“It’s inconceivable, it’s impossible, it’s incredible!” Richard Bates declared. “I’ll never believe it! Mrs Everett, even if she had the will, could never accomplish such a deed!”
“But that Kate person could,” Zizi suggested, and Bates turned to her.
“But Mr Wise doesn’t accuse the maid,—he accuses the daughter! A gentle, innocent young girl——”
“Now, wait a minute,” put in Wise; “I don’t say the daughter was at fault,—she might have been a tool without knowing it. I mean, she may have kept watch for her mother——”
“What do you mean,—kept watch? Miss Everett is not a numskull to be told to ‘keep watch’ and blindly obey.”
“Nor is Mrs Everett ninny enough to expect that,” Wise returned. “But the lady is clever enough to persuade her daughter to keep a lookout on some plausible pretense——”
“But I don’t understand,” Bates persisted; “just how do you reconstruct the crime,—on that theory?”
“Why, say Mrs Everett was in waiting, till Binney should come in——”
“Where was she?” Bates demanded.
“Perhaps behind one of the big pillars in the onyx lobby,—a dozen people could hide behind them——”