“That’s right,” said Granniss, carelessly, as if his alibi were of small moment to him, as indeed it was. “Now, Mr Dunn, you must have some theory,—or if not a theory, some possible explanation of what occurred. Do give it to us.”
“Yes, do,” said North. “I’m fond of detective stories, but I never read one that started out so mysteriously as this.”
“I haven’t any theory,” Dunn looked at each in turn, his eyes roving round the room as he talked, “I can’t say as I can even dope out how it could have happened. But here’s what I work on,—motive. That’s the thing to seek first,—motive. We know Mr Varian is dead, we know Miss Varian is missing. That’s all we really know. Now, you can’t deduce anything from those facts alone. So, I say, hunt for a motive. It isn’t likely that Mr Varian had any enemies up here. And if he had, they never’d chosen such an opportunity to shoot him,—for, just think how sudden, how unexpected that opportunity was! Who could have foreseen that Miss Varian would go back to the house for her camera? Who could have foreseen that her father would go back after her? If those goings back were unpremeditated, then no enemy could have been there ready to utilize his chance. If, on the other hand, those goings back were premeditated, then they were arranged by either Miss Betty or her father——”
“Impossible!” cried North. “Mr Varian couldn’t foresee that his daughter would forget her camera, and Miss Betty couldn’t foresee that it would be her father who would come back for her!”
“I know it seems that way,” Dunn looked deeply perplexed, “but I can’t get away from the idea of there being some premeditation about the two goings back to that empty house that resulted in a double tragedy.”
“Suppose a burglar——” began Claire Blackwood; “suppose he had been concealed in the house before we left to go to the picnic. Suppose when Betty came back unexpectedly, he attacked her, and then, when Mr Varian came——”
“But what became of the burglar,—and of Miss Betty?” asked Dunn. “I’ve mulled over the burglar proposition, I’ve imagined him to be one of the servants, but it all comes back to the fact that such an intruder just simply couldn’t get away, and couldn’t get Betty away, dead or alive.”
“That’s perfectly true,” Claire agreed. “There’s no way to dispose of an imaginary intruder. But neither is there any way to dispose of Betty. Nothing in this world will make me believe that girl shot her father, but just assuming, for a moment, that she did,—what happened next?”
Claire demanded this with the air of an accusing judge.
“Why, that’s the only possible theory,” said Dunn. “Say the young lady did shoot her father, then she went some place,—where, we haven’t yet discovered,—and shot herself,—or, is there, alive yet.”