# XIII: The Transport of Supplies explained — The Box Office Murders

> Chapter companion for The Box Office Murders by Freeman Wills Crofts.

## What happens

Inspector French obtains genuine half crowns from the Mint and exchanges them for Welland's coins from Molly Moran. He examines the coins and finds them to be genuine, not counterfeit. French struggles to understand the purpose of the coin exchange operation, suspecting it may be a blind for more sinister activities. He traces a pattern of large half crown deposits at a bank to Welland, deepening the mystery.

## Themes in this chapter

### Police Procedure and Detection

French systematically investigates the coin exchange, uses bank records, and employs deductive reasoning to trace the flow of half crowns.

### Deception and Trust

French questions the authenticity of Welland's story and suspects the coin exchange is a cover for illegal activities, highlighting the theme of deception.

## Character check-ins

### Inspector Joseph French

Investigates the half crown exchange, obtains coins from the Mint, exchanges them with Molly Moran, and traces deposits to Welland.

### Molly Moran

Meets French at the Panopticon, provides Welland's half crowns, and is warned to avoid Waterloo and Harrow.

### Curtice Welland

Suspected of being the man depositing large numbers of half crowns at the Knightsbridge branch of the London and County Bank.

### Mr. Elwood

Manager of the Knightsbridge branch who contacts French about Welland's weekly half crown deposits.

### Mr. Whitley

Clerk at the bank who confirms the identity of the depositor as Mr. Welland.

## Key lines

> The only explanation which French could devise was that some eccentrically minded miser had spent his life hoarding them.

French could only think that a peculiar miser had saved the coins over many years.

_French speculates on the origin of the half crowns._

> Suppose all these apparently contradictory premises were true? Suppose Welland was neither obtaining half crowns nor disposing of them? Suppose he was changing one perfectly good lot of them for another?

What if Welland was not acquiring or getting rid of half crowns, but simply swapping one set of genuine coins for another?

_French considers the possibility that the exchange is a meaningless diversion._

> If when following a trail of footsteps he came to hard ground on which they were not visible, he made a cast and went on to the next soft area in the hope of picking them up again.

When the evidence went cold, French would skip ahead to the next promising lead.

_French uses a mental trick to advance his investigation._

## Links

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