THE MURDERS
In less confident tones Inspector Walters resumed his narrative--
"On Monday evening, sir," he said, "about eight o'clock, his Excellency
and the two secretaries were dining downstairs, and matters had, thus
far, gone on with the same routine as was observed every preceding day.
The workmen quitted work at six o'clock. The three gentlemen went out
for a drive as soon as everything was locked up, and came in again at a
quarter to eight. They did not change their clothes for dinner, so there
was no occasion to search them, as no one had gone upstairs since they
had descended soon after six. They had barely started dinner when some
one called at the front door, and I was sent for. The door bell, I may
explain, was always answered by one of the house servants, and he, if
necessary, admitted any person who came, closing the door; but the
visitor had to be examined by the policeman stationed in the passage
before he was permitted to come any further. On this occasion I went out
and found three gentlemen standing there. They were Turks, as could be
easily seen by their attire, and appeared to be persons of some
consequence."
"What do you mean by the words 'their attire'?" interrupted Brett. "Were
they dressed in European clothes or in regular Turkish garments?"
"Oh," said the inspector, "I only meant that they wore fezzes; otherwise
they were quite accurately dressed in frock coats and the rest, but they
were unmistakably Turks by their appearance. Two of them could speak no
English, and the third, who acted as the leader of the party, first of
all addressed me in French. Finding I did not understand him, he used
very broken, but fairly intelligible, English. What he wanted was to be
taken at once to his Excellency, Mehemet Ali Pasha. I said that his
Excellency was dining and that perhaps he had better call in the
morning, but he replied that his business was very urgent, and he could
not wait. He made me understand that if I sent in the cards of himself
and his companions they would certainly be admitted at once. I did not
see any harm in this, so I took the three cards and gave them to
Hussein, who was crossing the hall at the moment."
"As the cards were printed in Turkish characters you could not, of
course, tell what the names were," said Brett.
A look of blank astonishment crossed the inspector's face as he replied:
"That is a good guess, but it is so. The hieroglyphics on the piece of
pasteboard were worse than Greek. However, Hussein glanced at them. He
appeared to be surprised; he went into the dining-room, returning with
the message that the gentlemen were to be admitted. Of course I had
nothing else to do but to let them in, which I did, accompanying them
myself to the door of the dining-room, and making sure, before the door
was closed, that their presence was expected."
"How did you do that?" said Brett.
"Well, although they spoke in what I suppose was Turkish, it is not very
difficult to distinguish by a man's tones whether his reception of
unexpected visitors is cordial or not, and there could be no doubt that
the visiting cards had conveyed such names to his Excellency as
warranted the introduction of the party into the house. The six
gentlemen remained in the dining-room until 9.17 (I have the time noted
here in my pocket-book). They then came out and went upstairs in a body
to the ante-room, where they all sat down, as I could tell by the
movement of chairs overhead, and in a few minutes Hussein was rung for
to bring cigarettes and coffee. This was at 9.21. Hussein was searched
as he came downstairs after receiving the order, and again at 9.30 when
he returned after executing it. I was relieved at ten o'clock, and
beyond describing the three gentlemen, I know nothing more about the
business."
"They were well dressed?" inquired Brett; "they impressed you as Turkish
gentlemen by their features, and they wore fezzes?"
"Yes," said the policeman, with a smile; "but there was a little more
than that."
"It is of no importance," said Brett.
"But really it must be," urged the inspector. "One of them, the man who
spoke to me, had a bad sword-cut across his right cheek, whilst another
squinted horribly; besides, they were all elderly men."
"Pardon me, inspector," said Brett, "but you admit, no doubt, that this
is a very remarkable crime I am investigating."
"I should just think it is, sir," was the answer.
"Well, now, does it not strike you that the perpetrators thereof, who
were not afraid to be scrutinized by yourself and by several other
policemen, and to be searched and further scrutinized by a different set
of officers when they came out again, would be very unlikely persons to
bear about them such distinguishing characteristics as would lead to
their arrest by the first youthful police-constable who encountered
them? I do not want to be rude, or to indicate any lack of discretion on
your part, but, from my point of view, I would vastly prefer not to be
furnished with any description of these three persons, nor would I care
to have seen them as they entered or left the house."
"Well, that is very curious," said Inspector Walters, dropping his hands
on his knees in sheer amazement at such an extraordinary statement from
a man whose clearness and accuracy of perception had been so fully
justified by the incident of the window-blind.
"And now, Mr. Sharpe," said Brett, turning to the other officer, "what
did you observe?"
"I came on duty at ten o'clock, sir; posted my guards, and received from
Inspector Walters an exact account of what had taken place before my
arrival. Inspector Walters had hardly quitted the house, when one of the
junior members of the mission came downstairs with a note which he asked
me to send at once by a constable to Mr. Talbot."
"You are quite sure he was one of the members of the mission?" said
Brett.
"Perfectly certain. I have seen him every previous night for nearly a
month, as the gentleman often went out late to the Turkish Embassy, and
elsewhere. I sent the note, as requested, and Mr. Talbot came back with
the constable in about twenty minutes. Mr. Talbot went upstairs
accompanied by Hussein; Hussein came down, was searched, went down to
the kitchen, brought up more coffee, and never appeared again. The next
time I saw him was about noon yesterday, when we broke open the door,
and found his dead body. At 11.25, Mr. Talbot, accompanied by the one
whom Inspector Walters has described as the spokesman of the strangers,
came down the stairs. Mr. Talbot looked somewhat puzzled, but not
specially worried, and submitted himself to the searching operation as
usual. The other man seemed to be surprised by this proceeding, but
offered no objection when his turn came, and said something laughingly
in French to Mr. Talbot, when he had to take his boots off. The two
gentlemen went outside and called a cab. Mr. Talbot got in, and the
constable at the door heard the foreigner tell the driver to go to the
Carlton Hotel. He repeated the address twice, so as to make sure the man
would make no mistake.
"Then they drove off, and there was no further incident to report until
five minutes past twelve, when the other two foreigners came downstairs.
Then we had a bit of a job. They knew no English, and one of our men,
who could speak French, found that they did not understand that
language. However, at last in dumb show we got them to perceive that
everybody who came downstairs had to be searched. They submitted at
once, and I took special care that the investigation was complete. There
was nothing upon them to arouse the slightest suspicion, no weapons of
any sort beyond a small pocket-knife carried by one man, and not much
in the way of either papers or money. Before going out one of them
produced a small card on which was written, 'Carlton Hotel.'
"I took it that this was their residence, so I instructed a constable to
see them into a cab and tell the driver where to take them. I also
showed them how much money to give the cabman. None of the gentlemen
upstairs put in an appearance, nor did I hear them retire to rest. To
make quite sure that all was right, I and a sergeant who looked in a
little later, went upstairs and tried the door of the ante-room. This
was locked and everything was quiet within, so we returned to the hall,
and the night was passed in the usual manner. Hussein always made his
appearance about eight o'clock in the morning, when he came down to
procure coffee for his Excellency and the others. As he did not show up
I wondered what had become of him. When nine o'clock came, I determined
to investigate matters. By that time the diamond cutters had put in an
appearance, and were gathered in the hall, undergoing a slight search
preparatory to their day's work."
"How many of these men were there?" broke in Brett.
"Fourteen exactly. They were mostly Dutchmen, with, I think three
Belgians. Taking a constable with me, I went upstairs, and ascended to
the second storey, where I knew his Excellency's suite was situated, and
where I expected to find Hussein asleep on a mat in front of the bedroom
door. The mat was there, but no Hussein. Then I went higher up to the
rooms occupied by the two assistants. I knocked, but received no answer.
One door was locked; the other was open, so I went in, but the room was
empty, and the bed had not been slept upon. This seemed so strange that
I knocked loudly at the other door, with no result. I returned to his
Excellency's floor and hammered at the door, which was locked,
sufficiently to wake the soundest sleeper that ever lived. This again
was useless, so I returned downstairs and sent off two messengers post
haste--one to Mr. Talbot, and the other to the Commissioner of Police at
Scotland Yard. The man who went to Mr. Talbot's house returned first,
bringing the startling information that Mr. Talbot had not been home all
night, and that his uncle and sister were anxious to know where he was,
as they had received no message from him since he quitted the house the
previous night at 10.15. The Commissioner of Police came himself a
little later. By that time Inspector Walters had reached here for his
turn of day duty, and after a hasty consultation we decided to break in
all the doors that were locked, commencing with that of the second
assistant. His room was empty, and so was his Excellency's, neither
apartment having been occupied during the night. We then returned to the
first floor and forced the door of the ante-room, which, we discovered,
was only secured by a spring latch, the lower lock not having been used.
As soon as we entered the room, we found the four dead men. Hussein, the
servant, was nearest the door and was lying in a crumpled-up position.
He had been stabbed twice through the back and once through the spinal
column at the base of the neck. His Excellency and the two assistants
were seated in chairs, but had been stabbed through the heart. The
instrument used must have been a long thin dagger or stiletto. There was
no sign of it anywhere in the room, and most certainly none of the men
who came out the previous night had such a weapon concealed upon him.
"Doctors were at once sent for, and the first medical gentlemen to
arrive said that each of the four had been dead for many hours, but they
also imagined that the coffee, the remains of which we found in some
cups on the table, had been drugged. So, before disturbing the room and
its contents in any way, the Commissioner sent for Dr. Tennyson Coke.
After careful investigation Dr. Coke came to the same conclusion as the
other gentlemen. He believes that his Excellency and his two assistants
were first stupefied by the drug and then murdered as they sat in their
chairs, whilst the appearance of Hussein and the nature of his wounds
seemed to indicate that he had been unexpectedly attacked and killed
before he could struggle effectually or even call for assistance.
"Of course, the diamonds had vanished, whilst in the safes or on the
tables we found the keys which had evidently been taken from his
Excellency's pockets. We were all puzzled to account for the
disappearance of the diamonds and the dagger, but you have clearly shown
the means whereby they were conveyed off the premises. Dr. Coke took
away the coffee for analysis. The four bodies were carried to the
mortuary in Chapel Place, and the fourteen workmen were conveyed to
Scotland Yard, not because we have any charge against them, but the
Commissioner thought it best to keep them under surveillance until the
Turkish Embassy had settled what was to be done with them, in the matter
of paying such wages as were due and sending them back to Amsterdam. The
men themselves, I may add, were quite satisfied with our action in the
matter. That is really all I have to tell you."
"It is quite clear, then," said Brett, "that two men succeeded in
murdering four and in getting away with their plunder and arms without
creating the slightest noise or exciting any suspicion in your mind."
"That is so," admitted Inspector Sharpe ruefully.
"Then," said Brett, "there is nothing else to be done here. Will you
come with me, Mr. Winter?"
"Where to, sir?" inquired the detective.
"To find Mr. Talbot, of course."
"Easier said than done," remarked Inspector Walters, as the door closed
behind the visitors.
Inspector Sharpe was less sceptical.
"He's a very smart chap is Brett," he said. "Neither you nor I thought
of punching that wire screen, did we?"