“I don't know either,” said Hemingway. “But I think it'll bear looking into. You can attend to that, Horace. If Lindale was a member of the Stock Exchange it won't be difficult to get his dossier.”
“You mean,” said the Sergeant, his brow furrowed, “that Warrenby might have known something to Mr. Lindale's discredit, and was blackmailing him?”
“Well, from all I've been able to gather about this bird that sounds like just the sort of parlour-trick he would get up to.”
“Yes, but whatever for?” objected the Sergeant.
“That's another of the things I don't know. Might not have been blackmailing him at all. If he happened to let on to Lindale that he knew something really damaging about him, Lindale might have shot him to make sure he didn't pass his information on. Depends on what it was, and what sort of chap Lindale is.”
“I wouldn't have said he was that sort at all,” said the Sergeant.
“You may be right,” said Hemingway, as the car pulled up outside Mr. Drybeck's house. “But I once arrested one of the nicest, kindest, most fatherly old codgers you ever saw. You'd have said he couldn't have hurt a fly. Well, I don't know what he was like with flies: it wasn't the right time of the year. I arrested him for sticking a dagger into his brother's back.”
With this encouraging reminiscence, he got out of the car, and trod up the path to Mr. Drybeck's front-door.
It was by this time past seven o'clock, and Mr. Drybeck, whose housekeeper did not allow him to dine at a late hour was just sitting down to an extremely depressing Sunday supper of cold ham, salad, and a pallid shape accompanied by a dish of custard. No one could be surprised that he showed no reluctance to leave this meal. Upon being informed that two gentlemen from Scotland Yard wished to see him, he threw down his napkin, and went at once into the hall, and primly made these visitors welcome.
“I was not unexpectant of a visit from the C.I.D.,” he said. “A very shocking affair, Chief Inspector. I am able to state with certainty that such a thing has never before sullied the annals of our parish. I shall be happy to render you whatever assistance may be within my power. You will first, of course, wish me to account for my own movements at the time of this outrage. That is perfectly proper. Fortunately my memory is a good one, and, I trust, exact. The result of legal training.”