“Find her? Of course. You say yourself there’s only one way out of these premises. We know she didn’t go out that way, so, she must be here. There must be places we haven’t yet discovered, where she is hiding,—or—or has been concealed.”
“It’s a fearful situation!” broke out Dunn. “That girl may be gagged and bound—in some secret closet——”
“You say there are none, Bill.”
“I do say I don’t see how there can be any, but, good lord, Potter, the girl must be somewhere,—dead or alive!”
An attractive supper, largely consisting of the delicacies intended for the picnic, and supplemented by some hot viands, was soon in readiness.
Hannah was deputed to sit beside Mrs Varian, now sleeping again, and the others, including the detectives, gathered round the table.
“I’d like the sum of your findings, so far,” Doctor Varian said, raising weary eyes to Potter’s face.
“Pretty slim, Doctor,” the sheriff responded. “But, I want to say, right now, that I’ve got to do my duty as I see it. Much as I’d like to spare the feelings of you people and all that, I’ve got to forge ahead and discover anything I may.”
“Of course you have, Mr Potter. Don’t think I’d put a straw in the way of truth or justice. But, granting that you may speak with all plainness, where do you come out?”
“Only to the inevitable conclusion that Miss Varian killed her father and then killed herself, and her body will yet be found.”