14: The Hangman Speaks
IT was a quarter to three.
Callaghan, coughing, climbed up the stairs to his office. He told himself, as usual, that he would have to cut down his cigarettes, then thought, almost simultaneously, that perhaps it would not matter very much whether he cut them down or not.
The idea seemed to amuse him.
Inside the outer office he switched on the light and locked the door behind him. Then he crossed to the inner office, hung up his hat and coat in the darkness, switched on the desk light and slumped down into his chair.
He stayed there for a moment thinking. Then he opened a drawer and took out a long envelope. He walked into the outer office, looked about him and eventually found what he was looking for— a copy of the Evening News left behind by Fred Mazin. He tore
