`So X19 knew it was Driscoll all right. She slipped out of the door and turned the corner towards the rail. The first thing he said was, "Laura, for God's sake what did you want to bring, me down here for? I've got friends here. Is it true that he's found out?" What she said at first was something about that was the reason why she had said to come here, because if either of 'em was seen they could be calling on people they knew. Then he said that was a crazy idea, and was it, true that he'd found out; he asked that again. She said yes. And she said, "Do you love me?" And he said, "Yes, yes, but I'm in a frightful mess." They was both pretty upset and got to talking louder. He said something about his uncle, and all of a sudden he stopped and said, "Oh, my God!"
`She asked him what was the matter. Here's what he said. "Laura, there's something I've got to do here or 'I'm ruined." 'His voice was shaking. It sounded bad. He said, "Don't stay with me. We might be seen. Go in and look at the, Crown jewels, and then walk up to the parade ground. I'll join you there inside five minutes."
`I heard her walk up and down; for a second or two, then she whirled around and started, towards the Bloody Tower, and I followed. I didn't see him; I suppose he'd gone on ahead. That was about twenty-minutes to two.'
Hadley leaned forward. `You say you, followed?' he demanded. `Did you see her bump into anybody?'
`Bump into anybody?' she repeated, blinking. `No. But then I mightn't have. I slipped inside that big arch of the Bloody Tower and up against the wall, in case she turned back. I have a kind of idea that some man passed me; but it was foggy, and under that arch darker than hell…’
`I heard her speak to one of them birds in the funny hats and say, "Which way to the Crown jewels?" and he directed her to a door not very far on the other side of the arch, and I was still there. - That's all. He didn't come near her, because somebody killed him just after he'd left her. But I know she didn't, because I took a look in that place there to keep quiet. It's money well earned. But don't try to earn any more. That's blackmail, you know.'
`Oh, that's all right,' Mrs Larkin agreed, patting the puffs of hair over her ears. `If you birds are on the level with me, I'm on the level with you'… Well, I'm off to the pub. G'night. See you at the inquest'
13. Wherein Miss Bitton Burbles
When she had gone the rest of them sat silent. Dr Fell was wheezing sleepily. And again Hadley began to pace about.
'So that's settled, he said. `I think we can take Mrs Bitton off the list of suspects. I doubt if Larkin's lying. Her in formation is too exactly in line with all the other facts she couldn't possibly have known. Now what?'
'What do you suggest?'
`It all rests on what it was Driscoll remembered he'd forgotten to do when he spoke to Mrs Bitton in front of the Traitors' Gate. He started for somewhere, but he didn't get very far away, and then he ran into somebody…. the murderer.'
`Fair enough,' grunted the doctor.
`Now, first, there's the direction he, might have gone.' Larkin didn't see him go. But we know he didn't go along Water Lane towards the Byward or Middle Tower; towards the gate, in other words. Because Larkin was standing there, and she would have seen him pass.
`There are only two other directions he could have gone. He could have gone straight, along Water Lane in the other direction. The only place he could have gone in that direction is towards another arch, similar to the Bloody Tower and a hundred feet or so away in the same wall the inner ballium wall. From that arch a path leads up to the White Tower, which is almost in the centre of the whole enclosure. Now, unless all our calculations are wrong, and there's some piece of evidence we haven't heard, why on earth should he be going to the White Tower? Or, for that matter, to the main guard, the store, the hospital, or any place he could have reached by going through the arch?
`Besides, he hadn't got very far away from the Traitors' Gate before he met the murderer. Traitors' Gate is an ideal place for murder on a foggy day. But if Driscoll had been starting for the White Tower and met the murderer quite some distance from Traitors' Gate, it wouldn't have been very practical for the murderer to drive that steel bolt through him, pick him up, carry him back, and pitch him over the rail. The risk of being seen carrying that burden any distance, even in the fog, would have been too great.'
Hadley paused in his pacing before the mantelpiece.,
`On the other hand, the murderer couldn't say,"Look here, old man, let's stroll back to the Traitors' Gate I want to talk to you." Naturally Driscoll would have said "What's the matter with telling me here?" No, it won't do. Driscoll had no business in that direction, anyway. So — there's only one alternative.'
Dr Fell took out a cigar.
`Namely,' he inquired, `that Driscoll went in the same direction as Mrs Bitton did through the arch of the Bloody Tower?'
`Yes. All indications show that. For instance, what Larkin said. She heard Driscoll walk away, and then Mrs Bitton walked up and down in front of the rail a minute or so… to give Driscoll time to go on up there ahead o f her. Driscoll said they mustn't be seen together. Once you get, inside the inner ballium wall, as Larkin said, you're in view of pretty well everybody; especially as it's high ground, and the fog is thin. Larkin had a positive impression that he'd gone on ahead of Mrs Bitton. And that's the reasonable direction for him to have gone, because … '
`Because it's the way to the King's House,' supplied Dr Fell.
`Hadley nodded. `Whatever he had forgotten, and went to do, was in the general's quarters at the King's House. That's the only part of the Tower he ever had any business in… There was somebody he had to speak with on the phone, or some message he had to give Parker. But he never got there.'
`Good work,' said the doctor, approvingly. `By, degrees everything seems to centre round the arch under the Bloody Tower; — Hence we perceive the following points: The arch under this tower is a broad tunnel about twenty feet long,' and the road runs on a steep uphill slant. At the best of times it is rather dark, but on a foggy day it is as black as hell. Why, then, didn't the murderer dump him against the wall and leave him there?'
`Because the body would be discovered too soon. There's too much traffic in that place. So the murderer picked Driscoll up like a ventriloquist's dummy, took a quick look to each side in Water Lane, walked across, and chucked him over the rail on the steps.'
The doctor nodded. He held up one hand and indicated points on his fingers.
`Driscoll walks into the tunnel, then, and meets the murderer. Mrs Bitton waits a short time, and follows, because she doesn't know Driscoll is still in the tunnel. Now do you see what we've got, Hadley? We've got Mrs Bitton at one end of the tunnel, Driscoll and the murderer in the middle and our good friend Mr Arbor at the other end. Haven't we?'
`Every time you begin to elucidate,' said the chief inspector, `the thing gets more tangled up. But that seems clear. Larkin said Mrs Bitton went into the arch at twenty-five minutes to two. Arbor bumped; into her on the other side of it at a coinciding time. Where's the catch?'
'I didn't say there was a catch. Now, following Mrs Bitton at a little distance is the eagle-eyed Larkin, who enters the tunnel next. All this time you must assume the murderer was still in the tunnel with his victim;. otherwise she would have seen him carry the body out. In the tunnel it's very dark and foggy. Mrs Larkin hears somebody moving. That is probably Arbor on his way out from the other side. Thus the tunnel is cleared of traffic. The murderer, who has been crouching there with his victim in a deadly sweat for fear he'll be discovered, carries out the body, throws it over the rail, and escapes., That, I take it, is the summary of events?'