Mystery of Holly Lane (10 page)

1 Lady with papers or magazines.

2 Window-Cleaner.

3 Grocer’s Boy.

4 Man in car, number ERT 100. Carried bag.

5 Man, well-dressed, young, stayed for only a minute.

6 Young woman, stayed a long time.

Fatty read the list again. “Quite a long list,” he said. “It will be a bit of a business checking all these. I wonder if the old man could help a bit with some of them.”

“He said his granddaughter came to do some cleaning,” said Mr. Henri, “so that must be the ‘young woman.’ And he says he thinks his nephew came — but he’s so muddled. He doesn’t seem to remember any of the others. I can give you more details, of course. For instance, the woman with the magazines of papers wore a red coat and had a hat with red roses in.”

“Yes — all the details would be a help,” said Fatty. “What about the grocer’s boy?”

“He came on a bicycle with the name of ‘WELBURN’ on the front of the basket,” said Mr. Henri, who seemed a remarkably observant fellow. “A red-haired boy.”

“Did you notice if the window-cleaner had a name on his pail or bicycle?” asked Fatty, wondering if the cleaner had noticed how remarkably clean the windows of Hollies had been! After all, Larry had cleaned them only a day or two before!

No. Mr. Henri hadn’t seen the window-cleaner’s name. But he thought it must be the same that his sister had. They could ask her.

“Well, we can go through all these, and see if any of them are likely to have taken the money,” said Fatty. “But I think we can cross out the grocer’s boy, for instance.”

“Ah, no,” said Mr. Henri. “He was in Hollies for quite a long time. It might well be he.”

“Oh! Yes, you’re right. We must go into every one of these names,” said Fatty. “Well, I’ll get the others to help. They’ll have to do some real detective work, I can see!”

He drank his coffee and talked a little longer. Mr. Henri was now back on the couch, coughing rather a lot. “It is the excitement,” said his sister. “He is really much better. Come and see him whenever you like, and ask him what you like. It is a puzzle he would like to solve!”

Fatty said good-bye and went. He was just walking home when he suddenly remembered that he had come on his bicycle. Where had he left it? Oh, yes, by Hollies. He went back to get it and wheeled it to the road.

A thought flashed into his head. The car had taken away the furniture last night! It must have stood just here, in the road outside Hollies’ front gate. But now he was sure that it couldn’t have been a car. It must have been a small van of some kind — perhaps a small removal van.

He looked down on the road. It was not a good road, and was muddy and soft just there. The marks of wheels were plainly to be seen.

“Ah!” said Fatty, pleased. “I’m a jolly bad detective lately! I nearly forgot to check up for wheel-marks! And here they are, under my nose.”

The tyre-marks were big and wide — too wide for an ordinary car, Fatty decided. Much more like those of a small removal van. He got out his notebook and sketched the pattern left in the mud by the tyres. Then he measured them across and entered the figure down in his notebook. The tyre patterns were so plain that Fatty thought the tyres must be quite new. That might be a help.

Near by was a lamppost, and a mark on it caught Fatty’s eye. It was a straight brown mark, almost a cut in the white lamppost. Fatty looked at it.

“That van might quite well have run too close to it,” he thought “Anyway, it’s worth noting down. ‘Van may be painted a chocolate-brown, and may have a scratch on wing about two feet from ground.’ Well, we’re getting on — I hope!”

He shut his book, put it into his pocket and rode off with Buster in the front basket. He wanted to call a meeting of the Five Find-Outers that afternoon. This was a mystery, after all. And it needed getting down to, because there were quite a lot of suspects.

“What a bit of luck that I went to look for Larry’s window-leather last night!” he said to himself, as he cycled home. “If I hadn’t gone and heard all that noise last night and hadn’t gone again to explore this morning, old Goon would have had the field to himself. He wouldn’t have told us a thing. Now, as it happens. I know more than he does!”

“Wuff,” said Buster, agreeing thoroughly. “Wuff-wuff-wuff!”

Fatty Tells Quite a Story.

At three o’clock that afternoon Larry, Daisy, Pip and Bets came along to Fatty’s shed. He was already there, and on the bench at one side were two or three sheets of neatly written notes. Fatty was just reading them over.

“Come in!” he called, and the four trooped in. They looked excited. Fatty had already telephoned to them to say that there really was a mystery now, and they wanted to know all about it.

“All sorts of rumours are flying round, Fatty,” said Larry. “Is it true that somebody took away all the furniture in the middle of the night from Hollies Cottage — and the old man was found lying on the floor because the thieves even took his bed?”

Fatty laughed. “How do people get hold of these things? It’s true that the furniture went — but the old man slept peacefully all through the robbery, on his own bed. They didn’t touch that. They did the job so quietly that he never heard a thing — snored all through it”

“How do you know that,” said Pip, a little scornfully. “You weren’t there!”

“Well, it so happens that I was,” said Fatty, surprising the others very much. They stared at him.

“You were there — last night — when the furniture was all taken away?” said Larry at last. “Well, why didn’t you stop them, then?”

“Because I had no idea what was being taken,” said Fatty. “It was pitch dark, and they did the whole thing so quietly. But look — let me tell you everything in its right order — quite a lot has happened actually — and we’ve got to get right down to this, and really find out what’s going on.”

“Yes — but just let me interrupt for a minute,” said Larry. “Did you find my window-leather? Mother was on and on about it this morning.”

“No, I didn’t,” said Fatty. “I’m sorry about that, but honestly it wasn’t anywhere to be found. All I hope is that Goon didn’t find it.”

“Well, he’d think it belonged to the woman who cleans out Hollies Cottage,” said Daisy. “We’ll just have to buy Mother another one, Larry.”

“Blow!” said Larry. “That really was a silly idea of yours, Fatty — making me go and clean those windows.”

“Yes, but remember that it was all because of that that we’re in on this mystery,” said Fatty. “It really began with seeing that old man crawling about jabbing at all his furniture — and then us going to collect your leather and hearing him yelling for the police.”

“That’s true,” said Larry. “Well, all right, I’ll say that a very silly idea happened to turn out well — but that’s as far as I’ll go.”

Fatty changed the subject. He picked up his notes. “Now, listen,” he said. “I’ve written out a short summary of what’s happened so far — just to get our minds clear, so to speak — and I’ll read it. Then we’ll discuss any clues, and all the suspects, and make plans. Ready?”

“Yes! This sounds good!” said Pip, settling himself comfortably on a box.

“Well, get ready to use your brains,” said Fatty. “Buster, sit still and listen, too. It disturbs me if you keep snuffling for mice in that corner. Sit, Buster.”

Buster sat, his ears pricked as if he were quite ready to listen. Fatty went quickly through his notes.

“The mystery begins when Larry goes to Hollies to clean the windows. He saw the old man there, crawling about, poking at his furniture. We know now that he was looking to make sure that his savings were safely where he had hidden them — either the whole two hundred pounds in some particular chair or sofa, or divided up and put into different places. Possibly in some carefully prepared, hidden pocket under a chair or chairs.”

“Oh, that reminds me!” said Daisy, suddenly. “Excuse me interrupting, Fatty, but our charwoman told me she knew the old man when he was younger — and he was an upholsterer, so he’d know very well how to make some kind of hidden pockets in furniture, wouldn’t he?”

“What’s an upholsterer?” asked Bets.

“Bets! You’re a baby!” said Pip at once. “It’s some one who makes chair covers and curtains, and stuffs couches and chairs and things — isn’t it, Fatty?”

“Yes,” said Fatty. “That’s an interesting bit of information of yours, Daisy. Very interesting. The old man probably made himself quite a lot of hiding-places here and there in the upholstery of his chairs or sofas. I’ll just add a note about it.”

Daisy looked pleased. “It’s a sort of clue, isn’t it?” she said. “A very small one, I know.”

“It all helps to fill in the mystery,” said Fatty. “I always think of our mysteries as jigsaws. We’ve got a great many bits and pieces — but not until we fit them together properly do we see the whole picture. Now, then, I’ll go on.”

“We’re listening,” said Bets, happily.

“Well, we come next to when we all of us went with Larry to find the leather he had left behind,” said Fatty. “And we heard the old man yelling for the police. He is certain that his money was in its usual place — or places — about midnight the night before, but in the morning it is gone. He doesn’t discover that it’s gone, however, until six people, at least, have been to Hollies Cottage for some reason or other.”

“And all those six are Suspects, then, till we prove them otherwise,” said Larry. “Good! Who are they, Fatty?”

“All in good time,” said Fatty. “Don’t keep interrupting. Buster, sit! There is NO mouse in that corner!”

Buster sat, looking as if he knew better than Fatty where mice were concerned. Fatty went on.

“We decided at this point that it was only a question of straightforward robbery, and that Goon would be able to deal with it,” he said. “But last night I went to get Larry’s leather, and as I told you, I arrived just about the time the car, or lorry, or van came to remove the furniture out of that front room.”

“Extraordinary!” said Larry, unable to stop himself from interrupting.

Fatty went on to describe what he had heard. “Actually I saw nothing,” he said. “And I didn’t even know till this morning that the midnight visitors were taking away all the furniture. I didn’t know that they might have a van or a lorry — I thought it was a car. I imagined they might be kidnapping the old man, but I both saw and heard him, fast asleep, on his bed in the back room.”

“What did you think was happening?” asked Pip.

“I simply couldn’t imagine!” said Fatty. “All I heard were a few thuds and bumps and pants and a whisper — and it was all over quite quickly, really. Well, I thought I’d better go back to Hollies early this morning, just to see if I could find out anything, and when I got there, I had quite a shock.”

“Why?” asked Bets, hugging her knees. “This is awfully exciting, Fatty!”

“Well, I found Goon there, and the old fellow, of course, and Mr. Henri, that Frenchman you all thought was me in disguise. He’s staying with his sister next door, as you know, and he heard the old man yelling for help again early this morning. So he went to see what the matter was and then called the police.”

“Oh, so Goon was in on this pretty quickly!” said Larry, disappointed.

“Yes. But I wasn’t much later in arriving,” said Fatty. “And wasn’t I amazed to find no furniture in that front room! Of course I knew at once what had happened, because I’d actually heard the men moving it last night — though I didn’t tell Goon that, of course!”

“What happened next?” asked Bets.

“Nothing much. Goon went off, leaving Mr. Henri and me with the old man — and Mr. Henri’s sister said she’d give him a room tin one of his relations came along. So he’s there now. I had a good look round Hollies, but couldn’t see anything to help me. Then I went back to Mr. Henri, and got a proper list of the people he had seen going to the bungalow yesterday morning. They’re the Suspects, of course.”

“Let’s have a good look,” said Larry; but Fatty hadn’t quite finished.

“I’ve only got one clue,” he said, “but it might be an important one.” He told then about the well-marked prints of the tyres in the mud outside Hollies, and showed them the pattern in his notebook.

“I think it must have been a small removal van,” he said, “because the distance between the front and back wheels was rather more than there would be in even a big car. Oh! — and the car or van may be a chocolate-brown. There was a new brown mark on a near-by lamppost, as if the van’s wings had scraped it.”

“Well, it seems as if we have got to tackle the Suspects.” said Larry, “and look out for a chocolate-brown van which probably has new tyres of a certain pattern. We’d better all copy out that pattern, Fatty. It would be maddening to see a chocolate-brown removal van with new tyres — and not be able to check the pattern!”

“Yes. Well, will you make four tracings of the diagram in my notebook?” said Fatty. “I’ll go on with the list of Suspects and we can discuss them. You can trace the markings while you’re listening.”

Fatty turned to his list of six Suspects. He read them out. “One — Lady with papers or magazines, dressed in red coat, and black hat with roses. Two — Window-Cleaner. Three — Grocer’s boy, from Welburn the grocer’s, red-haired, and was in the bungalow quite a time. Four — man with bag, came in car with number ERT 100. Five — well-dressed young man, who stayed for only a minute. And six — a young woman who stayed a long time.”

“Quite a list,” said Larry. “A window-cleaner, too! I wonder if he noticed how clean the windows were!”

“That’s what I wondered,” said Fatty, with a laugh. “I’m going to have a word with the old man about these Suspects; he may be able to give me a few more clues about them. Then we must tackle each one.”

“I never much like that,” said Bets. “I’m no good at it.”

“Yes, you are,” said Fatty. “Anyway, doesn’t your mother have Welburn’s for her grocer? You could hang about for the grocer’s boy, and have a word with him when he brings your groceries. You and Pip could do that.”

“Oh, yes!” said Bets, glad that Pip was to help her. “What about the lady with the magazines? Would she be the vicar’s sister? It sounds rather as if it was somebody delivering the Parish magazine.”