Tab had a few independent enquiries to pursue, one of which related to the cook. She had already been questioned by the police, he discovered, when he reached her little suburban home. A quiet, motherly and unimaginative woman, there was little she could tell him.
“It was my day off,” she said. “Mr. Trasmere said he was going into the country, though I don’t suppose he was. He had said that before, but Walters told me to take no notice. I have never seen Mr. Trasmere,” she said, to Tab’s surprise. “All my orders came through Mr. Walters, and practically I was never inside the house except once, when the cleaning woman did not turn up in the morning and I helped Walters to tidy the master’s sitting-room. I remember that morning because I found a little black lid—well it was hardly a lid, I have got it here if you would like to see it. I have often wondered what it was for.”
“Lid,” said Tab. “What kind of a lid?”
“It was like the lid of a small pill-box,” explained the woman, “about the size of a threepenny piece. I picked it up and asked Mr. Walters what it was for, and he said he didn’t know. It was on the floor near the table and I brought it home, meaning to ask my husband what it was.”
She went out of the room and returned with the “lid” which proved, on examination, to be a celluloid cap such as typists use to cover their keys.
“Had Mr. Trasmere a typewriter?”
“No, sir,” she answered, shaking her head, “not so far as I know. I have never seen one. As I say, I have only been that once into the house. The kitchen is built away from the living rooms, although it is connected; Mr. Trasmere gave strict orders that I was to keep to my kitchen.”
Tab looked at the little cap which he held between his finger and thumb. It was undoubtedly part of a typist’s equipment, and yet Mr. Trasmere had never employed a typist. He always wrote to Rex in his own hand.
“Are you sure nobody came during the day to take your master’s correspondence?” he asked.
“No, I am perfectly sure Mr. Walters would have told me. He used to complain how dull it was because nobody came to the house at all and he was rather partial to young women, so I am sure I should have heard. Have they found Mr. Walters? I’m certain he didn’t do it.”