“Just to satisfy my natural curiosity, Alec, why exactly did you kill Stanworth?”
CHAPTER XXVIII.
What Really Did Happen
Alec contemplated the tips of his shoes for a moment. Then he looked up suddenly. “It wasn’t exactly murder, you know,” he said abruptly.
“Certainly not,” Roger agreed. “It was a well-merited execution.”
“No, I don’t mean that. I mean, if I hadn’t killed Stanworth, he would probably have killed me. It was partly self-defence. I’ll tell you the whole story in a minute.”
“Yes, I should like to hear what really happened. That is, if you feel yourself at liberty to tell me, of course. I don’t want to force confidences about—well, about the second lady in the case.”
“About Barbara? Oh, there’s nothing that reflects on her, and I think you ought to hear the truth. I always meant to tell you the whole thing if you found out that I did it, and of course, if you were intending to take any drastic step, such as telling the police or trying to get Jefferson arrested. That’s why I made you promise to tell me before you did anything like that.”
“Quite so,” Roger nodded understandingly. “A good many things are plain to me now. Why you hung back so much and were so unenthusiastic and threw cold water on everything and pretended to be so dull and refused to believe that a murder had been committed at all, although I’d proved it to you beyond any shadow of doubt.”
“I was trying to keep you off the right track all the time. I really never thought you’d find out.”
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have done if the significance of that hair hadn’t dawned on me at last. After that everything seemed to come in a series of flashes. Even then I might not have hit on the truth with such certainty if two particular photographs hadn’t suddenly developed themselves in my mind.”