Who Killed Stella Pomeroy? Read Online Free PDF Page A

that morning. They said that Mr Pomeroy himself had opened the door to them.
    â€œDid you find out where he bought the grapefruit?”
    â€œYes, the people at the shop knew him personally as a customer. He was there just before nine.”
    â€œAnd the newspaper?”
    â€œThat was not so sure. The woman at the news agent’s wasn’t certain that she’d seen him this morning. Did you have any luck in your search, sir?”
    â€œYes,” said Aitkin, going to the coat pegs. “I found this. You see the blood has not had time to turn brown. It’s a common kind of coat.”
    â€œYes, in more than half the houses in this settlement you’d find a coat like that, but that’s the coat the murderer must have been wearing.”
    â€œYes, and if it belongs to Pomeroy it would be sufficient to account for the absence of bloodstains on the clothes he is wearing.”
    â€œYou think that Pomeroy did it?”
    â€œI don’t see who else it could have been. At any rate we must assume that it was Pomeroy, but I doubt if Superintendent Richardson will allow us to arrest him on the evidence we have. Pomeroy mustn’t be allowed to get away, or we shall hear more of it. I don’t suppose he’ll come back here; he will stay and have lunch with his people in Ealing. I wonder if we can find another latchkey in his desk or somewhere?”
    â€œBetter look in his dead wife’s vanity bag: she is sure to have had one,” said Hammett. He was, at the moment, searching a bag which he had found lying on the kitchen dresser. “Here, try this key.”
    â€œRight,” called Aitkin from the door; “it fits. Now come along, and we’ll call on the Pomeroy family.”
    â€œTaking the coat with us?”
    â€œNo, you can take that down to the police station, and I’ll go alone to the Pomeroys and try to find out what plans Pomeroy has made. There’s one thing certain: he won’t want to pass another night in the bungalow after what’s happened. We’ve plenty to do. There’s the body to get down to the mortuary for the inquest; there’s the coroner to be notified and the undertaker to be seen. That must be done before we go to lunch.”
    When Aitkin rang the bell at the house of the Pomeroy family it was clear that it was in a flutter. A rather grubby little maid came to the door.
    â€œMissus can’t see no one,” she blurted out almost before Inspector Aitkin had intimated his wishes. It was the first time that this child had been mixed up in a case of murder, and she was enjoying it to the full.
    Aitkin took a card from his pocket and said, “It is not Mrs Pomeroy that I have come to see, but her son.”
    â€œYou can’t see him neither. No, you can’t see him whoever you are.” She was for slamming the door in his face, but he put a foot against it and assumed an air of severity.
    â€œTake that card to Mr Miles Pomeroy and tell him that I must see him at once.”
    â€œYou can’t see anyone in this house,” returned the damsel stoutly. “Them’s my orders.”
    â€œThen I must give you fresh orders, young woman. Take that card in to Mr Miles Pomeroy and say that I’m waiting to see him in the hall.”
    Very unwillingly the young woman retired to a sitting room on the ground floor, from which Miles Pomeroy emerged.
    â€œI’ve called to ask you one question, Mr Pomeroy. Do you possess a fawn-coloured raincoat?”
    â€œNo. I had one until some days ago, and then my wife took it to send to some connection of hers in another part of the country.”
    â€œDo you remember what label it had on the inside of the collar?”
    â€œI don’t think it had any label; I don’t remember noticing one.”
    â€œDo you know the address of the person your wife sent it to?”
    â€œNo, I’m sorry, I don’t. It was someone who wrote to her for