He led the way into the dining-room. The table was laid for two persons, a circumstance which seemed to affect the butler poignantly. He shuddered, and said: "I'd only that minute finished laying for Madam, and Miss Cynthia!"
"What minute?"
"I don't know what the time was, not for certain. It must have been soon after seven. I heard a stealthy footstep in the hall, as if someone was walking on tip-toe, and I went to the door, like this, and there was Miss Birtley, just about to let herself out of the house."
The Chief Inspector was unimpressed. "Any reason why she shouldn't have been letting herself out? When is she due to knock off each day?"
"At six o'clock, unless Madam wished her to stay on. And so she did, Chief Inspector, for with my own eyes I saw her leave the house then!"
"Then how did she get in again?"
"Miss Birtley has a duplicate latch-key. I was considerably astonished to see her, and it seemed to me that she was taking care not to be heard. When I spoke to her, she gave a start, and seemed much discomposed."
"She did, did she? What had she come back for?"
"She informed me, Chief Inspector, that she had omitted to take away with her the cheque handed to her this morning by Mrs. Haddington, to pay the accounts with. I need hardly say that I should be reluctant - most reluctant I should be! - to get a fellow-creature into trouble, but at the time it struck me as being Odd. I won't say suspicious, but definitely Odd. Knowing that Mrs. Haddington had wished to speak with her before her departure, I requested her to wait while I ascertained whether Madam had any message for her." He paused, and added impressively: "Miss Birtley was very reluctant to do so. In fact, she did not wish me to go up to the boudoir. But I was Adamant! I went - and that was what I found! I do not know when anything has given me such a Turn, Chief Inspector!"
"And what were your own movements?" asked Hemingway.