“She must have hidden them somewhere.”
“See if you can get them.”
Edward nodded and left us.
“Yes,” I remarked after he had gone, “it does seem as if the thing to do was to get on the trail of a person bearing wounds of some kind. I notice, for one thing, Craig, that Edward shows no such marks, nor does any one else in the house as far as I can see. If it were an ‘inside job’ I fancy Edward at least could clear himself. The point is to find the person with a bandaged hand or plastered face.”
Kennedy assented, but his mind was on another subject. “Before we go we must see Mrs. Pitts alone, if we can,” he said simply.
In answer to his inquiry through one of the servants she sent down word that she would see us immediately in her sitting-room. The events of the morning had quite naturally upset her, and she was, if anything, even paler than when we saw her before.
“Mrs. Pitts,” began Kennedy, “I suppose you are aware of the physical condition of your husband?”
It seemed a little abrupt to me at first, but he intended it to be. “Why,” she asked with real alarm, “is he so very badly?”
“Pretty badly,” remarked Kennedy mercilessly, observing the effect of his words. “So badly, I fear, that it would not require much more excitement like to-day’s to bring on an attack of apoplexy. I should advise you to take especial care of him, Mrs. Pitts.”
Following his eyes, I tried to determine whether the agitation of the woman before us was genuine or not. It certainly looked so. But then, I knew that she had been an actress before her marriage. Was she acting a part now?