Death at Breakfast. John Rhode

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СКАЧАТЬ report then dealt with the coffee found in the dining-room. Neither the liquid in the pot nor the few drops remaining in Harleston’s cup contained any trace of nicotine.

      The contents of the stomach were then reported upon at length. Only a very slight trace of nicotine had been discovered here. This was consistent with the view that the nicotine had not been swallowed but absorbed through the skin. The nature of the contents was such as to suggest that the deceased had consumed nothing for several hours before his death but a quantity of tea and a quantity of coffee. The quantities in each case might be estimated at an ordinary cupful.

      Lastly the report dealt with the deposit on the razor. This had been removed and analysed. It had been found to consist of a mixture of cold cream and glycerine. To this mixture had been added nicotine to the extent of rather less than five per cent.

      The analyst had appended a note upon this. Cold cream and glycerine form the basis of many well-known commercial shaving creams. Particularly those which render unnecessary the application of soap. It is quite possible that the basis of this deposit is one of these to which nicotine has been added subsequently. The application of such a preparation to the unbroken skin would be very dangerous. If it were to come into contact with a cut or any form of abrasion under conditions which would allow of its absorption, the consequences would probably be fatal.

      To Jimmy this note was full of significance. He remembered the letter from Messrs. Novoshave. They had presented Harleston with a razor and a tube of shaving cream. The razor had been found, but what had become of the cream?

      He proceeded to elaborate the mental picture which he had already formed. Harleston had decided to try the experiment which the letter had suggested. He had done so thoroughly, using the cream as well as the razor. He had no doubt covered his face with the cream and then started to shave. The razor had cut him and he had flung it away. But the cream remained on his face in intimate contact with the wound. He had probably not troubled to wipe it off but had finished his shave with his old razor, by its aid.

      Now if the cream had contained nicotine, Harleston’s death was accounted for. But how had it happened that the nicotine had been present? Nicotine could hardly be a normal ingredient of Novoshave cream. Then somebody must have added it with a definitely homicidal purpose. Who could have had access to the cream between the time of its receipt by Harleston and the following Monday morning?

      The razor, now freed of its deposit, had been returned. Jimmy examined it carefully. It seemed in perfect order and the blade was in its correct position. He drew the razor idly across a pad of blottimg paper. A fine sharp cut, running the whole length of the stroke, was the result. The razor had two cutting edges. He turned it over and repeated his experiment, with exactly the same results.

      It seemed, then, that this particular razor was a remarkably dangerous weapon. Jimmy took a lens and examined the guard which protected the blade. He found that a minute notch had been cut in one of the ribs of the guard, and that the sharp edge of steel thus produced had been turned outwards. This operation, almost invisible to the naked eye, had been carried out on both sides of the razor. Anybody using it in its present state must certainly cut himself.

      Things were becoming distinctly clearer, Jimmy thought. Harleston had been provided with a razor with which he would inevitably cut himself, and with shaving cream which would prove fatal if it came in contact with that cut. But who had provided them? It was fantastic to suppose that the firm of Novoshave should have designs upon the life of their accountant. The razor and cream must have been tampered with after despatch. The parcel containing them had been taken in by Janet during her half-brother’s absence at his office. She alone had had access to it until his return. The contents of the parcel must have been in the house during Sunday when Philip had paid his apparently stormy visit. And the shaving cream, together with the towel with which Harleston had wiped his face, had disappeared.

      The reason for their disappearance was now fairly obvious. They formed valuable evidence of the means by which Harleston had met his death. It was natural that the murderer should wish to destroy his evidence. Someone had entered the bathroom after Harleston had left it. They had taken the towel and the tube of shaving cream. They would, no doubt, have taken the razor as well. But Harleston’s petulant gesture had prevented them. He had flung the razor and its case out of the window and they were not to be found.

      But this reasoning, though perfectly logical, contained no clue to the identity of the culprit. However, upon consideration, Jimmy thought that it tended to exonerate Janet. The unknown individual had not contented himself with entering the bathroom. He had gone into Harleston’s room and poured nicotine into the teapot and cup. He had also gone into Janet’s room and added the poison to her eau-de-Cologne. His reason for doing so was easy to understand. He wished to create the impression that Janet had poisoned her half-brother by adding nicotine to his early tea.

      If this exonerated Janet, it also exonerated Philip. It was hardly conceivable that the latter should have laid a trail of false clues directly pointing to his sister. There remained the period when Janet had been absent from the house. According to her, the stranger she had met on the doorstep had volunteered to go in and look after her brother. Had he done so, he would have had an opportunity for traversing the whole house. Was this stranger the murderer? And if so, how and when had he found an opportunity of tampering with the razor and shaving cream?

      It seemed to Jimmy that Scotland Yard was faced with a very pretty problem. The method of the murder might now be established. But, if Janet and Philip were eliminated, the search for the culprit would be beset with difficulties. His motive was particularly baffling. Harleston might have had few friends, but, on the other hand, he was not the type of man to incur violent enmities. Nobody, apart from the members of the family, could hope to gain anything by his death. He seemed to have been too colourless an individual to have furnished any motive for revenge.

      Even supposing that the man seen by Janet on the doorstep were indeed the murderer, how was he to be traced? She had no recollection of him and would be wholly unable to identify him if she were to see him again. He had appeared for a moment and disappeared. Nor, in the course of his visit to Matfield Street, had he left any visible clue behind him.

      There was one fairly obvious thing to be done. Jimmy had brought with him to Scotland Yard the torn slips of paper on which the letter from Novoshave had been written. These he had stuck together with transparent paper. He went to his own room, placed the letter in an envelope and started off for the offices of Novoshave Ltd.

      Upon reaching them he asked to see Mr Topliss. After a short interval he was shown into a private office where a keen-faced middle-aged man greeted him.

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