Except For One Thing by John Russell Fearn

Author:John Russell Fearn [Fearn, John Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2017-02-20T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII

“Yes, a benighted dimwit!” Garth repeated, looking up from his desk. “That’s a tall order for any bank to carry out — supplying two thousand in one pound notes. I can send out a call to every bank in the country and have them try and trace which customer has drawn out two thousand in ones fairly recently. There’ll be a record of it; I’ll gamble on that.”

“But why should the two thousand have come from a bank?” asked Sergeant Whittaker, clinging to logic.

“Why not? I can’t see any man in his right senses walking about with two thousand in ones when there are banks who’ll take care of it for him…”

Richard jumped in and seized his chance desperately, though his voice was languid enough.

“I agree a person of average sagacity wouldn’t walk about with two thousand in ones, Garth — but I’d place Williams as the kind of man who has saved all his life and maybe put the notes in an old biscuit tin. Lots of people don’t trust banks. Then he drifted down this end of the world and, for reasons best known to himself, decided to blue most of it. House — furniture — car. It’s natural enough when you come to think of it.”

“Natural enough for a genuine lower middle-class man setting out on a new line of life,” Garth agreed; “but I doubt that Rixton Williams is — or was — a genuine lower middle-class man. I have the impression that he created the character purely to kill Valerie Hadfield and the chauffeur, and then disappear. The limp in particular is very amateur; easiest gag in the world. These things being taken into account we are not looking for Rixton Williams but for the person who behaved as him. And that person, I insist, would in all probability have a bank account.”

“Why?” Richard persisted.

“Because Valerie Hadfield was not the kind of girl to be mixed up with a man who hadn’t!” Garth sat back, beaming.

“Think back on what Timothy Potter said — “I cannot understand a woman of Miss Hadfield’s obvious style eloping with him. It seemed to me — unnatural.” Quite right! Why should she fall for such a specimen to the extent of eloping with him? Not she! The probability is that she only stayed beside him because she knew his real identity but not his villainous purpose, and we know from reports that socially she was hardly the kind of woman to tolerate anybody who could not advance her…”

Garth paused and selected a cheroot. “No, she would never fall for a man who had no bank account! Therefore I insist that this unknown, hoping to make himself safe, refrained from having the money withdrawn in fivers and tenners which could be traced, and instead used one pound notes — but they in their own innocent way can be even more obvious. I’ll have the banks check up on it the moment I get back to my office…And don’t forget the letter we found, which had never come through the Twickenham mail.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.