The+Royal+Spa+Hotel

Chapter 4: The Royal Spa Hotel
 * George Ryerson is the Chief Constable (British name for the head of a police force) of Middleshire who is working with Detective Inspector Dermot Craddock. Both men are assigned to the case at Little Paddocks.
 * The detectives are talking about “Mittel Europas” and how crazy they are (29). The detectives are going to love Mitzi.
 * The dead man is identified as Rudi Scherz, who worked at the Royal Spa Hotel.
 *  Sargent Fletcher is introduced, and he is another detective on the case
 * Sir Henry (ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard) arrives with the first clue.
 * Rudi Scherz hand delivered the announcement to the newspaper, he planned to "“get the a lot of the locals curious”" so he could get them together and rob everyone (30).
 * Chipping Cleghorn is described as a "“large, sprawling, picturesque village”", which contrasts the murder that happened there (31).
 * Sir Henry says to Craddock, "“remember that an elderly unmarried woman who knits and gardens is streets ahead of any detective”" (31). Good thing Chipping Cleghorn has quite a few of those.
 * Surprisingly, Craddock is Sir Henry’s godson. Apparently, despite Sir Henry’s scolding of Craddock they’re “on easy and intimate terms” with each other (31).
 * Since the reports say the revolver killed Scherz at close range, the detectives think he could have done it to himself, but most likely tripped and set the revolver off.
 * All the men seem generally unimpressed with the whole situation.
 * Craddock goes to the Royal Spa hotel and meets Mr. Rowlandson, the manager.
 * Craddock catches “the infinitesimal pause” Mr. Rowlandson takes before saying Schrez was “"quite satisfactory"” (33). Craddock knows there's more to the story.
 * Mr. Rowlandson thinks Scherz was scamming money from the hotel, but he says he has “"nothing really to go upon”" (33). However, he had an accountant check the books to see if Scherz had been stealing, but the actual amount of cash added up.
 * Craddock deducts that “”if he wanted to replace missing sums, he would have had to get money- by a holdup or other means?”” (34). There’s a possible motive.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mr. Rowlandson points Craddock to the next lead, Myrna Harris, the woman in Scherz’s life.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Myrna Harris tells Craddock she doesn't ""know a thing about it, sir. Not a thing"" (34).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Craddock talks to her a little longer, but can't seem to get any useful information out of her.

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