Fire in the Thatch by Edith Caroline Rivett

That evening, before Macdonald returned, Superintendent Bolton sat and wrote his report. In the course of many years of police work he had learnt to write an admirable report, terse and factual, and he no longer found writing a toil as he had done when he was younger. He told his wife that putting facts down on paper often helped him to realise the significance of the evidence he had collected. On this occasion, however, Bolton found himself worried, and his worry was due to the fact that he could not determine if the matter of Gressingham’s car smash were a case which must be judged as a thing apart or if it was part and parcel of the Little Thatch case.

While Bolton had been busy investigating on Moorbery hill, Mr. Hesling had been talking to the Inspector, who went to Hinton Mallory to make enquiries about Mr. Gressingham’s next of kin, that information might be sent concerning the accident. Hesling had told the Inspector that Gressingham and Radcliffe had had a furious quarrel the previous evening, and though Gressingham had attempted to make out that things were normal between himself and his friend, it was obvious to the Heslings that Radcliffe had taken his departure in a state of sullen rage. The news of Gressingham’s smash—and his own dying condition—came as a shock to the Heslings, and they immediately connected it with Radcliffe. The Heslings were only able to give a guesswork description of the cause of the quarrel between the two men. Mrs. Hesling maintained that the dispute was concerned with Gressingham’s car, Gressingham having accused Radcliffe of taking the car out on the night of April 30th. Mrs. Hesling, however, believed that the trouble was concerned with Radcliffe’s pursuit of a certain Land Girl of whom he had been enamoured. Mr. Hesling was able to give information on this score: it seemed plain enough that Radcliffe had on some occasions gone out late in the evening to meet a girl in the fields between Hinton Mallory and Little Thatch, and Hesling believed that he had done so on the night of April 30th. When questioned more closely on this point he admitted that he had no evidence to offer—it was just guesswork. He had certainly not connected Radcliffe’s “going after the girls” with the fire at Little Thatch, but what he had overheard of the final quarrel between the two men led him to believe that Gressingham suspected that Radcliffe knew more than he had admitted. The Inspector had immediately enquired when and how Radcliffe had left Hinton Mallory and was told that Gressingham had taken him to the station in his Daimler. Radcliffe had rung up for a taxi, but had been unable to get one at short notice, and Gressingham, who was endeavouring to keep up appearances, had said he would take him. The two men had left in the Daimler, with Radcliffe’s suitcase, at ten o’clock that morning. The Inspector had enquired if Gressingham had said where he was going, and to which station he intended to drive Radcliffe—Exeter, Mallowton, or Creediford. On this matter Hesling could give no information, though Mrs. Hesling had said that Gressingham had told her he would not be in until his evening meal. He had had a long conversation over the telephone early that morning, and Mrs. Hesling had overheard enough to gather that he was making an appointment to meet somebody, and was also asking for directions as to route.