Freeman Crofts - Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy

‘There is no certainty about that,’ said French.

‘No certainty, but a good sporting chance,’ the manager returned with a smile as he bade his visitor good day.

The next step was obviously Cook’s office. Here again French asked for the manager, and here again that gentleman shook his head when French stated his business.

‘I should be only too glad to help you, Mr French,’ he declared, ‘but I fear it is quite impossible. In the first place we don’t know the numbers of any of the notes which passed through our hands, and we don’t, therefore, know if we had the one in which you are interested. Apparently you don’t even know it yourself. But even if we did know, we couldn’t possibly tell you who paid it in. So much money comes in over the counter that individual notes could not be traced. And then we have no idea of the date upon which we received this one, if we did receive it. You think we lodged it yesterday week. We might have done so and yet have received it weeks before. You see, we keep a fairly large sum in our safe in connection with our foreign exchange department.’

‘Do you give receipts for all monies received?’

‘For most transactions. But not all. If a man came in for a ticket to Harrogate, for example, we should hand him the ticket, and the ticket would be his receipt. Again, no note other than that of the actual sums passing is taken in our exchange department.’

French smiled ruefully.

‘It doesn’t seem to get any more hopeful as it goes on, does it?’ he remarked, continuing after a moment’s silence. ‘You see what I’m trying to get at, don’t you? If I could look over your receipts for some time prior to yesterday week I might find a name and address which would suggest a line of inquiry.’

‘I follow you,’ the manager returned. ‘It is just possible that you might get something that way, though I must warn you it’s most unlikely. You see, the balance of the payments in notes would not, in the nature of things, require receipts, and conversely most of the accounts requiring receipts are paid by cheque. However, if you wish to make a search, I am prepared to help you. How far back do you want to go?’

‘The note in question was known to be in the possession of the dead man on Friday, 10th September. It was discovered in the bank here on Monday, October 18th. That is,’ he took out his engagement book and rapidly counted, ‘thirty-three working days: a little over five weeks.’ He looked deprecatingly at the other, then added: ‘Rather a job to go through all that, I’m afraid.’

‘It’ll take time,’ the manager admitted. ‘But that’s your funeral. If you wish to see our books I shall be pleased to facilitate you in every way I can.’

French thanked him and a few minutes later was hard at work under the guidance of a clerk going through interminable lists of names and addresses, For two hours he kept on steadily, then suddenly surprised his companion by giving a muttered curse. He had come on a name which dashed all his hopes and showed him that his one clue was a wash out. The item read:

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