“ ‘Man.’ Just ‘man,’ nothing else.”
The superintendent gave an excited laugh. “Now I know what the note contained,” he said. “ ‘Monday, Dear Woodman, Meet me in the garden.—J.P.’ How does that strike you? The note was from Prinsep to Woodman; but it was written on the day before the murders. Lord, what a pity you didn’t keep the fragment. My dear inspector, never destroy anything. That is the only safe course for a man like you.”
“I did show it to the sergeant, sir,” said the inspector, considerably crestfallen at his superior’s tone.
“Come, that’s a bit better. The judge will probably accept your combined testimonies. It’s a great pity, though, you didn’t realise the importance of that scrap of charred paper. However, for our own purposes at least I think we can take it as proved that Woodman deliberately prepared and planted that note on the scene of the crime, believing that the other piece was safely burnt in the fire in Prinsep’s room. Our case against Woodman is mounting up. Come, inspector, you must follow up these new clues at once.”
“Don’t forget Woodman’s alibi. That still holds unless we can shake it.”
“It must be your next business to shake it. We now know that Woodman did leave the Cunningham Hotel that evening. It is your job to discover how he left it and how he got into Liskeard House. Make these the next points, inspector.”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
“And there is one other matter I should tell you about, though, in the light of our discoveries, it is now probably of quite minor importance, I think. Still, we must not be too cocksure, or neglect any fact that may possibly bear on the case. If we are right about Woodman, then he planned the whole affair very carefully; but he took a big risk all the same.”
“Having you to reckon with, yes.”
“Well, I doubt if a man would take a risk of that magnitude without some very urgent reason—such as grave and immediate financial embarrassment. I want you to look into Woodman’s record, make inquiries about him in the city, and see if he appears to be in Queer Street, or anything of that sort.”