Read Enter Second Murderer for Free Online

a dead man innocent. And he wasn't even a Catholic. He was a lapsed Presbyterian. Maureen Hymes wasn't only sick, but mad, poor creature.
    In his profession Faro found it a disadvantage to be susceptible to women's tears. Most men found them embarrassing, throat-clearing occasions, whereas Jeremy Faro, trained to the tears and supplications of two small daughters, had a natural inclination to enfold this delicate, childlike woman to his shoulder and comfort her.
    "Do you believe in miracles, Inspector? I should, but I can't. But I do believe in dreams. And my brother haunts mine. You may be like all the others and reckon that a man who murders once will do so again, that he might as well hang for two as for one. But I know I'll be haunted to all eternity unless I can free him from the stigma of that other woman's murder."
    She stood up, faced him squarely. "Now I must go. Thank you for listening to me so patiently, sir, and for giving me your precious time." She paused, then shook her head. "I'm sorry. I see I've failed to convince you." She cut short his protests with a sudden dignity that again reminded him forcibly of the condemned man in his prison cell.
    "Good evening, Stepfather. Oh—my apologies, I did not realise you had a visitor."
    It was Vince. Faro had forgotten that he too would be impatiently awaiting his supper, at the end of a long day in Dr. Kellar's surgery.
    Faro gave him a hard look, knowing that Mrs. Brook, agog with curiosity about the mysterious woman who had suddenly appeared, must have sent him up post-haste to report on what was now taking place in the drawing-room.
    As Faro made the introductions, Vince's eyebrows shot upwards at the name Hymes.
    "This lady is his twin sister."
    Vince bowed over her hand, holding it now with an anxious, searching glance into her countenance that betrayed the doctor's interest.
    "I have been a great nuisance," she said, "burdening the Inspector with my troubles. Your stepfather is a kind man and a very good listener."
    Vince's quizzical glance demanded explanation.
    "Miss Hymes does not believe that her brother murdered Lily Goldie."
    "Indeed? Then if there was someone else, I can assure you, madam, my stepfather is just the man to hunt him down. He is marvellously clever, you know. No one could ever escape him for ever-"
    "Steady on, Vince, I'm not infallible—and I cannot allow you to give Miss Hymes false hopes. The case is closed officially, remember."
    Vince made an impatient gesture. "But if he does exist—this other murderer—then this is the very man for the job." He pointed dramatically at Faro, the lamplight glinting on his pale hair, suddenly the picture of an avenging angel. "Come now, there must be clues, Stepfather, and you are quite excellent on clues."
    Faro's reply was modest and non-committal. He was amazed amd moved that this boy, once so sneering, so wilful, even cruel on occasion, had vanished and left a gallant, caring and suddenly frighteningly vulnerable individual. Vulnerable—was that the word? Was this dropping of the scales from his eyes conditioned by familiarity, familiarity that had blinded him to the qualities of the man emerging from the chrysalis of youth, a man who would some day make a fine doctor— unless some day his vulnerability to defenceless womankind seriously affected his good sense?
    "Where are you living in Edinburgh?"
    "Nowhere. But I return to Glasgow to my—friends." A bout of coughing cut her short again. She stood breathless, and Vince's solemn shake of the head in Faro's direction confirmed his worst fears.
    "Then I will get a cab and see you safely to the railway station."
    "No—you are too kind, Doctor."
    "Not kind, Miss Hymes. It is my pleasure. I will be back directly."
    As Vince dashed downstairs and out into the street, Faro assisted his visitor to the front door. "I should not have let him go to all this trouble. Please persuade him that I am perfectly capable of making my own—way." Again she was