She had hot cocoa waiting for me, and whilst I drank it, she extracted the whole history of the evening from me. I said nothing of the blackmailing business, but contented myself with giving her the facts of the murder.
“The police suspect Parker,” I said, as I rose to my feet and prepared to ascend to bed. “There seems a fairly clear case against him.”
“Parker!” said my sister. “Fiddlesticks! That inspector must be a perfect fool. Parker indeed! Don’t tell me.”
With which obscure pronouncement we went up to bed.
CHAPTER VII
I LEARN MY NEIGHBOR’S PROFESSION
On the following morning I hurried unforgivably over my round. My excuse can be that I had no very serious cases to attend. On my return Caroline came into the hall to greet me.
“Flora Ackroyd is here,” she announced in an excited whisper.
“What?”
I concealed my surprise as best I could.