Henderson daily dispatch., 1938-02-28
CHAPTER SO

his solution" of the crime.
"I have got the facts of Strick-
lands financial situation last
week." Lord Simon explained
to us. II needn't bore you with
them-tedious things, debts. But
YOU can take it from me that he
was desperate. He had to have
money-snappily too. And ne
came here to get it.
You are wonderin' what this
plan of his might be. Dev1llsh
cunnin' bit of intrigue. The first
thing he had seen when he had
begun to figure out his way OF
eliminatin' his stepmother, was
that he would need an accomplice.
And the first thing I saw, and l
suppose the first thing all OF us
saw about this murder. was that
an accomplice had been there.
Hang it, short of something
supernatural the murderer had to
have an accomplice to escape
from the room and leave the door
locked, and show no sign of him.
self on his way of escape two
minutes later. And for Strickland
there was an obvious assistant all
handy and willin'-the chauffeur,
Fellowes. But he wasn't such
fool as to speak to Fellowes till
he had made up his mind that this
weekend was the time.
mind you, he knew his ground.
Tt is certain that this idea of
murderin' his stepmother had been
in his mind a long while, and on
all his recent visits he had chatted
with the chauffeur. He knew his
story. He knew the fellow had
been in Jail. He knew that his
one ambition in life was to get
clear of this place with enough
money to buy a pub and marry
Enid. He knew that he was hav-
ing some sort of an aHaIre with
Mrs. Thurston. And he judged
him, and rightly, to be the very
man to fall in with his PLAN"
Here Sergeant Beef interrupted
loudly. well, I don't believe it,"
ha said folding his arms. 1T
know young Fellowes. Rough, if
you like, and may ave got into
bit of trouble before now. Done
a bit of 'ousebreaking dare say.
But not murder. L don't believe
it. e could put two darts out of
three in the double Is as often as
you like, and don't believe ed
ever ave 'ad nothink to do with
cutting that lady's throat.
Straight I don't. Besides. I know
who did do it."
Lord Simon smiled patiently.
I'm glad to hear of Fellowes'
proficiency in the pastime which
seems to occupy most of your
time and attention, sergeant. But
I'm afraid I can't see it's relevance
quite. Besides. have asked you
to believe our young friend
guilty of murder? You must
learn the virtue of patience, SER
geant. Useful in this job. And
don't go jumpin' to conclusions.
Where had we got to? Oh yes.
On Friday morning we find Strick-
land arriving at the station after
a weeks racin' which might be
called disastrous, if you were to
put it mildly. He is met by Eel
loves who has been seeing good
deal of his girl lately-takin' her
out in the car. That may have
been disastrous, too. Judgin' from
what we have seen of Enid, don't
suppose she was enjoyin' this long
waitin', and savin' money, and
hopin' before they could get mar
ried and own their pub. Besides,
one can't imagine that she was
delighted at her young man bein'
whistled for like pet dog every
time their lady employer was
lonely or temperamental. So that
Fellowes, too, was probably ap-
proachin' breakin' point.
"I don't think that Strickland
will have said anything definite
then. He knew enough to be
pretty sure Of Fellowes. But he
may have arranged to see him
after lunch, or even have asked
him whether he would be pre-
pared to come in on something
that would see them into Easy
street. Can't tell. Anyway, they