"Nonsense. This mystification "
"You want to bet, hey?" said H.M., leering. "Davis!"
It was the blast which scattered his lady typists like autumn leaves, and it brought in Sergeant Davis convinced that trouble was brewing.
"In they'll come, one by one," pursued H.M., rather drowsily, "and — yes, I think we'll begin with Mrs. Antrim. Go and fetch her, sergeant. Place your bets, ladies and gents. Who's guilty? I tell you, my fatheads, somebody's goin' to have to do some tall-buskined actin' within the next half-hour."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Three Telephones
H.M. was right. It was as though we saw all these people in a new light. We knew them, yet we did not know them, and now we should come to know what they were really like. It occurred to me that I had met each of them when I was under a disguise or mask of some sort: it would be a curious study to see Mrs. Antrim's reactions when she found the Compleat Policeman sitting by the desk in ordinary clothes. H.M. evidently thought so too.
Mrs. Antrim came in at a free stride. Only her face was uncertain. The first person she looked at was Evelyn, and the two took each other's measure. Mrs. Antrim looted more brushed and neat than she had seemed at "The Larches." Her dark-yellow hair was parted and drawn tightly over the ears. Her eyelids seemed a trifle puffy, but the broad mouth was composed. She now wore a brown coat over the white silk blouse; her fingers plucked upwards at the sleeves. When Charters pushed out a chair for her, she was on such an edge of nerves that the way she thanked him was almost coquettish. Then she saw me sitting by the desk. She did not start or make any gesture: people do not do such things, especially women. It was only that her eyes looked a little more strained.
"Siddown, ma'am," said H.M., with a gentle thunder. "Now, now, you don't want to get the breeze up, a goodlookin' sex-appealin' gal like you! I say, we're sorry to, have upset the place like this, bargin' in, and —'
She seemed puzzled, and looked round. "Oh-that? That's all right. I don't mind. I couldn't have slept anyway. But why do you want me in here again? What more can I tell you? I've told you everything about the poison. I've told you everything that happened to me tonight-last night at M — Moreton Abbot." Her gaze went just past me. "I also told it to a policeman there, who turned out to be a bogus policeman. I suppose he was one of your men. Do you think it's fair?"