“No. It isn’t. But the outer door to the garage is. There’s a spring lock on that, and Mr. Hocksley has the keys to it. I believe he has three or four duplicate keys.”
Mason said, “Let’s take a look in his garage.” He opened the door and stepped inside. “Is there a light in here?”
“Yes. There’s a drop light somewhere, and a string that turns it on. Here it is.”
She pulled the string and clicked a light on.
“There’s no automobile here in the garage,” Mason said.
“No. The police took the one that was here. There were bloodstains on the cushions, and they wanted to take fingerprints and things like that. They’ve never brought the car back.”
“I see. Now this door on the side opens into the yard which communicates with the flat.”
“That’s right. But you’ve been over this before, Mr. Mason.”
“I know,” Mason said, “but I want to be sure I’ve got the thing correctly fixed in my mind. There’s a spring lock on this door. It can be opened from the inside without a key. And by pressing that catch, the latch can be held back so the door isn’t locked. Just as it is now.”
Mrs. Gentrie looked at it and said, “Why, land sakes! That door is unlocked! We always keep that locked. I remember looking at it just this morning, and it was locked then. The latch was in position.”