"Have you ever tried sliding a club up your sleeve?" inquired Hannasyde.
"Not a club. Call it a malacca cane."
"A malacca cane would not have caused those head injuries. The weapon was heavy, if a stick a very thick one, more like a cudgel."
The Sergeant pursed his lips. "If it's Neville we don't have to worry about the weapon he used to do in his uncle. He had plenty of time to get rid of that, or clean it, or whatever he did do with it. As far as the second murder's concerned - I suppose he couldn't have got that paper-weight into his pocket, could he?"
"Not without its being very noticeable. The head of the statue on top must have stuck out."
"Might not have been noticed in the bad light. I'll get on to Brown again - he's the chap with the coffee-wagon - and that taxi-driver. Not but what I'm bound to say we questioned them pretty closely before. Still, you never know."
"And the hat?"
"The hat's a nuisance," declared the Sergeant. "If he hasn't got an opera hat, perhaps he borrowed the late Ernie's, just because he knew no one would expect him to wear one. He could have carried it shut up under his arm without the butler's noticing it when he left the house. When he changed hats, he must have stuffed his own into his pocket."
"Two bulging pockets now," observed Hannasyde dryly. "Yet two witnesses - we won't commit the girl; she was too vague - said there was nothing out of the ordinary about him. And that raises another point. The taxi-driver, who seemed to me quite an intelligent chap, described his fare's appearance as that of an ordinary, nice-looking man. He didn't think he would know him again if confronted with him. When pressed, he could only repeat that he looked like dozens of other men of between thirty and forty. Now, if you met Neville Fletcher, do you think you'd recognise him again?"
"Yes," said the Sergeant reluctantly. "I would. No mistaking him. For one thing he's darker than most, and not what I'd call a usual type. He's got those silly long eyelashes too, and that smile which gets my goat. No: no one in their senses would say he's like dozens of others. Besides, he's younger than thirty, and looks it. Well, what do we do now?"