He said, “Then the message in the can becomes perfectly meaningless... so far as the murder is concerned.”
“Why? Oh, I get it. Because he and she were together. Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
Della Street said with a smile, “Once that message is deciphered, it may turn out to be ‘I love you, darling, no matter what happens.’ Persons in love are inclined to do things like that, you know — or do you?”
Mason nodded, said, “Frankly, Della, if it had been a simple cipher where letters had been transposed in order to make a message, I would have been very much surprised if it had had anything to do with the murder. But as it is, I’m inclined to attach more importance to it. But the perfectly obvious and logical point seems to have escaped everyone.”
“What’s that?”
“The one real clue as to the identity of the person for whom the message was intended.”
“What’s the clue?”
Mason said, “The fact that only one person got it, of course.”
“You mean...?”