The Face of a Stranger Read Online Free PDF Page B

anyone, likes and
dislikes, vanities— his wardrobe had plainly shown him those—discourtesies,
such as had made the desk sergeant nervous of him. But the remembered warmth of
Northumberland was still with him and it was enough to buoy up his spirits. And
he must work! The money would not last much longer.
    John Evan was a tall young man, and lean almost to the point of
appearing frail, but Monk judged from the way he stood that it was a deception;
he might well be wiry under that rather elegant jacket, and the air with which
he wore his clothes was a natural grace rather than effeminacy. His face was
sensitive, all eyes and nose, and his hair waved back from his brow thick and
honey brown. Above all he appeared intelligent, which was both necessary to
Monk and frightening. He was not yet ready for a companion of such quick sight,
or subtlety of perception.
    But he had no choice in the matter. Runcorn introduced Evan, banged a
pile of papers on the wide, scratched
    wooden table in Monk's office, a good-sized room crammed with filing
drawers and bookcases and with one sash window overlooking an alley. The carpet
was a domestic castoff, but better than the bare wood, and there were two
leather-seated chairs. Runcorn went out, leaving them alone.
    Evan hesitated for a moment, apparently not wishing to usurp authority,
then as Monk did not move, he put out a long finger and touched the top of the
pile of papers.
    "Those are all the statements from the witnesses, sir. Not very
helpful, I'm afraid."
    Monk said the first thing that came to him.
    "Were you with Mr. Lamb when they were taken?"
    "Yes sir, all except the street sweeper; Mr. Lamb saw him while I
went after the cabby."
    "Cabby?" For a moment Monk had a wild hope that the assailant
had been seen, was known, that it was merely his whereabouts that were needed.
Then the thought died immediately. It would hardly have taken them six weeks if
it were so simple. And more than that, there had been in Runcorn's face a
challenge, even a kind of perverse satisfaction.
    "The cabby that brought Major Grey home, sir," Evan said,
demolishing the hope apologetically.
    "Oh." Monk was about to ask him if there was anything useful
in the man's statement, then realized how inefficient he would appear. He had
all the papers in front of him. He picked up the first, and Evan waited
silently by the window while he read.
    It was in neat, very legible writing, and headed at the top was the
statement of Mary Ann Brown, seller of ribbons and laces in the street. Monk
imagined the grammar to have been altered somewhat from the original, and a few
aspirates put in, but the flavor was clear enough.
    "I was standing in my usual place in Doughty Street near
Mecklenburg Square, like as I always do, on the corner, knowing as how there
is ladies living in many of them
    buildings, especially ladies as has their own maids what does sewing for
them, and the like."
    Question from Mr. Lamb: "So you were there at six o'clock in
the evening?"
    "I suppose I must have been, though I carsen't tell the time, and I
don't have no watch. But I see'd the gentleman arrive what was killed. Something
terrible, that is, when even the gentry's not safe."
    "You saw Major Grey arrive?"
    "Yes sir. What a gentleman he looked, all happy and jaunty,
like."
    "Was he alone?"
    "Yes sir, he was."
    "Did he go straight in? After paying the cabby, of course."
    "Yes sir, he did."
    "What time did you leave Mecklenburg Square?"
    "Don't rightly know, not for sure. But I heard the church clock at
St. Mark's strike the quarter just afore I got there."
    "Home?"
    "Yes sir."
    "And how far is your home from Mecklenburg Square?"
    "About a mile, I reckon."
    "Where do you live?"
    "Off the Pentonville Road, sir."
    "Half an hour's walk?"
    "Bless you, no sir, more like quarter. A sight too wet to be
hanging around, it was. Besides, girls as hang around that time of an evening
gets themselves misunderstood, or