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Page 2.
THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, NOVEMBER 29, 1940.
SHORT STORYO
A Tissue Of Some Sense By Douglas Newton
MR. Julius Sugars, waiting at the sunk into the upholstering at the kerb of Whitehall for a break back, others had not got so far, in the traffic to let him through to the dead man intervening. It look Scotland Yard and his daily work; ed, in fact, as though, the car had saw something in a passing if passed through a burst of machine. dingy car to catch his mild eye, gun fire. He looked hard, stepped out to a taxi, said as he boarded it on the move; "Follow that saloon. Over- take and stop it if you can.”,
It was one of those mornings when even the green lights were against him. The saloon swept on unchecked by as much as a Belisha crossing, into and round the whirl pool of Trafalgar Square to dive along Chandos Street eastwards. Though travelling at a normal pace it was either always sand- wiched by delivery vans or too far ahchit for them to draw level. Only when they reached a gaunt, grey- stone building in a street off Kingsway were they close enough to draw up immediately behind as it stopped
"An' he wouldn't ha' Mr. Seymour squirm. Why, only as he did before setting up on his objected. overtaken on the near side, nei- last Thursday there was the de- own a couple of years ago, he ran
me aving a vil to pay.
a regular shooting gallery' at the ther, not without
"You make him sound almost Acton had an old; seven shot Colt bottom of the estate, Seymour word to say to 'im about it."
"That almost insists that the inevitable," sighed Mr. Sugars. murderer must have waited hid "They had a row because Tony revolver for house protection; The dead man proved to be a den, say in some bushes, in & wanted a lot of immediate cash Tony used to sneak that for tar- Mr. Seymour Acton, 57, financier lonely place, and fired as you pass- for
some important something, get practice. It was quite a craze of Plim Street, Kingsway. He was ed. Could he have done that, Uncle flares out against the spend- with him, he even used to take on Dicker, the house servant and a scraggy, starveling sort of in Pusey?"
thrift and threatens to cut him individual. He had been driven
The chauffeur admitted that, out of will-all that, eh?" Mr. Pusey in shooting matches; and though they were ex-Servicemen, to town that morning from his since he had to believe his eyes. Brunt nodded miserably. "It's like, he soon became as good as they small estate at Branson Henth, one against reason, it could only have a book
und how did you' "The gardener, himself, never of the still countrified districts juss happened that way, and the lanes know it?" Mr. Sugars ended.. „descended, to such folly, eh?" beyond the new building estate between Mr. Seymour Acton's "I was there," Mr. Brunt said,
"Sometimes, but he was never zone of South East London. Pusey house and the Eltham rond were then paused to shoot a frightened as good as the other three," said the chauffeur, had so driven his certainly empty enough. In fact, look at the detective. "I-I went Jardine, then he blinked at Mr. daily for years. Pusey, with a mar- once the idea had been broached, to Mr. Seymour Acton's house at
Sugar's smile. "Oh, I see, you think ried couple named Dicker, and a Pusey found he could name at least four, nights a week, to work Twyfer might be taking cover be gardener named Twyfer; formed least five likely spots. He got He rented me a cottage in his hind the others; but that's hardly the whole of the dead man's quite expansive about the matter, grounds; cheap household.
until Mr. Sugars yawned and pull way. of getting unpaid overtime likely. It's Tony Acton who bene-
fts by the will? Pusey again stated he' simply
"The gardener, too." Mr. Sugars could not see how Mr. Acton ed him up by asking if he knew out of me."
Seeming to realise then that he sighed. "He stands to get £750 could have been killed. He had en of anybody who had cause to re- tered the car alive and well and move Mr. Acton in such fashion had linked himself: too closely to clear. Everybody who was in
Pusey was sorry to say he had the murder by motive and dwel- Seymour Acton's service. they had driven straight from
no idea. He was only a servant, Branson Heath without anybody and though a financier no doubt in place, Mr. Brunt closed up. house or office at the time of having any opportunity to shoot at had enemies, Mr: Seymour Acton He could suggest, no reason for his death gets something.”
“Good lord," blinked Owen Jar- them. True, they had been slowed had always been as close minded anyone killing Seymour Acton
not through his business; certain- dine. "Still would. anyone risk og usual by the traffic in Lewishany. as he was tight fisted. anfhung up at New Cross, but such places were too public for any man to dare murder.
•
The saloon's chauffeur nipped down and opened the door, star- ing straight ahead as good chauf feurs do. It was only when noti- ing happened that he glanced in- side. Then he let out a yell.
"Yes, I saw that in Whitehall" murmured Mr. Sugars at his elbow. "He must have been dead - "I don't know puttin: Owen' Jardine; one of the bright now Trenchards who had been coupled to Mr. Sugars to add science to his sleuthing. "You did the jour ney every day at the same hour?".
Tb the clock, sir. He docked my thruppence for every ten min- utes I was behind time," Pusey said 'sourly.
for milds"
The occupant of the car was ex- tremely dend: The stopping of the saloon had pitched his stiffening body sideways on to the scat; in any case there could be no two opinions about the blood and wounds on his face The dead man, in fact, had been shot not once but several times in the head.
The chauffeur could only stare astounded at his master and gasp: "It couldn't have happened. I mean, me driving on knowing nothing. It simply couldn't have happened.
"He seems quite a strong, orgu- ment to the contrary," murmur- ed Mr. Sugars. "Drive back to Scotland Yard. I'll sit inside."
As they drove back to the Yard, Mr. Sugars noted that all the windows of the saloon were open, it being a drought-hot morning. There was no sign of a weapon in the car. On the contrary, the window frame on the near side had been nicked by a bullet com- ing from outside. Two more had
"Well, then," said Jardine, a murderer studying and timing you would know not only where you slowed up, but where traffic noises would smother the noise of a pistol using, say, a silencer."
"To stand on a pavement or even hire a window to shoot from meant risk." Mr. Sugars suggested mildly.
"He might h followed be- hind 'In another car, cr on a motor bike."
"Splendid," nodded Mr. Sugars, "And just how did he make the bullets enter the body from the front near side?"
"Oh, he no doubt fred back as he overtook," muttered Jardine,
"I'd ha' seen that, sir," Pusey
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It was his
"A bit of a' miser was he?" M: the dead man had Eban" too hanging for a mere £750?"
Sugars said:
"Regular old skin-a-louse; Mènix as misery," Pusey began warmly, then he shrugged. "But there, he's dead--an it's best to ferget such things."
menn, close and cauticus to make enemies there:
Es
"It's a big enough packet to a poor man who had been counting Mr. Sugars went on to the law on it for years; who put up with vers in Lincoln's Inn feeling that no end of Seymour Acton's mean- killed Acton would be someone pecially when that man learnt that, the only person likely to have ness for the sake of it. with expectations. under his will, in spite of all he'd endured, he Pusey, in fact, had nothing more The lawyers told him things that wasn't going to get it after all. The to offer; Mr. Sugars therefore de- made him even more certain of it. lawyers told me that Seymour cided to gather further information Things that gave him such food. Acton had decided to wind up his from the dead man's office and for thought that he spent more business and household and re- home. He chose the office for him- hours than a lazy man likes to tire to live in an hotel self, Branson Heath was a long work, following them up. In fact Riviera."
"The miserly old rat," Owen Jar- way off, and the scientific mind Owen Jardine had been hacks at can scurry about the country loolt the Yard for more than an hour dine exclaimed when Mr. Sugars ing for clues much better than an by the time Mr. Sugars dropped told him how that would mean easy-going man who hated exer- sighing into his comfortable chair the sacking of all the employees cise. He sent Owen Jardine off to again.
who were to receive legacies 'only death.' Bronson Heath; told Puscy to re-
if in his employ at his port back to the Yard every two
"Sweating them through hours, and himself sauntered to-
hope only to do them in the eye wards Kingsway.
He did not take short cuts, mainly because he came out of the Yard on the heels of the chauf- four, who was going in the same direction.
Owen Jardine was almost boil: ing over with criminal investiga- tion cooked to its most successful, scientific conclusion...
in the end."
on the
their
"It also complicates things for us," Mr. Sugars mentioned," "It gives us about half a dozen sus- pects, instead of one."
**
"We were right." he said, taking full benefit of the partnership. "Seymour Acton's caf was an bushed. I've found the place, the Pusey, however, was one logical place, if you'll 'consider "I don't quite agree there," Jar- merely kuling time by drifting this plan of the road,
dipe objected. "Tony Acton ob- He into and along the Strand and "Save that for the jury, and, viously stood to gain most. gazing into shops. Or rather he help my ancient mind out with a quarrelled with his uncle studied the cases displayed in two brief survey couched in language. "And didn't arrive at his office. lunch to-day," Mr. or three doorways on the North understandable by feeble intel- until after
"I went there to side, until, coming to a shop just iccts, sighed Mr. Sugars, settling. Sugars added: before Southampton Street, he more cosily.
see him. He said that as the stood gloating over its contents Being young, Owen Jardine morning was brisk and his liver until they lured him inside. Mr. found that difficult. Still he did wasn't, he went for a country walk: Sugars broke off and continued manage to convey the fact that the all morning on his humdrum way.
11
murderer, knowing the regular "There you are, the most foot-
The late Mr. Seymour Acton route and timing of Seymour ling of alibis!" jeered Owen Jar- had a shabby office containing a Acton's daily journey, had found dine. "We know where that coun- icw snd looking clerks. It was the one place for the deed. This try walk-tock: him to those therefore. quite startling to learn was a thick clump of bushes on a bushes from which he shot his that he was a very rich man. The rise, well back from the road: Hid- uncle. No jury will doubt it. manager. Mr. Erunt, a spiritlass den here the criminal had a clear "No," sighed Mr. Sugars. “Nor and prematurely burnt-out crea- view down the road as it climbed Mr. Brunt's alibi either. For the ture, told Mr. Sugars this. Mr. a steepish hill to pass him. The first time for years Mr. Brunt, too, Brunt was in a position to know, steepness of the grade would not was late at the office. He says that he was also book-keeper and pri- only make the car go slowly, but Seymour Acton kept him so late vate secretary to the deceased. increased the noise of the engine last night blackguarding Tony Seymour Acton,” indeed, had enough to prevent Pusey hearing that he overslept this morning and made his money that way; miser- the shooting. The spot was also missed his ustial train. And Mr. Iness plus slow and cheeseparing deserted enough to make a man Brunt gets £5,000 under the will. close to Scymour accumulations, ever at the ex- using a silencer quite safe from Also he lives pense of his employees, had been other cars.
Acton. I daresay the hour he was the basis of his business method. Having something like this in late would just be time enough "He was the meanest man I ever his orderly mind, Jardine had for him to get to those bushes, met." Mr. Brunt said. "He paid studied the road as he drove to shoot his man, and then catch his wages that scarcely kept body Seyniour Acton's house thus he train." and soul together. I don't know had been able to locate the place. "Just about," Jardine agreed, almost at once. The murderer also doing higher mathematics on the "Yet you did stick. it-why?" had been helpful. He had left, ten back of an envelope. "But-where
Exploded and ejected cartridges does that lead us?" Mr. Brunt reddened and said cases on the ground behind the "Five places from newhere," sheepishly that it was because bushes.
sighed Mr. Sugars, "I've told you Seymour Acton promised:
"He lost his nerve and bolted there are at least six. who benefit "make up for it" in his will. before remembering them," Jar- under that will, and no doubt they Though the dead man had hated dine said in answer to the sur- all have the same sort of shaky to part with a penny, during his orise lift of Mr. Sugar's eve- alibi life, he did not mind being gen- brows, and he added largely, “He "Except: Pusey we know he's erous after his death, when his probably felt that the ordinary clear," Jardine. scowled.. "All the money was no use to him.
police methods would never locate same, I don't think it shakes our "So you see, one naturally put that one spot over all that coun- theory about Tony Acton. There's up with anything rather than risk try.... Here are the empty: his knowledge of firearms. Brunt losing this big, jump sum," Mr: shells."
how we ever stuck it."
asked Mr. Sugars.
to
*
won't fit there."
"No," mused Mr. Sugars, "I sup pose it does all turn on those shooting matches. You didn't find that Colt revolver, I suppose?":
"It hardly matters," Owen Jar-
Brunt said wearily. "Oh, he told.: He brought the exploded cart- us quite frankly what it was-go- ridges in a loose handful from his ing to be. Mine is: £5,000, free of coat pocket, Mr. Sugars said mild Death Duties-if I'm still in his lyi schvice at his death. That was his', "Dr. Thorndyke would have put grindstone for of course, the those into a neat little tin, box. dine said a shade too quickly. money is sure His estate will or would it be a sced envelope? "From the way the car was spray be worth a quarter of a milllon, if Or was that Sherlock Holmes? ed from the number of cartridges nót more.
Anyhow, I'm sure you were unused. It must have been a modern "That's a lot of money," Mr. scientific to carry them loose amid automatic, perhaps a sub-machine Sugars said, "And even if he's left forests of pocket debris. Still, gun big lump sums to all his em- no doubt you have the, murderer “Does that mean you forgot to ployees, as I suppose he has," Mr, named and taped to make up for look for the Colt, or are you dodg→ Brunt nodded in the affirmative, it.”
ing the fact that not even your "there'll be a lot left; Who gets "It's the nephew, Tony Acton." science could find it?"
Mad Jardine, said: stiffly, “He quarrels "There's his nephew Tony, Jed maka Acton," Mr. Brunt said." "He's They all do, sighed Mr. the natural heir unless..
Sugers. Anyhow, when they have "You aren't going to tell me rich uncles with fat wills and a "I thought it mightn't be," that there's yet another rich man's tendency to be murdered. But mused Mr. Sugars. He picked up nephew who quarrelled with his any evidence?"
and began to examine the spent undle?" protested Mr. Sugers, Well, Tony Acton's an expert cartridge coses, "See if that chauf
"Well he did. Often?” Mr. Brunt, pistol shat." Owen Jardine soifted, tour is still about?. He might täll said tonclessly. "Anybody with "Timt's much better. Who told us something about these, : any spirit would. And Tony's a you?".
Pusey, came in. Ho blinked að
(Continued on Page 61.
that":
"Well, I couldn't find it," Owen Jardine reddened, “I looked everywhere, but it's not in the house."
live wires with Ideas of businessThe gardener, Twyfer, When the brass cases that Mr. Sugars and money spending that made, Tony Acton Ilved with his uncle,