The Herapath Property Part 2

There's no need for that--yet. You mustn't go. Mr. Tertius----"

"Better not just yet, miss," broke in the inspector. "The doctor is still here. Afterwards, perhaps. If you would wait here while these gentlemen go with me."

Peggie hesitated a moment; then she turned away and sat down.

"Very well," she said.

The inspector silently motioned the two men to follow him; with his hand on the door Selwood turned again to Peggie.

"You will stay here?" he said. "You won't follow us?"

"I shall stay here," she answered. "Stop a minute--there's one thing that should be thought of. My cousin Barthorpe----"

"Mr. Barthorpe Herapath has been sent for, miss--he'll be here presently," replied the inspector. "The caretaker's telephoned to him.

Now gentlemen."

He led the way along a corridor to a room with which Selwood was familiar enough--an apartment of some size which Jacob Herapath used as a business office and kept sacred to himself and his secretary. When he was in it no one ever entered that room except at Herapath's bidding; now there were strangers in it who had come there unbidden, and Herapath lay in their midst, silent for ever. They had laid the lifeless body on a couch, and Selwood and Mr. Tertius bent over it for a moment before they turned to the other men in the room. The dead face was calm enough; there was no trace of sudden fear on it, no signs of surprise or anger or violent pa.s.sion.

"If you'll look here, gentlemen," said the police-inspector, motioning them towards the broad hearthrug. "This is how things were--nothing had been touched when we arrived. He was lying from there to here--he'd evidently slipped down and sideways out of that chair, and had fallen across the rug. The revolver was lying a few inches from his right hand.

Here it is."

He pulled open a drawer as he spoke and produced a revolver which he carefully handled as he showed it to Selwood and Mr. Tertius.

"Have either of you gentlemen ever seen that before?" he asked. "I mean--do you recognize it as having belonged to--him? You don't? Never seen it before, either of you? Well, of course he might have kept a revolver in his private desk or in his safe, and n.o.body would have known. We shall have to make an exhaustive search and see if we can find any cartridges or anything. However, that's what we found--and, as I said before, one chamber had been discharged. The doctor here says the revolver had been fired at close quarters."

Mr. Tertius, who had watched and listened with marked attention, turned to the police surgeon.

"The wound may have been self-inflicted?" he asked.

"From the position of the body, and of the revolver, there is strong presumption that it was," replied the doctor.

"Yet--it may not have been?" suggested Mr. Tertius, mildly.

The doctor shrugged his shoulders. It was easy to see what his own opinion was.

"It may not have been--as you say," he answered. "But if he was shot by some other person--murdered, that is--the murderer must have been standing either close at his side, or immediately behind him. Of this I am certain--he was sitting in that chair, at his desk, when the shot was fired."

"And--what would the immediate effect be?" asked Mr. Tertius.

"He would probably start violently, make as if to rise, drop forward against the desk and gradually--but quickly--subside to the floor in the position in which he was found," replied the doctor. "As he fell he would relinquish his grip on the revolver--it is invariably a tight grip in these cases--and it would fall--just where it was found."

"Still, there is nothing to disprove the theory that the revolver may have been placed--where it was found?" suggested Mr. Tertius.

"Oh, certainly it may have been placed there!" said the doctor, with another shrug of the shoulders. "A cool and calculating murderer may have placed it there, of course."

"Just so," agreed Mr. Tertius. He remained silently gazing at the hearthrug for a while; then he turned to the doctor again. "Now, how long do you think Mr. Herapath had been dead when you were called to the body?" he asked.

"Quite eight hours," answered the doctor promptly.

"Eight hours!" exclaimed Mr. Tertius. "And you first saw him at----"

"A quarter past eight," said the doctor. "I should say he died just about midnight."

"Midnight!" murmured Mr. Tertius. "Midnight? Then----"

Before he could say more, a policeman, stationed in the corridor outside, opened the door of the room, and glancing at his inspector, announced the arrival of Mr. Barthorpe Herapath.

CHAPTER III

BARTHORPE TAKES CHARGE

The man who strode into the room as the policeman threw the door open for him immediately made two distinct impressions on the inspector and the doctor, neither of whom had ever seen him before. The first was that he instantly conveyed a sense of alert coolness and self-possession; the second that, allowing for differences of age, he was singularly like the dead man who lay in their midst. Both were tall, well-made men; both were clean-shaven; both were much alike as to feature and appearance. Apart from the fact that Jacob Herapath was a man of sixty and grey-haired, and his nephew one of thirty to thirty-five and dark-haired, they were very much alike--the same mould of nose, mouth, and chin, the same strength of form. The doctor noted this resemblance particularly, and he involuntarily glanced from the living to the dead.

Barthorpe Herapath bent over his dead uncle for no more than a minute.

His face was impa.s.sive, almost stern as he turned to the others. He nodded slightly to Mr. Tertius and to Selwood; then he gave his attention to the officials.

"Yes?" he said inquiringly and yet with a certain tone of command. "Now tell me all you know of this."

He stood listening silently, with concentrated attention, as the inspector put him in possession of the facts already known. He made no comment, asked no questions, until the inspector had finished; then he turned to Selwood, almost pointedly ignoring Mr. Tertius.

"What is known of this in Portman Square, Mr. Selwood?" he inquired.

"Tell me, briefly."

Selwood, who had only met Barthorpe Herapath once or twice, and who had formed an instinctive and peculiar dislike to him, for which he could not account, accepted the invitation to be brief. In a few words he told exactly what had happened at Jacob Herapath's house.

"My cousin is here, then?" exclaimed Barthorpe.

"Miss Wynne is in the larger waiting-room down the corridor," replied Selwood.

"I will go to her in a minute," said Barthorpe. "Now, inspector, there are certain things to be done at once. There will, of course, have to be an inquest--your people must give immediate notice to the coroner.

Then--the body--that must be properly attended to--that, too, you will see about. Before you go away yourself, I want you to join me in collecting all the evidence we can get on the spot. You have one of your detective staff here?--good. Now, have you searched--him?"

The inspector drew open a drawer in the front desk which occupied the centre of the room, and pointed to some articles which lay within.

"Everything that we found upon him is in there," he answered. "You see there is not much--watch and chain, pocket articles, a purse, some loose money, a pocket-book, a cigar-case--that's all. One matter I should have expected to find, we didn't find."

"What's that?" asked Barthorpe quickly.

"Keys," answered the inspector. "We found no keys on him--not even a latch-key. Yet he must have let himself in here, and I understand from the caretaker that he must have unlocked this door after he'd entered by the outer one."

Barthorpe made no immediate answer beyond a murmur of perplexity.

"Strange," he said after a pause, during which he bent over the open drawer. "However, that's one of the things to be gone into. Close that drawer, lock it up, and for the present keep the key yourself--you and I will examine the contents later. Now for these immediate inquiries. Mr.

Selwood, will you please telephone at once to Portman Square and tell Kitteridge to send Mountain, the coachman, here--instantly. Tell Kitteridge to come with him. Inspector, will you see to this arrangement we spoke of, and also tell the caretaker that we shall want him presently? Now I will go to my cousin."