He shook his head dubiously, and asked, without much hope, where she had been between seven-thirty and dinner-time.
"Changing in my room," she replied. Joseph Herriard will bear me out. His dressing-room communicates with my bathroom, and we not only went upstairs together, but he chat - talked to me all the time I was changing. "What's more, we came downstairs together. That's my alibi, Inspector."
He thanked her gravely, refusing to be drawn, and said that he would like to interview the servants.
Just ring the bell," said Mathilda, rising, and walking to the door. "You will then be able to start on the butler."
She rejoined her fellow-guests in the drawing-room. "Well?" said Stephen.
"I did what I could for you," she replied. "He's now about to pump Sturry."
"That ought to finish us," he said grimly. "Sturry was listening outside the door when the storm broke."
Chapter Seven
The Inspector, who had been confronted with condescension in Roydon, hostility in Paula, now encountered, as Sturry majestically advanced into the morning-room, a lofty disdain which would have caused a more sensitive soul to shrink.
"You rang, Inspector?" said Sturry, conveying a suggestion of astonishment.