"Orczy, Baroness - The Regent's Park Murder" - читать интересную книгу автора (Orczy Baroness)

THE REGENT'S PARK MURDER


THE REGENT'S PARK MURDER
Baroness Orczy
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CHAPTER XXVIII. THE REGENT'S PARK MURDER
CHAPTER XXIX. THE MOTIVE
CHAPTER XXX. FRIENDS




CHAPTER XXVIII. THE REGENT'S PARK MURDER
BY this time Miss Polly Burton had become quite accustomed to her extraordinary
vis-р-vis in the corner.
He was always there, when she arrived, in the selfsame corner, dressed in one of
his remarkable check tweed suits; he seldom said good morning, and invariably
when she appeared he began to fidget with increased nervousness, with some
tattered and knotty piece of string.
"Were you ever interested in the Regent's Park murder?" he asked her one day.
Polly replied that she had forgotten most of the particulars connected with that
curious murder, but that she fully remembered the stir and flutter it had caused
in a certain section of London society.
"The racing and gambling set, particularly, you mean," he said. "All the persons
implicated in the murder, directly or indirectly, were of the type commonly
called 'Society men,' or 'men about town,' whilst the Harewood Club in Hanover
Square, round which centered all the scandal in connection with the murder, was
one of the smartest clubs in London.
"Probably the doings of the Harewood Club, which was essentially a gambling
club, would for ever have remained 'officially' absent from the knowledge of the
police authorities but for the murder in the Regent's Park and the revelations
which came to light in connection with it.
"I dare say you know the quiet square which lies between Portland Place and the
Regent's Park and is called Park Crescent at its south end, and subsequently
Park Square East and West. The Marylebone Road, with all its heavy traffic, cuts
straight across the large square and its pretty gardens, but the latter are
connected together by a tunnel under the road; and of course you must remember
that the new tube station in the south portion of the Square had not yet been
planned.
"February 6th, 1907, was a very foggy night, nevertheless Mr. Aaron Cohen, of
30, Park Square West, at two o'clock in the morning, having finally pocketed the
heavy winnings which he had just swept off the green table of the Harewood Club,
started to walk home alone. An hour later most of the inhabitants of Park Square
West were aroused from their peaceful slumbers by the sounds of a violent
altercation in the road. A man's angry voice was heard shouting violently for a
minute or two, and was followed immediately by frantic screams of 'Police' and