Arthur Upfield - Battling Prophet

“What is your situation now he is dead?” asked Bony.

“It is this, Inspectore. The day after the ashes were released, Mrs. Parsloe came to my office for, she said, an understanding. She wanted to know where her brother kept his papers, his data on his weather work. I told her it was there in the office safe. She opened the safe, and what she sought was not there. It was nowhere in the office.

“Then I told her the book must be somewhere. A thick notebook having green covers. I had myself seen it a thousand times. Her brother guarded the book. He would take it from the safe, consult it. Sometimes he would add data and ever return it to the safe before he left the office. So it was not there in the safe, and I went with Mrs. Parsloe to the house and we searched all about for that book and did not find it.”

“Did no one have access to the safe other than Mr. Wickham?” Bony asked.

“No other person.”

“There were two safes, Inspector,” offered the girl. “Mr. Wickham’s private safe, and the general office safe. As Carl has said, Mr. Wickham guarded that green notebook always. He told me it contained his tables and ultimate calculations, the factors controlling solar eruptions and other vital data which eliminated error.”

“So,” agreed Dr. Linke. “When the green notebook was not discovered, Mrs. Parsloe was angry. She said it must be somewhere and I was to find it. I believe that if my Jessica hadn’t proved it was kept in the private safe, and we had no key, Mrs. Parsloe would have said I had stolen it. Because the next day I was visited by a policeman and another man.”

“Yes, that was strange, Carl. Tell the Inspector about that,” almost ordered the girl.

“They came, these two, at a quarter of noon,” continued Dr. Linke. “The policeman was a sergeant of the police from Mount Gambier. The other manwas, how you say? a civilian. He said he was of the Commonwealth Investigation Service. He had my dossier from theU.N. O. and from the Australian Immigration Department. He questioned me many times about my life in Germany, my political affiliations, everything. I had told everything before, to officer after officer; there was no more I could tell him. Then he questioned me about my life here at Mount Mario and the work I had been doing for Mr. Wickham. They stayed at the quarters for lunch, and continued the interrogation till five o’clock.

“When they were gone, Mrs. Parsloe came. She told me she had to report the loss of the green notebook, and as I was her brother’s chief assistant, and a German, she felt she must report me. I… I was angry. She said she was sorry. She said that the second assistant was to leave the next day, she had dismissed Mrs. Loxton, our housekeeper, and that I was to eat at the big house-which I do. For many hours that evening we all searched for that notebook, and the second assistant urged that the pastor and my Jessica search his luggage before he left. He made the pastor search his person, too. The next night the office was broken open and searched by burglars.”

Dr. Linke almost glared at Bony. Mr. Luton bent forward and poked at a log. Bony’s brows lifted a fraction.

“After I had examined everything, it was known that the burglars had taken nothing. It took us hours to restore order. They entered by the door and left that way. So they must have had a key to the front door of the office. None of the windows had been forced, d’youunderstand? And they had opened the safe, too.”

“The private safe, Doctor?”

“That is so.”

“Let us trace the key to that private safe. Do you know how Mrs. Parsloe came to have it?”

“No, Inspectore. I have thought. It must have been on the body when it was brought from Mr. Luton’s house. When she came to the office that day, Mrs. Parsloe used the key, and she locked the safe again and took the key away.”

“You told her of the burglary?”

“But naturally.”

“What did the police do… say?”

“Do… say… nothing. Mrs. Parsloe would not send the report to the police.”

“They decided that the publicity would be unwelcome,” said Miss Lawrence. “The family, I mean. They held conference. As the burglars hadn’t stolen anything, they agreed to do nothing about it.”

“Curious,” murmured Bony. “What have you been doing, Doctor, since Mr. Wickham died?”

“Seeking to work through to his achieved objective by the examination and study of the data, what we have. Mrs. Parsloe had told me she does not want me to leave Mount Mario.” Dr. Linke braced his powerful shoulders. “I will not go, Inspectore. There is something… what you say?…funny going on. It began weeks ago. On July 3. When two men came to call on Mr. Wickham.

“They came in a fine car. From my desk I could see the car drive to the front door of the big house. I saw one man go to the front door and ring, and the maid came and pointed to the office. The man entered again into the car and they drove to the office door.

“The men came in and asked for Mr. Wickham. The second assistant asked the man his purpose and the man said he wished to speak private business with Mr. Wickham. The second assistant went to Mr. Wickham, and returned to inform the man Mr. Wickham would see him, if he stated his business. The man told the assistant he had a mission to place before Mr. Wickham, and the assistant enquired his name. The man said ‘Smith’.

“You see, by then I had summed this man. His name was not Smith. It was not evenSmidt orSmudburg. He wore Australian clothes, but he had been going to an alien barber, possibly a New Australian whose name few Australians could speak. I didn’t address him. You understand why? We unfortunates of the world have learned caution. The second assistant escorted him to Mr. Wickham’s office at the far end of the building, and then reported to me: ‘Speaks English all right, but doesn’t look it.’ And although he spoke correct English, it was too correct, and his haircut was a… revelation.”

“How long was he with Mr. Wickham?” Bony asked.

“About one hour.” Dr. Linke applied a match to his pipe with studied deliberation. “Ten days after that, on July 13, Mr. Wickham had a strange call from the Commonwealth Bank. He wasn’t in the office when it came. He went to the bank in Cowdry that night at ten o’clock.”

They watched the expression of pleasure grow on the brown face and light the deep blue eyes of Inspector Bonaparte as he said:

“You know, Dr. Linke, I find your conversation decidedly captivating.”

TemptationUnder Foot

“WHATI have told you, Inspectore, is a bare citation of events, and purposely not stated in chronological order, meaning to gain your attention, and, I hope, understanding,” continued Dr. Linke, speaking slowly and as though repeating a previously composed address. “Permit me to go to the beginning.

“You understand my life here in Australia has been good. I have no complaint. I am, what you say, a free man in the mind. I can work hard at what I want to perform, and I have not to say: ‘Heil Hitler,’ or ‘Bravo, Mr. Menzies,’ at noon each day. Mr. Wickham, always he treated me with respect, and when we did not agree, he did not say: ‘You get out! I sack you.’

“Our life was very good. I respect Mr. Wickham. His mind was free of orthodoxy and he proved what he knew. And then he would ask: ‘What is proof?’ For what often in the past have proved to be true, had proved to be a lie in the present.

“He asked that I work along certain lines of investigation, so to leave him free to continue along other lines. He asked for my results. He was entitled to them. He was paying my salary, and he was being a very good friend. It was not for me to demand of him the results he was getting. And of his own work he told me very little.