Case for Sergeant Beef by Leo Bruce

proved so conclusively by the experts I was quite taken aback.’
    â€˜Experts can make mistakes,’ said Beef.
    â€˜You incline to that view? Well, who knows? It may be that the police will revert to it, too.’
    â€˜Did you know the deceased well, Mr Chickle?’
    â€˜Never met him before in my life,’ said Chickle lightly, then stopped.
    â€˜Before what?’ asked Beef so quickly and quietly that even I was surprised.
    â€˜Before … well, a manner of speaking, of course.’ Chickle spoke almost as quickly and calmly as Beef had done. If the question had shaken him he soon recovered. ‘I haven’t met him now, I’m afraid, in any true sense. Just seen the poor fellow carried past on a stretcher with his head covered, and that from no nearer than my windows. A most distressing sight.’
    â€˜And Miss Shoulter?’
    â€˜Oh, very well. We are excellent neighbours – frequently in one another’s houses. A good and a plucky woman. Devoted to her dogs.’
    â€˜I believe you’re very good to dumb creatures, too, Mr Chickle?’
    â€˜No more than most Englishmen, I believe.’
    â€˜Yet you once told Miss Shoulter that you were so afraid of hurting them that you disapproved of shooting.’
    This time I am sure he was taken off his guard. I did notknow what was implicit in the question to disturb him, but for the first time he was confused.
    â€˜I told her … Oh, yes. That’s perfectly accurate. It was when I first came here. I had heard about her kennels and thought she might be one of these animal cranks. You know, anti-vivisectionists and so on. And I did not wish to offend her susceptibilities. I have an almost morbid dislike of offending people. So I gave her the notion that my principles were the same as I supposed hers to be. When however she mentioned that she had a gun I realized that I need not be afraid of upsetting her, and admitted to my taste for shooting – the only sport I have ever much cared about.’
    â€˜Ah,’ said Beef. ‘You don’t mind my asking questions that don’t always seem to make sense, do you, Mr Chickle?’
    â€˜Oh, not in the least. Please ask anything you like. I must own that I cannot
quite
understand why you should take an interest in a remark made by me nearly a year ago to Edith Shoulter, but no doubt you have your reasons. We laymen must not expect to see into the trained mind, must we?’
    Beef’s next question was as surprising to me as it was to Mr Chickle.
    â€˜What made you come to Barnford?’ he asked.
    â€˜Well, I was looking for a small country place and heard of this.’
    â€˜How did you hear of it?’
    â€˜Really! What
possible
relevance–’
    â€˜I’m sure you won’t mind answering.’
    â€˜Well, no, I don’t. As long as you’re not pulling my leg. As a matter of fact I just came down and found it.’
    â€˜What made you come here? Did you know someone here? Had you been here before? Or did someone write and tell you that this bungalow was vacant?’
    â€˜I had passed through here on a walking tour some years previously. I remembered it as a pleasant village. I came down, found the bungalow, and bought it.’
    â€˜I see. You employed a solicitor for the transaction, I suppose?’
    â€˜No, As a matter of fact I didn’t.’
    â€˜Don’t like solicitors perhaps?’
    â€˜Nothing of the sort. There was no need for a solicitor. The estate agents had all the documents as drawn up when the previous tenant purchased. Actually I have a great respect for the Law.’
    â€˜Know any local solicitors?’ asked Beef.
    â€˜I know Mr Aston who lives at Copling and has his office in Ashley. In fact he has just drawn up a new will for me. But aren’t we wandering from the point a little? I cannot see how all these quite personal questions have any bearing on poor Shoulter’s