CHAPTER XX
FREYBERGER was now virtually in charge of the case.
He had forty-eight hours before him. He felt about the case just as an engineer feels about some delicate piece of mechanism, which has not yet been put in position, and which any jar or shock may destroy. He shuddered to think of the brutal method of a dragnet search being applied to the Gyde case.
It would be like chasing a moth with a pair of tongs. A million to one the thing will not be caught and a certainty that if caught it will be ruined.
He fancied the derision with which the dark spirit with which he was at war would greet the efforts of the police.
It was half-past one now, the hour when he usually had luncheon, but to-day he was not hungry. He went to a private room, got all the pièces de conviction together and then proceeded to go through the whole case, incident by incident, item by item.
A few more details had come to light in the last few hours. The full report of the post-mortem examination of the body found in the cottage on the fells had come to hand.
There was mention of no mark upon it that might serve for identification, the height before decapitation the surgeon judged would have been about five feet eight inches. The underclothes were marked “E.K.,” evidently Klein’s initials.
At five o’clock Freyberger had finished his review of the case, every minutest detail was in his memory and ready to spring into position when required.
He was just folding up his papers when a knock came to the door and an officer entered with an envelope in his hand.