"Yes," Hannasyde said gently. "Did you know that Fletcher was the man she loved?"
"No. I knew nothing. The Lord sent me to his place where he dwelt. And still I did not know." His hands clenched on his knees till the fingers whitened. "When I have met him he has smiled upon me, with his false lips, and has bidden me good-evening. And I have answered him civilly!"
The Sergeant gave an involuntary shiver. Hannasyde said: "When did you discover the truth?"
"Is it not plain to you? Upon the night that I killed him! When I told you that at 10.02 I saw the figure of a man coming from the side gate at Greystones I lied." His lip curled scornfully; he said: "The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going."
"You were an officer of the Law," Hannasyde said sternly. "Your word was considered to be above suspicion."
"It is so, and in that I acknowledge that I sinned. Yet what I did was laid upon me to do, for none other might wreak vengeance upon Ernest Fletcher. My sister took her own life, but I tell you he was stained with her blood! Would the Law have avenged her? He knew himself to be safe from the Law, but me he did not know!"
"We won't argue about that," Hannasyde said. "What happened on the evening of the 17th?"
"Not at 10.02, but some minutes earlier did I see Carpenter. At the corner of Maple Grove did I encounter him, face to face."
"Carpenter was the man Mrs. North saw?"
"Yes. She was not lying when she told of his visit to Fletcher, for he recounted all to me, while my hand was still upon his throat."