eight o'clock
`` I have no suspicion of anyone at present , '' I answered . `` Let the police search the place , and they may discover something which will furnish them with a clue . '' I noticed some telegraph-forms in the stationery rack on a small writing-table , and taking one scribbled a couple of lines to Sir Bernard , at Hove , informing him of the mysterious affair . This I folded and placed in my pocket in readiness for the re-opening of the telegraph office at eight o'clock . Shortly afterwards we heard the wheels of the cab outside , and a few minutes later were joined by a police inspector in uniform and an officer in plain clothes . In a few brief sentences I explained to them the tragic circumstances , and then led them upstairs to the dead man 's room . After a cursory glance around , they went forth again out upon the landing in order to await the arrival of two other plain-clothes officers who had come round on foot , one of them the sergeant of the Criminal Investigation Department attached to the Kew station .