The Ravenelle Riddle by E. Best Black

Author:E. Best Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Phocion Publishing
Published: 2019-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

XVI. DORA TALKS

“It’s—unbelievable,” faltered the younger man. “I am dazed. But why didn’t someone examine this shed before, and see the machine?”

“Someone did,” replied MacDonald. “Sergeant Kelly, of course. All the premises were thoroughly examined, naturally, at the time of the Ravenelle girl’s disappearance. It would be only too easy to hide a dead body in such a place. During the first investigation, Kelly noticed the vehicle standing behind some other things in the small shed. Mrs. O’Brien told him that Ravenelle had been in the habit of using it occasionally, up until a couple of years ago, when he grew too weak. Naturally, Kelly attached no importance to the matter at the time. But today, after our investigations at Baron’s Court, and their peculiar result, he began to think back (remarkable chap, Kelly) with the result that he put two and two together. A second investigation was made, and—there we are! Why Ravenelle was so careless about the dirt on the wheels when he was so deuced careful about finger-marks, I can’t think. Perhaps because the shed had been examined once, and he thought it would not be examined again. At any rate, after all his precautions, he slipped up on that one little point. They always do!”

“I can’t believe it. It’s impossible,” muttered Lawe.

“I shouldn’t have told you. It’s been too much for you,” said MacDonald regretfully. He noticed the sick man’s glittering eyes, his distraught expression.

“You must release Ravenelle. The arrest is absurd,” persisted Lawe, with a tremulous laugh. “It would be tragic if it weren’t so ludicrous!”

“We can’t release him, Mr. Lawe,” answered the Inspector. “We’re glad enough to get him. Our men have been working like beavers, and everything seems to have culminated at once. There’s still more,” he added tentatively.

“Go on, go on. I must know,” panted his listener.

“I’m afraid you’re in no condition to have me go on, Mr. Lawe.”

“I tell you I am!”

The young man’s voice was so emphatic as to be curt, and the expression on his face was so strained that MacDonald gave in, fearing that the lack of news might do more harm than the hearing of it.

“There’s just one more thing,” he said, putting on his glasses and thumbing through the papers again. “Pertaining to the maid, Dora Dupont, in the employ of the lodging-house-keeper, Mrs. Lugg.”

“Pertaining to whom?”

“To Dora, the maid,” said MacDonald raising his voice slightly. “The maid where Cumberland roomed. Surely you remember her, Mr. Lawe.”

“Oh, yes—of course,” replied Lawe, passing a thin hand nervously through his tumbled hair. “Just for a moment I couldn’t—you see, there’s been so much,” he added, wistfully apologetic, “and my head is whirling like a bally roundabout. Go on. What about this girl?”

“Just this. From the first, we have suspected that she could tell more if she chose. Now, although everything at present is pointing toward Ravenelle as the main figure in the crimes, it is believed that he could not have performed them all without an accomplice. Therefore, it is on the cards that there must have been one somewhere.

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