The Mystery Continues. . .

It was a bright sunny morning. I was at Ben’s house, sipping hot chocolate, when the phone rang. Ben answered it. It was our old friend, Inspector Tot.

‘Hullo.’ Ben said into the receiver.

‘Yes, this is me, Ben, Tot. I’ve something interesting to tell you. It is something which cannot be said on the phone. I’ll come there in twenty minutes. Have your friend Jack there with you. It’s a very significant case.’ Tot said seriously.

‘Okay. I and my friend will be waiting.’ Ben said coolly, as if Tot’s tone didn’t irritate him the slightest bit.

He put down the receiver and faced me. I was waiting for him to say something but nothing came out of his mouth. So, I started.

‘What’s going on? Is everything alright?’ I asked, with curiosity.

‘Nothing is alright in this godforsaken world, Jack. You’ve got to understand that. Anyway, Inspector Tot is coming by and he says it’s very important.’ Ben said gravely.

‘Did he give a hint as to what it was?’ I asked worriedly, but he didn’t say anything. I realized that was the last thing Ben was going to say. So, I, too, kept silent.

Twenty minutes later, Inspector Tot arrived at Ben’s house. I opened the door and he entered.

‘Good morning, Ben. Good morning, Jack. As I said on the phone to Ben, I think you can understand the seriousness of the case.’ Tot said grimly.

‘First tell us what it is and then we’ll see if it is serious or not.’ Ben said serenely.                                         

‘Well, there has been a robbery. Rubies worth more than thousand pounds are missing. And to top it off, there has been a murder. These two cases are linked.’ Tot explained.

‘Really? How is it so?’ Ben asked.

‘Well, the rubies were stolen from a girl named Molly Andrews, daughter of Patrick Andrews, the manager of Danforth Bank.  It seems Molly was on her way to France on the 6 o’ clock train. She had her rubies with her, which her father had gifted her on her twentieth birthday. We asked the train conductor,  what had happened and he said that when he opened Molly’s cabin door, he saw her hanging on a rope which was tied to the overhead fan. He fainted, right then and there. When he came to, he quickly took his cell phone and called us.’ Tot said.

‘How do you know that it was murder and not suicide?’ I asked him.

‘Well, forensics examined the body. They said that they had found cyanide in her blood. Probably, the killer must have injected it into her blood and hanged her so that it would look like she had tried to kill herself.’ Tot said firmly.

‘Okay. What do you want us to do?’ Ben asked.

‘We want you to investigate the case. Simple.’ Tot declared.

‘Well, can you give the home address of the train conductor and Mr. Andrews?’ Ben asked.

‘Here it is.’ Tot said and took out a piece of paper with two different addresses.

‘Are you coming with us, Tot?’ Ben asked.

‘I can’t. I have to get back to headquarters. Carry on without me.’ Tot said.

‘Then, let’s go, Jack. Hurry.’ Ben said to me.

Thirty minutes later, we were standing in front of the Grand Hartley Hotel.

‘Come on then. Why are we waiting around?’ Ben said, climbing up the steps to the entrance.

We took the elevator to the penthouse suite. We got out and rang the doorbell. After a few moments, the door was opened by a stressed-looking maid, with a duster in her left hand.

‘Good morning. I am Ben Conroy and this is my friend, Jack Gilbert. We’re investigating the case of Ms. Andrews. We’re here to ask a few questions to Mr. Andrews. May we speak with him?’ Ben asked the maid.

‘Oh, yes, of course. Come in, come in. Mr. Andrews is in a broken condition. He can’t sleep. He can’t eat. He is always cooped up in his study, thinking that Molly would come in any minute. I try to tell him that Molly has left and that there is nothing else to do. I try to sympathize with him. But he never listens. He is still sitting there in his study. I’ll get him for you.’ the maid said, rushing into another room.

She came back a few minutes later.

‘He’s not budging. He says he won’t get up until Molly has come home.’

‘No matter. If he won’t come to us, we will go to him.’ Ben suggested.

‘Alright. But he is in a very delicate situation. If you mention Molly too many times, he might get emotional.’ the maid said, skeptical in allowing us into the study.

‘Let’s go, Jack.’ Ben said to me.

We opened the double doors to find an old-looking man sitting on an easy chair, facing the window. When we opened the door, he turned and murmured something which sounded like ‘Molly’.  

‘Greetings, Mr. Andrews. I’m Ben Conroy and this is Jack Gilbert. We are investigating the case of your daughter. May we ask a few questions?’ Ben asked delicately, not mentioning Molly.

‘Molly was eight when I married her mother. She was the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. When she was eleven, her mother died and we were left alone. I had told her that I would take care of her and now, she is….she is…..’ his voice trailed off and he started sobbing softly.

‘Mr. Andrews, it’s not your fault. Don’t worry. We’ll find the culprit. Now, why was your daughter traveling to Germany?’ Ben asked, careful not to use her name.

‘She was visiting her aunt who had flown in from France.’ he said sadly.

‘May we ask her aunt’s name?’ I asked.

‘Madeline Spence.’ he replied quietly.

‘By the way, you look too old to have had a daughter of twenty. How old were you when you married her mother?’ Ben said gently.

’Forty three. I was forty three when I married her.’ he said silently.

‘And her mother was how old?’ was Ben’s next question.

‘Twenty one.’ he said, just above a whisper.

‘And, now, how old are you?’ Ben asked.

‘Sixty-three.’ he replied

‘Thank you, Mr. Andrews. That is all.’ Ben said, exiting the room. I followed.

‘Well, now what?’ I asked.

‘Now we go to Mr. Joey Fratton’s house.’ Ben responded to my inquiry.

‘And who is that?’ I asked him curiously.

‘The train conductor.’ Ben said simply.

We hailed a taxi and departed for Mr. Fratton’s house.

Twenty five minutes later, we rang the doorbell of the house which belonged to Mr. Fratton’s. The door was immediately opened and a good-looking, handsome young man was standing before us.

‘Good morning. My name is Jack Gilbert and this is my friend, Ben Conroy. We are looking into the Ms. Andrews case. Inspector Tot said that you were the one who first saw her after she was killed. May we ask a few questions?’ I said matter-of-factly.

‘Yes, come on in.’ Joey said with an American accent. Apparently, he was from the USA.

‘Oh, are you from the States?’ Ben asked goofily.

‘Yeah. You ever been there?’ Joey asked smoothly, with a mischievous grin.

‘No. I’ve heard it’s a good place ‘to party’, though.’ Ben said.

‘Umm, I guess.’ Joey said doubtfully.

‘Anyway, you say that you saw Ms. Andrews hanging on by a rope? Is that correct?’ Ben said suddenly.

‘Yeah. It was just weird, man. Her eyes were lifeless and her posture was totally unnatural.’ Joey said uneasily.

‘Were there any other witnesses?’ was Ben’s next question.

‘No. Only me. Why?’ he said.

‘Just curious, that’s all.’ Ben said, reaching for the newspaper which lay on the coffee table.

‘Damn it! I cut my finger!’ he exclaimed.

‘Is there blood anywhere?’ Joey asked fearfully.

‘Yes. A bit.’ Ben replied.

‘Oh. Umm, well. . . ‘was all Joey said.

‘Don’t worry. I was playing with you. I’m not bleeding. I don’t even have a cut. I just wanted to see if you have haemophobia.  Clearly, you are and so, I’m sorry about that. Well, we’re off now. Come on, Jack. Let’s go.’ Ben said. I followed him and we were out of his house.

‘How did you know that?’ I asked him.

‘I could find a book called ‘How to get rid of Haemophobia’ by Mark Tolio on the coffee table. Use your eyes, Jack, for heavens’ sake!’ Ben said, frustrated. ‘Besides, how can he kill her? He’s terrified of blood. He couldn’t even get around a small cut on my finger.’

‘This case is getting really tough.’

‘I know. Well, what do you say of a little stakeout? I’m still a bit unconvinced that he is scared of blood.’

‘Okay. why do you think that?’ I asked him with keen interest.

‘He didn’t seem genuinely scared of the cut on my finger. I think he had that book on the coffee table to convince people like us that he most definitely didn’t do it since the title of the book is ‘How to get rid of Haemophobia.’ That was really clever of him. But that won’t work on Ben Conroy.’ he said, increasing the volume of his voice when he said that last part.

So that night, we decided to do a stakeout. Joey Fratton was still a suspect on our list. So, at 9:00 PM, we took a taxi to Joey Fratton’s house and hid in the bushes so that we won’t be found. we waited for a very long time and then, decided to give up, until an SUV sped up and a man got out. At that exact moment, the door to Joey’s house also opened. They spoke loud enough for us to hear.

‘Well, did you do it?’ Joey asked the man.

‘Yes and let me tell you, it was tough. You have no idea if the cabin door is going to open or not. But, it went on successfully. Now, no one won’t be there to whine for more rubies or more jewels or this or that. God! I’m so glad that I did it tonight. That girl was such a pain. Such a pathetic fool .’

‘Great. Now, come in and I’ll get you a glass of champagne. How can you celebrate something like this than a bottle of champagne?’

So, both of them went inside the house to celebrate with champagne while we were sitting there, stunned for a bit. Then, I took my cell phone and called the police station. It was a good thing that had recorded their conversation. After the phone call, we took a taxi and went back to Ben’s house.

The next day, we were at the police station. We were waiting for Inspector Tot to finish questioning Fratton and Andrews. After a couple of minutes, he came back with a wide grin on his face.

‘How can we thank you?’ he said happily.

‘No need for thanks. I just hope that that recording is enough to put them in jail for a very long time.’ Ben said.

‘It’s more than enough, Ben. Why don’t you come and work with us? We could use a detective like you any day.’ Tot suggested.

‘Investigator, Tot, not detective. I prefer the word investigator more than detective.’ Ben said politely but firmly.

‘Well, anyway, thank you so much. I have to get back to work. I’ll see you some day. probably in the near future. Bye for now.’ Tot said.

‘You are welcome. Let’s go, Jack, shall we?’ Ben asked me. I nodded and followed him as we got out.

‘You know, the mystery isn’t over yet.’ Ben said mischievously.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked dubiously.

‘Well, in this world, the mystery is never over. The mystery continues….’ His voice trailed off.

I didn’t ask but I had a pretty good idea of what he meant.

I grinned at myself and let Ben ramble on about the misfortunes and bad qualities of the world.