Inspector Druet

“ Creveling?"
"I am." Her glance returned to Inspector Druet. "May I ask who you are and what you are doing in my house?"
"Myra, my dear!" Alexander interposed hastily. "You must prepare yourself for a great shock, a great grief! This man is an inspector from the police department; Eugene was found here dead!"
For a moment her wide violet eyes stared deep into her uncle's and there came a sudden, tensing of the lines of her beautiful face but no outcry, no faintness, no other signs of normal emotion. ”

“ AT Inspector Druet's suggestion Oliver Jarvis accompanied him and the maid back to his own house. Terhune, murmuring something about the interests of his client, prepared to follow and Norwood turned to McCarty.
"Don't you want to come, also? I am going whether the Inspector desires my presence or not. I am Oliver's closest friend and I do not propose to be barred from this investigation by any jealousy on the part of the police. I'll show them yet that my life-long study of crime is of more value than their haphazard, bull-dozing methods! How about it, Mr. McCarty?" ”

“ A rapid but fairly comprehensive search of the museum disclosed no further clues nor traces of the assailant's presence and Inspector Druet went to the telephone to summon the Chief Medical Examiner and notify the Homicide Bureau.
McCarty, with Dennis in tow, trailed him wistfully into the hall.
"I'll be taking myself off now, Inspector," he remarked. "You've the case in hand, to say nothing of an expert like Mr. Terhune right on the job to help you and Mr. Norwood himself." ”

“ Inspector Druet smiled. “I’ve never been able to figure out which of you two has the luck, but your teamwork can’t be beaten and I’ll see that you get a pass along with Mac. I’ve had a diagram of the New Queen’s Mall prepared and brought this copy with me for you two so you may know without [Pg 44] loss of time who owns each house and which ones are occupied.” ”

“ McCarty, but you can realize what little hope he would have of convincing Inspector Druet of it."
A sound note remotely resembling a chuckle issued from McCarty's lips, but the next moment his gravity had returned.
"Not now, maybe, but I don't think there's danger of his arrest; not right away, at least. The Inspector is cautious by nature, and he'll not risk charging Mr. Jarvis with the murder till he's got more evidence than that to go upon. I don't know but I'd tell the truth, at that, if I was Mr. Jarvis. ”

“ We’ve been waiting for you.”
“The devil you have!” Inspector Druet laughed as he bounded up the stairs with a lightness which belied his [Pg 41] gray hair. “Getting back at me for last night, eh? If you hadn’t held out on me we’d have been on the job still in the New Queen’s Mall!—’Morning, Riordan! I suppose you’re crowing over me, too!”
“There’ll not be a peep out of me, let alone a crow, till I know what’s doing, inspector, for Mac’s told me nothing except the look he saw on Hughes’ face,” Dennis replied, as he drew forward the shabby easy-chair and placed an ash-tray within reach. ”

“ Inspector Druet nodded briefly to his confrère and the woman turned her great, blue eyes slowly upon McCarty with a start of recognition.
"Who are you?" The inspector turned to the huddled figure in the corner.
"Ada Hopkins." The hand holding the handkerchief fell to her lap disclosing a small, pinched, delicately withered face. "I'm a seamstress, out by the day, and I have the flat under Mrs. Hildreth's—Mrs. Hill's, I mean. I got sick and she took care of me like an angel; nobody ever did anything for me before in all my life! ”

“ There's many a night I don't see him."
"You say that the house was dark up to nearly twelve o'clock," repeated Inspector Druet. "When did you notice first that it was lighted?"
"At about a quarter before; I rang in at the box on the next corner ten minutes afterwards, more or less." Clancy's tone was cautious. "The faint little stream of light coming from the window here on the first floor meant nothing to me, for I'd often seen it till near dawn, and lots of the ground floor windows are left open the night long in all the residences on my beat this mild spring weather. ”

“ I ran on, undisturbed, passing a watchman or two, and came quickly to Brake's place. It was locked.
This distressed me. I think I had confidently expected to find him there. It did not seem to me possible to go home without seeing my broker. I stood, uncertain, rattling at the heavy door with imbecile impatience. This act brought the police to the spot in three minutes.
It was Inspector Drayton who came up, the well-known inspector, so long on duty in Stock Street; a man famed for his professional shrewdness and his gentlemanly manner. ”

“ What on earth do we pay our police for? What sort of a country are we living in? Are you all nincompoops?"
"We remain what we are, notwithstanding your lordship's opinion," the inspector answered, with a shade of sarcasm in his level tone. "I may add that I am not the only one engaged in this Investigation, and I can only do my duty according to the best of my ability."
"You've done nothing—nothing at all!" Dredlinton protested angrily. ”

“ Inspector Whyland accepted the invitation, and sat down in the chair offered him. Mr. Ludgrove having pressed him to smoke, sat down in the opposite chair, and looked at him enquiringly.
“I daresay that you can guess what I have come to talk about,” began the Inspector, with a pleasant smile. “I may as well confess at once that I want your help. We policemen are not the super-men which some people think we ought to be, and most of us are only too anxious to ask for assistance wherever we are likely to get it. ”

“ Ferrars gave her a sudden look of gratitude. "Thank you for showing me my own brutality," he replied. "I can trust you, and I do thank you; there could have been no one else." And Ruth went back to the inner room smiling a little, as she met her lover's eye.
To guard against all emergencies, the detective had left with the inspector a card telling him, and his men, where a telegram would reach him at different hours of the day, and at a quarter past two a message arrived, bearing the signature of the Swiss.
"Q. H. and a lady on the way to meet you now." ”

“ Finally, just as the doctor and the official police put in an appearance, he beckoned to the vicar and we all three went out upon the lawn.
"I am glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely barren," he remarked. "I cannot remain to discuss the matter with the police, but I should be exceedingly obliged, Mr. Roundhay, if you would give the inspector my compliments and direct his attention to the bedroom window and to the sitting-room lamp. Each is suggestive, and together they are almost conclusive. ”

“ We’ll try to get our hands on the woman, of course, and we may find she has not spent the money. Now, sir, if there is nothing more than you can tell me, I think I shall get along to the Savoy and to those shops where she paid the cheques.”
Inspector French walked slowly down Cockspur Street, his brain bemused by this unexpected development. The impersonation of Mrs. Root was easy—or, at least, comparatively easy—to understand. He could see that it would present no serious difficulties to a resourceful woman, though the application to the Southampton police was certainly staggering. ”

“ Rheinholdt welcomed the Inspector with a beaming smile as he stepped out of his office and approached her automobile.
“How nice of you to be so punctual, Mr. French,” she exclaimed, making room for him by her side. “Will you tell the man to drive to Mr. Quest’s house in Georgia Square?”
The Inspector obeyed and took his place in the luxurious limousine.
“How beautifully punctual we are!” she continued, glancing at the clock. “Inspector, I am so excited at the idea of getting my jewels back. Isn’t Mr. Quest a wonderful man?” ”

“ I’ll send an excuse tomorrow to the office. We had best be lively,’ he added significantly; ‘for we must not spoil the market for the other man.’
‘What do you mean?’ enquired Pitman. ‘What other man? The inspector of police?’
‘Damn the inspector of police!’ remarked his companion. ‘If you won’t take the short cut and bury this in your back garden, we must find some one who will bury it in his. We must place the affair, in short, in the hands of some one with fewer scruples and more resources.’
‘A private detective, perhaps?’ suggested Pitman. ”

“ Damar Greefe," said the Inspector, closely watching the man who sat there collapsed in the chair, "I arrest you on a charge of murder. I have to warn you that anything you now say will be used in evidence against you."
The Eurasian exerted a supreme effort, straightening his gaunt body, and fixing the gaze of those hawk eyes upon Inspector Gatton. When he spoke his harsh voice had gained strength and his manner was imperious.
"Detective-Inspector Gatton," he replied, "you do no more than your duty. I have come here only with the utmost difficulty in my weak state. ”

“ Then he began once more: "There is nothing like swift and sure justice," he announced, "and there now remains in the Winters case only the formality of a trial. The work of the Inspector has left nothing more to be found out."
He would apparently have gone on in this strain indefinitely, had he not been interrupted by Littell, who had come in unobserved, and now quietly asked the speaker's opinion as to what the Inspector might have done with the other three fifty-dollar bills that had been left in the room. ”

“ And now you’ve some other scheme for keeping a poor man from his hard-earned rest, eh?”
The Superintendent seemed to find the other’s easy familiarity out of place.
“Good-evening, Inspector,” he answered with official abruptness. “You know Dr. Jordan?—Inspector French of the C.I.D. And this is Mr. Orchard, a clerk in this office, who discovered the crime.” ”

“ For a day the inquiry hung fire, and then Sergeant Nolan brought in a report which turned the Inspector’s thoughts into still another channel. Nolan had, it appeared, taken the pretty housemaid, Rachael, first to the pictures and then to supper at a popular restaurant. The girl had what the Sergeant called “the gift of the gab,” and it had only been necessary for him judiciously to supply an occasional topic, to have a continuous stream of more or less relevant information poured into his receptive ears. ”

“ They arrived at The Lindens. A knot of idlers were standing at the gates discussing the straws of information that floated among them. A policeman on duty marched slowly round the drive, his footprints indistinguishable from countless others that had broken up the thin and melting coat of snow. On the steps stood an Inspector in talk with a couple of pressmen, who were taking notes with red, cold fingers.
The Inspector touched his cap as Hugh came up. ”

“ The facts postulated a good deal of obvious detailed investigation, and he felt he should carry this through in his usual systematic way before attempting to evolve a comprehensive theory of the crime. He had first to learn what he could of the mysterious Mrs. Root, and in this connection he foresaw inquiries at Pittsburg, from the White Star people, from the Southampton police at the Savoy, and at the various firms of jewellers to whom the cheques had been made out. ”

“ The detective grabbed the bottle out of her hand, glanced at it and called the inspector.
"Here is a young girl trying to commit suicide," he said, handing the bottle to the inspector.
"Are you Dorothy Canfield?" the inspector asked after a glance at the bottle and a quick scrutiny of the new arrival.
The girl nodded nervously, and the inspector led her into the music room, while the amazed butler shrugged his shoulders in dismay and returned to the butler's pantry for a cigarette and a glass of sherry. ”

“ How could the articles found be made use of in the enquiry?"
The preliminary examination is only the first step. The young man who passes finds himself a "patrol on probation," with the knowledge that if he does not justify himself he will be returned to the blue-coated ranks. He is put to school again—the little-known detective school that is maintained at Scotland Yard, with Detective-Inspector Belcher at its head. There are lectures on law, and even lantern lectures. He is taught the methods of criminals, from gambling sharps to forgers, from pickpockets to petty sneak-thieves. ”

“ The Inspector rubbed his chin and looked at me with dubious eyes.
"I wish I could see what was in your mind, Mr. Holmes. Perhaps it's those fishing-boats."
"No, no; they were too far out."
"Well, then, is it Bellamy and that big son of his? They were not too sweet upon Mr. McPherson. Could they have done him a mischief?"
"No, no; you won't draw me until I am ready," said I with a smile. "Now, Inspector, we each have our own work to do. ”

“ I found closeted with him Inspector Dalton and Detective Miles. A consultation over the case, which had now become of chief concern to the office, was in progress.
"Dallas," the District Attorney said to me, "I have just been congratulating the Inspector upon the excellent work of his department in the White murder case. I have read the report of the evidence before the Coroner's jury and find it very complete and strong. The Inspector tells me," he continued, "that the case is practically ready for trial, as seems true, and he urges prompt procedure. ”

“ French nodded. The Sergeant’s statement, agreeing as it did with those of Messrs. Williams, Scarlett and Co., seemed capable of but one explanation. Mrs. X was Mrs. Ward all right, but before meeting these men she had made herself up to impersonate Mrs. Root. They saw a likeness to Mrs. Ward because it really was she, but they were doubtful because she was disguised.
The Inspector leaned forward and tapped the photograph.
“Put it this way, Sergeant,” he suggested. “Here is a picture of the lady as she really is. When you saw her she was made up to look like another woman. ”