“But,” remarked Robin, looking at the still figure on the floor, the face now mercifully covered by the doctor’s white handkerchief, “surely this is a confession of guilt. Has he left nothing behind in writing? No account of the crime?”
“Not a thing,” responded the Chief, “and I’ve been through every drawer. Even the safe is open ... and empty!”
“But how does it happen then,” asked Robin, “that Marbran has legged it while Jeekes here ...”
“Marbran left him in the lurch,” the Chief broke in decisively. “I think that’s clear. While you were upstairs with our Dutch friend, I went through the dead man’s pockets. He had no money, Greve, except a few coppers and a little Dutch change. He had not even got a return ticket to London. Which makes me think that Master Jeekes had left old England for good.”
“Another thing that puzzles me,” remarked Robin, “is how Jeekes knew that Miss Trevert had a letter to you, sir? Or, for a matter of that, how he knew that she had gone to Rotterdam at all?”
“That’s not hard to answer,” said Mr. Manderton, who had just entered the room. “On Sunday night Jeekes rang up Harkings from his club and asked to speak to Miss Trevert. Bude told him she had gone away. Jeekes then asked to speak to Sir Horace Trevert, who told him that his sister had gone to Rotterdam. Jeekes takes the first available train in the morning, recognizes Miss Trevert on the way across, and tags her to her hotel in Rotterdam. The next morning he follows her again, shadows her to Sir ... to this gentleman’s rooms, and there, as we know, contrived by a trick to see to whom she had a letter.”
“But why did he not attempt to get the letter away from her as soon as she arrived? Miss Trevert never suspected Jeekes. She might have shown him the letter if he’d asked her for it ...”
The detective shook his head sagely.
“Jeekes was pretty ’cute,” he said. “Before letting the girl know he was in Rotterdam, he wanted to find out what she wanted here and whom she knew. Remember, he had no means of knowing if the girl suspected him or not ...”
“So he devised this trick of impersonating Mr. Schulz on the telephone, eh?”