Bannister nodded in understanding. “Take me up,” he ordered, decisively. Godfrey obeyed.
Bannister noticed that the operating room lay nearer to the left-hand side of the house—that is to say, the Coolwater Avenue side. As Godfrey had stated in his first account of the case—Branston’s appointments and furniture-equipment were without exception, of excellent quality. The stair-carpet was luxuriously thick and heavy and everything about the place denoted unmistakably that no expense had been spared in the matter of its furnishing and decoration. Doctor Renfrew came out of the large room—a spacious front room overlooking the Lower Seabourne Road—and glanced inquiringly at Godfrey’s companion.
“This is Chief-Inspector Bannister of Scotland Yard!” Godfrey was quick to introduce them. “The Bannister,” he supplemented rather grandiloquently. The Doctor shook hands.
“Proud to meet you, Inspector.”
“Good evening, Doctor.”
Doctor Renfrew, a tall, thin, nervous man, with watery eyes that blinked repeatedly behind gold-rimmed spectacles motioned to the door of the surgery.
“Will you go in at once?” he asked. Bannister nodded curtly and the three men entered the room. Constables Stannard and Waghorn sprang to their feet and saluted.
“Wait downstairs, you two men,” ordered Godfrey. He turned to the Doctor. “Where’s Mr. Branston?”
“Downstairs—he had dinner very late, I believe. I told him he’d probably be wanted before very long.”
Bannister in the meantime had walked across to the motionless shape that lay huddled in the dentist’s chair. He removed the silk handkerchief that covered the face. As far as he could judge from her appearance she was in her early twenties and in life must have been very beautiful—the face having an exquisite delicacy of line. She was dressed in what is usually termed a “three-piece suite”; of jumper, skirt and sleeveless coat. The coat and skirt were of a fine wool, in colour Cedar brown—the jumper being striped to tone. Her brown shoes were semi-brogue; like her stockings they were of the very best quality. She wore no jewellery and her fingers were ringless. Doctor Renfrew walked out of the room and returned a moment or two later carrying a hat and a pair of gloves.
“She left these in the ladies’ waiting-room,” he explained. “Mr. Branston has a separate room for ladies in which to wait if they so desire—it opens out of the front room, which is used more as a general waiting-room.”
Bannister nodded and looked at the hat. It was a pull-on waterproof felt with a pleated crown and turned-down brim. He glanced inside at the maker’s name. “Moore—Knightsbridge! A lady in very comfortable circumstances, I should say,” he declared. Godfrey nodded in agreement. “I think so too!”
“Well, Doctor Renfrew,” continued the Inspector, “what have you got to tell me?”
Doctor Renfrew wasted no time in telling him. “When I examined the deceased, it was apparent to me at once that death had been caused by narcotic poisoning—hydrocyanic acid to be precise. It was impossible to mistake the odour round the lips and mouth. She had had a big dose administered.”
Bannister pursed his lips. “How was it administered—any idea? For instance—can’t it be suicide?”
The doctor’s reply came quickly and readily. “In my opinion—judging from the position of the body—the poison was given from a small hand-syringe. After locking Branston in, the murderer entered the room through the door here—she heard him—turned in his direction and he used the syringe immediately. Her face would be right in front of him. Quite an easy matter—he had doubtless worked out all the details beforehand.”
“Cold-blooded business,” muttered Godfrey. “The kind of man I should take delight in hanging.”
“Any purse or anything with her?” demanded Bannister.
“Nothing,” answered the Sergeant. “Everything seems to have gone except the hat and this pair of gloves.”
A knock sounded on the door an Doctor Renfrew crossed the room to open it. Ronald Branston stood outside. “May I come in?” he queried.
Bannister beckoned to him. “I was just about to send down to you, Mr. Branston,” he commenced, “you must have read my thoughts to arrive so opportunely.”
Branston bowed. “A dreadful affair this,” he declared, “dreadful from whatever point of view you look at it. Pretty rotten for me, you know—in the business sense. It sounds frightfully callous, I know, but self-preservation’s the first law of nature. This job isn’t going to do my business any good and every man has to think of himself.” He flushed his dark skin.
Bannister eyed him sternly. “I am Chief-Inspector Bannister,” he said, “of ‘Scotland Yard.’ Sergeant Godfrey has requested my assistance. Tell me exactly what happened.”
Branston’s nostrils quivered slightly as he began to tell his story but he rapidly regained control over himself and his words came clearly and without a shade of tremor in his voice. “I can only repeat to you,” he stated, “what I have already told Sergeant Godfrey here. This unhappy lady entered the room in which we are now standing a few minutes before two o’clock this afternoon. I had just attended to a previous patient who was my first of the afternoon. She asked me to perform an extraction. I administered a simple local anaesthetic and extracted a left-hand bicuspid. The lady seemed quite comfortable after the extraction. I gave her the usual glass of water as a mouth-wash—there’s the very tumbler on that stand—just as she must have put it down before she was murdered—and then went along to my work-room. I had a special job on this afternoon as I’ve previously explained to the Sergeant and it’s my customary practice to let a patient alone for a moment or two after an extraction.”
“One minute,” broke in Bannister. “Was the extraction a necessary one?”
“Oh, undoubtedly—the tooth had been filled on previous occasion and the filling had worn away. The patient had been in considerable pain, she informed me, and I could well understand it. She had probably caught cold in the bad tooth.”
“Thank you,” observed the Inspector. “Please proceed.”
“Well, here comes the extraordinary part of the story.” Here Branston’s nervousness began to show itself again. “The
