Part 28 (1/2)
”Do you mean that Hill, the princ.i.p.al witness in the Riversbrook murder trial, has disappeared from London?”
”Disappeared from London? He's bolted clean out of the country by this time, I tell you! Cleared out for good and left his unfortunate wife and child to starve.”
”How have you learnt this, Rolfe?”
”His wife told me herself. I went to the shop this afternoon to have a few words with Hill and see how he felt after the way Holymead had gone for him at the trial. His wife burst out crying when she saw me, and she told me that her husband had cleared out last night after he came home from court. The hardened scoundrel took with him the few pounds of her savings which she kept in her bedroom, and had even emptied the contents of the till of the few s.h.i.+llings and coppers it contained. All he left were the half-pennies in the child's money-box. He cleared out in the middle of the night after his wife had gone to bed. He left her a note telling her she must get along without him. I have the note here--his wife gave it to me.”
Rolfe took a dirty sc.r.a.p of paper out of his pocket-book and laid it before Inspector Chippenfield. The paper was a half sheet torn from an exercise-book, and its contents were written in faint lead pencil.
They read:
”Dear Mary:
”I have got to leave you. I have thought it out and this is the only thing to do. I am too frightened to stay after what took place in the court to-day. I'll make a fresh start in some place where I am not known, and as soon as I can send a little money I will send for you and Daphne.
Keep your heart up and it will be all right.
”Keep on the shop.
”YOUR LOVING HUSBAND.”
”The poor little woman is heartbroken,” continued Rolfe, when his superior officer had finished reading the note. ”She wants to know if we cannot get her husband back for her. She says the shop won't keep her and the child. Unless she can find her husband she'll be turned into the streets, because she's behind with the rent, and Hill's taken every penny she'd put by.”
”Then she'd better go to the workhouse,” retorted Inspector Chippenfield brutally. ”We'd have something to do if Scotland Yard undertook to trace all the absconding husbands in London. We can do nothing in the matter, and you'd better tell her so.”
Inspector Chippenfield handed back Hill's note as he spoke. Rolfe eyed him in some surprise.
”But surely you're going to take out a warrant for Hill's arrest?” he said.
”Certainly not,” responded Inspector Chippenfield impatiently. ”I've already said that Scotland Yard has something more to do than trace absconding husbands. There's nothing to prevent your giving a little of your private time to looking for him, Rolfe, if you feel so tender-hearted about the matter. But officially--no. I'm astonished at your suggesting such a thing.”
”It isn't that,” replied Rolfe, flus.h.i.+ng a little, and speaking with slight embarra.s.sment. ”But surely after Hill's flight you'll apply for a warrant for his arrest on--the other ground.”
”On what other ground?” asked his chief coldly.
”Why, on a charge of murdering Sir Horace Fewbanks,” Rolfe burst out indignantly. ”Doesn't this flight point to his guilt?”
”Not in my opinion.” Inspector Chippenfield's voice was purely official.
”Why, surely it does!” Rolfe's glance at his chief indicated that there was such a thing as carrying official obstinacy too far. ”This letter he left behind suggests his guilt, clearly enough.”
”I didn't notice that,” replied Inspector Chippenfield impa.s.sively.
”Perhaps you'll point out the pa.s.sage to me, Rolfe.”
Rolfe hastily produced the note again.
”Look here!”--his finger indicated the place--”'I'm frightened to stay after what took place in the court to-day,' Doesn't that mean, clearly enough, that Hill realised the acquittal pointed to him as the murderer, and he determined to abscond before he could be arrested?”
”So that's your way of looking at it, eh, Rolfe?” said Inspector Chippenfield quizzically.
”Certainly it is,” responded Rolfe, not a little nettled by his chief's contemptuous tone. ”It's as plain as a pikestaff that the jury acquitted Birchill because they believed Hill was guilty. Holymead made out too strong a case for them to get away from--Hill's lies about the plan and the fact that the body was fully dressed when discovered.”
”You're a young man, Rolfe,” responded Inspector Chippenfield in a tolerant tone, ”but you'll have to shed this habit of jumping impulsively to conclusions--and generally wrong conclusions--if you want to succeed in Scotland Yard. This letter of Hill's only strengthens my previous opinion that a d.a.m.ned muddle-headed jury let a cold-blooded murderer loose on the world when they acquitted Fred Birchill of the charge of shooting Sir Horace Fewbanks. Why, man alive, Holymead no more believes Hill is guilty than I do. He set himself to bamboozle the jury and he succeeded. If he had to defend Hill to-morrow he would show the jury that Hill couldn't have committed the murder and that it must have been committed by Birchill and no one else. He's a clever man, far cleverer than Walters, and that is why I lost the case.”