Even though he’d forgotten which edition had the photos of the stolen jewellery, that edition had actually been in the bundle Mr. Sheenan had given him, and he was now carefully cutting out the pictures and the detailed descriptions beneath each one, in order that he might carry them in his wallet.
The reason he was doing this was because he’d decided that there was a better way he could prove whether or not Mr. Varley — regardless of whether that was his legal name or not — was tied up with the robberies.
He’d come up with it almost as soon as he’d seen the pictures, as he’d not had any idea how large the pictures were when he’d read about them in the other article, but he was glad to discover that they were all quite large photos, meaning they gave good detail of each piece of jewellery, even if they weren’t colourised.
His suspicion was that, regardless of what Mr. Varley’s legal name was, if he was tied up in the robbery — and guiltily so, despite his claims — he might be in Chicago to disperse of the jewellery in a location that was, at least he was hoping, far enough removed from the robbery to allow him to sell the pieces without anyone suspecting that they were, in fact, stolen.
As a result, Joseph could use the photos and the detailed descriptions with them to scout around local pawnshops and jewellery stores, especially in the vicinity, considering Mr. Varley both lived and worked in the area, and see if Mr. Varley was pawning off the jewellery.
If he couldn’t find the jewellery, then it was entirely possible that Mr. Varley was as innocent as he claimed — although whether or not he was Charlie McElligott remained an unanswered question — but if he did, and Mr. Varley was the one responsible for pawning it off, then Theresa had been wooed by a crook who needed to be arrested.
Joseph didn’t really like the idea of Theresa having been such a poor judge of character as to be taken in by a robber, but considering the convincing acting displays he’d seen from Mr. Varley so far, it was entirely possible.
Of course, if Joseph were to find that the jewellery was being pawned in Chicago, but by someone who didn’t match Mr. Varley’s description, then, despite the statements in all of the articles he’d read so far, the robbery could possibly have been committed with an associate who got away without discovery.
Indeed, Joseph mused as he carefully clipped the photos — which he’d carefully cut out in one block — apart so that he could look at each one and its description individually, it was entirely possible that Mr. Varley had actually let Joseph into his apartment deliberately on both occasions to show Joseph he was alone in an effort to persuade Joseph that he was a falsely accused man who was alone and friendless in Chicago when, in fact, his associate had been away on those very evenings pawning the goods, or maybe he and his associate were living separately in order to cast suspicion away from themselves.
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