Fuller, preparing to take his leave buttoned up his coat and picked up
his hat. “There is one thing to be said in Sorley’s favor,” he
remarked, addressing Miss Grison, “if he did murder your brother, he
did you a service.”
She threw back her head scornfully. “Oh indeed! I should like to know
in what way, Mr. Fuller?”
“I heard—and Latimer there is my informant—that your brother murdered a
man just outside the opium den he frequented in order to rob him of
watch and money and general jewelry. Since this is the case, Sorley
saved your brother from being hanged, and your name from being further
disgraced.”
Miss Grison’s head drooped. “Inspector Moon told me about the matter,”
she admitted, “and how the watch had been traced. But I don’t believe
Baldwin killed anyone. He was much too kind and thoughtful.”
“My dear lady,” said Latimer impatiently, “let me point out that no one
but yourself entertains this good opinion of your late brother.
According to everyone else he was a bad lot. I regret having to say
this, but you must be just. If Sorley has acted wickedly—and of that we
cannot be sure—your brother is not free from blame. That he murdered
this man is certain, so his own violent death is simple justice.”
“I don’t believe what you say, Mr. Latimer; you are prejudiced in favor
of that beast.”
“On the contrary, as Mr. Fuller will tell you, I have been hot against
the man, Miss Grison. Now I have my doubts of his guilt.”
“In spite of his escape?”
“Yes It is a perplexing case, and until I can gain more evidence, I am
not prepared to give an opinion. Why do you hate him so?”
The woman gave the same answer to Latimer as she had given already to
Alan, detailing the circumstances which led her to become her enemy’s
wife, and emphasizing his desertion. “And I kept silent for Baldwin’s
sake,” she ended in a grating voice; “but he is dead, so there is no
longer any reason for me to deny that I am Mrs. Sorley. Not that I
shall ever take my real name, seeing how my husband has disgraced it.
Now I don’t want you to make any remarks, thank you, Mr. Latimer. You
can go, and you can be sure that I shall do my best to get Randolph
arrested again.”
“You won’t find it easy to discover him in this fog,” said Dick dryly,
and with Alan took his immediate leave, for there seemed no necessity
to remain and listen to Miss Grison’s wrath which was that of an
unreasonable woman obsessed by one bitter idea.
The fog was still thick, and Fuller remarked that he wondered how Moon
had managed to get a cab. “We couldn’t do it, Dick.”
“The fog gets lighter at times and then thick again,” said Latimer
absently. “I suppose when Moon took his cab, traffic was resumed for
the moment.”
“It seems to have stopped now,” answered Alan, trying to peer into the
darkness blurred by the street lamps. “Let us go home. Why do you want
to go to the Bow Street office again?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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