Derrick frowned a little. If this was a joke, it was a poor one; if not, the man was mad.
“I don’t follow you.”
“It’s just as I say, sir. He’s got away.”
“A dead man! Who took him?”
“Damn it, Mr. Derrick, don’t you understand English? He’s not dead—he never was,” exploded Burke chaotically; “he’s come to life again, and escaped.”
Derrick blinked. It was ridiculous, absurd, and yet—Burke’s face was so red, his eyes so strained, the whole great body of him labored under such excitement, that his earnestness could not be doubted.
“Will you please tell me exactly what has happened?” he said with slow and almost painful distinctness.
“I will. The body was taken to the jail at the same time as Martin, and I sent for Dr. Henry, but he was away at Eversleigh on some serious case. I put it in an empty room used as a morgue at the other end of the building from Martin’s cell. I examined it before I turned in. It was just the same, but colder, with the hands quite stiff, the face a sort of blue gray, and no pulse. A little after midnight I got to bed, knowing that Dr. Henry would come to me as soon as he arrived. He was out all night and didn’t get back till time for breakfast, after which he went straight to the station. I had been back for three hours then, saw Martin, who was all right, but didn’t go into the morgue. When I took Dr. Henry there it was empty—and that’s all.”
Burke concluded this remarkable statement with an eloquent and helpless gesture, looking at Derrick with a sort of faint hopefulness that perhaps the thing was not quite as baffling as it sounded. He was grimly conscious that the Millicent case was reopened, but not in the manner and with the prospects that a few days ago were so comforting. His dreams of promotion had vanished. Why promote a man to escape from whom it was only necessary to feign death? But all the signs of death had been there. This and much more had jockeyed through his brain as he pumped savagely up the long hill from Bamberley village. His attitude now invited his amateur adviser to suggest the next move if he could. The story would be all over England in a day or two. And Burke hated to think of that.
“You’ve heard of cases of suspended animation?” asked Derrick after a long pause.