Part 20 (1/2)

”Well, what do you call this girl Fanning? Isn't she in the case? Surely, you don't want any better explanation of the murder than a quarrel between her and Sir Horace over this man Birchill?”

”Yes, I see that plain enough,” replied Rolfe. ”There is ample motive for the crime, but how that piece of handkerchief got into the dead man's hand is still a mystery to me. It would be easily explained if this girl was present in the room or the house when the murder was committed. But she wasn't. Hill's story is that she was at the flat with him.”

”When you have had as much experience in investigating crime as I have, you won't worry over little points that at first don't seem to fit in with what we know to be facts,” responded the inspector in a patronising tone. ”I noticed from the first, Rolfe, that you were inclined to make too much of this handkerchief business, but I said nothing. Of course, it was your own discovery, and I have found during my career that young detectives are always inclined to make too much of their own discoveries.

Perhaps I was myself, when I was young and inexperienced. Now, as to this handkerchief: what is more likely than that Birchill had it in his pocket when he went out to Riversbrook on that fatal night? He was living in the flat with this girl Fanning: what was more natural than that he should pick up a handkerchief off the floor that the girl had dropped and put it in his pocket with the intention of giving it to her when she returned to the room? Instead of doing so he forgot all about it. When he shot Sir Horace Fewbanks he put his hand into his pocket for a handkerchief to wipe his forehead or his hands--it was a hot night, and I take it that a man who has killed another doesn't feel as cool as a cuc.u.mber. While stooping over his victim with the handkerchief still in his hand, the dying man made a convulsive movement and caught hold of a corner of the handkerchief, which was torn off.” Inspector Chippenfield looked across at his subordinate with a smile of triumphant superiority.

”Yes,” said Rolfe meditatively. ”There is nothing wrong about that as far as I can see. But I would like to know for certain how it got there.”

Inspector Chippenfield was satisfied with his subordinate's testimony to his perspicacity.

”That is all right, Rolfe,” he said in a tone of kindly banter. ”But don't make the mistake of regarding your idle curiosity as a virtue.

After the trial, if you are still curious on the point, I have no doubt Birchill will tell you. He is sure to make a confession before he is hanged.”

But it was more a spirit of idle curiosity than anything else that brought Rolfe to Crewe's chambers in Holborn an hour later. Having secured the murderer, he felt curious as to what Crewe's feelings were on his defeat. It was the first occasion that he had been on a case which Crewe had been commissioned to investigate, and he was naturally pleased that Inspector Chippenfield and he had arrested the author of the crime while Crewe was all at sea. It was plain from the fact that the latter had thought it necessary to visit Scotland that he had got on a false scent. It was not Scotland, but Scotland Yard that Crewe should have visited, Rolfe said to himself with a smile.

Crewe, in pursuance of his policy of keeping on the best of terms with the police, gave Rolfe a very friendly welcome. He produced from a cupboard two gla.s.ses, a decanter of whisky, a siphon of soda, and a box of cigars. Rolfe quickly discovered that the cigars were of a quality that seldom came his way, and he leaned back in his chair and puffed with steady enjoyment.

”Then you are determined to hang Birchill?” said Crewe, as with a cigar in his fingers he faced his visitor with a smile.

”We'll hang him right enough,” said Rolfe. He pulled the cigar out of his mouth and looked at it approvingly. Though the talk was of hanging, he had never felt more thoroughly at peace with the world.

”It will be a pity if you do,” said Crewe.

”Why?”

”Because he's the wrong man.”

”It would take a lot to make me believe that,” said Rolfe stoutly. ”We've got a strong case against him--there is not a weak point in it. I admit that Hill is a tainted witness, but they'll find it pretty hard to break down his story. We've tested it in every way and find it stands. Then there are the bootmarks outside the window. Birchill's boots fit them to the smallest fraction of an inch. The jemmy found in the flat fits the mark made in the window at Riversbrook, and we've got something more--another witness who saw him in Tanton Gardens about the time of the murder. If Birchill can get his neck out of the noose, he's cleverer than I take him for.”

Crewe did not reply directly to Rolfe's summary of the case.

”I see that they've briefed Holymead for the defence,” he said after a pause.

”A waste of good money,” said the police officer. Something appealed to his sense of humour, for he broke out into a laugh.

”What are you laughing at?” asked Crewe.

”I was wondering how Sir Horace feels when he sees the money he gave this girl Fanning being used to defend his murderer.”

”You are a hardened scamp, Rolfe, with a very perverse sense of humour,”

said Crewe.

”It was a cunning move of them to get Holymead,” said Rolfe. ”They think it will weigh with the jury because he was such a close friend of Sir Horace--that he wouldn't have taken up the case unless he felt that Birchill was innocent. But you and I know better than that, Mr. Crewe. A lawyer will prove that black is white if he is paid for it. In fact, I understand that, according to the etiquette of the bar, they have got to do it. A barrister has to abide by his brief and leave his personal feelings out of account.”

”That's so. Theoretically he is an officer of the Court, and his services are supposed to be at the call of any man who is in want of him and can afford to pay for them. Of course, a leading barrister, such as Holymead, often declines a brief because he has so much to do, but he is not supposed to decline it for personal reasons.”

”His heart will not be in the case,” said Rolfe philosophically.

”On the contrary, I think it will,” said Crewe. ”My own opinion is that, if necessary, he will exert his powers to the utmost in order to get Birchill off, and that he will succeed.”