The Stolen Plans Mystery (Ted Wilford #7) by Norvin Pallas

Author:Norvin Pallas [Pallas, Norvin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery
Publisher: Wildside Press
Published: 2019-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Guard Duty

At the office the next morning, Ted asked Mr. Dobson:

“What sort of work did Mr. Sawyer do before he came to Forestdale?”

“I don’t recall now, Ted. Why?”

“Oh, I thought that perhaps he liked his earlier job better and decided to go back to it.”

“I doubt if that would account for the abrupt manner in which he quit this one. But I suppose the information would be on his personnel card.”

Ted took this as permission for him to consult the card, and he did so. He found that Mr. Sawyer had formerly been an accountant. There were other details, too, but Ted felt they were of no immediate interest. However, he did find what he was looking for. Mr. Sawyer had a sister living on a farm east of Forestdale—the direction in which Mr. Sawyer had been heading when Ted saw him leave town. Ted memorized the name and address carefully, and replaced the card.

Soon afterward Ted set out upon his rounds. When he examined the police blotter, one item stood out: the theft of a bolt of cloth from the dry-goods store reported early that morning. Since Ted and Mr. Dobson had anticipated something of this sort, it came as no surprise to Ted. Here was proof, if anything further was needed, that their chain of reasoning was sound.

Ought he to tell the police sergeant who had stolen this particular item? No, he decided, for he was only an employee of Mr. Dobson and it was up to the editor to decide on the action to be taken. Instead, Ted remarked:

“Is this all you’ve got for me?”

Sergeant Jeffers looked up suddenly. “What do you mean? This is the police blotter, and that’s it.”

Not wanting to mention Mr. Sawyer’s name, Ted said, “I just thought maybe you had some investigations going on that weren’t on the blotter yet.”

“Well, of course we don’t put down our suspicions, tips, anonymous calls, and things of that sort. Most of them end up in what I call our ‘garbage’ file. We look into them, and if anything comes of them they end up on the police blotter. What we put down are our formal complaints and arrests and investigations, which are the only things a newspaper would be interested in publishing.”

Was it just his imagination, or was the sergeant’s voice a bit edgy? Ted had told his friends during the night that he hadn’t detected any unusual activity at the station, but now he wasn’t so certain. Maybe he hadn’t noticed it before because he hadn’t been looking for it.

Ted thanked the sergeant, and continued on his rounds. When he returned to the office, he reported the theft to Mr. Dobson. Miss Monroe listened with amusement.

“A whole bolt of cloth? I wonder what in the world a woman would do with that?”

“Couldn’t she make clothing for the children, and curtains, and things like that?” asked Ted.

“I suppose she could, but no woman would want everything made with the same pattern. I imagine that would not occur to a man.

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