Edward Marston - Inspector Colbeck's Casebook

‘Do you have any idea who might have taken your bag, sir?’

‘No, Inspector, I don’t. They were all my friends — at least, I thought so.’

‘What happened when you reported the theft?’

Grosvenor shuddered again. ‘They looked at me as if it was my doing.’

‘I’m asking what immediate steps the management took.’

‘They got hold of every railway policeman they could and stationed them at all the exits. Nobody could have left the area with that bag of mine. As for the men I’d just paid before I was tricked,’ said Grosvenor, ‘they were all searched to make sure they didn’t have more money on them than they were supposed to.’

Leeming studied his notebook. ‘You say you were in the carriage shed.’

‘That’s right.’

‘So it would have been easy for someone to sneak up behind the carriages.’

Grosvenor shrugged. ‘I suppose so.’

‘Tell us about the men you paid at that point,’ said Colbeck. ‘What did they do when they had their money?’

‘They counted it. One of them accused me of short-changing him but I took no notice. Someone always does that. They like to have a laugh at me.’

‘In other words, that group of men would have been distracted.’

‘Once they had money in their hands,’ said Grosvenor, ‘they began talking about how they were going to spend it. Some of them owed money to others and there was one man who takes bets. I tried talking to them but nobody listened.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘That’s when it must have happened.’

‘Thank you, sir. You’ve been very helpful. I must now ask you to take us to the place where the crime was committed.’

Grosvenor was aghast. ‘But I’ve been suspended. They won’t let me in.’

‘They’ll do what I tell them,’ said Colbeck, firmly. ‘If they want their money found, they’ll have to.’

‘Do you really think you’ll ever get it back?’ asked Grosvenor, a faint glimmer of hope making him stand to his feet. ‘Do you?’

‘Yes, I do. From what you’ve told us, nobody could have left the premises with a distinctive leather bag. What criminals usually do in such situations is to hide their booty somewhere, wait until the coast is clear then slip back to reclaim it. In short, sir,’ Colbeck told him, ‘the money and the ledger are still there. Our task is to find it before the thief or thieves come back to reclaim it.’

The best moment of their visit to the engine shed was when David and Albert were allowed to stand on the turntable when it was in action. It was a wonderful thrill for them. They could not believe that it only took two men to push a large, heavy, solid lump of metal in a complete circle. Having seen the locomotive drive headfirst onto the turntable, they watched it drive headfirst off. Andrews had been given a lot of help from old friends, who let the boys onto the footplates of their respective engines, but he was conscious that the manager was now looking askance at him. He therefore led his two young charges towards the exit. Madeleine and Estelle joined them.

‘I can’t thank you enough, Mr Andrews,’ said Estelle.

‘Yes,’ chirped the boys in unison. ‘Thank you, Mr Andrews.’

‘Now you know what being an engine driver is like,’ said Madeleine.

‘We haven’t finished yet,’ said Andrews. ‘There’s the carriage shed to see next. We got a whole range of carriages in there, including some that are used by the royal family.’

‘Father’s had the privilege of driving the royal train,’ recalled Madeleine. ‘It was a real feather in his cap.’

‘Do you still have the feather, Mr Andrews?’ asked David, innocently.

She smiled. ‘It wasn’t a real feather, David. It’s just an expression.’

‘ I knew that,’ said Albert, scornfully.

The carriage shed was a large rectangular building with chutes — long ventilators — in the roof to carry smoke out of the shed from locomotives in steam. Carriages of all kinds abounded. Those reserved for the royal family commanded most interest and Estelle was as eager to see them as her sons. Andrews lifted the boys up one by one so that they could peer through the windows and see the luxurious interiors. The contrast with standard carriages — even those with the words First Class emblazoned on their doors — was stark.

After a while, however, the boys started to lose interest as they walked up and down the long parallel lines of rolling stock, all of it painted in the distinctive colours of the LNWR and bearing its insignia. Albert decided that it was time to have some fun. Pushing his brother in the back, he tore off in the opposite direction.

‘Catch me!’ he shouted.

David accepted the challenge and hared after him, ignoring his mother’s plea to come back to her at once. The boys were completely out of control now, racing around what was a kind of enormous, gloomy labyrinth. High spirits suppressed until now suddenly had free rein. Albert ducked under couplings, climbed in and out of open carriages and somehow managed to keep ahead of his brother. Eventually, he ran out of breath and crawled under a carriage to hide. David walked up and down the avenues of rolling stock until he heard the telltale giggle of his younger brother.

Estelle was apologising profusely to the others for her children’s naughty behaviour. Madeleine waved the apologies away but Andrews was annoyed, blaming himself for not having exerted enough authority over them. His voice reverberated around the building.

‘Come back here this minute!’ he bellowed.

There was a long pause then a contrite David finally appeared.

‘We’re sorry, Mr Andrews,’ he said, penitently, ‘but you have to come and see Albert right now. He’s found something.’

When he heard what had happened, Victor Leeming was torn between anger and delight, feeling the need to admonish his sons for their bad behaviour while at the same time filled with paternal pride. Quite by accident, they had found the bag stolen from the pay clerk and hidden beneath a carriage. Restored to the manager, its contents were found to be intact. When he and Colbeck reported to the superintendent, Leeming was congratulated.

‘Your sons are to be commended,’ said Tallis. ‘They did what a whole bevy of railway policemen failed to do.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ said Leeming with a grin.

‘However, we can’t rely on a pair of obstreperous lads to solve all our crimes for us. Coincidences like this rarely occur.’

‘My sons are not really obstreperous, sir.’

‘Boys will be boys,’ said Colbeck, tolerantly.

‘That’s a matter of opinion,’ said Tallis. ‘There are times when boys should be prevented from being boys, if you take my meaning. Valuable as their contribution was, of course, all that they did was to find the stolen bag. The thief is still at liberty.’

‘He won’t be for long, sir.’

‘What makes you say that, Inspector?’

‘We hope to make an arrest tonight.’

‘How can you be so specific? It may be days or even weeks before the thief returns to reclaim the bag from its hiding place.’

‘That would have been the case, sir,’ said Colbeck, ‘had it been undiscovered. I suggested to the manager that the thief needed an incentive to come immediately.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘They’re going to offer a reward,’ explained Leeming.

‘It’s a very tempting reward,’ added Colbeck, ‘but, then, it will never have to be paid. What it will do is to convince the thief that he needs to change his plan. Instead of making off with all the money in the pay clerk’s bag, he can get a large proportion of it by way of a reward and appear completely innocent of the crime. That will have an irresistible appeal to him.’