Death in the Tunnel Read Online Free PDF Page B

had a really active enemy in the world.”
    â€œ You haven’t heard any rumours affecting his financial position, have you, doctor?” Arnold asked.
    Dr. Butler shook his head. “Finance and business are a bit outside my scope,” he replied. “I’ve heard no rumours of the kind, but then it’s not likely that they would come to my ears. I gather that you are looking for something to support the idea that he committed suicide?”
    â€œThat’s about it, doctor. And I should be very grateful for the slightest hint.”
    â€œI can’t help you, I’m afraid. You can take it from me that there’s no disreputable story behind it. No entanglements with women, or anything like that. For the rest, Sir Wilfred was a man of temperate, not to say frugal habits. You can trust a doctor to know something about his patients’ lives. I can tell you nothing about his business activities. But of this I feel sure. If he had a motive for killing himself, you won’t find that motive in Helverden.”
    A few minutes later, Arnold and Marden left the doctor’s house and drove back to Stourford, where Arnold met the local superintendent. “I hardly know what to say, yet,” he replied, in answer to the latter’s inquiries. “Everything seems to point to suicide, but so far I haven’t been able to get any hint as to the motive. You knew him pretty well yourself, sir?”
    â€œYes, I’ve known him for a good many years, and always managed to get on with him. Between ourselves, he was a man I respected rather than liked. He wasn’t altogether the sort of character who inspires affection. And I can assure you that he would never have killed himself unless he had some very excellent reason for doing so. In the case of a man like Sir Wilfred, you and I needn’t believe in what is charitably known as temporary insanity.”
    Arnold nodded. “There’s one point I should like your opinion upon, sir. You know that Mr. Marden found in the compartment an automatic with the initials W.S. upon it. It seems to me rather queer that a magistrate, the chairman of the Bench, in fact, should commit the offence of having a pistol in his possession without taking out a certificate for it. Especially as I understand that he has a certificate for two other weapons.”
    â€œThat’s a good point,” replied the superintendent approvingly. “I’ll give you my opinion willingly. Sir Wilfred was an excellent and conscientious magistrate, and I don’t think he made many mistakes while he was on the Bench. But he always gave me the impression that he considered himself as beyond the law. The law was an excellent thing, and he was a firm supporter of it. But it was made for other people, rather than for Sir Wilfred Saxonby.
    â€œI don’t mean that he habitually broke the law, or even that I know of a single instance in which he did so. But I feel pretty certain that he would have had no scruple about breaking the law, if it suited his own higher convenience. He would not have felt himself bound by restrictions which, in other cases, he would have been the first to enforce.
    â€œThis being so, you will understand my opinion. If Sir Wilfred had acquired a pistol for any ordinary purpose, he would not have hesitated to take out a certificate for it. On the other hand, if he acquired it for some purpose to which it was essential that it should not be suspected that he had it, the omission to take out a certificate would not have troubled his conscience. Is that clear?”
    â€œPerfectly clear, sir,” Arnold replied. He felt that he had now some idea of the dead man’s character. Two things remained to be done. To discover a motive which might have induced Sir Wilfred to take his own life, and to eliminate any possibility of the shot having been fired by some other hand. He parted from the superintendent and Marden, and returned to