Next day Geoffrey paid a visit to the gaol where Mrs. Jenner was serving her life sentence. After some difficulty he was permitted to see the prisoner; indeed, he might not have procured the interview at all had he not told the governor that he saw a good chance of proving the woman innocent. The governor was a humane man, and, anxious that justice should be done, he stretched a point and allowed Heron to see her with as much privacy as was compatible with prison discipline.
As soon as they were alone. Heron related all that he had discovered, and then proceeded to ask his questions. Mrs. Jenner, poor woman, became much excited, and small wonder, seeing, that for the first time, she saw a chance of regaining her freedom.
"But, after all, it will be to die, Mr. Heron," she said, sadly. "I am very ill; trouble, exposure and mental worry have been too much for me. The doctor saw me two days ago, and has ordered my removal to the Infirmary." Geoffrey looked at her, and, true enough, there was death in her face. A few weeks were all of life left to her now. And yet on hearing Geoffrey's news, the bold spirit flamed up again in her for the last time.
"I am sure you are right, Mr. Heron!" she said, feverishly. "Mr. Marshall is the guilty person. He was always a scamp and a rake. There is no doubt that it was for the purpose of blackmailing him that my husband came down to Westham on the night he was murdered; in fact, he said as much to me at the Turnpike House. Do you know that he had met Marshall on that very night?"
"No; you did not tell me that."
"I forgot; besides, I really did not think it mattered. I did not expect that Mr. Marshall would be brought into the affair. He was always cunning enough to look after himself. At that time he was engaged to marry Miss Cass, and she loved him with the fierceness of a tigress."
"Do you mean the present Mrs. Marshal?"
"Who else should I mean? She always loved him. He had a strange fascination for women: why, I don't know, for he was not particularly good-looking or attractive. But Miss Inez loved him, and it was within two months of the murder that they were married. I was in prison then, as I am now, and under sentence of death."
"Then you think that Marshall killed your husband?"
"I do," she said, with a look of hatred in her large blue eyes. "I feel certain of it. Look at the motive he had! He was engaged to marry Miss Inez Cass: she was rich and he needed money; then again there was some talk of his leaving the firm. I believe myself that Mr. Cass was quite tired of the way he was going on."