“Oh?” Alec asked ironically. “And what may that be?”
“The fact that she was crying when she was in the library,” Roger replied simply.
“How on earth do you know that?” said the dumbfounded Alec.
“Because the handkerchief was just slightly damp when I found it. Also it was rolled up in a tight little ball, as women do when they cry.”
“Oh!” said Alec blankly.
“So you see there is still a lot for which Mrs. Plant did most certainly not account, isn’t there? As to what she did say, it may be true or it may be not. In gist I should say that it was. There’s only one thing that I’m really doubtful about, and that’s the time when she said she was in the library.”
“What makes you doubt that?”
“Well, in the first place I didn’t hear her come upstairs immediately to fetch her jewels, as I almost certainly should have done. And, secondly, didn’t you notice that she carefully asked me if I knew what time she was there, before she gave a time at all? In other words, after I had let out like an idiot that I didn’t know what time she was there, she realised that she could say what time she liked, and as long as it didn’t clash with any of the known facts (such as Stanworth being out in the garden with me) it would be all right.”
“Splitting hairs?” Alec murmured laconically.
“Possibly; but nice, thick, easily splittable ones.”