Detective and mystery stories; Fiction; Love stories
He realised that with the elimination of both Valdriguez and Prentice
there was no one but Anita left who could reasonably be suspected of the
murder; for that the two Frenchmen were implicated in the affair, was
too remote a possibility to be seriously considered. No, he must make up
his mind to face the facts: the girl was Anita Wilmersley and she had
killed her husband! What was he going to do, now that he knew the truth?
Judson's advice that Anita should give herself up, he rejected without a
moment's hesitation. Yet, he had to acknowledge that there was little
hope of her being able to escape detection, as long as the police knew
her to be alive.... Suddenly an idea occurred to him. If they could only
be made to believe that she was dead, that and that alone would free her
at once and forever from their surveillance. She would be able to leave
England; to resume her life in some distant country where he.... Cyril
shrank instinctively from pursuing the delicious dream further. He tried
to force himself to consider judicially the scheme that was shaping
itself in his mind; to weigh calmly and dispassionately the chances for
and against its success. If a corpse resembling Anita were found,
dressed in the clothes she wore the day she left Geralton, it would
surely be taken for granted that the body was hers and that she had been
murdered. But how on earth was he to procure such a corpse and, having
procured it, where was he to hide it? The neighbourhood of the castle
had been so thoroughly searched that it would be no easy task to
persuade the police that they had overlooked any spot where a body might
be secreted. Certainly the plan presented almost insurmountable
difficulties, but as it was the only one he could think of, Cyril clung
to it with bull-dog tenacity.
"Impossible? Nonsense! Nothing is impossible! Impossible is but a word
designed to shield the incompetent or frighten the timid," he muttered
loudly in his heart, unconsciously squaring his broad shoulders.
He decided to leave Geralton at once, for the plan must be carried out
immediately or not at all, and it was only in London that he could hope
to procure the necessary assistance.
On arriving in town, however, Cyril had to admit that he had really no
idea what he ought to do next. If he could only get in touch with an
impoverished medical student who would agree to provide a body, the
first and most difficult part of his undertaking would be achieved. But
how and where was he to find this indispensable accomplice? Well, it was
too late to do anything that evening, he decided. He might as well go to
the club and get some dinner and try to dismiss the problem from his
mind for the time being.
The first person he saw on entering the dining-room was Campbell. He was
sitting by himself at a small table; his round, rosy face depicted the
utmost dejection and he thrust his fork through an oyster with much the
same expression a man might have worn who was spearing a personal enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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