‘So Jules is your friend and colleague, is he?’
‘He was, but from this moment he is no longer. I began to disapprove of his methods no less than a week ago, and my disapproval will now take active form.’
‘Will it?’ said Racksole. ‘I calculate it just won’t, Mr Elihu P. Rucker, citizen of the United States. Before you are very much older you’ll be in the kind hands of the police, and your activities, in no matter what direction, will come to an abrupt conclusion.’
‘In the meantime, I’ll ask you one or two questions for my own private satisfaction. You’ve acknowledged that the game is up, and you may as well answer them with as much candour as you feel yourself capable of. See?’
‘I see,’ replied Rocco calmly, ‘but I guess I can’t answer all questions.
‘Well,’ said Racksole, clearing his throat, ‘what’s the scheme all about? Tell me in a word.’
‘Not in a thousand words. It isn’t my secret, you know.’
‘Why was poor little Dimmock poisoned?’ The millionaire’s voice softened as he looked for an instant at the corpse of the unfortunate young man.
‘I don’t know,’ said Rocco. ‘I don’t mind informing you that I objected to that part of the business. I wasn’t made aware of it till after it was done, and then I tell you it got my dander up considerable.’
‘You mean to say you don’t know why Dimmock was done to death?’
‘I mean to say I couldn’t see the sense of it. Of course he--er--died, because he sort of cried off the scheme, having previously taken a share of it. I don’t mind saying that much, because you probably guessed it for yourself. But I solemnly state that I have a conscientious objection to murder.’
‘It was a kind of murder,’ Rocco admitted. ‘Who did it?’
‘Who else is in this precious scheme besides Jules and yourself?’
‘Well, then, tell me this. What have you been doing to Dimmock’s body?’
‘How long were you in that bathroom?’ Rocco parried with sublime impudence.
‘Don’t question me, Mr Rucker,’ said Theodore Racksole. ‘I feel very much inclined to break your back across my knee. Therefore I advise you not to irritate me. What have you been doing to Dimmock’s body?’
‘Certainly; Richardson’s system of arterial fluid injection, as improved by myself. You weren’t aware that I included the art of embalming among my accomplishments. Nevertheless, it is so.’