"Today at the lunch hour. I came the minute I got off."
"Go ahead. I said not to tell anybody till you told me first. Well, you're going to tell me first now."
Standing by the table, her eyes bright on the old man, she said slowly and clearly:
"Troop says he never took Miss Whitehall down from her offices on the night of January the fifteenth."
George gave a smothered ejaculation and started forward. I was transfixed—not believing my ears. Only the chief looked unmoved, leaning against the mantelpiece, holding Molly's glance with his.
"Go on," he growled.
"He says that he was there later than usual, until eight, because of the accident and the other car being broken. Before that he took down the two Azalea Woods Estates clerks, Iola Barry and Tony Ford, but not Miss Whitehall. After the accident he ran out into the street, and when he came back the people were on every landing ringing the bells and wild because the elevator didn't come. He went up and took them off, but Miss Whitehall wasn't among them. He said that he'd heard some of them got tired of waiting and went by the stairs."
"He thought Miss Whitehall went that way?"
"Yes, it was the only way she could have gone. He supposed she'd got impatient or hysterical and just rushed pell-mell down."
"Did Troop or anyone else see her in the lower hall or leaving the building?"