Detective Gillett stared in surprise at the inscrutable face of the man whose powers of deduction he had learned to look on with admiring awe. Sergeant Westaway, whose legs had become cramped owing to his uncomfortable attitude in a low chair, shifted his position uneasily, and also looked intently at Crewe.
“Then whom do you suspect?” exclaimed Gillett in astonishment.
“Suspect?” said Crewe with a slight note of protest in his voice. “I suspect no one. Suspicions in regard to this, that and the other merely cloud the view. Let us look at the facts and see what they prove.”
“I don’t think you want better proof of murder than that the man who was seen carrying the body of the murdered man subsequently disappears, in order to escape being questioned by the police.”
“It looks what you call suspicious,” said Crewe, “but it is not proof. You assume that Brett is the murderer, but you do not know any of the circumstances under which the crime was committed.”
“Lumsden was walking along the road to meet Brett. They did meet, and in discussing this séance they quarrelled about the division of the money.”
“But why quarrel about dividing the money before the money was found? They already had had some disappointments about finding the money.”
“They may have quarrelled about something else. But why did Brett disappear, and why did he take the body to the farm and endeavour to manufacture misleading clues?”
“I admit that his conduct is suspicious—that it is difficult to account for. But if he is guilty—if he shot Lumsden on the road or when they were driving along the road—why did he take the body to the farm where it was sure to be discovered, as he knew the Granges were to get there by 6 p. m.? Wouldn’t it have been better for him to hide the body in a field or a ditch? That would have given him more time to escape.”
“He took the body to the farm for the purpose of making us believe that the murder was committed there,” rejoined Gillett slowly and positively.