“Seems clear enough to me. We know he was there, and as you say, he probably had plenty of motives. Perhaps he was really in love with her and frightfully jealous. Then he might have sort of seen red when she told him what she’d done, mightn’t he?”
“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Roger agreed. “No blackmail at all, you mean. And that fits in with what Margaret said about her being frightened of somebody a week or two before her death. By the way, Anthony, you can tell Margaret now that she needn’t bother about searching any more in Mrs. Vane’s papers.”
“What’s that, sir?” queried the inspector.
Roger explained how he had been trying to approach the identity of the mysterious stranger by two different routes.
“Going behind the backs of the official police, eh?” the inspector commented. “Well, well, reporters will be reporters, I suppose.”
“And officials will be official. Well, what are you going to do about it all, official one? You’ll arrest him, of course?”
“Am I talking to a reporter?” asked the inspector cautiously.
“Not unless you want to. ‘Important developments are expected at any minute.’ Is that what you mean?”
“For the time being, if you please, sir. I shan’t arrest him to-night, you see.”
“Not to-night?”