“Do I understand you to say that Jefferson never came in at all while you were in the library with Stanworth?” he asked.
“Good gracious, no,” Mrs. Plant replied emphatically. “I should hope not! Why ever should he?”
“I—I don’t really know,” Roger said lamely. “I thought he did. I must have been mistaken.” In spite of the unexpectedness of her denial, he was convinced that Mrs. Plant was telling the truth; her surprise was far too genuine to have been assumed. “Well, what happened?”
“Nothing. I—I implored him not to be so hard and to be content with what I had paid him and give me back the evidence he’d got, but——”
“Where did he keep the evidence, by the way? In the safe?”
“Yes. He always carried the safe about with him. It was supposed to be burglar-proof.”
“Was it open while you were there?”
“He opened it to put my jewels in before I went.”
“And did he leave it open, or did he lock it up again?”
“He locked it before I left the room.”