“And then disappeared in order to direct the police suspicions to himself,” said Crewe.
“No doubt he was inconsistent,” Gillett admitted. “But a murderer manufacturing false clues would scarcely be in the frame of mind to think out everything beforehand. The object of leaving false clues was to get sufficient time to escape. Surely, Mr. Crewe, you are not going to say that you believe Brett had nothing to do with the murder—that he is an innocent man?”
“I believe that he knows more about the crime than you or I, and that he disappeared in order to escape being placed in a position in which he would have to tell most of what he knows.”
“And another person who knows a great deal about the crime is Miss Maynard,” said Gillett.
“Yes. I think you have some awkward questions to ask her.”
“I have,” replied the Scotland Yard representative emphatically.
“You might ask her where she got Marsland’s eyeglasses that she dropped down the well. The boots and revolver she got from Brett—or perhaps Brett dropped them there himself on the night of the murder. But the eyeglasses are a different thing.”
“She may have picked them up in the house, or along the garden path. I understand that Captain Marsland lost a pair of glasses that night.”
“He did, but not the pair that were found in the well. The pair that he lost that night he has not found, but the pair you found in the well were in his possession for nearly a week after the murder. He is quite sure on that point, but does not know where he lost them.”
“Of course, he knows that it was Miss Maynard who tried to direct our suspicions to him?” asked Gillett.