A Murder is Arranged by Basil Thomson Page B

Verneuil explained to me that two reasons had actuated M. Henri in keeping the matter from the police until now; first his affection for Miss Gask and second the harm that it might do to his business. I then told M. Verneuil how the emerald came into the possession of Mr Forge: that it had been an heirloom of the Marquis de Crémont, who had been compelled to dispose of it. M. Verneuil grinned: he seemed to know the story of this marquis very well. ‘Ah!’ he said. ‘That gamin is always turning up in our work; happily for the moment he has been lodged in prison for obtaining money by false pretences and I hope that it will cool his heels. But I am very much interested in what you tell me, because if my memory serves we shall find in that marquis’s dossier a mention of an emerald having been stolen from a jeweller in the Rue de la Paix; the emerald in question has never been recovered.’
    â€œHe took up his desk telephone and rang up some subordinate, telling him to bring the dossier of the soi-disant Marquis de Crémont. When this was brought we examined it together; it contained a long list of the marquis’s delinquencies with the dates. The emerald had been stolen from a jeweller’s shop by a trick, but it had been impossible to prosecute him as the thief although he was strongly suspected, because the stone had never been recovered. The case for which he had been convicted and for which he is now in prison had been clearly brought home to him. His usual trick consisted in calling upon a jeweller and asking to see uncut stones. He would then take from his pocket a piece of thick paper on which was drawn a design for a ring. The paper had some adhesive material smeared on the back; he would lay it on the tray of stones brought for his inspection and in the course of voluble explanations take the paper up and remove from it one or more stones that had adhered to it. His method of disposing of his plunder was always the same. He would stay in a first-class hotel and make the acquaintance of some well-to-do Englishman or American and sell the jewel to him as a family heirloom at far below its real value. He is believed to have an English confederate, but so far we have been unable to identify him.
    â€œWe discussed the question of bringing Mr Forge over, together with other witnesses, and decided that, for the present, it would not be worth while to incur the expense. I think, however, it might be wise to let a discreet enquiry be made of Mr Forge whether an Englishman introduced the pseudo marquis to him or whether the marquis had an English friend staying at the same hotel. We shall probably find that the English confederate is identical with the man we are looking for. Pending your reply, I think that it would be wise for me to remain here and pursue my enquiries. Tomorrow morning I propose to question the concierge of the flat where Margaret Gask stayed for a month.
    â€œA LBERT D ALLAS , Detective Inspector .”
    Richardson took the report to Jackson of the legal department. He knocked and heard the voice of the man he wanted to see shouting to him to come in.
    â€œI hope you’re not busy, Mr Jackson; I’ve brought you a rather interesting report from Paris, bearing on the case of the Gask murder that we were discussing the other day.”
    â€œLet me have a look at it.”
    In moments of concentration Jackson converted his physiognomy into a network of criss-cross wrinkles. This and his baldness made him an unengaging object to the eye, but his unerring judgment and his grasp of an intricate case commanded the respect of all who had to deal with him.
    Having read the report, he returned it to Richardson, saying, “My first guess was right: that woman was murdered because she knew too much. That ought to help you in finding her murderer.”
    â€œDo you agree with what Dallas says—that the confederate of this French marquis is in all probability the