Sir Clinton showed no sign that he attached much importance to Markfield's explanation.
“You became intimate with her some time in 1925, I think, just after the Silverdales came here?”
Markfield nodded his assent.
“And very shortly after that, you and she thought it best to conceal your liaison by seeing as little of each other as possible in public, so as not to draw attention to your relations?”
“That's true.”
“And finally she got hold of young Hassendean to serve as a blind? Advertised herself with him openly, whilst you stayed in the background?”
“You seem to know a good deal about it,” Markfield admitted coldly.
“I think I know all that matters,” the Chief Constable commented. “You've lost the game, Dr. Markfield.”
Markfield seemed to consider the situation rapidly before he spoke again.
“You can't make it worse than manslaughter,” he said at last. “It's no more than that, on the evidence you've given me just now. I saw him shoot Yvonne, and then, in the struggle afterwards, his pistol went off twice by accident and hit him. You couldn't call that a case of murder. I shall plead that it was done in self-defence; and you haven't Whalley to put into the box against me.”