came in about seven-thirty and told me a little…. `Are you aware that an excellent case could be made out against your wife for the murder of Driscoll?'
Hadley was in action now. Rampole stared at him; a placid merchant ship suddenly running out the masked batteries. Hitherto, the American knew, he had lacked proof of his most, vital point, and Bitton had supplied it., He sat grey and inexorable, his fingers interlocked, his eyes burning.
`Just a moment, Mr Bitton. Don't say anything. I'll give you no theories. I simply intend to tell you facts.
`Your wife was having an affair with Philip Driscoll. She wrote a note telling him to meet her to-day at one-thirty at the Tower of London. We know that he received this note, because it was found in his pocket. The note informed' him that they were being watched. Driscoll lived off the bounty of a quick-tempered and far from indulgent uncle. I, will not say that if the uncle ever discovered any such scandal he would disinherit his nephew — because even that obvious point is a theory. I will not say that Driscoll saw the vital necessity for breaking off his liaison — because that obvious point is a theory, too.
'But he did telephone Robert Dalrye to get him out of a mess, just after he received that letter. And, later, someone did speak to Dalrye on the telephone, in a high voice, and lured him away on a wild-goose chase to this flat. You need not consider the following inferences, because they are theories: (i) That Driscoll always ran to Dalrye when he was in trouble, 2)That all Driscoll's family knew this, (3) That Dalrye's level-headedness would have caused the impressionable Driscoll to break off such a dangerous entanglement, (4) That Driscoll was in a mood to break it off, because he had not seen his paramour for several weeks and he was a youth of roving fancy, (5) That this paramour felt convinced she could keep him in line if she saw him once again alone, without the interference of a cool-headed third party, (6) That Driscoll's paramour knew of this morning telephone call through Sheila Bitton, who had also spoken with Dalrye on the phone that morning, (7) That the voice of Driscoll's paramour is, for a woman, fairly deep, and, finally (8) That a voice on the telephone speaking quickly, chaotically, and almost unintelligibly, can pass without detection for the tones of almost anyone the speaker may choose.'
Hadley was quite unemotional. He spaced his words as though he were reading a document, and his interlocked fingers seemed to beat time to them.
`I have told you these were inferences. Now for more facts,' the chief inspector continued.. `The appointment in the note had been for one-thirty. One-thirty is the last time Driscoll was seen alive. He was standing near the Traitors' Gate, and some person approached out of the shadows and touched his arm. At precisely twenty-five minutes to two, a woman answering to the description of your wife was seen hurrying away from the vicinity of the Traitors' Gate. She was hurrying so blindly, in fact, that she bumped squarely into the witness who saw her in a roadway no wider than this room. Finally, when Driscoll's body was found on the steps of the Traitors' Gate, he was discovered to have been stabbed with a weapon which your wife purchased last year in southern France, and which was ready to her hand in her own home.
`Can't you imagine what a clever lawyer could do with all those points, Mr Bitton? And I am only a policeman.'
Bitton hoisted up his big body. His hands were shaking and the rims of his eyes were red.
`Damn you,' he said, `that's what you think, is it? I'm glad you didn't make an unutterable ass of yourself before you told me how good your case was, and arrested her. I'm going to blow your whole case higher than hell without stepping any further than that flat across the hall. Because I have a witness who saw her the whole time she was at the Tower of London, and can swear Driscoll was alive after she left him.'