real scent lies here.’
‘Why so? I should have said it depended on what was in the crate when it reached Swansea. And that’s just what we don’t know.’
‘I agree. But to me that sergeant’s report sounds as if things at Ashburton were O.K. If so, it follows that the body was put in some time during that lorry run from Swansea to Loughor. But that doesn’t rule out inquiries at Ashburton. Even if I am right, something may be learned from the order for the machine.’
‘Quite. Both ends will have to be worked. And how do you propose to do it?’
‘Can’t you guess?’ French said blandly. ‘Surely there can be but one answer. I couldn’t hope to do it without the able and distinguished help of Superintendent Howells.’
The other laughed.
‘I thought it was shaping to that. Well, what do you want me to do?’
‘Trace the run, Superintendent. You can do it in a way I couldn’t attempt. I would suggest that with a map we work out the area which could have been visited during that night, allowing time for unpacking the duplicating machine and putting the body in its place. Then I think this area should be combed. If murder has taken place you’ll hear of it.’
‘And you?’
‘I shall go to Ashburton, learn what I can from the order, and if it seems worthwhile, follow it up in London. Then I’ll come back here and join forces with you. Of course we shall have to get Superintendent Griffiths on the job also.’
After some further discussion this programme was agreed to. French, with the superintendent’s help, was to estimate the area to be covered and to organise the search. Tomorrow was Sunday, and if by Monday evening nothing had come of it he was to leave Howells to carry on while he paid his visits to Ashburton and, if necessary, to London.
The longest unknown period of the lorry’s operations being from 8.30 p.m. to 12.30 a.m. at night, this was taken as being the ruling factor in the case. During these four hours the machine had travelled from Neath to Gorseinon, a distance of about twenty-five miles. About two hours would be accounted for by the journey and the changing of the contents of the crate, leaving two more hours for additional running—an hour out and an hour back. This meant a radius of about twenty-five miles. The problem therefore was to make an intensive search of the country within, say, thirty miles of Swansea.
This was a large area, and the work involved the co-operation of a good many men. However, with Superintendent Howells’s help it was arranged and by that evening operations were everywhere in progress.
During the whole of the next two days French remained on the job, working out possible routes for the lorry and making special inquiries along them. But no further information was obtained, and when Monday evening came, without result, he decided that unless he heard something next morning he would start for Ashburton.
But next morning news had come in which made a visit there essential. It appeared that about 9.30 on the evening in question the lorry had been seen standing in the same lane at Gorseinon in which three hours later the police patrol had found it. A labourer reported that he had passed it on his way home. As he approached the driver was sitting on the step, but on seeing him the man had jumped up and busied himself with the engine. The labourer had passed on out of sight, but his way taking him along a path at right angles to the lane, he had looked back across country and noticed the driver again seated on the step and lighting a cigarette. The position of the lorry was the same then as three hours later, and the conclusion that it had not moved during the whole period seemed irresistible.
But if so, it made it much less likely that the body had been put into the crate during the motor drive. The time available would have been so short that the area in which the change could have been made would have been very small indeed. The chances of a disappearance remaining unknown to the police would therefore have been correspondingly reduced. For the first time French began to consider seriously the possibility that the body had come from Devonshire.
While, therefore, Superintendent Howells in no way relaxed his efforts, French took an early train south. He was in a thoughtful mood as they pulled out of the station. This, it was evident, was going to be one of those troublesome cases in which an ingenious criminal had enveloped his evil deeds in a network of false clues and irrelevant circumstances to mislead the unfortunate detective officer to whom an investigation into them might afterwards be assigned. Confound it all! It was not long since he had got rid of that terribly involved affair at Starvel in Yorkshire, and here was another that bade fair to be as bad. However, such was life, and worrying wouldn’t alter it. He was starting on an interesting journey, and he might as well forget his case and make the most of the scenery.
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