The Loss of the Jane Vosper (26 page)

First French was shown the firm’s letter heading, which was believed to correspond with that found in the shed fire-place. For economy’s sake the same lettering was used for letter paper, bills, invoices, and sales dockets, those forms of which one is handed to the customer or enclosed in his parcel at the termination of his purchase and which is at once his record of the transaction and his receipt for the money paid.

French carefully compared the two printings, using a powerful lens and a transparent gauge ruled into tiny squares. He was soon compelled to admit they were identical. Of course, this did not prove the burnt scrap had come from Attenborough’s. The number of firms with ‘London, WC2 Tel’ on their paper was so great that the setting up might be identical in a number of cases. But at least the balance of probability was in French’s favour.

French next asked whether the firm had had any dealings with Rice Bros. Here a short search supplied the answer.

The name was unknown to them. It did not follow that no goods had been supplied, but no account had been run, and no correspondence had passed.

There remained the extremely long shot represented by the ‘arm c’ scrap of charred paper. Had the two scraps come from the same document? If so, could the document be traced by Messrs Attenborough?

When this was put to Mr Attenborough he shook his head. It was true, he agreed, that as Rice Bros’ name was not on their books, the only document dealing with a purchase by them would be a sales docket. But to search through their old docket books would be a colossal task. He really did not think they could undertake it. Besides, these docket books were not kept indefinitely. If the original of French’s scrap had been in their books at all, it might well have been destroyed. What was the date of the scrap?

This was a question which French had expected and he had tried to work out an answer. The shed had been rented on 1st August, and it was unlikely that anything connected with the affair would have been purchased before that date. Again, the
Jane
Vosper
had sailed on 21st of September, and it was equally improbable that such a sale would have taken place later than, say, a week previous to the start. The purchase then would be limited to the six weeks between the beginning of August and the middle of September.

Mr Attenborough rubbed his chin. If the ‘arm c’ referred to one of their alarm clocks, the matter would not be so overwhelming. The transaction would be recorded in the books of one salesman. If French liked, he would get this man in and French could question him?

French would be delighted to do so. He was sorry for the trouble he was giving, but in the case of murder every avenue must be explored…

Mr Attenborough murmured ‘Quite’, and called for Mr White. Immediately a young man with a chubby face appeared.

‘This is a chief-inspector from Scotland Yard, White,’ the proprietor went on. ‘He’s enquiring into a sale he thinks we may have made. Will you help him in every way you can? Now, chief-inspector, it’s up to you.’

White proved much more intelligent than he looked and quite unexpectedly helpful. Shown the ‘arm c’, he said at once that he thought it was his writing. He couldn’t be absolutely sure, for the loop of the ‘a’ was formed with some irregularity. Sometimes if he wrote quickly this defect did occur, but very seldom.

At French’s request he produced his books and showed examples of the perfect and defective loops, and it spoke well for the young man’s accuracy that they had to examine no less than twenty-four dockets to find one of the latter. French was delighted at this development for the obvious reason that if he could turn up the carbon block the defect might prove invaluable as an identification.

But could he turn up the carbon block?

White was not enthusiastic. ‘Can you tell me the date, sir?’ he asked. ‘If I knew that I could quickly find out whether my book is still existing.’

French repeated his estimate.

‘I think some of the books for that period are destroyed, sir,’ White remarked to Attenborough. ‘But if you approve I could get a search made through the ledger records of the period which would show what alarm clocks were sold. This would show where to look for the dockets.’

Attenborough nodded. ‘Do so,’ he directed, ‘and let me know if you find anything.’

‘Smart young man,’ said French when White had disappeared.

‘Yes, he’s not too bad,’ the proprietor admitted. ‘I don’t think, chief-inspector, there’s any use in your waiting. We’ll let you know if we find anything. Then if you want to make further enquiries, our books are open to you.’

This seemed sound advice, and French took it. He returned to the Yard and picked up his abandoned correspondence.

But he had scarcely begun work when there was a call from Attenborough’s. Mr Attenborough believed they had found the docket. If the chief-inspector would care to call back, they would show it to him.

Quarter of an hour later French once again entered the little office. White was sent for and laid an open docket book before French. When the latter saw it he gave an involuntary gasp.

The sale was dated for the 8th August, and read:

4 best Invictor alarm clocks @ 21/- £4 4s 0d

French stared. Alarm clocks! And four! Four explosions! Could it be? What about the ten-hour limit?

There was, of course, no proof that these had been bought by Rice. Even though the defective ‘a’ looked the same, it did not follow that it was so. It would be necessary to go through all the dockets for the period to ascertain whether another showed the same peculiarity.

French, however, did not wait for this to be done, but busied himself with his lens and bit of squared celluloid. He was more careful than ever, and the result of his examination showed that either the two copies were the same, or a very unusual coincidence had occurred. Then he shook his head. Coincidences like that didn’t occur. The papers were the same.

‘Can you remember any of the circumstances of that sale?’ he asked White. ‘Surely alarm clocks are usually bought singly. Can the fact that four were required bring back anything to your mind?’

White said that he had been thinking over it and that he did remember the transaction. He recalled it because it had no less than four unusual features. The first was the point French had raised about four clocks having been bought. The second was that they were bought by a man of good position. He was elderly and well dressed, and White remembered thinking that alarm clocks are usually bought by poorly dressed people or women. Then thirdly, this man was very urgent that the clocks should be reliable. He wanted the best quality – the price was secondary. He wanted them to stand any amount of abuse as well as to go in any position.

At this French felt a sudden thrill of excitement. Was there here a reference to the stowing of cases and the pitching of ships? If not, what could the requirements have meant?

The four clocks made a fair-sized parcel and White had asked should he send them. To this the man replied no, that he would carry them. He did so, and this was the fourth unusual feature of the case. The sales docket was packed in the parcel.

And, French thought, as part of this docket had almost certainly been found in Rice’s shed, it followed that the alarm clocks had gone there, too. And if they had gone there, for what purpose other than the blowing up of the
Jane
Vosper
could they have been used?

‘Tell me, Mr Attenborough,’ he asked, ‘could those clocks have been altered by a skilful mechanic to alarm after eight or ten days, instead of hours?’

Attenborough looked at him curiously, as if wondering what lay behind the question. ‘I’m afraid not, chief-inspector,’ he answered. ‘The clocks were twenty-four-hour clocks, which means they would go for thirty to forty hours. If they could by some means be wound each day, another wheel could no doubt be added to the alarm train, which would delay the alarm acting for the time you say. But if they were not wound it would be impossible. I do not think there would be any way of reducing the speed of the escapement so as to make one winding keep them going for that time.’

French swore internally. If this were true, the clocks could not have been used for igniting the bombs. Had they, then, not been bought by Rice? Or, as this seemed demonstrated, had they been bought for some purpose not connected with the
Jane
Vosper?

Lest there might be some misunderstanding in Attenborough’s mind as to what exactly he had meant by his question, French pledged him to secrecy, and explained the whole matter at issue. But the result was only to make the man more certain of his ground. Quite definitely the clocks could not have been kept running for several days unless they had been wound each day, though had they thus been kept running the alarm action could have been altered to operate at the end of days instead of hours.

French then concentrated on the appearance of the purchaser. Here White had not been so observant as in the matter of the clocks themselves. He could not give a clear description of the man. All the same, such details as he did remember were certainly consistent with the view that he was Rice.

French left the shop in a very puzzled frame of mind. Here was what looked like an entirely convincing clue, and it had, so to speak, turned to dust in his hand. He wondered if Attenborough’s view were correct, and presently he thought that another opinion was desirable. He therefore called on Mr Wilbraham of St James’ Street, an expert consulted by the Yard on clock and watch matters.

But Wilbraham completely substantiated all that Attenborough had said. The escapement of slow-action clocks, such as those which run for a year without rewinding, was totally different to that of the alarms sold, and the latter could not be altered in any way to make them go for several days with one winding.

It was clear, then, that whatever the clocks had been used for, it was not for bombs to sink the
Jane
Vosper
. French saw that he might wipe out the whole affair from his mind.

He found it less easy to do in practice. That Rice had bought the clocks, he was satisfied. What had he wanted them for?

Then a further idea occurred to him, a simple idea which should, with any luck, give him his proof. How he had come to miss so obvious a line of research he couldn’t think. The more he considered the matter the more incomprehensible his failure seemed.

If Rice had blown up the
Jane
Vosper
, he would have required some explosives with which to construct his bombs. Explosives are not easy to come by, and their acquirement is, therefore, correspondingly easy to trace. Could French prove that explosives had been obtained?

He saw now that it was an investigation which should have been put in hand days ago. What if it were connected with the loss of the ship rather than the death of Sutton? He had long since come to the conclusion that these affairs could not be separated.

He returned to his room and set to work. Suppose Rice had required explosives, how would he have obtained them?

There seemed to be four possible ways: either he could have bought them direct, somehow getting the necessary licence, or he could have obtained them from some recognized source by a trick of some kind, or he could have stolen them, or he could have made them in a laboratory.

The first way French thought extremely difficult – so difficult as for practical purposes to be out of the question. A genuine certificate would not be granted by the police without such an enquiry as Rise could not have borne, and a forged one would present even greater obstacles still. To get the form alone would be next to impossible. French did not think he need waste time over this idea.

To have obtained explosives by a trick did not seem feasible either. Of course, it depended on the trick; but French could think of none which would be likely to succeed. This heading he thought he might also dismiss, at least for the present.

To steal the stuff seemed a more promising proposition, as, given careful preparation and ordinary luck, it should not be a difficult matter to break into some isolated magazine. French put the idea on one side till he should consider the fourth possibility – the making of the explosive in a laboratory.

Here the difficulties were of another kind. It would be easy to make an explosive, but very hard to obtain the necessary chemicals secretly. French did not believe that Rice would have risked buying them, and he could see no other way in which they could have been obtained.

On the whole, then, the third method, that of direct theft, seemed the most likely. It would be best, at all events, to try it first.

French began by inserting a notice in next day’s
Police Gazette
. He was anxious to know of any thefts of explosives which had taken place during the critical six weeks. To sink a ship by explosions in the hold would take a considerable amount of stuff. Therefore trifling cases need not be taken into account.

Soon the answers began to come in. Of major thefts there were three. The first was a burglary at a gunsmith’s at Leeds. A quantity of both arms and ammunition was stolen. The police, however, had a clue to the thief, and though they could not prove that their suspect was guilty, there was not very much doubt about it.

In the second case a quantity of gelignite and detonators was stolen from a quarry near Bangor. Here there was no clue whatever.

The third instance was that of blasting powder and fuse missing from a road contractor’s store near Penrith. Here again there was no clue.

French considered these three cases. On the face of it the second was the most likely from his point of view, as gelignite and detonators were far more suitable for ship destruction than either gun ammunition or blasting powder. The date of No. 2 was also more promising, No. 1 being a little early and No. 3 a little late. French decided he would concentrate on the Bangor quarry.

He began by ringing up the Bangor police to ask if they had any further information on the case. They replied that they had not, and that the matter remained a complete mystery. French then said he might possibly be interested, and a meeting at Bangor police station was arranged.