“And that’s why I was so interested in tobacco this morning, Anthony, you see,” he concluded, and went on at once to acquaint the inspector with the new discoveries he had then made.
The inspector nodded sagely. “Yes, I wondered whether you’d get hold of that,” he remarked.
“You knew it already?” Roger asked, somewhat dashed.
“A week ago,” replied the inspector laconically.
“But she never told me she’d told anyone before.”
“She didn’t know she had. She doesn’t know she’s told you now. With that sort of person, if you don’t ask ’em direct questions but just let ’em dribble their information out in their own way, they’ll tell you everything they know just the same and they won’t realise five minutes later that they’ve told you anything at all. Yes, well, what did you make of it all, Mr. Sheringham?”
Roger drew a deep breath.
Chapter XXV.
Roger Solves the Mystery
“Well, I’d better begin at the beginning,” said Roger.
“Now, in the very first place I made up my mind, as you know, Inspector, that the person whom you seemed to be suspecting (whether you really did or not, I don’t know; but you certainly gave me that impression)—I made up my mind that that person was not responsible for Mrs. Vane’s death. The evidence was against her, of course, and badly, but there are some cases where circumstantial evidence, however apparently convincing, can lead one rather badly astray, and I was sure this was one of them. I admit that I had nothing definite to go on; my reasons were purely psychological. I felt, quite simply, that to suspect Margaret Cross of murder—and a seemingly cold-blooded, carefully-planned murder at that—was nothing short of ridiculous. The girl was transparently sincere and honest.”