“Possibly not—possibly one of you did.”
I could have twisted his ugly little neck.
“You knew that Dr. Wallace had lived in China?”
“Yes.”
“And Miss Palfreeman?”
Now I had been wondering whether I ought to disclose the conversation between Stella and The Tundish that I had overheard, and whether I was right or wrong, I don’t know, but I had made up my mind that I would say nothing about it—at any rate for the present.
In the first place, it seemed to me that if it were deceitful of me to keep my knowledge from the police, it would be still more dishonest to tell them what I had heard. It was a private and confidential conversation, which quite unwittingly I had been able to overhear by reason of my abnormal powers. I had promised Allport to keep nothing relevant hidden, along with the rest, including The Tundish, but how was I to know that it was really relevant? Might I not have misinterpreted what I did hear? Those gaps in Stella’s speech, in how many different ways could they not be filled? Again, was it my business or part of my undertaking to report half-heard remarks? If it had been something to do with Stella’s death, then surely it was a matter for The Tundish, and he, God knows, was heavily enough involved without my going out of my way to add to his burden by ranging myself at the side of Kenneth.
And so, right or wrong, I decided to keep the overheard conversation to myself, but I did not quite realize that my resolve would necessitate the lie direct. I soon found out, however, that it did, and that as soon as I had told the first I had to back it with another.
“I don’t know whether she knew it or not,” I ventured, in reply to his question, after a moment’s hesitation.
“Please don’t play with me, sir!” the little man almost shouted. “You know perfectly well that I was asking if you knew that Miss Palfreeman had lived in China.”