Chapter 4: The Case concludes

A few minutes later the Ranger reappeared, escorting a young man of about my own age. He told the man to sit down."

"What am I doing here?" he asked "And who are you, Sir?"

"I'm Robert MacLeod, of the New England Bureau of Investigation. Now who are you and what is your business with Saxon."

"My name is Brian Peters and I've come to tell Eileen Saxon that her brother is dead!"

"I'm afraid she already knows."

He jumped to his feet. "How can she know? I only identified the body yesterday. Tell me! How can she?"

"Sit and calm yourself," I said and he did so. "I think you had better tell me your tale from the very beginning."

"I first met James Saxon when we were both doing relief work in Turitzio, South of Mechicoe City. His family has estates down there. The earthquake damage was horrendous. Well. Things were beginning to settle down when the news reached us that James father had died. He decided that his place now was to be at home. He wanted me to join him. I had, in fact, more to wind up than James and we decided to meet up in San Diego. When I got there, I could find no sign of James and so I went to the police to report him as missing."

"While I was telling them about James, I was asked if he had any distinguishing marks. He did. One day when we were bathing in the local river, I saw a tattoo on his behind. It was the words 'Please kick me here'. I told the detective and he recalled them. A naked dead body had been discovered with that tattoo and because of its novelty, everyone in the precinct had heard of it. I was taken to the morgue where I identified James body and I asked if I could tell the family before the news was made public.

"Who is your contact in the police?"

"It's a Detective Rodriguez."

"Ranger, will you please contact Detective Rodriguez and confirm that they still have James Saxon's body."

The Ranger left the interview room while I told Goodman Peters what had been happening in Sanderson. He was indignant that Uncle Charles should have identified anyone else as James.

A few minutes later, the Ranger returned with a predatory grin on his face.

"Detective Rodriguez confirms everything that this young man has said. They've also got some of those numerical things from somebody else on the body. It seems he was drowned in a bath and managed to scratch his murderer. Moreover, they've found three citizens of San Diego who knew James and have also identified the body. We've got Uncle Charles cold for his identification of the faceless body and if we're careful we may have the lawyer for killing him."

"We'll have to be very careful. Most of this end of things is circumstantial. What we really need are confessions. I've got some ideas on getting them. Let's get going, before they decide to leave. Goodman Peters, you can join us, but I want you to stay back when we get to the house. Sarah, you and John keep him company, remaining mounted. Let's go!"

As we got to the house, the ranger and I handed our reins to the others. As we approached the front door it opened end a man emerged.

He turned to someone in the house and said, "I'll contact you when I reach Los Angeles."

The Ranger walked up to the man and said. "I' m afraid I'll have to ask you to go back into the house."

"Why? I assumed you'd be after the killer, wherever he went!"

"If you'd be so kind, sir. We've still got some questions that need answering."