“I am going!” she said. “And it would be a bad job for anybody who kept me any longer! Just as it’ll be a bad job for anybody who spreads any more rumours about me! But I’ve adopted a course that’ll surprise some of you. And you police-folk may as well know what it is—it’s something that ought to have been done before. I’ve instructed Crewe to get out, at once, this very morning, a bill offering a substantial reward to anybody who gives information that’ll lead to the arrest and conviction of Guy Markenmore’s murderer; if you police had had half your wits about you, you’d have done that long since! Lord bless you, do you think there aren’t folk in Markenmore who know something? Why, there isn’t a soul in the place that wouldn’t give his or her own mother away for a five-pound note! And I’m not short of five-pound notes, I can tell you! I could buy all Markenmore up if I wanted!”
“Good morning, Mrs. Braxfield,” said the Chief Constable. Then, remembering that Mrs. Braxfield had come there against her will, he added politely, “Will you have a cab to drive home in? I’ll order one at once.”
“Thank you; I can order cabs for myself, and pay for them, too,” said Mrs. Braxfield as she sailed out. “I want no favours!”
The Chief Constable sighed when Mrs. Braxfield had gone.
“I daresay that’s the real truth, at least, about the automatic pistol,” he remarked. “Why couldn’t Harry Markenmore tell us!”
“I don’t suppose that he knew that she threw it away,” answered Blick. He was walking up and down the room, evidently restless and dissatisfied; finally, he brought up at a window overlooking the street. “Here’s Harry Markenmore himself, with Chilford,” he exclaimed suddenly. “He must have ridden in as soon as he left us in the park. They’ve met Mrs. Braxfield now, and she’s giving them the benefit of her tongue, I think!”
“Let her!” said the Chief Constable. “I’m sick of her!”
“I’m not satisfied about her and Harry Markenmore and that pistol,” observed Blick. “After all, we’ve only got her word for what she alleges, and we haven’t got his at all. If he gave her the pistol for the very innocent reason she spoke of—to keep in the house as a means of protection—why couldn’t he say so, straight out, without all that mystery and losing his temper into the bargain? Not very satisfactory!”
“I suppose he was angry because Mrs. Braxfield is his mother-in-law, and he’d have to tell his wife of what we appeared to suspect,” remarked the Chief Constable. “Not a very nice situation for a young woman who’s come into a family under odd circumstances. I don’t think I should have liked it had I been Harry Markenmore, to have to go and say to my young wife, ‘Look here! the police have collared your mother on suspicion of murdering my brother!’ Would you? So I can excuse his temper.”
Blick made no reply. He continued staring out of the window in silence, for some time. Suddenly he spoke.