II
“What exactly do you want to know, Dr. Calgary?” asked SuperintendentHuish, but before Calgary could speak the telephone rang on Huish’s deskand the superintendent¹ picked it up. “Yes. Yes, speaking. Just a moment.”
He drew a piece of paper towards him, picked up a pen and prepared towrite. “Yes. Go ahead. Yes.” He wrote. “What? How do you spell that lastword? Oh, I see. Yes, doesn’t seem to make much sense yet, does it? Right.
Nothing else? Right. Thanks.” He replaced the receiver. “That was the hos-pital,” he said.
“Tina?” asked Calgary.
The superintendent nodded.
“She regained² consciousness for a few minutes.”
“Did she say anything?” asked Calgary.
“I don’t really know why I should tell you that, Dr. Calgary.”
“I ask you to tell me,” said Calgary, “because I think that I can help youover this business.”
Huish looked at him consideringly.
“You’ve taken all this very much to heart, haven’t you, Dr. Calgary?” hesaid.
“Yes, I have. You see, I felt responsible for reopening the case. I even feelresponsible for these two tragedies. Will the girl live?”
“They think so,” said Huish. “The blade of the knife missed the heart, butit may be touch and go.” He shook his head. “That’s always the trouble,”
he said. “People will not believe that a murderer is unsafe. Sounds a queerthing to say, but there it is. They all knew there was a murderer in theirmidst. They ought to have told what they knew. The only safe thing if amurderer is about is to tell the police anything you know at once. Well,they didn’t. They held out on me. Philip Durrant was a nice fellow—an in-telligent fellow; but he regarded this as a kind of game. He went pokingabout laying traps for people. And he got somewhere, or he thought he gotsomewhere. And somebody else thought he was getting somewhere. Res-ult: I get a call to say he’s dead, stabbed through the back of the neck.
That’s what comes of messing about with murder and not realizing itsdangers.” He stopped and cleared his throat.
“And the girl?” asked Calgary.
“The girl knew something,” said Huish. “Something she didn’t want totell. It’s my opinion,” he said, “she was in love with the fellow.”
“You’re talking about—Micky?”
Huish nodded. “Yes. I’d say, too, that Micky was fond of her, in a way.

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