She--but what are
you thinking?"
"That I seem to be involved, somehow, in a very strange and curious
combination of things," answered Miss Wickham.
"Just so!" agreed Viner. "So do I--and I was literally pitchforked into
the very midst of it all by sheer accident. If I hadn't happened to go
out for a late stroll on the night on which it began, I should never
have--but here we are!"
The official of the Criminal Investigation Department with whom
they were shortly closeted, listened carefully and silently to
Viner's account of all that had happened. He was one of those
never-to-be-sufficiently-praised individuals who never interrupt and
always understand, and at the close of Viner's story he said exactly what
the narrator was thinking. "The real truth of all this, Mr. Viner," he
said, "is that this is probably one of the last chapters in the history
of the Lonsdale Passage murder. For if you find this woman and the men
who are undoubtedly her accomplices, you will most likely have found, in
one or other of them, the murderer of John Ashton!"
"Precisely!" agreed Viner. "Precisely!"
The official rose from his seat and turned to the door.
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