“No;” Zizi interrupted, “don’t go further afield. It’s—wait a minute,—get Bob Moore in here.”
This was accomplished and Zizi did the interrogating.
Care was taken not to divulge the new evidence and when Zizi asked him to detail his actions at the exact time of the crime, the man wonderingly recounted his oft-told tale.
“Did Mr Vail seem about as usual when he was talking to you, going up in the elevator?” Zizi asked, casually.
“Yes, but very chummy and talkative, more so than I ever knew him to be before.”
“Yes? And did he detain you at this floor,—or did you keep him, talking about the detective story you were reading?”
“Why, I don’t know. Come to think of it,—I should say he detained me,—for he was so interested,—and, too, I never would have presumed to talk to him so familiarly if he hadn’t egged me on.”
“Think back, now. Did he really keep you from going back by talking to you? Could you say he did that purposely?”
“I can say that may have been the case,” Moore averred, thinking hard. “But he seemed really interested——”
“As he never had been before,” commented Zizi, and adding, “and as he never has been since?”