Enter Second Murderer Read Online Free PDF Page B

at the police office tomorrow. I was desperate, I thought you might be able to help me, for when I enquired they told me that the case is now closed."
    Faro was aware of a sick feeling that marked the return of his illness as observation of that skeletal face struck a chord: the emaciated Hymes in his prison cell. He asked what he already knew: "What case is this?"
    "I'm Maureen Hymes, Patrick's sister. I came over from New York hoping to see him. They let me see him, five minutes—five minutes, after all these years. Five minutes—before—" Her voice ended on a sob, quickly controlled.
    "Miss Hymes—er, that was a month ago." He had not the heart to add, what was the point of coming to him now, whatever her reason.
    "I know. I was ill. Afterwards—afterwards I went back to Glasgow. Pat had friends there. I collapsed." She threw her hands wide. "You can see the state I'm in, Inspector. They didn't want me to come to you, but I promised Pat. 'If it's the very last thing I do, I'll prove that you didn't murder that Goldie woman,' I told him at that last meeting. You see, Inspector, we were more than brother and sister, Pat and I were twins. Here's our birth certificate, if you're still doubtful."
    Born Cork, thirty-six years ago, Patrick and Maureen Hymes, he read.
    "Things were bad in Ireland when we were children. The potato famine in forty-five, and then both our parents died. Patrick came over to Glasgow, eleven years old he was and he worked anywhere, at any kind of child labour that would pay well, to buy me a passage to America where we had an uncle. He thought I'd be safe there, have a decent life. One day he promised he'd save enough money to come over. When I got to New York, Uncle Paddy had died and his widow didn't want another mouth to feed."
    She stopped with a dismissive gesture. "I won't be troubling you with the rest, Inspector, except to say that I went into service, bettered myself. Twice I made enough money to send to Patrick to fulfil his dream. Twice that money was stolen. God didn't intend us to meet again, but we wrote letters. I knew Sarah was a bad lot—he hinted at things in letters. He once said if anything happened to him, would I take care of his two little girls."
    She smiled wanly, looking out of the window, where the great bulk of Arthur's Seat glowed in a reflected sunset. "I never told him how ill I was. I didn't want him to know. And then, when I heard—this terrible business—I sold everything I owned in the world to come and see my brother and fulfil my promise. Those two children have no one else in the world now. I have to see them provided for—find them good homes before I—before I die," she ended firmly.
    Faro was aware that, as she spoke, the Irish accent predominated the American. He was also increasingly aware of how strong the likeness must have been when the Hymes' were children, before the world's grosser sins took over her twin brother.
    "I don't doubt that Sarah deserved to die," she said. "But I know that it was manslaughter rather than murder. And my Pat never killed that other girl. He's no deliberate murderer, that I do know, as God is my witness. You see, he never lied to me once in his whole life."
    She smiled. "You might find this hard to believe, but Pat's great dream was to be a priest. That's what he was saving so hard for—and then he met Sarah. I suspect she seduced him and stole the money I sent. Anyway, he had to marry her with a bairn on the way. But he never lost his faith, he still lived by it."
    She paused, exhausted, breathing heavily. "Inspector, you must take my word for it, someone else murdered that other girl and let Pat take the blame. I've got to find out the truth to save his immortal soul. And you've got to help me. You've got to—you're my last hope on earth of clearing my brother's name." And she began to cry.
    Faro stared at her, incredulous. And you've got to help me, she said. Just like that. What was she asking? That he had to prove