“A child could see it,” he muttered to himself as Wilson called out:
“Martin has spilled! Says he tricked the maid, who, by the way, is in love with him, into letting him into Elvira’s room. There he declared his love for her, demanded that she fly with him, and when she refused seized up the family revolver and shot her down, maddened by her command that he realise his place and return to the stables where he belonged. He escaped through the window after placing the revolver in her hand. They are going to book him now for murder.”
Lanagan took a long time to digest this bit of surprising information. He made no comment other than to say:
“You’re through for the night now, aren’t you, Jim? With Leslie vouching for Martin as the man?”
“Yes,” replied Jim, “and now I’m off.”
A moment after he had been left alone Lanagan had Leslie on the telephone.
“Chief? Lanagan. Hop into your car and meet me at Farrelly’s. Bring Martin along. It’s quarter to one. Make time. And this is something absolutely between you and me; me and the Enquirer. Scoot now, Chief. I’ve something to interest you.”
Since the incident in the room earlier in the evening Leslie had been restless about Lanagan. Within ten minutes the police automobile stopped at Farrelly’s. Leslie and Brady, with Martin walking between them, entered.
Lanagan quickly led the way to the side room.
One grimed incandescent lit the room pallidly. Around a beer-stained table the four men sat, Martin farthest from the door. Lanagan’s eyes were fairly snapping as he opened his pocketbook and spread it out upon the table. From it he extracted his little papers, each containing a piece or two of red hair. He laid each separate hair slowly, deliberately, before them all upon the table. Martin was watching the performance with eyes that glistened in the intensity of his interest. Equally absorbed were Leslie and Brady. Deliberately, precisely, Lanagan laid out the hairs—two from the brush of Mrs. Hemingway, one from the coat collar of Macondray, two from Martin’s cap, and the two short bits from the bracelet of Elvira.