" He bowed towards Rolfe, and
that officer blushed as he recalled how Inspector Chippenfield and he
had agreed to withhold information from Crewe and try to put him on a
false scent.
"I wish you'd tell me what you consider the weak points of our case
against Birchill," asked Rolfe.
"Your case is based on Hill's confession, and that to my mind is false in
many details," said Crewe. "Take, for instance, his account of how he
came into contact with Birchill again. This girl Fanning, after a quarrel
with Sir Horace, came over to Riversbrook with a message for Hill which
was virtually a threat. Now does that seem probable? The girl who had
been in the habit of visiting Sir Horace goes over to see Hill. No woman
in the circumstances would do anything of the sort. She had too good an
opinion of herself to take a message to a servant at a house from which
she had been expelled by the owner, who had been keeping her. How would
she have felt if she had run into Sir Horace? It is true that Sir Horace
left for Scotland the day before, but it is improbable that the girl who
had quarrelled with Sir Horace a fortnight before knew the exact date on
which he intended to leave.
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