Condor’s inquisitive gaze switched back again.
The Saint shrugged.
“You’re too clever,” he said. “I don’t know. Naturally. If a lot of people knew, there wouldn’t have been any point in playing ball with Ufferlitz to keep him quiet. And there wouldn’t have been any point in killing him to make it permanent.”
The director appealed to Condor with another helpless movement of his hands.
“What on earth can I say to an insinuation like that? I took this job with Ufferlitz because I needed it quite badly, and I thought it might do me some good. I didn’t have to like him especially. But now he must have been blackmailing me, and if nobody knows what I was being blackmailed with I must have murdered him.”
“This girl you quarrelled about,” Condor said. “Was that recently?”
“No. It was months ago — nearly a year.”
“What was her name and where does she live?”
“She doesn’t,” said Groom.
The detective cocked his head sharply.