“The Murders at Kennett Hall”

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20207, 29 May 1937, Page 23 (Supplement)

“The Murders at Kennett Hall”

By ELLIOTT O'DONNELL. (Author of “ Secret Cults and Strange Societies of Modern London, “Ghosts of London,” etc., etc.)

CHAPTER XXXI.— (Continued). The Superintendent eyed him closely. Dick had been suspected of that murder at the school, and he had been out with a girl named Temple that night. He haid been acquitted, of course, but guilty people do sometimes get acquitted, and it would be worth his while to And out something about this Miss Temple, as it was quite possible that Inspector Grey might have been mistaken and she did know something about the murder of Cyril Harding. "Is it the Miss Temple who once lived at Sefton?" he hazarded. The flush deepened, as Dick stammered. "Yes, I believe she did live at Sefton once. "Is she tall and dark?” “She’s certainly tall," Dick said, “but not dark. She’s very fair, what is called a platinum blonde.” "Then it’s her sister I’m thinking of,” the Superintendent lied. Dick showed interest. "Do you know her family, then?” "Slightly." the Superintendent replied carelessly. "I* met them once at the seaside." “Probably at iLastbourne," Dick said. "Dot told me they sometimes went there.” Then, growing more confidential and completely taken in by the Superintendent’s cunning, "I saw her go into a house in the Pilning Road. You know, the road that runs parallel with the Merton Road, where Miss Dunning lives, and I thought, perhaps, you might know if she lives there. Anyhow, lam going to call there on the chance of finding her.” "But do you know whloh house It was?” "Not exactly," he said, "but I'm pretty good at ferreting out things, and I’ve no doubt I shall End It all right." "Can we give you a lift?" the Superintendent said. "We are going to the Merton Road.” Dick again eyed him dubiously. “Not to see Miss Dunning?" The Superintendent gave a little cough. “Well, yes," he said. "Just a little matter, nothing very important. Will you come with us? 'You aren’t expecting Mr Danbv yet. are you?’’ "No.” Dick said, "he won’t he there till about seven, he’s dining with me." Now that he had been acquitted of that dreadful murder charge he rather liked the idea of being seen riding with the pollee, if looked Important. So ho followed the Superintendent, got into the police car with him and, In due course, was put down at the Pilning Road. At number 21, Merton Road (Merton Road was the next turning), the car stopped again, and this time the Superintendent got out. Miss Dunning’s house, a fair sized detached villa, stood a little way back from the road, in a well kept garden, and the Superintendent was walking up the garden path somewhat leisurely, for he loved trim flower bods and neatly cut grass, when he heard a scream, so full of terror, that his blood curdled. Shouting to the sergeant, whom he had left in the car. to come along, he ran to the house. The front door was locked. He and the sergeant, both hefty men, hurled themselves against it, and after several efforts succeeded in bursting It open. Silence greeted them. They looked in the rooms on the ground floor. One, the door of a back room, was locked. They burst it open. No one was there. They then went upstairs, and entering the first bedroom came to found a woman lying on the floor. One glance at her was sufllclent to tell them what had happened. She had been murdered. Her heart was battered and there was a gash in her throat. They searched for the weapon or weapons, with which the foul deed had been done, but could not find any. While they were searching, ilic sergeant, sniffed. "Smell any scent, sir?" he said. "A sweet sort of scent that seems to get down one’s throat as well as almost ehokc one." “Yes." the Superintendent said. "I do. I noticed it on the stairs.” ■He sniffed the rlolhes of the dead woman. She was elderly. Her hair was grey and her tldn. long, very plain face much wrinkled. “The scent’s not on her." the sergeant said. "Some other woman’s been here, sir.” The Superintendent assented. He thought at once of En'd: if she didn’t, do the murder, she must know who did. "Robbery was not the motive.” he remarked, "for nothing appears to have been touched.” They searched everywhere, in cupboards, In and under beds, behind curtains; no one was in hiding. But in the hack room on the ground floor, the door of which had been locked, a window was wide open, and II was an easy drop into the garden beneath. The room was full of the same sweet Intoxicating scent; obviously a woman had been there, too. Presumably the ory they heard was the murdered woman’s She had only been dead R very short time, for the body was warm and the blood was still flowing from the ghastly wounds. The Superintendent debated with the sergeant. Had Enid Shirley been to the house, or had the mysterious person on the ’photic told him she was going to it. merelv to throw suspicion on her? If she had been, what had become of Had she murdered the grey haired woman? Who was the grey haired woman? They examined her clothes acrain, and in one of the P° ckPts found » handkerchief. The initials J.D. wer p on it. ‘ Julia Dunning.” the Superintendent exclaimed <>f cours.e tt is Julia Dunning. Wasn't, she. ;is well as Mr Harding and Lord Temple-

bury, Miss Shirley’s cousin?” and his suspicions with regard to Enid were considerably strengthened. "What do you think. Sergeant?” he , said. "if Miss Shirley killed her husband, and I'm of the opinion it’s pretty well proved she did, isn’t it quite likely that she killed Mr Harding and Lord Templeburv, her cousins, and this poor woman, who was her cousin, too? It certainly looks very much like it to me.” The Sergeant did not agree. "I don’t think any lady,” lie said, "as pretty and young as Miss Shirley could batter heads in and prick with poisoned pins. To me it’s more like the work of some homicidal maniac." "Miss Shirley, maybe, is suffering from some mania of that kind," the Superintendent said, "but we mustn’t stay here, all the day talking. Ring up the local police." CHAPTER XXXII. Horror House. The Superintendent had an idea. "Look here, Tapp," he said to the Sergeant, "We’ll see if we can find the Temple woman. ‘Dot’ young Shirley called her. It seems odd she should have been in Sefton when that schoolmaster was murdered, and here now, when this other murder lias taken place. It may only be a coincidence, 'but it looks significant, to me." "And to me. sir,” Tapp responded. "I would rather It was her than Miss Shirley. In my estimation Miss Shiri ley could not have done it. She’s not the sort." "You can’t go by appearances,” the Superintendent remarked. "I think I've told you that before. Women’s looks are terribly deceptive. Don’t I know lti Very often the better looking they are the worse they are, Tapp. I-s your wife handsome?” "Not altogether, sir,” Tapp admitted candidly, "though I ought not to say so, because she’s a very good wife.”

"There, didn’t I tell you so. She’s all the better because she’s not a good looker. If I were to marry again, I’d choose the plainest woman I could find. Miss Shirley is too pretty, and that Is partly why I'm inclined to be suspicious of her, but maybe I’m wrong. This Temple woman may be equally good-looking and as high up in Society, in which case I should be inclined to suspect her of being mixed up in it. Young Shirley might know something about it, too. He’s head over heels in love with Dot 'f'emple, and she'd, no doubt, use him as a tool." "That would be a go,” Tapp commented. Now I come to think, there was something rather odd about young Shirley. At least so it struck me. I never did like very blue eyes in a man. They’re all right in a woman.” The Superintendent smiled. "You’ve got yet to learn, Tapp,” he said. "You can’t always go by eyes. But come along, we must get on this woman’s track without delay.” The Sergeant started the car and they were soon in the Pilning Road'. As Dick Shirley said, it ran parallel with the Merton Road, and it did not take them long to discover that the back gardens of the houses on the one side of it faced the back gardens of the houses on the one side of the Merton Road, the side on which Miss Julia Dunning’s house was situated. They noticed, too, that the Merton Road gardens terminated in one wall, the Pilning Road gardens in another, and that between these two walls was a lane, into which, by means of a separate door to each, let in the wall, all the gardens opened. The Superintendent, wondering where he should begin his inquiries, suddenly turned to his companion. "Do you see that house with the blue car standing outside it?" be said. "There’s a girl coming out of it, with a suit-case. She seems in a mighty hurry, and', by Jove! she's not unlike Miss Shirley.” • -lie answers lo the description of that Temple woman, sir,” Tapp whispered. "Tall and slender, with platinum blonde hair. That’s how he described her. And it. fits her to a T. 1 wish we were a bit nearer.” "So do I,’’ Ihe Superintendent muttered. "We’re too far off to see her properly, but at this distance she certainly looks as if she might be pretty. Look here, Sergeant, I’ll get out and do a little investigation, while you tall her in the car. Find out where she goes, and then join me at the Peacock. If I’m not there, wait for me.” (To be continued.)