CHAPTER V
FOUND IN LYNE'S POCKET
"The London police are confronted with a new mystery, which has featuresso remarkable, that it would not be an exaggeration to describe thiscrime as the Murder Mystery of the Century. A well-known figure in LondonSociety, Mr. Thornton Lyne, head of an important commercial organisation,a poet of no mean quality, and a millionaire renowned for hisphilanthropic activities, was found dead in Hyde Park in the early hoursof this morning, in circumstances which admit of no doubt that he wasmost brutally murdered.
"At half-past five, Thomas Savage, a bricklayer's labourer employed bythe Cubitt Town Construction Company, was making his way across Hyde Park_en route_ to his work. He had crossed the main drive which runs parallelwith the Bayswater Road, when his attention was attracted to a figurelying on the grass near to the sidewalk. He made his way to the spot anddiscovered a man, who had obviously been dead for some hours. The bodyhad neither coat nor waistcoat, but about the breast, on which his twohands were laid, was a silk garment tightly wound about the body, andobviously designed to stanch a wound on the left side above the heart.
"The extraordinary feature is that the murderer must not only havecomposed the body, but had laid upon its breast a handful of daffodils.The police were immediately summoned and the body was removed. The policetheory is that the murder was not committed in Hyde Park, but theunfortunate gentleman was killed elsewhere and his body conveyed to thePark in his own motor-car, which was found abandoned a hundred yards fromthe scene of the discovery. We understand that the police are workingupon a very important clue, and an arrest is imminent."
Mr. J. O. Tarling, late of the Shanghai Detective Service, read the shortaccount in the evening newspaper, and was unusually thoughtful.
Lyne murdered! It was an extraordinary coincidence that he had beenbrought into touch with this young man only a few days before.
Tarling knew nothing of Lyne's private life, though from his ownknowledge of the man during his short stay in Shanghai, he guessed thatthat life was not wholly blameless. He had been too busy in China tobother his head about the vagaries of a tourist, but he remembered dimlysome sort of scandal which had attached to the visitor's name, andpuzzled his head to recall all the circumstances.
He put down the newspaper with a little grimace indicative of regret. Ifhe had only been attached to Scotland Yard, what a case this would havebeen for him! Here was a mystery which promised unusual interest.
His mind wandered to the girl, Odette Rider. What would she think of it?She would be shocked, he thought--horrified. It hurt him to feel that shemight be indirectly, even remotely associated with such a public scandal,and he realised with a sudden sense of dismay that nothing was lessunlikely than that her name would be mentioned as one who had quarrelledwith the dead man.
"Pshaw!" he muttered, shrugging off the possibility as absurd, and,walking to the door, called his Chinese servant.
Ling Chu came silently at his bidding.
"Ling Chu," he said, "the white-faced man is dead."
Ling Chu raised his imperturbable eyes to his master's face.
"All men die some time," he said calmly. "This man quick die. That isbetter than long die."
Tarling looked at him sharply.
"How do you know that he quick die?" he demanded.
"These things are talked about," said Ling Chu without hesitation.
"But not in the Chinese language," replied Tarling, "and, Ling Chu, youspeak no English."
"I speak a little, master," said Ling Chu, "and I have heard these thingsin the streets."
Tarling did not answer immediately, and the Chinaman waited.
"Ling Chu," he said after awhile, "this man came to Shanghai whilst wewere there, and there was trouble-trouble. Once he was thrown out fromWing Fu's tea-house, where he had been smoking opium. Also there wasanother trouble--do you remember?"
The Chinaman looked him straight in the eyes.
"I am forgetting," he said. "This white-face was a bad man. I am glad heis dead."
"Humph!" said Tarling, and dismissed his retainer.
Ling Chu was the cleverest of all his sleuths, a man who never lifted hisnose from the trail once it was struck, and he had been the most loyaland faithful of Tarling's native trailers. But the detective neverpretended that he understood Ling Chu's mind, or that he could pierce theveil which the native dropped between his own private thoughts and thecurious foreigner. Even native criminals were baffled in theirinterpretation of Ling Chu's views, and many a man had gone to thescaffold puzzling the head, which was soon to be snicked from his body,over the method by which Ling Chu had detected his crime.
Tarling went back to the table and picked up the newspaper, but hadhardly begun to read when the telephone bell rang. He picked up thereceiver and listened. To his amazement it was the voice of Cresswell,the Assistant Commissioner of Police, who had been instrumental inpersuading Tarling to come to England.
"Can you come round to the Yard immediately, Tarling?" said the voice. "Iwant to talk to you about this murder."
"Surely," said Tarling. "I'll be with you in a few minutes."
In five minutes he was at Scotland Yard and was ushered into the officeof Assistant Commissioner Cresswell. The white-haired man who came acrossto meet him with a smile of pleasure in his eyes disclosed the object ofthe summons.
"I'm going to bring you into this case, Tarling," he said. "It hascertain aspects which seem outside the humdrum experience of our ownpeople. It is not unusual, as you know," he said, as he motioned theother to a chair, "for Scotland Yard to engage outside help, particularlywhen we have a crime of this character to deal with. The facts you know,"he went on, as he opened a thin folder. "These are the reports, which youcan read at your leisure. Thornton Lyne was, to say the least, eccentric.His life was not a particularly wholesome one, and he had manyundesirable acquaintances, amongst whom was a criminal and ex-convictwho was only released from gaol a few days ago."
"That's rather extraordinary," said Tarling, lifting his eyebrows. "Whathad he in common with the criminal?"
Commissioner Cresswell shrugged his shoulders.
"My own view is that this acquaintance was rather a pose of Lyne's. Heliked to be talked about. It gave him a certain reputation for characteramongst his friends."
"Who is the criminal?" asked Tarling.
"He is a man named Stay, a petty larcenist, and in my opinion a much moredangerous character than the police have realised."
"Is he----" began Tarling. But the Commissioner shook his head.
"I think we can rule him out from the list of people who may be suspectedof this murder," he said. "Sam Stay has very few qualities that wouldcommend themselves to the average man, but there can be no doubt at allthat he was devoted to Lyne, body and soul. When the detectivetemporarily in charge of the case went down to Lambeth to interview Stay,he found him lying on his bed prostrate with grief, with a newspapercontaining the particulars of the murder by his side. The man is besidehimself with sorrow, and threatens to 'do in' the person who isresponsible for this crime. You can interview him later. I doubt whetheryou will get much out of him, because he is absolutely incoherent. Lynewas something more than human in his eyes, and I should imagine that theonly decent emotion he has had in his life is this affection for a manwho was certainly good to him, whether he was sincere in his philanthropyor otherwise. Now here are a few of the facts which have not been madepublic." Cresswell settled himself back in his chair and ticked off onhis fingers the points as he made them.
"You know that around Lyne's chest a silk night-dress was discovered?"
Tarling nodded.
"Under the night-dress, made into a pad, evidently with the object ofarresting the bleeding, were two handkerchiefs, neatly folded, as thoughthey had been taken from a drawer. They were ladies' handkerchiefs, so wemay start on the supposition that there is a woman in the case."
Tarling nodded.
"Now another peculiar feature
of the case, which happily has escaped theattention of those who saw the body first and gave particulars to thenewspapers, was that Lyne, though fully dressed, wore a pair of thickfelt slippers. They were taken out of his own store yesterday evening, aswe have ascertained, by Lyne himself, who sent for one of his assistantsto his office and told him to get a pair of very soft-soled slippers.
"The third item is that Lyne's boots were discovered in the desertedmotor-car which was drawn up by the side of the road a hundred yards fromwhere the body was lying.
"And the fourth feature--and this explains why I have brought you intothe case--is that in the car was discovered his bloodstained coat andwaistcoat. In the right-hand pocket of the latter garment," saidCresswell, speaking slowly, "was found this." He took from his drawer asmall piece of crimson paper two inches square, and handed it withoutcomment to the detective.
Tarling took the paper and stared. Written in thick black ink were fourChinese characters, "_tzu chao fan nao_"--"He brought this troubleupon himself."