The Barker's Dozen - Reminiscences of an Early Police Dog Read Online Free PDF

quick breaths and pulled the door open. I could see the hallway bathed in faint moonlight but there was no one in sight. As I stood there, I heard a soft hissing followed instantly by a small scurrying sound. Suddenly my wife’s cat came charging out of her dressing room and began chasing an imaginary mouse up and down the landing. Laughing at the silly animal’s antics, I went back to bed.
    ‘It was only this morning when we discovered the robbery that I remembered Symes telling me that my wife’s cat wouldn’t come in when called. It seems obvious to me that the cat re-entered the house through the window that the burglar opened.’
    My master asked to see the window that had been used by the burglar. I was quite surprised when Lord Harridge took us himself rather than delegating the task to one of his staff.  We were shown to the first floor landing and taken through a green baize door into one of the servants’ passages. At one end of this corridor, a small window was standing open. I placed my front paws on the windowsill and looked out. Immediately below the window, there was the sloping roof of a porch. I had a quick sniff and determined that a man and a pair of cats had recently entered through the window.
    Your uncle bent to examine the window. One of the leaded panes had been totally removed. Sergeant Allen and my master agreed that it had the look of a professional thief.
    Your uncle thanked Lord Harridge and asked if he could interview the rest of the household. His Lordship agreed but insisted that he was present during the interviews.
    We interviewed the staff one at a time in Lord Harridge’s study and did not learn anything new about the burglary. It was obvious that Lord Harridge’s servants were devoted to him and most of them thought they had ‘let him down’ by not preventing the burglary in some unstated way. It made a pleasant change to find a totally contented household and I believe it was a testament to the enlightened way that his Lordship treated his staff.
    The only interesting part of these interviews came when my master was talking to the cook. Apparently, small amounts of food had been vanishing over the past few weeks. The items were quite small and light. The list included some smoked salmon, several sausages, a quail and a small block of cheese. The cook was certain that none of the staff had taken them. She was, she admitted, suspicious of the grocer’s boy because he had stolen a mince pie two Christmases before.  Your uncle accepted that the theft of the food was an interesting problem but he could not see any link with the previous night’s theft of Her Ladyship’s jewellery.
    Once the last of the interviews had been concluded Lord Harridge turned to your uncle. ‘Well , Inspector, what do you think?’ he asked.
    ‘It was a very professional job.’ My master replied. ‘We need to compile a list of your wife’s jewellery so that we can circulate it to all the London jewellers and pawnbrokers.’
    ‘Can you catch him?’ Lord Harridge insisted.
    ‘At the moment we have no evidence. Until we establish the facts we will not be able to arrest anyone.’ My master shrugged and continued, ‘a professional criminal is normally only caught after several crimes. Once we have established our villain’s habits we can identify him and arrest him.’
    ‘Much as I thought,’ Lord Harridge said ruefully. ‘A friend of mine, Sir James Trimperton, suffered from a similar robbery three weeks ago. He lives down near Brighton. It might help if you contacted the officer who dealt with that robbery.’
    My master thanked Lord Harridge and promised to inform him of any developments. Leaving Sergeant Allen to produce a list of the stolen items, we made our way to your uncle’s office at the Yard where he arranged for a telegram to be sent to Brighton asking for a brief summary of Sir James’ robbery. It was, as he said, a long shot but we had nothing else to work with.
    Sergeant Allen