Read The Deadly Curse for Free Online

.
     
    ‘Sent today,’ I thought. As I read it, I was gripped by a sense of foreboding.
     
    Returned to Edinburgh yesterday after short absence . Discovered wooden crate marked as containing sickle sword had been delivered Friday November 5th . Broke seal to find crate empty . Please check that it was sent to me as we arranged . If so I will report the disappearance as theft .
     
    Delland sat down heavily in his armchair and shook his head. ‘Dear me,’ he said. ‘This case gets stranger by the minute. Why can’t I have a nice stabbing in a Limehouse public house to investigate, with a dozen witnesses and a quick confession? It’s clear from this telegram that Flinzer must have sold the khopesh to the Edinburgh Museum. So why didn’t it arrive?’
    ‘It might be that it was never packed,’ Mina suggested. ‘If one of Flinzer’s servants had been given the task, they may have kept the sword, hoping to sell it themselves.’
    Delland shook his head. ‘Possible, but hardly likely. Such a theft would be certain to be discovered when Dr Levin opened the case. And as Flinzer would know who had been told to post it, suspicion would immediately fall on the thief. I think it’s far more likely that the khopesh was abstracted after it left the house – perhaps whilst in the parcel sorting office – with the intention of using it to kill Flinzer.’
    Van Helsing coughed gently. ‘That seems an over-elaborate way to obtain a murder weapon. A visit to a cutler’s shop would be far more straightforward. But suppose there were a pair of such objects amongst the tomb items? That would mean that a thief could have stolen it in Edinburgh, or en route . Then – coincidentally – the murderer could have picked up its fellow in the strongroom.’
    Sarah Wilton shook her head. ‘That’s highly unlikely. I know of no cases where more than one khopesh would be provided in a single tomb.’
    Delland frowned. ‘I’ll start by questioning everyone in the Flinzer household, to see exactly how the sword was dispatched. I don’t think we can discover any more until then.’
    ‘Let me make a suggestion, Inspector,’ I said. ‘I propose that you agree that for, shall we say, the next seven days, the tomb items are kept locked away in Flinzer’s strongroom. Of course when – or if – the murderer is apprehended, I quite see that the khopesh will at some stage have to appear in court, which will necessarily mean that it is separated from the rest of the artefacts. However, with all due respect to your powers of detection, that is unlikely to happen within a week. You will of course be conducting your usual examination of such a case – interviewing Flinzer’s business associates and such like. At the same time, with your permission, my friends and I will indulge our more outlandish theories.’
    Delland got to his feet. ‘Agreed!’ he said with a smile. ‘On one condition: should the three of you discover anything that might be pertinent to this case, I’d like you to let me know immediately. And I, in turn, will inform you if I arrest the culprit.’
    ‘Inspector, are you sure that the tomb objects will be safe at Flinzer’s house?’ I asked.
    ‘As safe as if they were taken to Scotland Yard,’ he replied. ‘I have arranged for a constable to be stationed outside the house day and night whilst the relics remain there. They are of course very securely locked away. Also, Mrs Flinzer has insisted on remaining in residence.’
    ‘She must be a strong-minded lady,’ Mina observed.
    ‘Indeed, Mrs Harker. She does seem to have coped with her husband’s ghastly demise remarkably well. Of course, it helps that she’s a healthy young woman with a strong constitution. I understand that her late husband was her senior by sixteen years.’
     
    *
     
    Inspector Delland declined our suggestion that he should join us for dinner, on the very reasonable grounds that, despite his onerous duties, his wife still expected to see