The Middle Temple Murder, J. S. Fletcher [best books to read for knowledge .txt] 📗

“Where did you leave him, sir?” asked Spargo. “You left the hotel together, I believe?”

“Yes. We strolled along when we left it. Having once met, we had much to talk of, and it was a fine night. We walked across Waterloo Bridge and very shortly afterwards he left me. And that is really all I know. My own impression⁠—” He paused for a moment and Spargo waited silently.

“My own impression⁠—though I confess it may seem to have no very solid grounds⁠—is that Marbury was decoyed to where he was found, and was robbed and murdered by some person who knew he had valuables on him. There is the fact that he was robbed, at any rate.”

“I’ve had a notion,” said Breton, diffidently. “Mayn’t be worth much, but I’ve had it, all the same. Some fellow-passenger of Marbury’s may have tracked him all day⁠—Middle Temple Lane’s pretty lonely at night, you know.”

No one made any comment upon this suggestion, and on Spargo looking at Mr. Aylmore, the Member of Parliament rose and glanced at the door.

“Well, that’s all I can tell you, Mr. Spargo,” he said. “You see, it’s not much, after all. Of course, there’ll be an inquest on Marbury, and I shall have to retell it. But you’re welcome to print what I’ve told you.”

Spargo left Breton with his future father-in-law and went away towards New Scotland Yard. He and Rathbury had promised to share news⁠—now he had some to communicate.

Spargo found Rathbury sitting alone in a small, somewhat dismal apartment which was chiefly remarkable for the businesslike paucity of its furnishings and its indefinable air of secrecy. There was a plain writing-table and a hard chair or two; a map of London, much discoloured, on the wall; a few faded photographs of eminent bands in the world of crime, and a similar number of well-thumbed books of reference. The detective himself, when Spargo was shown in to him, was seated at the table, chewing an unlighted cigar, and engaged in the apparently aimless task of drawing hieroglyphics on scraps of paper. He looked up as the journalist entered, and held out his hand.

“Well, I congratulate you on what you stuck in the Watchman this morning,” he said. “Made extra good reading, I thought. They did right to let you tackle that job. Going straight through with it now, I suppose, Mr. Spargo?”

Spargo dropped into the chair nearest to Rathbury’s right hand. He lighted a cigarette, and having blown out a whiff of smoke, nodded his head in a fashion which indicated that the detective might consider his question answered in the affirmative.

“Look here,” he said. “We settled yesterday, didn’t we, that you and I are to consider ourselves partners, as it were, in this job? That’s all right,” he continued, as Rathbury nodded very quietly. “Very well⁠—have you made any further progress?”

Rathbury put his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat and, leaning back in his chair, shook his head.

“Frankly, I haven’t,” he replied. “Of course, there’s a lot being done in the usual official-routine way. We’ve men out making various enquiries. We’re enquiring about Marbury’s voyage to England. All that we know up to now is that he was certainly a passenger on a liner which landed at Southampton in accordance with what he told those people at the Anglo-Orient, that he left the ship in the usual way and was understood to take the train to town⁠—as he did. That’s all. There’s nothing in that. We’ve cabled to Melbourne for any news of him from there. But I expect little from that.”

“All right,” said Spargo. “And⁠—what are you doing⁠—you, yourself? Because, if we’re to share facts, I must know what my partner’s after. Just now, you seemed to be⁠—drawing.”

Rathbury laughed.

“Well, to tell you the truth,” he said, “when I want to work things out, I come into this room⁠—it’s quiet, as you see⁠—and I scribble anything on paper while I think. I was figuring on my next step, and⁠—”

“Do you see it?” asked Spargo, quickly.

“Well⁠—I want to find the man who went with Marbury to that hotel,” replied Rathbury. “It seems to me⁠—”

Spargo wagged his finger at his fellow-contriver.

“I’ve found him,” he said. “That’s what I wrote that article for⁠—to find him. I knew it would find him. I’ve never had any training in your sort of work, but I knew that article would get him. And it has got him.”

Rathbury accorded the journalist a look of admiration.

“Good!” he said. “And⁠—who is he?”

“I’ll tell you the story,” answered Spargo, “and in a summary. This morning a man named Webster, a farmer, a visitor to London, came to me at the office, and said that being at the House of Commons last night he witnessed a meeting between Marbury and a man who was evidently a Member of Parliament, and saw them go away together. I showed him an album of photographs of the present members, and he immediately recognized the portrait of one of them as the man in question. I thereupon took the portrait to the Anglo-Orient Hotel⁠—Mrs. Walters also at once recognized it as that of the man who came to the hotel with Marbury, stopped with him a while in his room, and left with him. The man is Mr. Stephen Aylmore, the member for Brookminster.”

Rathbury expressed his feelings in a sharp whistle.

“I know him!” he said. “Of course⁠—I remember Mrs. Walters’s description now. But his is a familiar type⁠—tall, grey-bearded, well-dressed. Um!⁠—well, we’ll have to see Mr. Aylmore at once.”

“I’ve seen him,” said Spargo. “Naturally! For you see, Mrs. Walters gave me a bit more evidence. This morning they found a loose diamond on the floor of Number 20, and after it was found the waiter who took the drinks up to Marbury and his guest that night remembered that when he entered the room the two gentlemen were looking at a paper full of similar objects. So then