“H’m. Pretty hard to find the right one to question. Mrs. Wheeler, now—I’d rather not trouble her too much.”
“Talk to me,” said Allen. “I can tell you the facts, and you can draw your deductions afterward.”
“Me, too,” said Keefe. “Ask us the hard questions, and then when you need to, inquire of the Wheelers. Remember, they’re under great nervous strain.”
“Well, then,” Burdon seemed willing to take the advice, “you start in, Mr. Keefe. You’re Mr. Appleby’s secretary, I believe?”
“Yes; we were on our way back to his home in Stockfield—we expected to go there to-morrow.”
“You got any theory of the shooting?”
“I’ve nothing to found a theory on. I was out at the garage helping to put out a small fire that had started there.”
“How’d it start?”
“I don’t know. In the excitement that followed, I never thought to inquire.”
“Tell your story of the excitement.”