He put his hand in his pocket and produced a sheet of paper which had evidently been folded and unfolded fairly often since it had been first written upon.
“If you reject accident as a possibility in Hassendean's case,” he continued, “then you bring the thing within these limits here.”
He put his paper down on the table and Sir Clinton read the following:
| Hassendean | Mrs. Silverdale |
|---|---|
| A—Suicide | Suicide |
| B—Murder | Murder |
| C—Suicide | Accident |
| D—Murder | Accident |
| E—Suicide | Murder |
| F—Murder | Suicide |
“Now I think it's possible to eliminate even further than that, sir, for this reason. There's a third death—the maid's at Heatherfield—which on the face of it is connected in some way with these others. I don't see how you can cut the Heatherfield business away from the other two.”
“I'm with you there, Inspector,” Sir Clinton assured him.
Flamborough, obviously relieved to find that he was not going to be attacked in the flank, pursued his exposition with more confidence.
“Who killed the maid? That's an important point. It wasn't young Hassendean, because the maid was seen alive by Dr. Ringwood immediately after young Hassendean had died on his hands. It certainly wasn't Mrs. Silverdale, because everything points to her having died even before young Hassendean left the bungalow to go home and die at Ivy Lodge. Therefore, there was somebody afoot in the business that night who wouldn't stick at murder to gain his ends, whatever they were.”
“Nobody's going to quarrel with that, Inspector.”
“Very good, sir,” Flamborough continued. “Now, with that factor at the back of one's mind, one might review these six remaining cases in the light of what we do know.”