‘That was most interesting Crabb,’ said Ravenscroft, ‘Let us go and see if our Mister Clifford can unearth these papers for us. It will be most interesting to see if we can learn who the founders of the bank were. I feel we may be making progress.’
As they entered the Malvern Library and Reading Rooms they were greeted by Clifford the librarian in his usual polite, urbane manner. ‘Good morning to you gentlemen. How can I help you today? Perhaps you require more information regarding the railway company?’
‘No thank you Mr. Clifford. It is information about the Malvern and Worcestershire Bank that we require. We understand that some of the papers concerning the bank’s foundation were lodged with you about twenty years ago?’ asked Ravenscroft.
‘Not with me. I only moved to the town about five years ago. The papers may have been lodged with my predecessor, Mr. Lamb. I can check should you so wish?’
‘If you would be so kind, I would be obliged.’
‘I will consult my card index. Just a moment gentlemen,’ said Clifford moving over to a large cabinet at the side of the room, and thumbing through its contents. ‘Ah, here we are,’ he said after a few moments ‘Papers relating to the Malvern and Worcestershire Bank, deposited in 1864. I’ll just make a note of the reference number.’
‘You seem very well organized here Mr. Clifford,’ said Ravenscroft.
‘We try to be. I say ‘we’ as the system was instigated by my predecessor. I have merely continued his good work, with a few modifications of my own. I’ll just go to the storage room, down below, and retrieve the papers you require. I won’t keep you too long gentlemen.’
Clifford disappeared down a staircase, leaving Ravenscroft and Crabb to look round the shelves of the room.
‘Let us hope he can retrieve the papers. It will be interesting to see what those papers can tell us. I feel we are not far away from uncovering our mystery,’ said Ravenscroft.
The librarian returned presently, clutching a file in his hands, a worried expression on his face. ‘Gentlemen I’m afraid there is a problem. You will see here, on the outside of the folder it itemises a list of contents. The first item is a document stating the terms of the foundation of the bank. Unfortunately it seems to be missing. The other papers appear to be relating to the annual accounts in the early years of the bank. They all seem to be present.’
Ravenscroft searched through the remaining papers. ‘You are correct Mr. Clifford. The paper is indeed missing. Someone has clearly removed it.’
‘Dear me! This is most irregular. I can only apologise gentlemen,’ said Clifford looking downcast.
‘Mr. Clifford. How easy would it have been for someone to have removed this item without your knowledge?’ asked Ravenscroft closing the file.
‘We have people in here all the time, asking to look at the documents. I do not usually stand over them whilst they are engaged in their research.’
‘So it would have been comparatively easy for someone to have removed this document, without your knowledge?’ said Ravenscroft, clearly annoyed that they had come so far, only to be denied access to the one paper they required.
‘Yes. I suppose so. Dear me, this has not happened before,’ said an apologetic Clifford.
‘As far as you know,’ smiled Ravenscroft. ‘Do you recall anyone recently asking to see these papers?’
‘No, not that I recall.’
‘You don’t keep a record of who asks to see certain papers?’
‘I’m afraid not. It is impossible to record all details like that.’
‘Thank you, Mr. Clifford. Would you please inform us straight away should such a paper come to light?’ asked Ravenscroft.
‘Certainly, I will make a further search in the storage room. There is always the possibility that the item may have been filed in another place.’
Ravenscroft shook hands with Clifford and the two men left the Reading Rooms.
‘This is most frustrating Crabb. We were so close to discovering the truth. Quite clearly someone has removed the document relating to the foundation of the bank, so that the information could not be made available to people such as ourselves. I have a deep suspicion that all our three victims were founders of the bank — hence the reason for the walking sticks — and that there must therefore be others whose names would have been on the foundation document.’
‘Now we will never know who they were sir,’ said a dejected Crabb.
‘Would you not say that our Mr. Clifford is usually a most methodical, careful man?’ asked Ravenscroft suddenly stopping.
‘Yes sir. He seems to know what is going on in the town,’ answered Crabb.
‘Precisely, and yet he keeps no records of those who view his documents, and appears not to check for any missing papers once they have been viewed. That would seem to be behaviour which is completely contrary to his normal approach to things.’
‘You don’t think that it was Clifford himself who removed the document?’ asked Crabb.
‘There is that possibility. We have no way of telling when the document was taken. It was clearly deposited with the library in 1864. Clifford arrived five years ago. It could have been taken years ago before his arrival, hence the discovery of its loss not being evident until today. On the other hand, as our three murders have all taken place recently, one would suppose that the document was also removed sometime in the past few weeks. But had that been the case, Mr. Clifford would surely have remembered someone viewing the papers. Unfortunately we have no way of telling which is the case,’ said Ravenscroft deep in thought.
‘Our Mr. Clifford does not look like a murderer. He may appear to be rather too smart for his own suit, but he don’t look the killing type,’ suggested Crabb.
‘In my experience Crabb crimes are committed by two types of people. The first are perpetrated by hot blooded, emotional people who often kill on the spur of the moment or out of desperation of some kind. The second group are those quiet, unassuming people who calculate precisely what they are going to do, and when they are going to do it, and who then fully justify their actions to themselves. I would say that our murderer here would be of the second kind, and in that case Mr. Clifford could fit into that group. However we have no evidence to link him to the crimes at present, we cannot condemn a man by his looks and manner alone, or because of his apparent negligence. We must always keep an open mind.’
‘You think our murderer also took the papers sir?’
‘In all probability, but we still don’t know who that person was.’
‘So what do we do now sir? What else can we do?’ asked Crabb, looking to guidance from his superior officer.
‘Very little it would seem, until we have established the names of the other founders of the bank,’ replied Ravenscroft.
‘The only thing we could do sir, is examine everyone’s walking stick,’ suggested Crabb half-heartedly.
‘Of course Crabb!’ exclaimed Ravenscroft looking across the churchyard of the Priory Church. ‘That’s what we must do. There are others, with similar sticks, who must have some connection with the foundation of the bank. I remember now. On the day we visited Touchmore in his office over there, he removed a pile of papers from a chair so that I could sit down. He asked me to hand him his cane, which was also on the chair, saying he had been looking for it all morning. I’m sure the cane had a silver handle,’ said Ravenscroft excitedly.
‘Then you think our Reverend is another of the founders of the bank?’
‘There is only one way to find out. Let’s go and see if the Reverend Touchmore is still in residence.’
The two officers walked along the path across the church yard until they reached the old buildings that housed the church offices. Opening the door, they made their way up the stairs. Touchmore’s door was open, and the cleric himself was sitting at his desk busily writing with one hand, whilst using the other to mop his brow with a large handkerchief. ‘Ah, gentlemen, do please come in,’ he said without looking up. ‘I won’t keep you a moment. I have to complete these returns for the bishop. Should have been sent to the deanery yesterday, but one has been so busy. There never seems enough hours in the day, never enough hours.’