“I didn’t say so.”
“But, hang it all, though there’s little enough that’s clear, it’s surely clear by now that Brinkman was a wrong ’un. And if he was a wrong ’un, what can his motive have been throughout unless he was Mottram’s murderer? I don’t associate innocence with a sudden flitting at nightfall, and a bogus name given in when you order the car to take you to the station.”
“Still, it’s not enough to have a general impression that a man is a wrong ’un, and hang him on the strength of it. You must discover a motive for which he would have done the murder, and a method by which he could have done it. Are you prepared to produce those?”
“Why, yes,” said Leyland. “I don’t profess to have all the details of the case at my fingers’ ends; but I’m prepared to give what seems to me a rational explanation of all the circumstances. And it’s an explanation which contends that Mottram met his death by murder.”
Chapter XXIII.
Leyland’s Account of It All
“Of course, as to the motive,” went on Leyland, “I am not absolutely sure that I can point to a single one. But a combination of motives is sufficient, if the motives are comparatively strong ones. On the whole, I am inclined to put the thousand pounds first. For a rich man, Mottram did not pay his secretary very well; and at times, I understand, he talked of parting with him. Brinkman knew that the sum was in Mottram’s possession, for it was he himself who cashed the cheque at the bank. It was only a day or two before they came down here. On the other hand, I doubt if Brinkman knew where the money was; plainly Mottram didn’t trust him very much, or he wouldn’t have taken the trouble to sew the money in the cushions of the car. When I first found the cache, I assumed that Brinkman knew of its existence, and that was one of the reasons why I felt so certain that he would make straight for the garage. Now, I’m more inclined to think he fancied he would find the money among Mottram’s effects, which he must have hoped to examine in the interval before the arrival of the police.”
“Then you don’t think the Euthanasia had anything to do with it after all?” asked Bredon.
“I wouldn’t say that. There’s no doubt that Brinkman was a rabid anti-clerical—Eames was talking to me about that—and I think it’s quite likely he would have welcomed, in any case, an opportunity of getting Mottram out of the way provided that the death looked like suicide. The appearance of suicide would have the advantage, as we have all seen, that the Indescribable wouldn’t pay up. But he wanted, in any case, to give the murder the appearance of suicide, in order to save his own skin.”
“Then you think both motives were present to his mind?”
“Probably. I suppose there is little doubt that he knew of the danger to Mottram’s health, and the consequent danger, from his point of view, that the money would go to the Pullford Diocese. But I don’t think that motive would have been sufficient, if he hadn’t reckoned on getting away with a thousand pounds which didn’t belong to him.”