cook happened just before sunrise, 5:00 this morning. The constable arrived on scene no more than one half hour later. He was suspicious of the circumstances and I was called in. I got here about noon and interrogated both of them before I was notified that you were called in. Since they both had not breakfasted, I had them taken to the kitchen where the cook made them lunch. I have had them kept under surveillance in the kitchen since, awaiting your arrival.” “The safe in the office has not been broken into, and we found keys that opened it. There are large sums of cash and important deeds, some heirloom jewelry such as rings, but we do not know what else could have been in there that may be missing.” “The papers on the desk all appear to be shipping manifests and those scattered about the floor contracts, although we have not retrieved all of the papers on the floor that are soaked, since you have not had the opportunity to examine the room. There is a bookcase next to the desk that has folders of other business papers. We can assume all the business documents came from there, as there is some empty space between what is currently sitting there.” “The doors to the house were locked last night according to the butler and cook, and the windows in the office were closed, but not locked. I went around the outside to each window and examined the grounds. As there was dew this morning, any footprint should have been left in the loose soil beneath the windows, I found none, nor disturbances in the grasses under the windows. If there had been an intruder who left before the butler rushed into the room as he claimed, he had to have entered by a door that had been unlocked for him or by him. The constable found the back and side doors locked, and the cook was heard unlatching the front door when he was allowed entry. “The cook, a Mrs. Shultz, has worked for Mr. Rawlings for over 10 years according to her. She has informed me the butler is a temporary help, just hired recently. The regular butler had a traffic accident that broke his hip and he is in hospital. The current temporary butler, a Mr. Crankers is surly and nervous, but that could be understandable under the circumstances. A maid comes in three times a week to help the cook keep the house clean and do the laundry. She is not due in again until tomorrow. “The cook was just getting up and preparing to go fix breakfast when she heard the crash. She was horrified by the scene she came upon when she hurried to the office.” “During the questioning, she stated she was surprised that her boss was in his office in his robe and sleeping clothes. He never went into his office in the morning before dressing and having breakfast. He did most of his home office work at night, or after breakfast before he went to work.” “While being questioned separately, the butler claims he saw nobody leave the office, nor heard anything but the crash of the aquarium. He also was just up and about to go help the master get dressed when the noise brought him to the office. He didn’t notice anything else about the room except for the dead man and mess from the aquarium. He said he remembers that the front door was closed, but he does not know if it was locked because he had stayed with the body and sent the cook to notify the authorities. He was agitated that this happened on his first week on the job.” “Excellent, Inspector. I congratulate the constable on his quick wit and your thoroughness. Let me examine the room,” I said as I pulled out my magnifying glass, “and I will meet you in the kitchen.” I spent over half an hour minutely examining the corpse, aquarium, desk, bookcase, safe, chairs, walls and carpets. Watson would have surely described me as a bloodhound seeking a scent among the weeds. I first did a quick walk around the room to get a general layout and to see if anything significant, out of the ordinary would catch my eye. The corpse was setting on a soaked carpet amid broken, glass, dead fish, seaweed and wet papers. It was beside the desk, between the desk and the tank, which had been righted next to the body leaning against the cabinet it had originally sat on. He was still dressed in his bedclothes and robe; one slipper was cast off one of his feet. I examined the back of his head and felt a depression along the base of the skull where the spine entered the skull. It was not sharp, nor was there a significant cut along it. There were some gouges of skin and limited bleeding from multiple cuts caused from the broken aquarium glass, but no sharp long cut or indentation that would have been caused by the edge of the tank striking him. The tank still had a little water at its bottom and a few small fish were still swimming about. The sediment in the water that had been thrown up when the tank was capsized had settled. The aquarium had sat to one side of the desk, not in front or behind it, but had tumble to in front of it when it was overturned. The papers had scattered in front and side of the desk and were still soaking up the water; a considerable amount had been spilled.