`All about what, Mrs Bitton?'
`Oh, don't quibble. About Phil and me. I knew you would find out'
Dr Fell inclined his head. `You should not have broken into his flat this afternoon, Mrs. Bitton. You were seen.'
She was not interested. `I suppose so. I had a key, but I broke the lock, of the door with a chisel I found there to pretend it was a burglar; but it didn't go down. Never mind. I just want to tell you one thing… ' But she could not go on with it. She looked from one to the other of them, and shut her lips.
`Ma'am,' said the doctor, leaning on his cane, `I know what you were going to say. You only realized just then how it would sound if you said it. You were going to say you never loved Driscoll. Ma'am, isn't it rather late for that?'
`Did you see what he had in his hand?' she asked.
`Yes,' he replied, as she closed her eyes `Yes, ma'am, I did?
`Not the gun! The other hand, I mean. He got it out of the drawer. It was a snapshot of me.'
She spoke steadily, the brown eyes level and glazed, the jaw firm. 'I looked at it, and went back to my room. I have been sitting at the window in the dark, looking out…. If you think I'm trying to excuse myself, you're a fool. But since I saw him lying on that, bed, I think I've seen a thousand, million, God knows how many images and they're all his. I've seen all my life with him. I can't cry now. I cried to-day, about Phil's death, but I can't cry now. I know I loved Lester. It was only because his ideas were so different from mine that I had to hurt him. Now I'll go. And maybe I can cry'
She paused in the doorway, a hand unsteadily on her rumpled brown hair.