“I could easily have staged that,” his sister said napoleonically.
“Not at that hour of night,” objected Kenneth. “If you murdered Arnold and got blood on your clothes, meeting the retriever, or whatever it was, was sheer luck. Also you haven't piled up enough evidence against yourself. Obviously if you were clever enough to commit a murder and plant yourself down in the murdered man's house afterwards you ought to have told as many people as you could that you were going down to have it out with Arnold. No one would believe you killed him after that. What do you think, Superintendent?”
“I think,” replied Hannasyde, exasperated, “that your tongues are likely to lead you into serious trouble.”
“Ah!” said Kenneth, a wicked gleam in his eye. “That means you don't know what to make of us.”
“Quite possibly,” said Hannasyde, unsmiling, and took his leave. But he admitted later to his subordinate that the young devil had gauged the situation correctly.
Meanwhile Antonia had summoned her fiancé to come to see her as soon as he left the office. When he arrived, which was shortly after six o'clock, he found brother and sister arguing over the correct amount of absinthe to be put into the cocktail-shaker. Neither paid much attention to him until a decision had been reached, but when Kenneth had finally won his point on the score of being several years Antonia's senior, and the mixture had been well shaken and poured into the glasses, Antonia nodded to her betrothed and said: “I'm glad you were able to come. I've had the Superintendent-man here, and I think we ought to talk things over.”
Rudolph shot her one quick glance and said: “How very serious you look, darling! You mustn't let all this get on your nerves, you know. What has the worthy Superintendent got in his bonnet now?”
“This is a bloody cocktail,” said Kenneth dispassionately. “You can't have mixed it as I told you. If you think the human sleuth is interested in you you're wrong. He's hot on my trail, and I won't have him diverted. Oh here's Leslie! Leslie, my sweet, come on up!” He leaned out of the window and addressed Miss Rivers at the top of his voice. “The gyves are practically on my wrists, darling, so come up for a last cocktail. No, on second thoughts, don't. Tony mixed it. I'll stand you a drink at the Clarence Arms.” He drew in his head, set his glass down on the table and vanished precipitately from the studio.
Antonia, her attention once more distracted from her fiancé, hung out of the window and conferred with Miss Rivers until Kenneth presently emerged into the mews and swept the visitor off in the direction of the Clarence Arms. She then turned back to Rudolph and demanded to know what they had been talking about.
“Oh, I think you were worried about the Superintendent, weren't you?” Mesurier said. “It's all frightfully upsetting for you, dearest.”