“You see,” Zizi began to the other girl as they went to Zizi’s room, “Molly is crooked.”
“Lame?”
“No,” and Zizi smiled at such ignorance of crime slang. “No, that means she isn’t honest or, rather, honorable. She makes up yarns to suit herself, and often to suit some one else who pays well for being suited. Now, we’ll get her in here and quiz her, and you say little or nothing at first, until we see what’s doing.”
Molly was summoned and Zizi began in a straightforward way:
“Molly, you saw some one in the halls the night of the Binney murder. You’ve said it was Miss Everett. Here’s Miss Everett, do you still say so?”
“Lord, no, Miss. I’ve found out who it was, and it was a man.”
“You said a woman.”
“I know I did, but I—I made a mistake. It was sorta dark, you know.”
“And you take back the statement that you saw a woman?”
“I do, miss.”