“Then I lose my job,” said Burke grimly.
“Would you have to advertise the fact if you did personally bring Martin to Beech Lodge at, say nine thirty to-night?”
The big man stared at him. “No, but—”
“Then look here. I’m willing to see this last attempt through if you are, but if you’re not, I step down and out. I can’t give you any reasons for saying that I think it will have surprising results, but I do feel that. Admitting that you risk your job, isn’t it worth while taking the chance of producing both the criminal and the evidence? If you decide otherwise, well and good. It’s going to be rather a thick night,” he added, glancing out of the window.
Burke weighed the chances, his eyes half closed, pushing out his broad, full lips and tapping on the bare table. Yes, the night promised to be thick. He saw himself, the guardian of Bamberley, sneaking out of the village in the fog, a criminal chained to his wrist, but himself the more agitated of the two. Against this he was aware that ever since the Millicent case had come to life things just as strange as this had been going on. A man of order and law and precedent, knowing the police code as a parson knows the Pentateuch, he shrank from outlawing himself by doing as Derrick proposed. But here again the consciousness of something beyond the ordinary that lay behind the Millicent case projected itself. He could see the grin that would run through police circles from John O’Groats to Land’s End when the Blunt story came out, and recoiled at the mere thought of it. Without something, as for instance a conviction, to counterbalance that escape, he was done. And he knew it. It was the vision of that official grin that decided him.
“Will you tell me exactly what you suggest I should do?” he asked heavily.
“First, say nothing to Martin. If you want to let Dr. Henry into this, do so, but that’s for you to decide. Fetch Martin to Beech Lodge at exactly nine thirty to-night. Perkins will bring you to the study door, which will be closed. She will knock, and there will be no answer. Then she will naturally open it, and you and she and Martin will see that room just as it looked after the murder two years ago. I will be at the desk in the position in which Millicent was found, and able to give assistance if you want it. You must not speak. I anticipate that Martin, or it may be Perkins, will break the silence, but it is sure to be Martin. His very first words should tell us what we want to know. That’s all.”
Burke listened with strained attention. “If I did bring Martin I couldn’t bring any one else. I mean I couldn’t have any one on duty outside. The two constables could not be allowed to know anything about this.”
Derrick, realizing that the point had been carried, sent him a grave smile. “I don’t think we need bother about the outside of the house to-night, but that’s your end of it. All I ask for is you and Martin at nine thirty. I’m not trying to persuade you into this, sergeant, so drop it if you don’t think it’s good enough. But it’s the only program I can suggest, and I’ve no alternative.”
Burke rose mountainously from his chair. “And I’ve tried to tell you what it involves me in, which is the risk of twenty years’ record and my present job.” He paused, then gave a determined grunt. “But I’ll do it.”