The Case of the Diamond Shadow Page 14

  Such a one was the recent sensational Case of the Mysterious Shadow, in which a diamond of great value was targeted by a gang of successful thieves who called themselves ‘The Shadow’. These crooks communicated by fiendishly clever methods, one of them being a comic strip in a rival magazine, the editor of whom was most dismayed to discover he had been the inadvertent helper of The Shadow! (In my investigation, I established that the comic had been sent to the editor through the post by a correspondent who signed himself — most impertinently — Mr D. Mond, but whom the editor had never met! Here we see the dangers of not checking one’s sources!)

  Though the crooks — who had taken on various false identities — remain at large as at this date, it is quite clear that our sharp and swift investigations have put the wind up them so much they will never try their tricks again. I can truthfully say that my presence foiled one of the most spectacular robberies ever to be plotted in this country.

  It all began one afternoon, when I received a letter from a well-born lady, asking for my help in a baffling problem. She had been threatened by a thief who called himself The Shadow, who had mockingly declared he was going to steal her prized diamonds that very week. At once, I took the train to the little town where …

  George put down the magazine for a moment on his desk. He knew the story by heart, but he still couldn’t quite get over seeing his own name and photograph in print. It was quite thrilling! He looked around him, at the comfortable room that functioned as his own office, with Mr Woodley-Foxe’s just beyond. Well, he was now a real detective’s assistant. Even Eddy had grudgingly admitted the job didn’t seem half bad, once he saw that office, when he came down with Betty for the day to London. But he hadn’t talked much about it — he and Betty had been bursting with their own news, about how just a few weeks ago Lady Eleanor Charlton had discovered that her brother, who’d died so long ago, had married a girl and fathered a child unbeknownst to anyone — and it was none other than that film star, that young Olivia Marlow! And Olivia Marlow was going to save Charlton Hall, and come to live there with her aunt, when she wasn’t working on films!

  ‘Lady Eleanor had a special garden party in her honour, there was a band, you know, that Harry Golightly band, from London — remember, George, they played in Greater Charlton, weeks ago? Miss Marlow was ever so nice, George, so natural, didn’t give herself airs at all! And she looked quite cheerful, despite the fact she’d been thrown over not so long before by that awful Prince of Luxenstein … he must be a really poor sort, to let himself be led by the nose by his mother! Well, at least he was honourable enough to let her keep the Blue Moon Diamond …’ Betty’s own eyes were bright as diamonds. ‘It’s all so exciting! Oh, George, she even posed for photographs, with the band leader, and Lady Eleanor, and I’ve got one at home now …’

  ‘It’s got pride of place on the dresser,’ grunted Eddy, trying to look displeased, but failing. He, too, had been quite charmed by the actress.

  I’ve got a photograph too, thought George, now. A photograph — signed in Olivia Marlow’s own flowing hand. Signed in thick purple ink. An ink he’d seen before. Not that he could check it now. That envelope he’d kept from that stash at Charlton Hall, it had disappeared, somehow, on his travels. He’d looked for it, but hadn’t found it. It must have dropped out of his coat pocket, somewhere. Still, he remembered it quite clearly. A cream deckle-edged envelope, Lady Eleanor’s name and address written in flowing purple ink … The franking mark dated months and months ago, long before Lady Eleanor had supposedly found out about her long-lost niece. It was a little odd, that.

  But he hadn’t said anything to anyone — not to Woodley-Foxe, and not to Daisy, working away in shabby little Fletcher’s Advice Bureau, not very far from his own office. (How great it was, to be able to see her often again, especially as Victor St-Remy had gone back to France where he belonged!) And he never would mention it. It was really just a very small and insignificant detail. Everything was just for the best, just as it was.

  With a sigh of pure happiness, he turned back to the magazine.

  Copyright

  The ABC ‘Wave’ device is a trademark of the

  Australian Broadcasting Corporation and is used

  under licence by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia.

  First published April 2008

  This edition published in 2012

  by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited

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  Copyright © Sophie Masson 2008

  The right of Sophie Masson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.

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