`Then my common sense came back all in a rush. I had only one chance. That was to get his body away from this flat, somehow, and dump it somewhere out in the open. Somewhere, say, on the way to the Tower — so that they would think he'd been caught on the way back.
`And it all came to me in a flash — the car. The car was in that garage, not far away. The day was very foggy. I could get the car and drive it into the courtyard with the side-curtains on. Phil's body was as light as a kitten. There were only two flats on the floor; and the windows overlooking the court were blank ones; with the fog to help me, there wasn't great danger of being seen Dr Fell looked at Hadley. `Quite right. The chief inspector was positive on that point, too, when he was considering how Mrs Bitton could have got out of the flat. I think he remarked that a Red Indian in a war bonnet could have walked out of that court without being observed. It was suggestive.' `Well… ' Again Dalrye rubbed his eyes unsteadily. `I hadn't much time. The thing to do was to save time by shooting over to the garage by the Underground — I could do it, with luck, in two minutes, where it would have taken me ten to walk to get the car, and come back for the body.
`I don't know what sort of face I put up in front of those garage people. I told them I was going home, rolled out, and shot back to the flat. If I'd been arrested then… ' He swallowed hard. `I took up Phil's body and carried it out. That was a ghastly time; carrying that thing. My God! I nearly fell down those little steps, and I nearly ran his head through the glass door. When I'd got him stowed in the back of the car, under a rug, I was so weak I thought I hadn't any arms. But I had to go back to the flat to be sure I hadn't overlooked anything. And when I looked round, I got an idea. That top-hat. If I took that along, and put it on Phil… why, you see, they would think the Mad Hatter had killed him! Nobody knew who the hat-thief was. I didn't want to get anybody else in trouble, and that way it was perfectly safe…'
`The chief inspector,' said Dr Fell, 'will have no difficulty understanding you. You needn't elaborate. He had just finished outlining the same idea himself, as being the murderer's line of thought, before you came in. What about the crossbow bolt?'
'I–I left the bolt… you know where. You see, I'd never seen the damn thing before. I didn't know it came from Bitton's house. I simply assumed it was one of Phil's possessions and couldn't do anybody harm. I didn't see the Souvenir de Carcassonne, because you know why. It was hidden.'
Dalrye's nostrils grew taut. His hands clenched on his knees and his voice went high. `But one thing I remembered before I left that flat. I remembered that manuscript in my pocket. I might have killed Phil. I might have been the lowest swine on earth, and I was pretty sure I was. But, by God! I wasn't, going to put dirty dollars in my pocket by selling that manuscript to Arbor now. It was in my pocket. I took it out. I was so wild that I was going to tear it up and take a; handful of the pieces along to throw in Bitton's face. But if I tore it up here… oh, well. They'd find the pieces, and there wasn't any use doing Phil dirt, even if I had killed him. I knew I was wasting time, but I touched a match to it and threw it in the grate…. I had the top hat, squashed flat, under my coat, and I thought I'd attended to everything.'
`You should have put back the fender in its place,' said Dr Fell. '`Nobody, merely searching that flat could have shoved a solid iron fender round the way you did when you had your fight with Driscoll. Well?'
`Then,' said Dalrye, reaching automatically after the whisky, `then I had the first of my two really horrible shocks. When I was just getting outside' the door of the flat, I ran into the porter. I said, "Ha, ha, or something of the sort, and told him what a good fellow, he was, and for no reason at all I handed him half-a-crown. He walked out to the car with me….'
`Son,' said Dr Fell, with, a sudden grunt, 'you told an unnecessary lie to-day, and that car gave you away. When you were telling your story to us at the Tower this afternoon, you said you had never taken the car to the flat at all. You said when you left the flat you had to go to the garage and get it, and then start home. Still, I suppose you couldn't say anything else. But when Mr Hadley here explained this evening about your having the car there, as the porter told him.. No matter. Then?'
`I drove away. I'd put the top-hat on Phil, and stuffed his cap into my pocket. All I had to do was find a side lane somewhere down near the Tower, and pitch him out in the — fog. I didn't bother about fingerprints, for, as God is my judge, I'd never touched that crossbow bolt…. And then, just as I'd laid my plans, and I was getting away from Bloomsbury, do you know what happened?'