“I fancy that before the clock struck two, or even one, this man was dead.”
“I found this on the floor just before you came in.”
I handed Hume the blood-grimed collar.
“What is it? A collar?” As he turned it over he saw what I had seen. “Here’s a name—‘Philip Lawrence.’”
“I believe that Philip is his brother’s name.”
He looked at me with an unfriendly something in his glance.
“What do you infer from that?”
“I do not attempt to draw an inference.”
“But your tone suggests. Do you suggest that when Philip Lawrence came to see his brother he took off his collar and left it behind him on the floor? Why?”
“It must have been soaked with blood.”