The Loss of the Jane Vosper (14 page)

The officer who had been to Lloyd’s stated that Peter Murphy was a detective employed by the underwriters of Lloyd’s on the same kinds of jobs as Sutton himself undertook. He was in fact connected directly with the
Jane
Vosper
case, as it was he who had been entrusted with the work of seeing that the insurance claim on the ship was straightforward.

This news interested French a good deal. On the Monday night Sutton had seen Murphy at his home. On the Tuesday morning Sutton had come to Jeffrey with the suggestion that the
Jane
Vosper
was to have been broken up had she survived the trip in question. Was there here any connection? Had Sutton discussed the rumour with Murphy, and had Murphy corroborated it?

‘Did you arrange for an interview with me?’ French asked the constable.

‘Yes, sir. Murphy was out of town, but I got him at Gravesend on the phone, and he will call here at six tonight.’

‘Good,’ said French, and turned to the other officer.

‘I made the enquiries you told me to, sir,’ this man reported, ‘and I found a gentleman named Clifford who said he thought he could give you the information you required. I gathered he was a sort of superior clerk. At all events, he was present at the enquiry, taking notes of the evidence. The inspector’s report has not yet been issued, but he thought that a fairly accurate forecast of it could probably be made. If you wish to see him, he said you might ring him up.’

This was satisfactory enough also, and French dismissed the man with a word of acknowledgement.

So far the trail led to Waterloo Station, and there French decided he must next concentrate. He called for a number of men, therefore, and, going with them to the station, set them to work. Armed with photographs and descriptions of the missing man, they began interviewing everyone who by any stretch of the imagination could have seen him. Two men took the clerical staff, visiting in turn the various public offices at which he might have called. Others interrogated the platform men, the ticket collectors, porters, inspectors and constables, while still others dealt with those holding special jobs, the cloakroom men, the waiters and waitresses, the bookstall attendants, the hairdressers. French realized that the chance of obtaining information was but small; however, he did not see what more he could do.

As soon as he saw his staff well under way he rang up the offices of the Southern Ocean Steam Navigation Company to know whether Mr Stewart Clayton, the manager, could see him if he were to call in half an hour. It appeared that Clayton would be disengaged, and with Carter, French presently set off to the Fenchurch Street offices.

He was, however, not quite easy in his mind as to the wisdom of making the call. He was strongly tempted to leave it till after he had seen Murphy, who was investigating the action of this very firm. But, on the other hand, it was not unlikely that Sutton had called in his efforts to test the rumour of their bad faith. If so, he, French, would not be justified in allowing so important a clue to remain unworked.

If the Land and Sea offices were spacious, airy and modern, those of the Southern Ocean Company were the very reverse. Steep, winding staircases and narrow, twisting passages with odd steps at irregular intervals led to small, dark rooms filled to overflowing with desks and furniture. Everything was dingy and wanted paint, and the layout suggested the maximum of inconvenience and the minimum of efficiency.

Stewart Clayton, however, when they were admitted to his presence, showed no signs of inefficiency. A tall, well-built man, he had clear-cut features and a decided manner. Briefly but courteously he asked French’s business, which French stated with equal directness.

Clayton was unable to answer French’s question as to the last occasion on which Sutton had called, but he made enquiries by means of his desk telephone. He had a telephone, and not, as French thought would be more in keeping with the offices, a speaking tube. But the replies, when they came, were of no use to French. Sutton had not been at the offices for two days.

‘Perhaps, sir, you wouldn’t mind asking your representatives at the London Docks? If you could do so, it would save me the time of going there to put the question.’

French was, of course, aware that a visit would be necessary before the point could be considered absolutely settled, but there were so many other more urgent lines to be developed, that he felt the information Clayton obtained would be sufficient for the time being.

The reply was soon received. Sutton had been at the dock, but not within the last two days.

French looked at his watch. It was just half past three. He had a couple of hours before he must return to the Yard to meet Murphy. Stepping into a street telephone booth, he rang up the Board of Trade offices, enquired for Clifford, and asked whether if he were to call in a few minutes Clifford could receive him.

The reply was satisfactory, and soon French and Carter were seated in a small office with a shrewd-looking man who expressed himself as anxious to do anything in his power to help.

‘Very good of you,’ said French. ‘What I want is to get as correct an idea as I can about the sinking of the ship. I’m given to understand it was malicious, but I want to be sure that is so.’

Clifford shrugged. ‘The report of the court of enquiry has not been issued yet, and won’t be, I expect, for some time. Would it be indiscreet to ask how the Yard comes to be interested in the affair?’

‘Not at all,’ French answered, going on to tell of the disappearance of Sutton. ‘I’m trying to get a motive for that, and the question of whether the sinking was malicious, and if so, the position of the explosives, might be material points.’

Clifford was considerably impressed. He at once said that he had a typed copy of the whole of the evidence, and given proper authority, he could lend this to French.

‘I should be obliged for that,’ French returned. ‘However, as it’s probably a bit too technical for me, I wonder if you’d just give me a synopsis and your view as to what lines the report is likely to take.’

Clifford nodded. ‘Under the circumstances, chief-inspector, I should advise you to read the evidence for yourself. But if you like I’ll tell you my conclusions, for what they’re worth. Won’t you smoke?’ He held out a cigarette case, and the three men lit up.

‘This,’ Clifford went on, ‘is naturally unofficial. It’s only my own opinion. I can’t guarantee that the report will repeat it.’

‘Of course, Mr Clifford. That’s understood.’

‘Well, personally, I think there’s no question whatever that the ship was sunk maliciously, and I feel sure – indeed I happen to know – that the president of the court takes the same view. I really think you may take that as proven. But when we go to the question of who was responsible for it there’s not so much to go on.’

‘So I should imagine.’

‘The evidence is that the explosions came from the bottom of No. 2 hold, where were stowed cases from Messrs Weaver Bannister, of Watford. Above them was agricultural machinery, not in cases. It was sworn that the explosives could not have been fixed to this machinery, as, if so, they would certainly have been seen.’

‘Does that mean that bombs were put in the crates?’

‘Not necessarily. They might have been in the crates, or they might have been dropped in between the crates after the latter were loaded.’

‘Which suggests serious crime by one of two reputable firms,’ commented French. ‘Tell me,’ he leant forward confidentially and lowered his voice, ‘what about the replacement of the ship? Was she up to date? I mean, is she likely to have been running at a profit or a loss?’

‘All that information is in the evidence,’ Clifford returned. ‘You’d better read it.’

‘I shall, but what is your opinion, Mr Clifford?’

‘The
Jane
Vosper
was twenty-two years old. The average profitable age of a steamer is usually taken at twenty years. You can draw your own conclusions. On the other hand, the
Jane
Vosper
was substantially built and had had overhauls and renewals which would undoubtedly have lengthened her life.’

More than this French could not get. He was disappointed in the interview. He had learnt practically nothing new, though, on the other hand, he had checked what he had already heard and found it true. It seemed to him beyond question that a very serious crime had been committed in connection with the loss of the ship. If so, was it not possible that Sutton had got on to it, and had been murdered because of what he had found out?

If so, again, the criminals should be the same in each case, and whichever crime he investigated should lead to the same result. From this did it not follow that he should enquire into both crimes? Two separate avenues of approach should double the chances of success.

French decided he would work on both lines. His primary enquiry would be directly into the disappearance of Sutton, but he would consider the loss of the ship as a second string to his bow.

The interview with Clifford had occupied him longer than French had anticipated, and when he left the Board of Trade offices he found he had only just time to get back to the Yard to keep his appointment with Murphy. In fact, when he reached his office, the Irishman was already there.

Peter Murphy proved to be a large, genial man with a twinkle in a very shrewd eye. He looked the type which would make the speech of the evening at a convivial dinner. All the same, French suspected that in that admirable speech there would be precious little information, and none that the speaker didn’t want to give away.

‘I was going to call on Mrs Sutton tonight,’ he observed with but slight traces of brogue when French had explained his business. ‘Not that I had anything to tell her, worse luck, but just to enquire. I didn’t know you people were handling the matter.’

‘Apparently she had the wind up from the very start,’ French answered. ‘She went round to see Mr Jeffrey of the Land and Sea, and said she would like us to deal with the thing. He rang us up.’

Murphy nodded. ‘She did the right thing. But I’d be afraid that neither you nor anybody else would bring the man back.’

‘You think he’s dead, Mr Murphy?’

‘Well, and what do you think yourself? He wasn’t the man to go off like that without letting his wife know where he was.’

‘That’s what she tells me. Did you know him well?’

‘Not I. I’ve come across him in his work now and then, and I’ve been home with him to supper twice, and he’s lunched with me. That’s about all, I think.’

‘You were home with him on the evening before he disappeared?’

‘I was, but not to supper. We were both at the enquiry, you understand, and we had some talk there. Then on Tuesday he rang me up and suggested another chat. We discussed a place to meet, and he proposed his house. That suited me all right, so I went.’

‘I wish you’d tell me just what took place.’

‘Surely. I’d do a lot to get the thing squared up, both for his own sake and his wife’s, too. A nice little woman, Mrs Sutton.’

‘I agree with you,’ said French. ‘I had met her a couple of times before this affair.’

‘She was very fond of him, too. If he’s dead it’ll be a knockout blow to her.’

‘I’m afraid so. It was about the
Jane
Vosper
case he wanted to speak to you?’

‘It was. He was bothered about it. Couldn’t get on with it. Well, of course I was working on it, too, on the steamer side of it. He wanted to know if I had got anything useful.’

‘And had you, if I may ask?’

‘No, I hadn’t. I was just as much in the dark as he was himself.’

‘Perhaps you’d tell me what passed?’

‘Well, we had a talk at the close of the enquiry. It seemed to us from the evidence that the explosives must have been put into the ship by either the Weaver Bannister people or the Southern Ocean – the very two firms that we were supposed to be considering. I mean, it looked like a personal matter for one or other of us.’

‘I understand.’

‘He rang up that day to say that he thought Weaver Bannister were all right, and what about the Southern Ocean? He wanted to know what I had done. Well, as you can understand, for similar reasons I wanted to know what he had done – and so the meeting.’

‘Quite. And at the meeting?’

‘At the meeting we swapped yarns. He said that he’d been out to Weaver Bannister’s and found that standard sets had been sent out of the works and that the prices they had stated to his people were correct. He had been down to the wharf at the London Docks and seen the man who loaded the sets, and was satisfied they had been correctly loaded, and had not been tampered with beforehand. He had only to trace the journey between the works and the docks to be quite certain the whole Weaver Bannister business was OK. He intended to do that on the following day, the day he disappeared. But he was satisfied enough and said that, so far as he could see, the Land and Sea would have to pay.’

‘That’s pretty well what he told Mr Jeffrey.’

‘Then he put it to me: If the Watford firm was all right, what about the shippers? You see, we had already agreed that one or other must be guilty.’

‘Quite.’

‘So he was hoping I’d have had some proof against them. But I hadn’t.’

‘You found no reason whatever to doubt them?’

‘None.’

French moved a little uneasily. ‘I wonder if you’d tell me how far you had gone in your enquiry?’ he said with some hesitation. ‘It’s not to criticize, as you know, but just to see how far your enquiry is complete.’

‘I don’t mind if you do criticize it,’ Murphy returned. ‘In fact, if you could show me any line I haven’t tried, I’d be only too glad. So far as I can see now, the underwriters will have to pay. And there’s a bad swindle in it somewhere. I’ll tell you.

‘I began by concentrating on the loading. I’ve seen everybody concerned, right down from when the first cart came on the wharf until the hatches were battened down and the steamer passed out through the dock gates. Now someone may have been squared and may be lying, but all I can say is that I found no trace of it. And, what’s more, I don’t see how any explosive could have been smuggled aboard. Too many people were there. In the daytime there were a dozen or more about those two foreholds, and at night there were watchmen both aboard and ashore. There’s no evidence against anyone. I might say there’s no suspicion against anyone.’