“But who would want to?”
“The murderer—if it turns out to be not Pollard. Look here, Penny, Pollard is either innocent or guilty. If guilty, all your deductions are correct, but if innocent they must be transferred to some one else.”
“Surely. But to whom?”
“Dunno yet. Me, I think it is Pollard—but how, how, how did he manage it?”
“Only by a confederate who did the deed.”
“Which is not the solution! I don’t know how I know it, but I know that didn’t happen. Why, a villain might get a gunman to shoot somebody, but not to put up all that elaboration. The fingerprints, the telephoning stunt—all that was the work of an artist in crime, the cleverest criminal in the world, as you’ve admitted. Not a hireling.”
“A hireling might be clever.”
“Not in that way. No, a wizard like that is not anybody’s hireling. He’s in business for himself.”
“Have it your own way. And I think you’re right. Well, then, how did Pollard get down there? Aeroplane?”
“No; there’s a simple explanation, only we haven’t got it yet. Incidentally, how did he get up to New Hampshire and back without being missed here in New York. Aeroplane?”