Hadley sat up suddenly. `My God! it was the afternoon of his uncle's monthly visit to him!'
.''Exactly. Bitton didn't intend making the call, but Driscoll didn't know that. He'd forgotten that visit. And Bitton had a key to his flat. He would walk in there, and there, in the flat with no attempt to hide them, were the two hats he had stolen. That was bad enough. But if Bitton grew suspicious, and searched, and found his manuscript
Hadley nodded. `He had to get back to his flat to head off Sir William.'
`He couldn't explain to Laura Bitton, you see. And, if he could, he couldn't take the time. So he did what many another man has done with a woman. He shooed her away and said he would join her in five minutes. Of course, with out any idea of doing it….’
`And do you see what he did? Remember your plan of the Tower, Hadley. He couldn't walk along Water Lane towards the main gate. That way led only to the way out; he couldn't have pretended an errand, and it would have roused the woman's suspicions. So he went the other way along Water Lane, and out of the other gate to Thames Wharf — unnoticed in the fog. That was at half past one.
`You yourself told me, Hadley, that by Underground a person could go to Russell Square in fifteen minutes or even less. And it seemed to me, if Mrs Bitton could do it at five o'clock, why couldn't Driscoll have done it at one-thirty? He would arrive at the flat, in short, about ten minutes to two or a trifle later. the time the police surgeon said he died. But, you see, where all your calculations went wrong was in assuming Driscoll had never left the Tower. The possibility never entered your head. I don't think we should have found a warder who saw him go out, even if we had tried, at that side gate. But the thing simply didn't occur to anybody.'
`But he was found on the Traitors' Gate! I… Never mind,' said Hadley. `Do you feel like going on, Dalrye?'
`So that was it,' the other said, dully. `I see. I see now. I only thought he might have suspected me….
`Let me tell you what I did. He was dead. I saw that. And for a second I went into a sheer panic. I saw that I'd committed a murder. I had already prepared the way for a theft, and I was in deeply enough,' but here was a murder. Nobody would believe it had been an accident. And where I made my mistake was this: I thought Driscoll had told them at the Tower he was coming back there! I could only imagine that they knew! And I had already definitely proved that I was at the flat, because I'd spoken to Parker on the telephone. I thought Driscoll had just changed his mind, and returned — and there I was with the body, when everybody knew we were both there.'
He shuddered.