The Fulham Mystery

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17805, 2 September 1929, Page 4

The Fulham Mystery

SYNOPSIS. DR. JOSEPH BLOND, a young doctor, unable to purchase a practice, “pitches” at Fulham. One foggy night he is visited by a mysterious woman, who asks him what amount of belladonna constitutes a fatal dose. Just as the doctor is explaining that he cannot answer such an irregular question the telephone bell rings. Dr. Blond hears a voice asking him to call at 48, the rest of the address being lost in the noise of a struggle at the other end of the line. There is a shriek, then the click of the telephone receiver being replaced. Startled, the doctor turns to apologise to his mysterious visitor, only to And that she has vanished. He then discovers that he cannot get into touch with the telephone exchange. After a stiff whisky and soda he falls asleep. Finding early next morning that his telephone is in order, he rings up for the police. Later, on going to his bedroom, he finds the mysterious woman, her face bloodless and disorted, lying across his bed. The woman is dead. A policeman arrives, and after taking notes asks the doctor to accompany him to the police station. On the- stairs they meet MRS TREGOLD, the charwoman. A little way from the house the constable decided he ought not to have quilted it. When he and the doctor reach the consulting-room again they find that the charwoman has had a stroke; while the body of the dead woman has vanished. Baffled, the police retire. Blond summons his friend, DR. GRIERSON, who is making investigations when he learns that Blond has been decoyed from the house by a false telephone message. Rawlings Disappears.

Inspector Gorst was uneasy about the case. At times he was inclined to sum it all up as madness on the part of Dr. Blond with the apoplectic attack of Mrs Tregold as a coincidence. That was on the whole the least unsatisfactory solution, for otherwise the disappearance of the doctor had a very sinister appearance about it. Then the worthy inspector was visited by ■bursts of suspicion of one person and then of another. Was the maid honest What was the true role of Grierson and his extraordinary private detective work? P.C. Barker’s evidence was quite definite, lie swore that he had seen the dead body of a woman on the bed and nothing could induce him to agree that there was any possibility of mistake on that point. The .inspector and Detective Bulteel discussed the progress of events. The detective had early arrived at tiie conclusion that there was something in the case, and quite probably something sinister. ’He intended that no necessary enquiries should be left unmade. Accordingly he called on the maid and submitted her to a long examination which frightened her without appreciably advancing matters. It left him with the conviction that she did not hold the key to the mystery.

Cyril Grierson returned to Rawlings’ house and put his plan into execution by knocking boldly at the door. A sour-faced lady of middle age answered him. She informed him curtly that Mr Rawlings was not at home, and she did not know when he would return and was about to shut the door. Cyril, however, was not so easilv put off. He was extremely sorry to trouble the lady, but this business was rather important and he wanted to make sure that he had called at the right house. He proceeded with a description of the Mr Rawlings he was seeking, and his listener, who was always read for a scandal or a mystery, began to take a new interest in the matter.

j Yes, that was the Mr Rawlings who ! lived there. She hoped everything was all right. Cyril, who never threw away possible allies, remarked that he was afraid he must not say any more in a manner which clearly implied that there was a great deal more that might be said, promised to call back again later, and went away leaving the lady very much thrilled. The Misses Blackler were respectable maiden ladles who had let the upper rooms in their house to Mr Rawlings and regarded him with the mingled interest and hope with which they had regarded every single eligible gentleman for the last 25 years. Up to the present he had shown a disappointing disposition to keep to himself, and the visit of " a fast looking woman" as the Misses Blacker put It. on the previous Friday had raised all kinds of disquieting doubts. Miss Ettie now returned to describe to her sister Mary the visit of the pleasant-spoken young gentleman in search of Mr Rawlings, and they found an innocent pleasure in discussing at great length the possible, character and misdemeanours of their new tenant. Cyril meanwhile decided that he might take a little relaxation, and took a bus to the West End to spend the rest of the evening at a music hall. His brother was no longer capable of this degree of detachment. He took the evening consultation as usual, and j realised once more that Blond’s practice was certainly not a flourishing one. But fear for his friend obsessed him’. The thought became intolerable that while he was powerless to do any thing Blond was being held in captivity, perhaps worse. He made another call on the house agent’s assistant, and heard once more the story of the Italian who had tried to take the house, but obtained nothing which promised to put him on the track of the mystery. Mr James, from whose house the mysterious telephone call had come, | had been unable on his return to town, i to throw any light on the mystery, j but it seemed to Grierson that there ; were facts to be cleared up in that quarter which might illuminate the rest of the stage Somebody had used the telephone there in the absence of , the master. It could only be the maid j or somebody who had got into the J house with her assistance consciously ; or unconsciously given. The next stage in the -proceedings the doctor told himself was to find out something about the young lady. * Who was the best person to question about a domestic? Probably the domestic next door or else a small tradesman of the neighbourhood. Grierson bethought himself of the voluble Mrs Lomax, and made his way once more to her establishment. The good lady recognised him this time, for the whole neighbourhood knew that he was deputising for Dr. Blond, earnestly believing to be languishing in a prison cell. “ And how’s Dr. Blond?” she asked. • “ Oh, he’s not very well,” replied Dr. Grierson, “ but it is nothing serious.”

The ghost of a smile appeared around the lips of the shopkeeper. She did not mean her customer to think that she was deceived . “ ttv Lho «av_" bg asked, “ can you

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By HILDA HINE.

tell me if Mr James, the solicitor in Fitzmauriee Street has <a maid?"

“Lawyer James? Oh, yes, he’s got a girl called Lily.” “Do you know’ her other name?”

“ No. She's been wdth him a long time, but I reckon she’ll be leaving soon. She’s been going about with a Frenchman, and they say they are going to get married soon. Silly girl, I say, taking up with foreigners. I knew a young girl round here, she married a black man.”

Dr. Grierson let the good lady proceed with her story of this social misalliance and its tragic results, thinking it w’iser not to appear too much like a closs-examining counsel. “And who is the Frenchman?" he asked, when Mrs Lomax paused in her eloquence. “ They say he’s a clever man and quite rich. He doesn’t need to do nothing for his living. He lives somewhere near Bloomsbury.” Then they don’t see a great deal of each other.”

“ Oh, he comes down quite a lot, and he always meets her on her halfdays out. He’ll be meeting her tomorrow. She told me they were going to the pictures at ’Ammersmith.” When Cyril returned refreshed by an evening's amusement, his brother told him of his inquiries and suggested that it might be worth while to follow’ up tile Frenchman without losing sight of Rawlings. “If we collect, enough pieces of our jig-saw puzzle.” lie observed, “ we shall begin to get an inkling of the facts that fit into each other.”

But it was not so easy to keep Rawlings in sight, for when Cyril called at the house next morning he found Miss Blackler in a high state of excitement. Mr Rawlings had not been home. He had not said anything about being away l'or the night, but since he had left home on the previous day they had not seen or heard anything of him. Was it all right? Ought they to inform the police?

Cyril advised them" not to disturb themselves. Mr Rawlings had doubtless been detained on business. lie would call back again later. It now remained to find out something about, the Frenchman. This part of his programme was more successful. About three o’clock lie observed the James’s door open and Miss Lily emerge. She was an attractive girl of a rattier forward type with a taste for the showy in the matter of dress. She walked rapidly to the end of the street, where the Frenchman was waiting her, rather Impatiently, Cyri! thought. They engaged at once in conversation, tile greater part of w’hich serme;' to be supplied by’ the girl. ' It looke. as though the Frenchman had asked her a couple of questions, to which she gave lengthy replies. This time Cyril was more fortunate in his tracking down, not only’ was he able to travel on the same 'bus, but he got a scat just behind them at the cinema, from which he was able to follow their conversation.

It told him very little. Cyril, without possessing his brother’s subtelty or mind, was an intelligent observer o' human nature and he formed the opi• ion that the Frenchman was ge: uinely infatuated by his companio The girl’s actions, he thought, wi less deeply engaged, and she was mo; flattered than anything else. At a discreet distance he followci the couple throughout their innocen. half-day’s amusement, and finally left the Frenchman at an address which he duly noted, in Bloomsbury. At the entrance to the Underground, as he turned back towards home, lie saw the yellow and black poster of an evening paper: FULHAM MYSTERY: STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF A DOCTOR. (To be continued to-morrow.)