Then he turned to Ethel. “You are quite certain that the key was in the door?”
“No, I am not.”
“But you told me just now that it was.”
“I beg your pardon, but I said nothing of the kind. What I said was that the key was generally in the door. You don’t suppose that I stopped to make an inventory?”
I could have clapped her on the back for standing up to the little spitfire, and as a matter of fact, he seemed rather to enjoy it himself, for he smiled quite amicably and turned to Annie, asking her if she could give him information on the subject.
“No, sir, as Miss Ethel says, all the bedroom door keys are usually on the inside, and I should expect that Miss Palfreeman’s would be there like the rest.”
“Did any one else hear the doctor tell Mr. Jeffcock that he had forgotten to lock the door?” was his next question. No one replied, and I answered rather stiffly that I should have thought that my statement would have been enough, but “I dare say,” was all the comment he made.
This, I felt, was not a very auspicious start and argued ill for the more detailed questioning to which we should have to submit, and I wondered what attitude he would take toward The Tundish on his return if he could behave so abominably to the rest of us now. However, there seemed to be nothing to gain by remonstrance, so I merely shrugged my shoulders and picked up the morning paper which was lying on the table. I think that neither Dr. Jeffries nor Inspector Brown relished their association with the boorish little man.
He was undoubtedly master of the situation though, and he asked, or rather I should say told, Inspector Brown to have the bedroom door broken open immediately, and to send a plain clothes man to the three addresses at which it was most probable the doctor might be visiting. He got Ethel to write them down on a slip of paper. The man was to come back at once if the doctor was not located. If he was, then he was to be told that he was wanted back at Dalehouse as urgently as possible, and the man was to wait and escort him home.
His instructions were rapped out without the least consideration for our feelings, and I for one felt certain that The Tundish would be arrested on suspicion directly he set foot inside the house. Having packed off Dr. Jeffries and the inspector, he crossed the room to where Ethel was standing, a picture of unhappiness, gazing out of the window at the sunlit garden. I think that even he was touched.