The Home Secretary slightly raised his eyebrows. Sir Joseph was going just a little bit too fast, as he sometimes did, especially when he had any kind of audience. But the famous advocate realised that he was not going quite the right way to work, for quickly he changed his tone:
“I think, Sir Edward, that after you have seen the statutory declaration made by a certain person who was closely connected with Gretorex’s London life, as well as other new evidence which Mr. Finch is about to lay before you, you will agree that there is a strong case for, at any rate, the postponement of Roger Gretorex’s execution.”
And then the door of the room opened again, and the Judge who had tried the Lexton case came in.
Mr. Justice Mayhew appeared outwardly his usual calm and dignified self. But within he was full of interest, and even a certain excitement. Unlike the Home Secretary, he thought nothing of Sir Joseph Molloy’s belief in his client’s innocence; what had profoundly impressed him had been the condemned man’s refusal to appeal.
A few moments later the three men—for Alfred Finch was standing a little aside, he had done his part and he knew the documents which he had brought with him almost by heart—were gazing with intense curiosity at Mrs. Huntley’s statutory declaration. Each, in turn, read the pasted-up fragments of Ivy Lexton’s two passionate love-letters. They belonged to an early period of her friendship with Roger Gretorex, and each letter proposed a meeting at Ferry Place. On each occasion she had chosen an evening, or rather a night, when her husband was to be with an old friend who had a fishing place some way from London.
And then the Home Secretary took out of a drawer, and handed to the Judge, Gretorex’s own piteous letter to Ivy Lexton, the letter which had remained so long hidden in Mrs. Berwick’s desk.
It took quite a little while for Sir Edward Law and Mr. Justice Mayhew to make themselves fully acquainted with what had been laid before them. And then they looked at one another in silence for a moment. As for Sir Joseph, he wisely said nothing, though he was longing intensely to express something of the triumph and exultation which filled his heart.
“I read a full report of the case over again yesterday,” said the Home Secretary. “There seemed to me, then, no doubt as to the guilt of Roger Gretorex. But this Mrs. Huntley’s report of what she swears she saw the very day before, it is now ascertained, Jervis Lexton had his first attack of illness, does, I admit, entirely alter the complexion of everything. But I should not have attached very great importance to a statement which rests on the word of one person, who, if she tells the truth now, certainly lied before, had we not also these three letters. They prove that Mrs. Lexton has committed gross perjury.”
As the two men he was addressing remained silent, he went on: “I suppose the police made a thorough search of the flat in which Jervis Lexton met his death?”
And then all at once Alfred Finch took a hand.
“No, Sir Edward, the flat was not searched,” he answered deferentially.
“Are you sure of that?”
“Quite sure. It is not usual to institute a search unless there is cause for suspicion against a person actually living in the house or flat where the murder has been committed. Now, the first C.I.D. man, who was in charge of the preliminary inquiries, undoubtedly formed the definite opinion that Roger Gretorex had poisoned Jervis Lexton. From his point of view there was no need to go further, the more so as his view was confirmed by a conversation he had with Gretorex just after he had taken a statement from Mrs. Lexton. The inspector, a day or two later on, interviewed Mrs. Huntley. You have that first statement of hers, gentlemen, in that bundle of papers I have laid down over there, marked ‘I.’ Mrs. Huntley then perjured herself, apparently because she had made a solemn promise to Dr. Gretorex to reveal nothing as to his association with Mrs. Lexton. She was, of course, quite unaware, at the time, of the fearful injury she was doing her employer.”
The Home Secretary opened the bundle marked “I.” He read through first the notes which Inspector Orpington had made during his first interview with Ivy Lexton—that interview during which she had gone out of her way to volunteer the fact that Roger Gretorex entertained for her a hopeless, unrequited passion.
Sir Edward next read most carefully again Mrs. Lexton’s two letters to Gretorex, as well as the letter which had reached him anonymously only yesterday.
“This Mrs. Lexton appears to be, in any case, a most hypocritical and abandoned woman,” he observed tartly.
Sir Joseph Molloy laughed a merry, hearty, boyish laugh, and Mr. Justice Mayhew looked round at him with an expression of shocked disgust on his stern face.
But “divil a bit,” as he said to himself, did Sir Joseph care for that.
“Do you agree,” said Sir Edward Law, looking at the Judge, “that these various documents provide sufficient reason for further inquiries?”
Mr. Justice Mayhew waited for what seemed a very long time, both to Sir Joseph and to Alfred Finch. Then reluctantly he answered:
“Yes, I think we have certainly cause here for the execution to be postponed, and for further inquiries to be made.”
“Now that we are on what I may term the right track,” exclaimed Sir Joseph, “I trust that my unhappy friend Roger Gretorex will not be allowed to languish in the cell of a condemned felon a moment longer than is absolutely necessary?”
The great advocate felt that he had
