Baddeley who was doing his best to bring Marshall round, looked up and waved away the compliment. “I missed my chance,” he said.
“You will remember that when our friend here”—Anthony indicated the Inspector—“arrived on the scene, he saw the open window—and immediately had a look at it. I was watching him, and by one of those rare chances of observation, I noticed that something had attracted his sense of smell—he sniffed. And apparently although he detected something—he wasn’t quite satisfied as to what it really was. I followed him up—I’ve a good nasal organ”—he rubbed it humorously—“and I was able to detect round the windows and also round the window-sill, a faint aroma—pungent—faintly spicy. I suddenly deduced furniture polish—you all know the smell. Marshall uses gloves every morning when she wields the cloth with the polish on; you can well imagine how thoroughly impregnated they are with the odor. When she saw Prescott’s body—I said to myself—she rushed to this window and opened it—she leaned out—she placed her gloved hands on the sill—why? And then, gentlemen, I was lucky. Adhering to the wooden top of the window frame—the part under which she had placed her finger-tips to push up the window, was a tiny pink fleck of Ronuk floor polish. It had come off the glove. Now—why did she open the window?”
“Is it a crime to open a window?” The interruption came from Marshall herself. She walked unsteadily to a chair. “I’ve listened to part of what you’ve said. Are you going to ’ang me for opening a window?”
“You admit you did open it, then?” urged Baddeley. “Why did you lie about it?”
Marshall eyed him fiercely.
“Why did you open it?” he rapped out.
“I forgot about it! What with all your questions and all your cross-questionin’ it just slipped my mind. That was why.”
“You haven’t answered the Inspector’s question,” remarked Anthony. “Why did you open it?”
“For a breath of air. Seeing that corpse and that dagger fair frightened me it did. I was struck all of a ’eap. Thought I was goin’ to faint, I did. My first thought was air—air. So I rushed to the window—then I screamed.”
“I see,” snapped Baddeley, threateningly. “You were playing to orders—open window first, then scream—eh? Who told you to do that?”