Sgt Beef - Case Without A Corpse Part 36

Yes, I know. But wot time did 'e leave the town, I mean?

Oh, I can't tell you that.

I should like to know, though.

Why? You're not trying to mix him up in this murder business, are you? Because if so I can tell you right away you're talking sillyGeorge wouldn't hurt a fly, and if he was going to do anyone in we all know who it would be.

Beef became pompous. I 'ave to make my enquiries, he said, without respect for persons or private feelings. I shall probably 'ave an interview with your brother before long.

Well, go ahead and have it. And I hope she's there, that's all. I'd like to see her face when a policeman comes to the door, straight I would. I wouldn't mind coming over to Claydon to see it for myself.

It'll be with 'im I shall want to talk, returned Beef solemnly.

Mr. Sawyer waddled off to serve someone on the other side of the bar, and I turned to Beef.

Have you really any suspicions in this case? I asked.

I'm beginning to 'ave a h'inkling, he returned. One thing I'll tell you, I don't know no more than you do. I 'aven't seen nothink nor 'eard nothink, wot you don't know of. All I've got is an idea of wot may 'ave 'appened. And if you'd thought it out same as I 'ave you'd see just as much. Only . . . he pulled at his ginger moustache and I really began to think he was getting conceited, only, it takes training to solve anythink like this.

Training, see? Not being in the police you couldn't 'ardly be expected to've done it.

Why hasn't Stute, then? I asked quickly. He's had training enough, surely?

Beef shook his head. It's all these modern methods wot confuses those chaps, he said sadly, Vucetich System, and Psy . . . Sy. . .

Psychology?'

That's itSickology. And tracing this, that and the other. And a.n.a.lysis and wot not. I go on wot I been taught.

What's that?

Well, if you listen to wot I'm going to tell you, you'll be able to solve these eases same as I do. Specially this case, which never needed no more than wot I know. First of all, when you find something connected with it wot you can't account for, you puzzle it out, and puzzle it out, till you do, see? That's the first thing. And the next thing is to believe nothink of wot you 'ears and only 'arf of wot you sees.

Do you mean that our witnesses have been lying?

Not necessary. I mean things aren't always wot they appear to be.

Well. Go on.

That's about all I can explain. The rest's just experience. Police experience. You need that. Just like in this case. I don't say I know the answer. I've got a lot to make sure of before I can say that. But I've got a pretty good idea. Whereas you're all at sea. Why? No police training, that's all. You've seen and 'eard everythink just as I 'ave. And don't forget that if you make a book about it like you did about that other turn-out, don't you go and make it appear as though I kept somethink up my sleeve. I know no more than wot you do. Only I know 'ow to put it together and make somethink of it.

Well, Sergeant. I shall be the first to congratulate you if you've got anywhere near the truth. But I can't help feeling that Sawyer's brother was your last chance.

''Sawyer's brother? Beef laughed. Why you didn't think it was 'im young Rogers did for? Well, I'm blowed. You don't 'arf swallow somethink. Why I could have told you that it wasn't 'im weeks ago.

Then it must have been the foreigner.

Wot foreigner? Oh yes. I know 'oo you mean. Well, I shouldn't bet on that if I was you.

Then I suppose you're going to say that there wasn't a murder at all?

Oh, no, said Beef quite seriously. I wasn't going to say that. There was a murder, all right, and don't you forget it.

CHAPTER XXVII.

BUT THE last word for Stute came next morning in the shape of an air mail budget from Buenos Aires with a whole row of impressive looking Argentine stamps on it, together with an English translation which had been made in London for Stute's convenience.

I wonder what your 'esteemed colleague' has to say this time, I said, when Galsworthy brought the thing in.

Stute rarely indulged in unnecessary conversation, and was soon studying the English doc.u.ment with a faint frown on his forehead. When he had finished he handed it across to me.

esteemed friend, it ran,

I thank you for your amiable communication. I was delighted to note from it that you are good enough to express some praise for our system of finger-print identification, and to hear that the information which we were most fortunately able to give you was of some service to you in your intricate and profound researches. It is always a cause of pleasure to us to find that our system enables us to a.s.sist where other systems, however excellent in their way, could not do so.

Since I had the honour of writing to you there have been a number of developments in the case in our territory of which I think you should immediately be made aware. Not having the benefit of your full confidence in this matter we are unable to judge of the extent to which our information will serve you but we are giving you the details here with in the supposition that you may find them useful._

We have succeeded in identifying and arresting the persons in Buenos Aires who were engaged in the transportation of cocaine to Great Britain. They are as follows: Elias Ipriz (51), Contumelio Zaccharetti Zibar (47), Izaak Moise Barduski (34), Julio Alejandro Carneval (62), John Whitehouse Rigby (44), Jacobi Lazaro Coetho (27).

The subject Ipriz was the proprietor of a pharmacy, the subjects Zibar and Carneval acted as his dispensers and a.s.sistants, while the remaining persons were engaged in the difficult process of obtaining and supplying agents for the transport of the drugs.

We have become aware that large sums were placed to the credit of Ipriz through the Paris branch of an international bank, but we are unable of course to give you any information as to the ident.i.ty of the person or persons who sent these sums in this way.

You will not think, I fervently hope, esteemed friend, that we have been dilatory or negligent in our attempts to obtain this latter information. We realized very soon that if we were able to notify you of the ident.i.ty of the purchaser of these drugs, the

information would be of the greatest use to you not only in your pursuit of the criminals who are engaged in drug-smuggling, but possibly also in your investigation of the matter of the subject Alan Rogers, about whose confession of murder we have been able to read.

But it has been to no avail. We have questioned each of the prisoners, and used the most rigorous methods possible for the eliciting of information. But each has ardently professed that he was unaware of the ident.i.ty of the person to whom they were sent. An agent of this person arrived in the city as many as twelve years ago and arranged the matter which has continued uninterrupted since then. The messengers were stewards on various boats, two of whom, if not all of whom, it appears, were ignorant of the contents of the packets they carried, and knew only that on handing them over in England they would receive a certain sum. We believe that there were at least two other stewards engaged in this work, but unless it is by chance we are not likely ever to identify them. Rogers was the only one of the men known to our prisoners by name.

Everything therefore points to the existence in your territory of a powerful person or persons who have been for years engaged in this traffic, and it is indeed fortunate that through the foresight and swift action of one of our investigating officers we were able to discover that the subject Alan Rogers was employed by this person or persons to collect the drugs from here. It is our ardent hope, and indeed our conviction, that through the brilliant work of your department the criminals in England may now be unmasked, and the whole criminal traffic be brought summarily to a close.

But besides the need to convey to you the above information, I have another reason for giving myself the pleasure of addressing you now. It is to report the return to Buenos Aires from England of my colleague the Subcomisario Heriberto Anselmi Dominguez who had been engaged in this case. The Subcomisario Dominguez was deputed by me, with ratification from the Sub-Jefe de Policia, to proceed to Europe as a pa.s.senger on the ship on which the subject Alan Rogers was employed as a steward.

It was my wish that Rogers should be observed during his leave in England in the hope that it would be possible to discover to whom he handed the drugs he carried. You may wonder, my dear friend, why we did not immediately notify you of our suspicions in this matter, and of the steps which we were taking to confirm them. Our reason was simply that it is our policy in these matters to complete our case as far as possible by our own efforts before making an arrest.

At this point I could not repress a smile. And Stute seeing to what point I had reached, joined me.

Yes, he said, they wanted the credit all right. They were going to come out with a sensational arrest of young Rogers when he returned to Buenos Aires, and have a complete case for us, including the receivers our end. I can almost sympathize with them. It's bad luck that Rogers should have committed suicide at that point.

Very, I said.

But there's worse luck than that. Read on.

The Subcomisario Dominguez was unable to follow Rogers from the boat, as there was some confusion at the time of disembarkation. But being determined to carry out his difficult task with all his recognized ability, he discovered from the officers of the steamship company by which Rogers was employed his address in the town of Braxham, and proceeded there by train on the morning of Tuesday, February 21st. Unwilling to make any enquiry at the home of Rogers, he had no remedy but to hold himself in the princ.i.p.al street of the town in the hope that he might observe the man he sought. But knowing that Rogers had the habits of an alcoholic addict, he remained princ.i.p.ally in the neighbourhood of the largest hotel.

During the late afternoon his patience and vigilance were rewarded for he observed Rogers in the company of a young lady whom he described with enthusiasm as possessing all the charm and beauty of the famously lovely English blonde. For the rest of that day he was able to follow the movements of the man Rogers who returned to his own address alone at 11.30 p.m. The Subcomisario waited until midnight, and then, convinced that Rogers would not again emerge, sought a lodging. But at this point he suffered a great disillusion for he discovered that by an Act of Parliament the various hotels close their doors at 10 o'clock, and that now at midnight the entire town was within doors and seemingly asleep. The Subcomisario describes his emotions on this discovery with some vividness and a warmth which reflects rather strongly on the measures of your doubtless sagacious politicians. He appears to have spent the night in the shelter of a bandstand in a public park, suffering considerably from the ferocity of the weather.