“Suspect you? How dreadful! What do you mean?”
“Well, I had a most inquisitorial visit from the police this morning; and a man in obvious police boots has been following me about all day.”
He spoke lightly; but Joan took what he said very seriously indeed. “My dear Bob,” she said. “This is positively awful. But why ever should any one think you—had anything to do with it?”
“Oh, just because I failed to give a ‘satisfactory explanation’—I think that is what they call it—of my movements on Tuesday night. You know I walked home after dinner. Well, I wandered round a bit and didn’t get home till midnight. So they argue that I had plenty of time to kill half a dozen people, and insist that I must either prove an alibi—or take the consequences. What do you say? Do you think I did it?”
“My dear Bob, don’t joke about it. It’s far too serious, if the police are going to drag you into this terrible business.”
“No, really, it isn’t serious at all—now at any rate. I am in a position, fortunately, to produce a conclusive alibi. You see, I wasn’t alone, and I’ve found the chap who was with me most of the time, and sent him round to Scotland Yard to tell them it’s all right. I expect the gentleman with the boots will be out of a job before long.”
“You’re sure it’s really all right?”
“Of course it is, or I shouldn’t have said a word about it. And I dare say what you have heard about the police suspecting old Walter isn’t a bit more serious.”
“Oh, but it is. From their point of view, I’m afraid they have a very strong case.” And Joan told him all that she knew—both what she had heard about Charis Lang from Marian Brooklyn, and what Carter Woodman had told her. Finally, she told Ellery that she had made up her mind to go at once to her stepfather, and try to make him tell her the truth.
As Joan told her story, Ellery could not help saying to himself that it looked bad for old Walter. He did not know Walter Brooklyn very well; but all he did know was unfavourable, and he had never heard any one—even Joan herself—say a good word for him. Left to his own reflections, Ellery would not have hesitated to suspect Walter Brooklyn of murder; for he realised at once that the wicked uncle had everything to gain by putting his two nephews out of the way. But Joan knew the man, and he did not; and, if Joan was positive, that was good enough for him. He was so completely under her influence that the idea that Walter Brooklyn was guilty was dismissed almost as soon as it was entertained. Ellery would make it his business to get Walter Brooklyn cleared—he would work for the old beast with the feeling that he was working for Joan himself. Entering at once into Joan’s plan, he applauded her determination to go and see her stepfather, and placed himself unreservedly at her service.