The Classic Mystery Collection - Arthur Conan Doyle [5899]
And Jack Young, having heard, and having consumed as many cigarettes as he considered the subject warranted, remarked:
"All right. Get me a bag of clubs, and I'll see what I can do. So you want me to pay particular attention to this dope fiend?"
"Yes, if he proves to be one, and I think he will. I'll have my hands full with Blossom, Morocco Kate and some others."
"What about Poland and Bartlett?"
"Well, Harry is still held, but I imagine he'll be released soon, Jack."
"Nothing on him?"
"I wouldn't go so far as to say that. You know my rule. Believe no one innocent until proved not guilty. I can keep my eye on him. Besides, he's pretty well anchored."
"You mean by Miss Viola?"
"Yes."
"How about the captain?"
"He's a puzzle, at present. But I wish you'd find out if that chauffeur has a girl. That's the best way to do, or undo, a man that I know of. Find out if he has a girl. That'll be your trick."
"All right - that and golf. I'm ready."
And Jack Young worked to such good advantage that three days later he had a pretty complete report ready for his chief.
"Jean Forette has a girl," said Jack; "and she's a little beauty, too. Mazi Rochette is her name. She's a maid in one of the swell families here, and she's dead gone on our friend Jean. I managed to get a talk with her, and she thinks he's going to marry her as soon as he gets another place. A better place than with the Carwells, she says he must have. This place was pretty much on the blink, she confided to me."
"Or words to that effect," laughed the colonel.
"Exactly. I'm not much on the French, you know. Still I got along pretty well with her. She took a notion to me."
"I thought you might be able to get something in that direction," said the colonel with a smile. "Did you learn where Jean was just prior to the golf game which was the last Mr. Carwell played?"
"Yes, he was with her, the girl says, and she didn't know why I was asking, either, I flatter myself. I led around to it in a neat way. He was with her until just before he drove Mr. Carwell to the links. In fact, Jean had the girl out for a spin in the new car, she says. She's afraid of it, though. Revolutionary devil, she calls it."
"Hum! If Jean was with her just before he picked up Carwell to go to the game - well, the thing is turning out a bit different from what I expected. Jack, we still have plenty of work before us. Did I tell you Morocco Kate was mixed up in this?"
"No! Is she?"
"Seems to be."
"Good night, nurse! Whew! If he fell for her - "
"I don't believe he did, Jack. My old friend was a sport, but not that kind. He was clean, all through."
"Glad to hear you say so, Colonel. Well, what next?"
They sat talking until far into the night.
There was rather a sensation in Lakeside two days later when it became known that the coroner's jury was to be called together again, to consider more evidence in the Carwell case.
"What does it mean?" Viola asked Colonel Ashley. "Does it mean that Harry will be - "
"Now don't distress yourself, my dear," returned the detective, soothingly. "I have been nosing around some, and I happen to know that the prosecutor and coroner haven't a bit more evidence than they had at first when they held Mr. Bartlett."
"Does that mean Harry will be released?"
"I think so."
"Does it mean he will be proved innocent?"
"That I can't say. I hardly think the verdict will be conclusive in any case. But they haven't any more evidence than at first - that he had a quarrel with your father just before the fatal end. As to the nature of the quarrel, Harry is silent - obstinately silent even to his own counsel; and in this I can not uphold him. However, that is his affair."
"But I'm sure, Colonel, that he had nothing to do with my father's death; aren't you?"
"If I said I was sure, my dear, and afterward, through force of evidence and circumstance, were forced to change my opinion, you would not thank me for now saying what you want