The Twenty-One Clues by J J Connington

Author:J J Connington
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781471906183
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2013-11-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The Shooter of Cats

ACCOMPANIED by Rufford, the Chief Constable set out next morning in his car to pay his proposed visit to Kerrison, whom he had forewarned by telephone.

“First of all,” said Sir Clinton, “we’ll drive round to the place where you found the bodies. I want to have a look at it. We can turn back, after that, and visit the Hermitage.”

“You could walk straight up the hill to it, if you like, sir, after you’ve seen the bracken-slope,” suggested the inspector. “It’s no distance. We could leave your car on the road and go back for it after you’ve had your talk with Kerrison.”

“No,” the Chief Constable decided, after a moment’s consideration. “We’d probably have to climb a fence if we went that way. It would look too much like sneaking in by a back way. This is an official visit. We must be dignified, so we’ll go in by the front door, if you don’t mind. You’d better con me when we get outside the town. I don’t profess to know this by-road to the place; I’ve never gone that way.”

Twenty minutes’ driving brought them to the turn-off into the lane. Sir Clinton pulled up his car at a signal from Rufford, and they both got out.

“This is the place, is it?’ asked the Chief Constable. “That’s the bridge down there, and this is the home signal on the line that you mentioned in your report? The bodies were up there, where Loman & Co. cut down the bracken? Well, let’s go up and have a look round. Not that there’s much to look at, I suppose. The bracken seems to have been trampled down all over the place. Sightseers, no doubt.”

“We couldn’t keep them off it, sir, once we’d finished our own work on the ground. There’s no use your trying to look for the tracks I mentioned in my report. The whole place has been trodden down by these rubber-necks since then.”

“Evidently,” Sir Clinton agreed, after a casual glance at the slope. “I really wanted to get the general lie of the land into my mind. Who owns that little wood, further along the slope, just above the distant signal?”

“It’s part of the farm over yonder, sir, I believe. Full of rabbits, they say, and the farmer’s only too glad to let anyone go and shoot them if they care to, just to have them kept down. They do a lot of damage to some of his crops.”

“Likely enough. Kerrison’s house is up above us, isn’t it, beyond the crest of the slope?”

“Yes, sir. A hundred or a hundred and fifty yards back.”

“Just let me see exactly where you found the bodies. Then we can go. There’s nothing to be seen, after all that multitude has trodden everything flat.”

The inspector was able to show him exactly where the bodies had been found. Then they returned to the car and drove round to the Hermitage. It had a short, ill-tended drive leading to the front door; and the whole place had the appearance of having seen better days.

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.