CHRISTOPHER PETT The two men sat staring silently at the paper-strewn desk for several moments; each occupied with his own thoughts.

At last the superintendent began to put the several exhibits together, and he turned to Brereton with a gesture which suggested a certain amount of mental impatience.
"There's one thing in all this that I can't understand, sir," he said.
"And it's this--it's very evident that whoever killed Kitely wanted the papers that Kitely carried in that pocket-book.

Why did he take 'em out of the pocket-book and throw the pocket-book away?
I don't know how that strikes you--but it licks me, altogether!" "Yes," agreed Brereton, "it's puzzling--certainly.

You'd think that the murderer would have carried off the pocket-book, there and then.

That he took the papers from it, threw the pocket-book itself away, and then placed the papers--or some of them--where your people have just found them--in Harborough's shed--seems to me to argue something which is even more puzzling.