THE Murder on the Downs

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 186, 8 August 1930, Page 14

THE Murder on the Downs

By ANTONY MARSDEN.

CHAPTER XXV.—(Continued.) Dead silence had fallen now. Sturt's show of anger died abruptly, and in its place a look of sickly fear came into his eyes. "You said —I understand he was found here " lie faltered. And Buck, quietly: "I ddn't know how you understood such a thing, Mr. Sturt. No one could possibly have told you so." "We—" began Meldruni, impulsively. Beneath the table Geoffersen Wade trod sharply on his foot, and the old man subsided. j At the same moment Ferguson reentered the room, and Buck turned to him. "Well?" "It's as you thought, sir. The tyre marks are identical; and the —the object that you mentioned is not there." Buck nodded, and as he began to speak again, Inspector Ferguson moved unobtrusively to »a position behind Sturt's chair. j "Your theory has been full est, Mr. Sturt.," Buck said, "more* especially towards the end. . . .'Now, if you gentlemen will listen to mine, 1 think 1 can guarantee to hold your attention." All eyes were on the detective as he turned again to Sturt, and went on in the same quietly dispassionate tone: "You are quite right, Mr. Sturt. Knottman was killed as you haveguessed, under the oak tree overhangfng the grass edge of the drive, not 40 yards from here. I have a witness to his death; a loafer of doubtful character, who followed Knottman here from town and entered the drive soon after him. "At- one'time it seemed to me quite probable that this witness committed the crime; but I've had reason, later, to discard such a theory." "But—but what's this to do with me?" Sturt demanded, palely. "'I am coming to your part of the story now. ... When Knottman parted from you yesterday, about four o clock, you knew already that he meant to go to The Chine — "I have told you that I did not " "Im not discussing-what you told me, though. I am alluding to your talk with Lord Meklrum, half an hour ago, when vou didn't know I was listening. . . . You said you knew why Knottman meant to go to The Chine; therefore vou knew that he was going.' The lawyer was silent now, and Buck resumed: "And now I'll take leave to borrow one of your own arguments. "You thought it odd, you say, that when Wade spoke to you on the 'phone at about seven o'clock, he said nothing of Knottman's visit? I think it odder still that you, 'phoning to Wade before your partner reached here, did not tell Wade that he was on his way, although the subject of your talk was the sale which Knottman was hindering. "There were two reasons for snippressing your knowledge of his visit, I think. The first, that you were shy of wetting mixed up in Knottman's scheme of blackmail; the second and stronger reason, that you already had made up vour mind to. follow Knottman youiself. "Hence your two 'phone calls,, which were carefully planned to give you an alibi. The distance between your office and here —" Buck glanced at his notes —"is just 18 miles, nearly half of it through London and suburban traffic. Forty-three minutes for the journey would be pretty good time " "It "takes me quite an hour from London Bridge," Meldruni put in. Buck looked round impatiently. "I dare say, my lord. I'm speaking of normal travelling. . ." He returned to Sturt. "The man who murdered Knottman ( arrived here by car at about six-twenty —I'll state my evidence for that by and by. That man, of course, could not be you if, as you say, you 'phoned Wade from your office just'before six; but if, as Lord Meldrum says, you 'phoned at five-thirty-five and left the moment you rang off—then you could just have done the trip, spent 15 minutes here (Knottman left this room at; six-twentv-Ave), and got back to your office 'phone by seven-ten —but that would mean so fast a- speed that your two calls to Wade would be tantamount to an alibi. And if we accept your estimate of the times when you 'phoned—namely, five-forty-five and seven —then, in that case, your alibi is" unshakable " Sturt shook his head. "You're wasting time, inspector. If, as I must infer, you're trying to fix me with this charge, your whole case is founded on the accuracy of Lord Meldrum's memory —which I flatly dispute!" "I haven't finished yet," Buck said. "Let. me return li'ow to the witness whom I quoted a while ago. "At six-twenty this witness was outside the drive in the dusk, crouching beside the hedge. He saw a big car stop just short of the drive gate. A man got out and walked towards the house, my witness shadowing him. A few minutes later, watching from the shade of the woods, he saw the front door, open and Knottman appear. "Meanwhile, the stranger from the car stayed waiting under that oak tree which overhangs the drive. As Knottman passed he stepped out and struck at him—once only, and without speaking a word. There was the slightest possible scuffle —no more than the one convulsive grab a stricken man might make at his assailant. Then Knottman fell. And as the murderer stooped over him, my witness turned —in a blind panic as,l gather —and ran away down the drive." - "Your witness tells a likely tale . . . . a fellow of doubtful character, I think you said?" Sturt commented, but his face was grey. Buck -resumed. "Your car is at the door now, Mr. Sturt. And its tracks are identical, my colleague finds, with those of the car that stopped outside the drive gate last night. In Knottman's hand, when he was found, this button was tightly clenched." The detective held up the button of an overcoat, to which a few shreds of torn .cloth still adhered. i The lawyer stared at it. "I have no overcoat of that colour," he faltered. "Not now. . One by one, Buck took from his pocket three objects; the first, an ouncesize tobacco tin; the second, a half dozen of similar buttons threaded on a string; and the third, a more bulky

article wrapped up in paper. "When you got home again to your office last night you found the button was missing, with a piece of the cloth. So you decided straight away to burn the' coat in your grate. I took a sample of the ashes this morning befol'e the grate had been cleared." He showed the contents of his tin. "This is wool-ash, the analyst tells me, such as a tweed would make . . . But since the buttons would not have burnt, you removed them first." And he showed where the threads had been clean-cut with a knife. "How to dispose of the odd buttons was the next question you put yourself; for if it chanced that Knottman were found already, the police might have called on you any time. "Your window looked on Fenchurch Street; that of your clerks' room on a narrow lane, whose leads were a storey lower oil the opposite side. It was not difficult to throw the buttons across, wrapped in a screw of paper and weighted with coal; and on those opposite leads they might have lain for ever if I hadn't thought it worth my while to send a man up for them on the chance that you might have disposed of them there." Sturt was dumb. "Two blunders you did make," Buck continued quietly. "The first you couldn't help; for when the spanner with which Knottman was killed flew out of your hand, it fell in bushes where you had no hope of finding it without striking a light. It is here" —he unwrapped the big screw-spanner as he spoke. "A tool included in the normal outfit of every car—but missing from yours, apparently?" Inspector Ferguson nodded. "Your other blunder was more curious." For the first time, there crept into Buck's cokl tone a note of uncertainty. "When you took Knottman's body in your car, to dump it so far away"— Meldruni and Wade exchanged one swift glance then; but Sturt's eyes were fixed steadfastly on Buck, as though fascinated —"it still remained for you to clinch your alibi with the second 'phone call to Wade, ostensibly from your office, but in reality from some call-box en route; vou could have made that call at seven —or, indeed, at six-forty-five . . . instead of at seven-fifteen, as you did. An odd piece of negligence, I think?"

Sturt's lips moved, but his words were almost inaudible. "I did make the second call from my own office ... at seven, as I've said " Buck shrugged. "It doesn't matter —and you're entitled to reserve your defence." And then he laid the spanner on the table, and in a formal tone: "Paul Sturt, I have to charge you ■" Sturt raised a trembling hand. "I'll take that for granted, inspector . . . My car's outside . . . You —you can take me away in it . . ." Ferguson touched him on the shoulder. He rose unsteadily, and with the two detectives at his heels walked out through the hall. Jeb, Fay and Tommy were staring after them, dumbfounded at the strange turn which their adventure had at laet. But old Meldrum stole a glance at Geofferson Wade; and as their eyes met, "Phew !" he sighed, very low. The police reappeared outside the "window, where Sturt's car was. The watchers saw Inspector Ferguson take the wheel. Buck motioned Sturt to follow. Buck himself was in the act of clnnbing in behind when Sturt's hand dived swiftly into the door-pocket of the car. It came out again with something that glittered in it; and before either of the other two had time to move Sturt'e revolver Avas at his head and a shot rang out. - . Ferguson flung himself at him—too late. ' Paul Sturt had joined liis partner. * * « * So, with the waning of that mellow afternoon of October, grim shadows thickened round the old manor-house, whose peace had seemed so secure, embowered in its immemorial trees. And to Meldrum, at any rate, Sturt s death—the death of the man who had ; blackmailed him, and who had tried to fix him with responsibility on the blackest of all charges— Sturt's death came home more poignantly than that of the partner whom he had scarcely known, so potent the touch of human intercourse, even where an enemy is concerned. I

"Poor devil!" the old man muttered more than once. "Poor devil —he had to make the best shift he could for himself —like the rest of us!" They hung round uneasily in tho library, while Buck came and went on his official affairs. (To be concluded.)