Chapters (22)
“He added a fresh notch, no doubt, on Thursday, the eleventh. The last one does look more recent, although he’d rubbed a bit of dirt into it. You may think, as judges say when they mean you ought to think, that it was an extremely rum thing for him to leave the syringe in the cruet after the job was done. Not so rum. It was really the safest place imaginable. Away from there it would have been a suspicious-looking object, with a nut, instead of the ordinary top, to the piston. I believe that extraordinary little man filled it up with hyoscine whenever he was called out to give an anæsthetic to someone he did not know, just on the off-chance the patient should turn out to be what I understand sheep-farmers call a ‘cull.’ It’s a striking example of the logic of the lunatic.”
“Oh,” cried Angela, “I do hope they find him insane.”
“Do you?”
“Don’t you?”
“I hardly know. That means a criminal lunatic asylum. It’s a pity we are not allowed to hand him one of his own hypodermics.”
There was a short silence.
“Have some port?” said Nigel.
“Thank you,” said Alleyn. He did not pour it out, however, but sat looking abstractedly into the fire.
“You see,” he murmured at last, “he’s done his job. From his point of view it’s all a howling success. He does nothing but tell us how clever he’s been. His one anxiety is lest he may not be appreciated. He’s busy writing a monograph for which all your gods of Fleet Street, Bathgate, will offer fabulous prices. At least he is assured of competent defence.”
“What about Sir John Phillips and Jane Harden?” asked Angela.
“What about them, Miss Angela?”
“Is she going to marry him now?”
“How should I know?”
“She’ll be a fool if she doesn’t,” said Angela emphatically.
“I’m afraid you’ve got the movie-mind. You want a final close-up. ‘John—I want you to know that—that—’ Ecstatic glare at short distance into each other’s faces. Sir John utters an amorous growl: ‘You damned little fool,’ and snatches her to his bosom. Slow fade-out.”
“That’s the stuff,” said Angela. “I like a happy ending.”
“We don’t often see it in the Force,” said Alleyn.
“Have some port?”
“Thank you.”
For
“THAT ONE”
Additional Titles
The icon above says you’re reading a book in the Felony & Mayhem “Vintage” category. These books were originally published prior to about 1965, and feature the kind of twisty, ingenious puzzles beloved by fans of Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr. If you enjoy this book, you may well like other “Vintage” titles from Felony & Mayhem Press.