"Rubbish! I've heard that before! It doesn't mean a thing, any more than the old saw that 'murder will out' is true."
"All right, sir, that's one; then, again, there's a chance that said murderer may not be able to stay away because we may catch him."
"That's the talk!" said Bannard. "Now you've said something worth while. Get your man, and then find out from him how he accomplished the impossible. Or, rather, the seemingly impossible. For, since somebody did enter that room, there was a way to enter it."
"It isn't the entering, you know, Mr. Bannard. Everybody was out of the living room at the time, and the intruder could have walked right in the side door of that room, and through into Mrs. Pell's sitting room. The question is, how did he get out, after ransacking the room and killing the lady, and yet leave the door locked after him."
"All right, that's your problem then. But, as I said, if he did do it, or since he did do it, somebody ought to be able to find out how."
"I'll subscribe to that, somebody ought to be able to, but who is the somebody?"
"Don't ask me, I'm no detective."
"No, sir. Now, Mr. Bannard, what about this? Do you think that Florentine pocket-book, that was found emptied, as if by the robber, is the one that your aunt left you in her will?"
"I think it is, Mr. Hughes. But I am by no means certain. Indeed, I suppose it, only because it looks as if it had held something of value which the intruder cared enough for to carry off with him."
"You think it looks that way?"