The Milliner's Hat Mystery (26 page)

Richardson finished reading the report and rang for his messenger.

“Ask Inspector Dallas to come, if he is in the building.”

When Dallas presented himself Richardson said, “I've been reading your report. What impression did you form of the people you saw at Scudamore Hall?”

“Well, sir, besides that ex-convict mentioned in my report I saw only Mr Forge, the owner of the house. He was greatly upset by the occurrence and kept saying, ‘This has been a lesson to me not to pick up chance acquaintances in a Paris hotel.'”

“Had he any explanation to offer as to why that young woman should have gone out at or after midnight in evening dress?”

“He thought she had gone out to keep a rendezvous with someone; he did not think it could be another member of the house party because the maid who waited on the murdered woman told him that a valuable mink coat was missing from her room and she must have been wearing it on such a cold night, yet her body was found with no wrap of any kind over her evening dress: the murderer had apparently stolen the coat.”

“H'm! Then that fur coat may be a clue to her murderer.”

“Yes sir, if it can be found, but Mr Vernon tells me that according to the maid it bore no distinguishing mark by which it could be identified; it had not even the name of the maker; the maid is positive about that because she had examined it carefully.”

“Had Mr Forge nothing to tell you about the woman's friends or relations in France or in this country?”

“Nothing at all, sir. Mr Vernon has already written to the police judiciaire in Paris asking for full enquiry to be made about her, telling them the date when she was staying at the Hotel Terminus St Lazare. A search of her papers produced nothing of interest to the police.”

“You say in your report that no trace of the bullet could be found in Crooked Lane. Were there any signs of a car having passed through?”

“Yes sir. I have been with Mr Vernon to the spot in Crooked Lane where the body was found and in spite of the ground being lightly frozen I could distinctly trace the wheel tracks of a light car which had broken through the frozen crust of mud. There is a gateway into a field a few yards from the spot and I could trace tracks of the car in the manoeuvre of turning in that gateway. There were no tracks nearer the house, but on the other side of the gate there were double tracks: the car must have returned in the direction from which it came. Since writing my report I have made enquiries at one or two cottages at the end of the lane. One woman said that she had heard a car passing in the direction of Crooked Lane and had seen through her window the glare of headlights as it returned.”

“You say that one of the guests at Scudamore Hall had left his car in a shed and not in the proper garage. Have you enquired the reason for this?”

“No sir, not yet. I was waiting until after the inquest. That car is the one that I mentioned in my report as being suspected of having knocked down and gravely injured a woman.”

“I see. Well, you will attend the inquest this afternoon and let me hear the result as soon as possible.”

“Very good, sir.”