“Gee!” cried the boy. “That could be!”
“Of course it could. And there are other ways it might have been accomplished. Now, we don’t say that did happen, but what I want to know is, who is at the head of this investigation?”
“I can’t feel that Mrs. Bates is,” Mrs. Peyton said, a little sullenly. “She was not married yet, and therefore, as resident housekeeper, I feel rather in authority myself.”
“But you say you are the heir, Mrs. Bates?” the detective inquired.
“Perhaps I ought not to have told that,” Emily Bates spoke regretfully. “But Doctor Waring’s lawyer will tell you, it is true I am the principal heir. It is so designated in his will, which you will find in a secret drawer in his desk.”
“You know where this drawer is?”
“I do.”
“Later on, I will ask you to show us. If you are the heir, there is no further question of your authority here.”
And Detective Morton left the room.