`This isn't real,' he said. `It can't be. Are you telling me, as a police officer, without any joking…'
`I've been walking the streets for an hour,' the young man answered. `When I kissed Sheila good-night over at her friends' place I knew it was the last time I'd ever see her outside the dock. And so I thought I couldn't tell you. But I realized I couldn't go on this way, either.' He put his head in his hands. Then an idea seemed to strike him and he peered round, `Did somebody say he knew it already?'
`Yes,' snapped Dr Fell, grimly. `And if you'd had the sense to keep your mouth shut….'
Hadley had taken out his notebook. His fingers were shaking and his voice was not clear. `Mr Dalrye,' he said, `it is my duty to warn you that anything you say may be taken down….'
`All right,' said Dalrye. He peered blindly at the drink Rampole was holding out, and clutched it. `Thanks. I can use that…. I, suppose there's no good telling you it was an accident, is there? He really killed himself, you know; that is, he jumped at me, and in the fight… Christ knows, I didn't want to hurt him. I only — I only tried to steal that damned manuscript….’
He breathed noisily for a moment.
`This may be true,' the chief inspector said, studying him queerly. `But I hope it's not. I hope you can tell me how you answered the telephone in Driscoll's flat at a quarter to two, and killed Driscoll at the Tower of London a few minutes later.'
Dr Fell rapped his stick against: the edge of the mantelpiece. `It's out now, Hadley. The damage is done. And I may as well tell you that you've put your finger on the essential point. It's where your whole case went wrong… You see, Driscoll was not killed at the Tower of London. He was killed in his own flat'
`He was… Great God’ Hadley said, despairingly. `All this is nonsense!'
`No, it isn't,' said Dalrye. `It's true enough, Why Phil came back to his flat 'I don't know; I can’t imagine. I'd taken good care he should be at the Tower. That was why I faked the telephone call to myself. But I–I only wanted to keep him out of the way so that I could steal the manuscript.'