Why had he not announced his intention? Storm could not conceive of deliberate reticence on the part of old George! No, he couldn’t have planned it; he probably ran into the policeman by accident after he left the house, and remembering the incident which Millard had described he must have plied him with questions until the good-natured official writhed.
Yet he had jotted down the replies in a little book, and in the morning he had called up Millard for further information as to the name of newspapers found in Horton’s bag. He could not have an inkling of the truth, of course. It must be as Storm had concluded that morning; that George, still adhering to his theory of the murder having been a one-man job, was seeking to confirm it in his own mind before trying to locate some recent associate or crony of Horton’s who might have been with him on that night.
He would never reach the true solution, of course, but it was just as well, all things considered, that he was to be dragged away on that fishing trip and compelled to drop his self-imposed rôle of investigator until the police themselves relegated the case to the shelf.
Storm had removed his dripping garments, and arrayed himself in his pajamas, and as he turned off the light and went to bed a thought came which made him smile grimly in the darkness.
He had done it twice, and gotten away with it. He could do it a third time! If George knew, if George betrayed the least sign of being on the right track, then he, too, must be eliminated!
Up there in the woods alone Storm could sound him, could analyze every word and inflection and look; there would be no habitation near, no one within sight or hearing for days. If murder could be so simply, successfully accomplished here in the heart of the city, what mere child’s play it would be up in there in the wilderness!
He chuckled aloud, unconscious that he was giving audible voice to his reflections:
“One thing is sure; nothing must interfere with that trip! I’ve got to go fishing with George!”
Chapter XXV.
The Final Test
When Storm arose in the morning his head still ached in a dull, insistent way; but his energy had returned, and the thought which had been his last before sleep had crystallized into a definite decision. He must study George’s every move during that fishing trip, probe him on every point of the case, weigh with a clear, unprejudiced mind every slightest possibility of his learning the truth and then act as his final judgment dictated.