Harry Markenmore’s face suddenly became dark with anger.
“What!” he exclaimed. “You’ve—arrested her?”
“Detained for further enquiries,” said the Chief Constable, with a sudden approach to stern formalities. “She has only to give us a satisfactory explanation——”
“Damnation!” Harry Markenmore suddenly burst out. “Are you aware that Mrs. Braxfield is my mother-in-law? What the devil do you mean by even suggesting that she murdered my brother?”
“Be calm, Mr. Markenmore!” said the Chief Constable. “Help us to clear up this affair of the automatic pistol! Tell us if and why you gave it to Mrs. Braxfield, and if you can account for its being thrown away? Then——”
But Harry, muttering angrily to himself, suddenly turned and strode off rapidly in the direction of Markenmore Court, and though the Chief Constable called to him, begging him to listen to reason, he marched on without taking further notice. The two men looked at each other.
“What can we do?” answered the Chief Constable. “Hang it all——”
“I think I should have insisted on his going with us to Selcaster,” said Blick. “If he and Mrs. Braxfield had been confronted——”
The Chief Constable, however, had turned towards the village.
“Oh, well!” he said. “There’s a way of making him speak! He’ll have to speak of his part in a witness-box. Let’s get to Selcaster, and if that woman hasn’t come to her senses under Crewe’s advice, I’ll charge her, formally, and bring her before the magistrates—they’ll be sitting at eleven o’clock this morning.”
“I will!” declared the Chief Constable. “I shall be justified on what we know already. Come on—we’ll get a trap at the Sceptre.”
Half an hour later, when he and Blick drove up to the police-station, they met Crewe, the solicitor, emerging from it. He gave the Chief Constable a dry, shrewd smile.
”Um!” he said, drawing him aside. “Pretty arbitrary in your treatment of Mrs. B., I think! However, under my advice, she’ll now tell you what you wanted to know. And after that, if I were you, I should just let her go quietly home. She’s pretty furious—and she’s given me certain instructions that’ll possibly help you—though between you and me, I think she’s a fool for doing it!”
“I don’t understand you,” said the Chief Constable curtly.