THE MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT IN FOLS

"Terribly trampled," this was Bolt’s commentary about the scene of the incident.

The Fols police officer was seriously frightened:

"What should we do now, sir?"

"Tell me everything from the beginning," said Bolt and prepared to listen.

"Well, as you know, there was a robbery in the Clay Trading administrative building. The important factor is that the safe, which was in the accountant’s office, was hidden and the crime was committed with lightning speed. This means that the robber knew where the safe was, and this means that either somebody from inside or somebody who was well prepared did the job. Somebody could have observed the office through the window for a long time. The robber was very clever. Today is Friday, which means that the company finished work at three. Also, a train always passes by at three thirty on Fridays. The Clay Trading administrative building is located right next to the railroad and the window of the accountants’ office faces the track. It cannot be seen from the street. The robber took advantage of that. As soon as the train approached, the thief broke the glass with a crowbar. The sound of the train drowned out the sound of the alarm and the robber quickly climbed through the window and robbed the safe during those few moments. As you saw, the office is on the first floor. Then he jumped out and ran away. We found the crowbar on the ground. The gardener’s fingerprints were found on it. Inside we found a stone and many pieces of the broken plastic-framed window. This shows that the glass was broken from the outside." 

"But the pieces of broken glass were not strewn around the window but further away from it and a little bit on the side, approximately by the window frame," Nevili noted. 

"Yes," replied the police officer and not knowing what else to say went quiet. Bolt broke the silence:

"Even though the hole in the window is quite large, I cannot imagine how a person could fit through it?"  

"Oh, no. The hole was only necessary to get a hand inside to open the window."

"But just now, while I was examining everything, the window was closed. It was not simply half-closed, but was closed with the handle fixed. Did you close it?" 

"No, sir," the Fols police officer assured him, "we left everything the way we found it." 

"When did the alarm go off in the office?" 

"Exactly at three and it was not turned off. There are glass break and motion alarms in the office." 

"I see. After how much time was the theft noticed?" 

"Immediately. As soon as the train passed, the alarm was heard. The gardener came running after he heard it. He lives nearby and he called us." 

"You think it was enough time to get inside, break open the safe, pack the money and run away while the train was passing by?" 

"I think not, and this is why we detained the gardener, only we did not find anything at his place."

"Did he have enough time to give everything to an accomplice?" 

"I must say, Mister Bolt, that we acted very quickly. Within a few minutes we arrested about twenty people. Most of them had a solid alibi and had to be released. There are three people left – the gardener I mentioned, the accountant of the company who was still here even though he lives in another city; we arrested him in the shopping centre. There is also a cashier from this shopping centre who was still there even though her working hours had ended." 

"Who do you yourself suspect?" 

"I think that the gardener gave the money to the cashier, waited until she ran away and then called us. But I cannot prove it quite yet. Do you understand, sir?" 

"I understand you perfectly. I will help you prove it; just one question – when standing at the window I saw the track and large fields and the distant horizon behind it. Obviously, he could not have run there, so, where, in your opinion, would have been best for the robber to disappear with the money?" 

"It is hard to say, sir. He could not have dropped the bag or sack of money, because we would have found it for sure, which means that he had enough time to hide it somewhere." 

"I would like to read all of the testimonies," Nevili Bolt asked.

"Of course, here they are," the police officer handed him the printed paper. 

It said:

James Barneg, gardener, 1958, height - 169 cm, weight - 74 kg., married. Testimony: after the train left, I heard the alarm. I ran to the front of the building and saw that everything was in order there, and then I ran around to the backside and saw that the window was broken. I ran to the window and jumped a few times to see if there was a thief inside. The office was empty. Then I called the police. The crowbar is mine. I cannot explain how it ended up there. 

Philip Meison, accountant, 1972, height – 191 cm, weight – 86 kg., married. Testimony: after work I stopped by the shopping centre. Suddenly the police rushed in and took me and a few other people out. The safe often contains large sums of money. Our work and cash flow is also not a secret to anybody. Besides me, a few other people knew the alarm code. I cannot name the specific names. 

Bolt read everything and asked: 

"And the cashier?"

"She is still waiting for her turn."

Nevili asked him to call her in. The girl was very frightened – she kept chewing her lip and rumpling the edge of her blouse. The detective asked her to tell him about her activities between three and three thirty. 

"I was standing by the shop the whole time," the cashier replied.

"Why were you standing there?" 

"I was waiting for my boyfriend. We had agreed to meet at three, but he did not come. I thought that maybe he was busy somewhere, maybe something took him longer, but he never came."  

"Does he work?"

"No, but something still might have taken longer... Maybe I should have called him, but I thought if he were busy I would disturb him. And then the police officer came and took me out."  

     Bolt looked at the girl’s high heel shoes. Their polished toes did not match with their dusty heels at all. Most likely, she was hoping that the boyfriend would not notice that.

"Do you know the gardener from Clay Trading?" the detective asked the cashier. 

"Yes. This is a small town; everybody knows each other a little bit." 

"Thank you." 

After she left, Nevili turned to the Fols police officer: 

"Everything is clear." 

"Really?" Bolt's colleague rejoiced, "which one?" 

Only Nevili did not hurry to say the name, but recounted everything in order:  

"Trains pass by the building very quickly and it is obvious that this much time is not enough to commit a robbery. It is only enough to stage a robbery. The thief had already been working in the office before the train came. The one might have done the following – the robber covered the motion alarm sensor and broke into the safe before turning on the alarm in the entire building. He only had to sit calmly and wait until the train arrived. After it got there he was supposed to break the window and get away. But there is one problem – one needs to stage a robbery, and, for this reason, a stone has to be thrown through the window. It had to be thrown. If a thief brings a stone inside in advance, experts will quickly determine that the stone did not even touch the glass. So, the stone has to be thrown from outside, but here is another problem – after the thief climbs out through the window, the glass will still be unbroken, which means that he will not be able to close the window – just half-close it. And, when throwing a stone into a half-closed window the glass might not break, only the window might open. There will be no time to repeat the action. What does the robber do? As soon as the train approaches, he opens the window and, using the tool he used to break into the safe, he breaks the glass. Remember, the glass fragments in the office were scattered further away from the window and a little bit on the side? Exactly where they would have fallen if an open window were broken. Of course, the glass break alarm turns on immediately, but nobody hears it because of the sound of the train.  The thief quickly removes what was taped over the motion alarm, jumps out of the window, closes it and only then throws the stone into the part of glass which has not yet been broken and runs away."

 "Now the suspects. We can right away reject the version that it was somebody who was observing the premises for a long time. The building is a little bit on a hill, and further from the track there are fields, and there is physically no place from which one could observe it. Who out of these three people? The cashier's high heel shoes are completely unsuitable for the robbery. She would not have had time to change her clothes, and the dusty heels show that they did not go into the ground; otherwise all of the dust from the heels would have been cleaned. The gardener was too short.  He even had to jump to see what was inside. There is no way he would have reached the window handle from the outside, even though, as you remember, the window was closed. Meanwhile the accountant was tall enough and only he could have taped the alarm. He found the right moment and stole the gardener’s crowbar and committed the robbery. Also, he tried to mislead us. The accountant said that many people knew the alarm code, but the alarm was not turned off. Now you need to look for traces of adhesive around the alarm sensor and check the recordings of the shop's surveillance cameras. I am convinced that he came to the shopping centre not a little after three, when the company's working hours end, but after three thirty. He should explain where he was at that time."

         The Fols police officer was listening with his mouth wide open, and after Nevili got quiet, he rushed out into the corridor.

         Soon after Bolt heard a phrase somewhere in the building: 

"Philip Mason, you are arrested for robbery. You have the right to remain silent...."

More about Nevili Bolt in the new book "Murder at Twin Hills"