“How far had this friendship extended?”
“What do you mean?” “Pinkie” looked a trifle scared.
“I mean this. Rumours have reached me from more than one source that Miss Delaney and Alan Warburton were looked upon as lovers at the time of which you speak. Would you subscribe to that opinion?”
“Pinkie” demurred—vigorously shaking her head. “No! Mr. Warburton admired her very much—it’s true—a blind man would have been able to see that. And Miss Sheila liked him a great deal, too. I can tell you that much. But I wouldn’t admit anything beyond that. Sheila, in my opinion looked upon him as a close friend—but I wouldn’t say that it was anything more than that.” She repeated her denial.
“I see,” soliloquised Bannister. “So that it would be altogether an unfair statement to say that Miss Delaney’s attitude changed towards Mr. Warburton consequent upon the Bank scandal in which his uncle—Sir Felix Warburton—was involved?”
“Utterly untrue,” responded Miss Kerr, vehemently. “A thing like that wouldn’t alter Sheila’s feelings in any way towards anybody she regarded as a friend. She would have scorned to do such a thing. Such conduct would have been completely foreign to her nature.” She began to sob again—engulfed once more in a tide of poignant memories. Her mention of Sheila had brought them all rushing home to her again.
“Please calm yourself,” entreated the Inspector, “there’s something else I want to ask you.”
She pulled herself together as the result of a supreme effort and faced him confidently. “Had your mistress a lover?”
“Pinkie” shook her head but in such a way that Bannister was quick to see it and follow up his question with another.
“No? Are you absolutely certain that there wasn’t a secret lover in her life? Would you swear to it?”