The detective looked at her sharply, and noticed that her fingers played nervously with the stuff of her gown. Also he heard a tremor in her voice as she answered. Now Mrs. Boazoph was not easily upset; yet, as Fanks well saw, only her unusual self-control prevented her from having an attack of hysteria. To many men the circumstance of the crime having been committed in the house would have accounted for this. Fanks was too well acquainted with Queen Beelzeebub to give her the benefit of the doubt. She was disturbed by something more than the mere fact of the murder.
"Do you know the man?" he asked, keeping his eyes fixed on her face.
"No!" retorted Mrs. Boazoph, with suspicious promptitude. "I never set eyes on him until this evening."
And with this hinted defiance she stared Fanks boldly in the face. When she saw that he was watching her twitching fingers, they became motionless on the instant. Only one conclusion could the detective draw from this behaviour; she knew more than she would own to, and she was afraid lest he should find it out. After another look, which discovered nothing--for she was now on her guard--Fanks turned sharply to Crate.
"Where is the body?"
"Upstairs, in one of the bedrooms."
"Was the murder committed in one of the bedrooms?"
"No, Mr. Fanks. It was committed in the room at the end of this passage."
"And why was the body removed out of that room?"
"I removed the body," said Mrs. Boazoph, in a low voice.