“Thanks!” Alec put in gratefully.
“—but if my luck holds, I’m going to make you sit up and take notice.”
“Then perhaps you’ll begin by explaining how this excellent murderer of yours managed to get away from the room and leave everything locked on the inside behind him,” said Alec sarcastically. “He didn’t happen to be a magician in a small way, did he? Then you could let him out through the key-hole, you know.”
Roger shook his head sadly. “My dear but simple-minded Alexander, I can give you a perfectly reasonable explanation of how that murder might have been committed last night, and yet leave all these doors and windows of yours securely fastened on the inside this morning.”
“Oh, you can, can you?” said Alec derisively. “Well, let’s have it.”
“Certainly. The murderer was still inside when we broke in, concealed somewhere where nobody thought of looking.”
Alec started. “Good Lord!” he exclaimed. “Of course we never searched the place. So you think he was really there the whole time?”
“On the contrary,” Roger smiled gently, “I know he wasn’t, for the simple reason that there was no place for him to hide in. But you asked for an explanation, and I gave you one.”
Alec snorted again, but with rather less confidence this time. Roger’s glib smoothing away of the impossible had been a little unexpected. He tried a new tack.
“Well, what about motive?” he asked. “You can’t have a murder without motive, you know. What on earth could have been the motive for murdering poor old Stanworth?”