Hannasyde nodded, as though he had been expecting this response. "And yesterday evening, Mr. North? Where were you between the hours of 9.15 and 10.00?"
North was regarding him watchfully. "What is the purpose of that question?"
"Never mind the purpose," said Hannasyde. "Do you choose to answer me?"
"Certainly, if you insist. I was in Oxford."
"Can you prove that, Mr. North?"
"Are my whereabouts last night of such paramount importance? Haven't we wandered a little from the point? I've asked you for the facts of the case against my wife. You seem curiously disinclined to state them."
Sally, who had retreated to the big bay window, and was listening intently, became aware of Neville's soft voice at her elbow. "What a lovely situation! Shall you use it?"
Hannasyde took a minute to reply to North. When he at last spoke it was in his most expressionless voice. "I think perhaps it would be as well if you were put in possession of the facts, Mr. North. Your wife has stated that at 9.58, on the night of the murder, Ernest Fletcher escorted this unknown visitor to the garden-gate. While he was doing this Mrs. North re-entered the study, with the object of obtaining possession of certain IOUs of hers which were in Fletcher's possession. According to her story, Fletcher returned to find her there. A quarrel took place, which terminated in Mrs. North's striking Fletcher with the paper-weight which, she informs me, stood upon the desk. She then escaped from the study by the door that leads into the hall, leaving her finger-prints on one of the panels. The time was then one minute past ten. At five minutes past ten Constable Glass here discovered the body of Ernest Fletcher."
From the window, Sally spoke swiftly. "Leaving out something, aren't you? What about the man whom Glass saw leaving the garden at 10.02?"
"I have not forgotten him, Miss Drew. But if either of your sister's stories is to be believed he can hardly have had anything to do with Fletcher's murder."