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Page 85
"Do you still think Mark's body might be there?"
"No. And yet where else can it be? Unless I'm hopelessly wrong,
and Cayley never killed him at all."
Bill hesitated, wondering if he dare advance his theory.
"I know you'll think me an ass--"
"My dear Bill, I'm such an obvious ass myself that I should be
delighted to think you are too."
"Well, then, suppose Mark did kill Robert, and Cayley helped him
to escape, just as we thought at first. I know you proved
afterwards that it was impossible, but suppose it happened in a
way we don't know about and for reasons we don't know about. I
mean, there are such a lot of funny things about the whole show
that--well, almost anything might have happened."
"You're quite right. Well?"
"Well, then, this clothes business. Doesn't that seem rather to
bear out the escaping theory? Mark's brown suit was known to the
police. Couldn't Cayley have brought him another one in the
passage, to escape in, and then have had the brown one on his
hands? And thought it safest to hide it in the pond?"
"Yes," said Anthony thoughtfully. Then: "Go on."
Bill went on eagerly:
"It all seems to fit in, you know. I mean even with your first
theory--that Mark killed him accidentally and then came to Cayley
for help. Of course, if Cayley had played fair, he'd have told
Mark that he had nothing to be afraid of. But he isn't playing
fair; he wants to get Mark out of the way because of the girl.
Well, this is his chance. He makes Mark as frightened as
possible, and tells him that his only hope is to run away. Well,
naturally, he does all he can to get him well away, because if
Mark is caught, the whole story of Cayley's treachery comes out."
"Yes. But isn't it overdoing it rather to make him change his
underclothes and everything? It wastes a good deal of time, you
know."
Bill was pulled up short, and said, "Oh!" in great
disappointment.
"No, it's not as bad as that, Bill," said Antony with a smile.
"I daresay the underclothes could be explained. But here's the
difficulty. Why did Mark need to change from brown to blue, or
whatever it was, when Cayley was the only person who saw him in
brown?"
"The police description of him says that he is in a brown suit."
"Yes, because Cayley told the police. You see, even if Mark had
had lunch in his brown suit, and the servants had noticed it,
Cayley could always have pretended that he had changed into blue
after lunch, because only Cayley saw him afterwards. So if
Cayley had told the Inspector that he was wearing blue, Mark
could have escaped quite comfortably in his brown, without
needing to change at all."
"But that's just what he did do," cried Bill triumphantly. "What
fools we are!"
Antony looked at him in surprise, and then shook his head.
"Yes, yes!" insisted Bill. "Of course! Don't you see? Mark did
change after lunch, and, to give him more of a chance of getting
away, Cayley lied and said that he was wearing the brown suit in
which the servants had seen him. Well, then he was afraid that
the police might examine Mark's clothes and find the brown suit
still there, so he hid it, and then dropped it in the pond
afterwards."
He turned eagerly to his friend, but Antony said nothing. Bill
began to speak again, and was promptly waved into silence.
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