At this exchange, it seemed, Mr Rice of Rice Bros of the address mentioned, had called in person and had asked for six joiners for two or three weeks to do a special job. The men had been supplied. As soon as they had finished Mr Rice had taken six others, three concrete placers and three labourers. These he had kept about ten days. There had been nothing in any way out of the ordinary about the transaction.
The next step was automatic. French asked for a list of the names and addresses of the twelve men.
‘Any of them working now?’ he went on.
It appeared that eight were working, but two joiners and a concrete placer and his labourer were out of a job. These latter French determined to interview.
The first man he called on was at home. He was a joiner called Blenkinsop, and he was only too willing to tell all he knew about Cruttenden, the shed, and indeed any other subject to which French would listen. French did listen and with sympathy, realizing that the garrulousness came only from the desperate boredom of unemployment.
Apart from this, however, French felt that what he presently heard had been well worth waiting for. For the first essential question, ‘What was the job he set you to do?’ brought complete confirmation of French’s new theory of the crime, and showed him that at last definitely he was on the right track.
‘We was making boxes, sir,’ the joiner answered to this fundamental question. ‘There was a box there, a crate or case, you might call it reely, and we ’ad to make a lot of others the same.’
‘How many others?’ French went on, striving manfully to hide his delight.
‘I don’t know for sure, but I did ’ear there was three ’undred and forty-nine.’
It was the number French had in his mind. Three hundred and forty-nine copies and one original made three hundred and fifty. Three and fifty cases! French rubbed his hands. This was something like! At last he was getting his proof! He asked another question, knowing the answer he would receive.
‘’Ow big? Why, just four foot by two by two. Outside measurements.’
Yes, that was the size. It was 350 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet cases that the Weaver Bannister Engineering Company of Watford had filled with petrol sets and sent to the Jane Vosper. 350 cases!
Leaving the joiner, to the latter’s evident disappointment, French went on to the address of the concrete placer. But this man, unfortunately, was out. However, at his next call, he had better luck. The last man’s labourer was sitting disconsolately over the fire, reading a two-day-old newspaper.
This man was also glad to see French. As soon as he realized that the call did not herald unpleasant consequences for himself, he showed enthusiasm. He had certainly worked for ten days for Rice Bros, and he would be glad to tell the chief-inspector anything he wanted to know about the job.
It was, as French had foreseen, the filling of wooden boxes with a weak mix of concrete – or, rather, the partial filling of them, for the concrete did not come up to the lid. The mix was one in twenty, good enough for the purpose, but not strong enough to make beams or other articles from which the timber would be stripped.
‘How many did you fill?’ French went on, profoundly satisfied with what he was hearing.
Like his colleague the joiner, this man did not know for sure. But he also had heard. Three hundred and forty-six, he had heard Mr Rice say.
Three hundred and forty-six? For a moment French was dashed. He had been expecting to hear three hundred and fifty. Then he could have kicked himself. Of course, it must have been three hundred and forty-six! Four would be filled by Cruttenden and his friend in secret. The labourers would scarcely be trusted with the placing of gelignite.
After the evidence of these workmen no doubt as to the main outline of the plot could remain. In the Redliff Lane shed Rice and his partner had prepared 350 cases, doubtless identical with those of the Weaver Bannister Company. They had filled them with concrete until they contained just the weight of the petrol-electric set. In four of them they had buried explosives with some means of detonating them. All these dummy cases had gone aboard the Jane Vosper. The gelignite had exploded and the ship had sunk, so that the dummy cases should go to the bottom and the trick should remain undiscovered.
French wondered that Cruttenden should have dared to employ workmen on such a job. The least hint from one of them after the ship sank would have given away the whole affair.
‘What were these boxes of concrete for?’ he asked the labourer with an air of intelligent interest.
‘For a sea protection round a new sewage outfall,’ the man answered. ‘The boys was asking that very question and Mr Rice, ’e’eard them, and that’s wot ’e said. They was to throw on the sea side of the new work, to break the waves till the concrete ’ad set ’ard. They was wanted in wooden boxes so’s they could be lifted out again with a crane and used over and over again as the outfall was pushed forward.’
So that was it! Here was exhibited the same thought as was to be found elsewhere in this extraordinary case. An old but effective scheme had been adopted to disarm suspicion. As the real explanation of the work could not be given, another was dished up instead. Provided it was plausible, it would serve its purpose. It had indeed served its purpose. To these workmen it seemed so complete that it robbed the subject of any further interest.
And how plausible it was! How more than plausible! Darned good, French thought. Cubical blocks of concrete were normally used to protect sea works from wave damage. It was entirely reasonable that setting concrete should have a temporary cover of this kind, and it was equal common sense that the same blocks should be used several times over as new work was placed and as the old hardened. And if so much be granted, the retaining of the timber covering followed almost as a matter of course. If it were removed, the blocks might go to pieces. No wonder the men were satisfied!
French was more than delighted with his progress. With what he had now learned, the clearing up of the few points which were still obscure would be a matter of only a very short time.
He returned to the Yard to work out his plans for the next day.
-16-
THE WEAK LINK
If 350 dummy cases were sent on board the Jane Vosper, as now seemed certain, two fundamental questions stood out among the dozens which immediately arose. These were, first: How had the substitution of the dummy for the genuine cases been made? And second: What had been done with the genuine ones? There was a third, of course: Why had the substitution been made at all? But French thought he knew the answer to this.
However, the first thing to do was to answer the two main questions, and to this French now set himself. First, how had the substitution been made?
He turned up his notes on the tracing of the cases from the Weaver Bannister works to the ship. The sets had been packed in the sheds of the Watford works and had there been loaded into railway wagons. They had been run from the works siding to the goods depot at Haydon Square by LMS goods train. From the goods depot to the wharf they had been carted by Messrs Waterer & Reade, and the loading had been done under the supervision of the ship’s own first officer.
The whole journey certainly seemed straightforward and in order, and when French had gone into it he had been satisfied that nothing crooked had taken place. Now it appeared he had been wrong. At some point the substitution had been made. At what point?
About this there could be but little doubt. On the face of it nothing could have been done before the cases left the works, or during the journey to Haydon Square. Nor again after they reached the wharf. Obviously the weak link was that of the cartage between the goods depot and the docks.
This was confirmed by another point. Not only from the point of transport was the cartage link the weak one, but geographically it was the only one possible. Redliff Lane, stretching between Great Prescott Street and Royal Mint Street, was actually on a direct line between the depot and the dock. Doubtless had the shed not been there, cartage would have kept to the wider street; but in poi
nt of distance via Redliff Lane was as short a route as any.
French seemed to see the lorries from Haydon Square turning into Rice Bros’ mysterious shed, stopping beneath the runway, changing their loads, and emerging again to complete the trip to the docks.
The electric runway! Here at last was the reason why so costly a piece of apparatus should have been installed, though the occupancy of the shed was temporary and short at that! It was necessary that the genuine cases should be removed from the lorries and be replaced by the dummies in as short a time as possible. The lorries must make a reasonable number of runs per day, or Waterer’s people might smell a rat. If hand loading were in force, this could not be done. Hence the runway.
The further French went in his surmisings, the further evidences of design he brought out. The purpose of the shed, its site and its fittings were now all accounted for. And the design was good. Grimly he thought it ought to have succeeded. He didn’t like to think how nearly it had succeeded.
Another point now seemed to him fairly clear: Sutton had obviously discovered the substitution, and had been unwise enough to mention his suspicions to someone in the conspiracy. He had penetrated to the shed, or been lured there, and had so fallen into the conspirators’ power.
If so, how sharp Sutton had been! How had he got on so quickly to the fraud, when he, French, with all the resources of the Yard behind him, was only now tumbling to it?
But all this, though he believed it to be the truth, still remained mere theory. Beyond the general probability, he had no proof for any of it. That must be his next care. Somehow, by hook or by crook, he must get his proof.
Where should he seek it? So far as he could see, there was only one place possible. He must go again to Waterer & Reade’s, the carriers. If he were right so far, their lorrymen must have been privy to the affair. He must get hold of the lorrymen.
Then he remembered a significant fact: both these men had left Waterer’s, and without giving an address. It might not be so easy to find them. Cruttenden & Co. would probably see to that.
Ringing up to make an appointment with the manager, Keene, French called Carter and went down to the Otwell Street firm.
Keene saw them at once. He seemed slightly bored by another call on an old subject, but was polite, if a trifle dry, as he asked what he could do for them.
French began by pledging the man to secrecy. ‘It’s about the carriage of those cases from the Haydon Square depot to the London Docks,’ he went on, and, as Keene nodded impatiently, added, ‘We think that during that journey the cases containing the Weaver Bannister sets were changed for others containing concrete. We want your help in getting to the bottom of the affair.’
Keene put down the papers he had been toying with and stared motionless. ‘What on earth are you talking about, chief-inspector?’ he said at last, evidently overcome by astonishment which rapidly changed to indignation. ‘Do you mean to suggest that my firm has been party to some crooked trick?’
French shook his head. ‘Of course not, sir,’ he answered easily. ‘But I’m afraid your firm has been the victim of a trick, as Messrs Weaver Bannister have been, though, fortunately for you, with much less serious consequences.’
Keene seemed considerably moved. ‘Good God!’ he exclaimed. ‘I hope you are wrong. I feel sure you are wrong. What are the details?’
‘We think–’ French shrugged. ‘Well, put it this way: we’re not satisfied about the cartage of the cases from station to docks. In a word, I want to find those two carters who did the work. You told me they had left you?’
‘That is so.’
‘And without leaving an address?’
‘That is so, too. I told you before. I don’t know where they have gone.’
‘You said they weren’t with you long, sir?’
‘No, they weren’t. Only a week or so before that job.’ Keene was looking more and more uneasy. ‘I’ll give you all the details.’ He sent for a file.
‘It happened that we got rather a rush of work just about the time this job came on. We had plenty of lorries, but our staff of drivers had been rather heavily reduced during the bad time. I decided to take on a couple of temporary men to get us through the rush, which I couldn’t believe was more than temporary. We had a number of applications, and I looked through these and selected what seemed to me from the testimonials to be the two best men. They started with us, and it happened that these were the men who were put on to the job in question. They did it, as well as all their other work, very satisfactorily, as I thought. Then they left. They were not dismissed, but left at their own request. They both gave as their reason that they had got a permanent job.’
‘I don’t think when I was here before that I got a description of them. One I saw, a man called’ – French glanced at his book – ‘William Henty. The other had left. What was he like, if you please?’
‘I did see him on different occasions,’ Keene replied, ‘but I don’t know that I looked at him very carefully. Probably you could get a better description from the foreman. According to my recollection, he was a big man with a heavy face and a little moustache. Rather untidy looking, but a good lorryman.’
It was now French’s turn to stare in amazement. Slowly he put his hands into his pocket and drew out his collection of photographs. ‘He’s not among those, by any chance?’ he asked, handing them over.
Keene sat slowly turning them over. When he came to Cruttenden’s he stopped. He looked at it more closely, his head bent, while French sat thrilling with the excitement of a fisherman whose float has suddenly bobbed. But Keene presently passed on the next. He went through the whole collection, then he turned back to Cruttenden’s. At it he stared for a few moments longer. Then he handed it over.
‘I believe that’s the man,’ he declared, ‘though I’m not absolutely sure. He was unshaven, our man, and much less tidy. But it’s certainly like him.’
‘You wouldn’t be prepared to swear to him?’
Again Keene hesitated. ‘No, but I suggest you show this to the foreman,’ he said. ‘He could probably give you definite information.’
French nodded. Here was a tremendously valuable piece of information. If Cruttenden had got a job as lorryman, it explained how the exchange of the crates had been kept secret. Cruttenden! Of course! Here was the same excellence of design as he had found elsewhere in the affair.
Then French got a further idea, and for a moment he sat in silence, oblivious of his surroundings, as he turned it over in his mind.
If one of those two lorrymen were Cruttenden, what about the other? The other he had seen himself. Hastily he turned up Mr Armstrong’s description of the second lorryman who had called for the timber from his firm. Why, of course! What a fool he, French, had been! The second lorryman was undoubtedly Henty. There could be no doubt that these two beauties had somehow got billets with Waterer & Reade to enable them to carry out their evil plans. How had they done it?
‘You spoke of testimonials, sir. Have you still got them?’
The manager shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not. The men asked for and were given them before they left. That’s usual, you know.’
‘Of course, sir. You haven’t a note of who gave them?’
‘Yes, we have, I think.’ Keene looked up his file. ‘Yes, here are the names. You see, they’re good people.’
On the staff card for Joseph Grey was written in the ‘Reference’ space, Sibley Greer & Co., and on that of William Henty, Harrison Bros. These were both carriers of excellent reputation.
‘Did you take up the references?’ French asked.
‘No, I didn’t. They were written on their respective firms’ paper and I knew the signatures. Both are firms with which we do business. No. I sent the men out with a lorry and an observer. He reported both were good drivers, and I let it go at that.’
‘Well,’ said French, ‘we can soon settle the point. Perhaps, sir, you would ring up those firms and ask if the references are OK?’
Keene did so at once. The replies distressed him and delighted French. Neither of the men had ever been heard of and no testimonials had been given.
‘Just one other point, sir,’ French went on, striving to hide his deep satisfaction. ‘How did it come that these two men were chosen for that particular job?’
Keene shrugged. ‘That was a matter for our shed foreman,’ he declared. ‘But what doubtless weighed with him was that these two men were taken on to deal with special jobs outside our usual contracts. We have a large number of what I may call standard jobs, which go on regularly from week to week. For instance, we do all the carting for Lambson’s Brewery, and the same for other firms. But the carrying of these cases was a special job, one of the very jobs to cope with which we had taken on the men. It would be natural to send our own men to the jobs they knew and the new men to the special non-recurring job.’
‘Scarcely sufficiently sure for my men to bank on,’ French answered. ‘Because if they hadn’t been put on that job, their whole scheme was lost.’
Keene shrugged again and a thin smile curved his lips. ‘I expect you know as much about that as I, chief-inspector,’ he said.
His suggestion was obvious. The foreman had been squared. But, if so, there would be little use in asking him the question, as he would undoubtedly deny it.
However, the point was not of immediate importance; other matters were more urgent. It could, and of course would, be gone into later. The main outlines of the fraud were becoming clearer and clearer with every question French asked, and he was content, though keener than ever to reach the end of the enquiry and get his men.
He wished he could obtain definite proof that the Weaver Bannister cases had been taken into the shed. It was progress to be certain that they had. But to be certain was not enough: he must prove it. Was there no way in which he could do so?
The only possibility seemed to be to go over once again that journey between the rail depot and the dock. It was true that he had already done it thoroughly, but as there was no other way in which he could hope to get his information, it would be worth repeating. If no one at either end could help, someone surely must have noticed one of the Waterer lorries entering or leaving the shed. They must have entered and left not far short of a hundred times; and it would indeed be strange if not one of all those movements had been observed.
The Loss of the Jane Vosper Page 24
