"There is ample motive for
the crime, but how that piece of handkerchief got into the dead man's
hand is still a mystery to me. It would be easily explained if this girl
was present in the room or the house when the murder was committed. But
she wasn't. Hill's story is that she was at the flat with him."
"When you have had as much experience in investigating crime as I have,
you won't worry over little points that at first don't seem to fit in
with what we know to be facts," responded the inspector in a patronising
tone. "I noticed from the first, Rolfe, that you were inclined to make
too much of this handkerchief business, but I said nothing. Of course, it
was your own discovery, and I have found during my career that young
detectives are always inclined to make too much of their own discoveries.
Perhaps I was myself, when I was young and inexperienced. Now, as to this
handkerchief: what is more likely than that Birchill had it in his pocket
when he went out to Riversbrook on that fatal night? He was living in
the flat with this girl Fanning: what was more natural than that he
should pick up a handkerchief off the floor that the girl had dropped and
put it in his pocket with the intention of giving it to her when she
returned to the room? Instead of doing so he forgot all about it.
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