"Did Miss Heredith know anything of her housekeeper's past?"
"No. Mrs. Rath, as she calls herself, came to Heredith many years ago, took a small cottage, and tried to support her daughter and herself by giving lessons in music and French. She would have starved if it had not been for Miss Heredith, who helped her and her little girl, tried to get the mother some pupils, and finally took her into the moat-house as housekeeper. Mrs. Rath disappeared from the place after her daughter's arrest, when the police had decided that it was not necessary to detain her, leaving a note behind her for Miss Heredith to say that she couldn't face her after all that had happened."
Colwyn did not speak immediately. He was examining the row of upper windows which looked down on the garden in which they were standing.
"Is that the window of the room in which Mrs. Heredith was murdered?" he asked, pointing to the first one.
"Yes. It is high for a first-floor window, but there is a fall in the ground on this side of the house."
Colwyn tested the strength of the Virginia creeper which grew up the wall almost to the window, and then bent down to examine the grass and earth underneath.
"Caldew thought at first that the murderer escaped from the window, but Merrington did not agree with him," said Musard.
If the remark was intended to extract an expression of opinion from Colwyn it failed in effect, for he remained silent. He had regained his feet, and was looking up at the window again.
"Where is the door which opens on the back staircase of this wing?" he said, at length.
"At the extreme end. You cannot see it from here. It opens on the back of the house."