"All right, it certainly looks like being one up to you. What I'm due for is one of the bigger official kicks. See who that is!"
The Inspector opened the door to admit the policesurgeon. Dr Yoxall came briskly in, cast a dispassionate glance at the body in the chair, and set down his bag. "Evening, Hemingway! What's all this?"
"Just another little job for you, sir. Getting monotonous, isn't it?"
The doctor bent over the body, deigning no response. After a few moments, he said: "I can't tell you anything you aren't capable of grasping for yourself. Been dead under an hour; strangulation; method identical with the first death in this room. What have you got, Chief Inspector? A homicidal maniac?"
"Looks like it, doesn't it, sir? Did she die where you see her?"
The doctor's sharp eyes studied the position of the body. "Hard to say. She may have slipped forward on the chair in her death-throes. I shouldn't have expected to have found her quite like that, but I'm not prepared to say she couldn't have got into that position. A ruthless man, this murderer: wish you luck, Hemingway! Have the body sent down to the mortuary when you've finished with it. Not that I shall be able to tell you anything more: I shan't. A dull case! Thought so at the start! "Night!"
"The only case that chap thinks is interesting," said Hemingway, when the doctor had gone, "is the kind of messy job where you get half the medical profession into the witness-box, swearing blind that black's white just to score off the other half!"
"Och, now, whisht!" said the Inspector reasonably. "Here is Bromley!"
Several persons came into the room. Hemingway nodded to their leader. "Case of Here we are again, Tom! Get busy, will you? Get me a composite, taking in the body, and those marks on the carpet. I don't have to tell you what to try for, Bromley: go over all the furniture - mantelpiece - anything a man might have put his hand on! You stay, Sandy: you can let the ambulance-men take the body away as soon as these chaps have finished. Lock the room!"
He left the room as he spoke, and went down the stairs to the hall. Here, Thrimby awaited him. He said: "Now then, let's hear what you've got to say! Come in here!"