"One thing is evident," he declared. "Every bit of evidence we have heard points towards it. I do not wish to defame the memory of the dead, but this man Depping was not what he seemed. His past life — his unaccountable past life — his actions, and contradictions, are all those of a man who is playing a part… "
"Yes," said Dr. Fell, with a sort of obstinacy; "that's too evident to mention. But who's been eating his dinner?"
"Confound his dinner!" roared the bishop, letting off steam for the first time. "You know it, Storer. I believe you know it too, Morley…"
He swung round to young Standish, who had remained near the door with his hands jammed into his pockets. Morley lifted his eyes. Morley said equably:
"Sorry, sir. I don't know anything of the kind."
"It does not surprise me," pursued His Reverence, "that Depping should have been consorting with criminals. In all likelihood he has been a criminal himself in the past, and he has been living here to assume a guise of respectability. He knew Louis Spinelli. Louis Spinelli tracked him down for the purpose of blackmailing him… Depping's 'business.' What was his business? Does anybody know anything about it?"
"Excuse me, sir," observed the valet. "He had — he informed me — a large financial interest in the publishing firm of Standish & Burke. But, as I told the police officer this morning, he was trying to get rid of that interest. You see, he told me all about it when he was — indisposed the last time."
"I meant his business previous to five years ago. He never mentioned that to you, I dare say?… I thought not."
His Reverence was regaining his self-confidence. He moved one hand up and down the lapel of his ponderous black coat. "Now, let us reconstruct what happened last night, if we can. Shortly after the storm began, around eleven o'clock, this stranger — I mean the American, whose name we know to be Spinelli — rang the doorbell and asked to see Mr. Depping. That is correct, Storer? Thank you… Now, as a matter of form I must ask you to identify him; I have two photographs here" — he produced them from his inside pocket and handed them to the valet. That is the man who called on Mr. Depping, is it not?"
Storer looked at the snapshots with care. He handed them back.