The Death of Mr. Lomas: An Inspector Knollis Mystery (The Inspector Knollis Mysteries Book 1) by Francis Vivian

Author:Francis Vivian [Vivian, Francis]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2018-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VIII

THE LADY OF THE NIGHT

Sir Wilfred Burrows rang for Knollis shortly after Ericson’s departure. The Inspector collected his notes and tramped upstairs.

The Chief Constable was in a boisterous mood and wished Knollis a good morning. Knollis looked out through the window and then smiled.

“I suppose it is, although I haven’t had time to look at it. Ericson left the building a few minutes ago. He can tell a very convincing story. He wanted to go back to The Ferryman, but I persuaded him to stay in town. Easier to keep an eye on him.”

“And how’s the mental picture forming?” the Chief Constable boomed.

“I’m getting it into something like focus at last,” Knollis said with intense satisfaction. “This is how I see the events of Monday evening—although I have to admit that I still have to connect Gretton and Ericson satisfactorily. All that end is still vague. For the rest, well, Ericson was in Desborough, or came into Desborough, during the afternoon and there met Gretton. She drove him into Burnham in Lomas’s car, and then got back without being seen by Lomas—Lawrence Lomas I mean. Lawrence Lomas came into town at half-past five, fetched his father from the shop, and they went to the Golden Angel. They parted then, and Lawrence is supposed to have gone home to Gretton and taken her for a country run, but their alibi was flat. Lomas Senior then met Ericson and took him to the Commerce Club. After a chat they parted, for Lomas had an appointment. We have heard of a man who answers to Ericson’s description leaving the old man at the bus stop and then getting on the same bus further along. Lomas obviously saw Lawrence again—probably to report progress—and it was Ericson who mounted the bus and eventually turned into the Bridge Hotel with Ezekiah Lomas. It was Lawrence, or a mythical third man, who followed Lomas down the embankment. Ericson stayed in the Bridge Hotel until five past nine and then, according to his own story, caught a train home to Cambridge.

“Dodson, at Rose Cottage, certainly saw Lomas making for The Ferryman. It is here that the picture is hazy. Lomas, as we know, left the inn at ten to ten, and must have made his way back to Burnham—or started to do so. If he had taken the other direction his body would have been found nearer to the White Horse Hotel than The Ferryman. We have good reason to suspect that he was shaved either in Rose Cottage or with a razor found in the cottage—which brings this Dodson into the picture.

“The ladylike man who called on Steadfall was the girl at Dodson’s cottage. Forster has been making observation at the cottage all night, and his report should be available any time now, if he has anything to report. What I am wondering now is if there were two plots against Lomas’s life, and if they managed to collide on Monday evening. There can be but one explanation of the shaving; somebody wanted to delay identification and hold up the inquiry.

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