“I knew it!” she cried. “I knew it all the time!”
“You must be crazy,” muttered Pinto, at last finding his voice.
“Not at all. But for the fact that you are an officer in good standing, you would have been suspected immediately. In the light of all the circumstances, it stands to reason that the man who broke through the door was the man who murdered Gage. No one else could have done it. Mrs. Trippe, do you remember how long Pinto was alone in the room after forcing his way in?”
The housekeeper seemed to search her memory. “It took him several moments to find the electric light switch,” she mumbled haltingly. “After that—well, he was in there for some time before he came out. Maybe two minutes, maybe five—I can’t be sure.”
“At any rate, long enough to drive a knife into Gage’s chest.” There was an exultant throb in the Phantom’s tones, the eagerness of the hunter who is tracking down his quarry. “Gage, we may assume, was awakened by the noise when the door crashed in, and sprang from his bed. You probably grappled in the dark. Then——”
Pinto interrupted with a harsh, strident laugh. “Some cock-and-bull story you’re handing us! If I killed Gage, then Mrs. Trippe here must have been in on the job. It was she who called me and told me to force the door.”
The Phantom waved his hand airily. “Because she had heard a mysterious noise. That noise may have been prearranged to give you a chance to knife Gage. I don’t pretend to understand all the minor details yet, but the essentials are clear as day. You must have committed the murder, for the simple reason that nobody else could have done it.”
“Yeh?” There was a vicious sneer in Pinto’s face. “Maybe you’ll tell me, then, why Gage thought the Phantom was the one who knifed him.”
“Because of the forged letter he had received the day before. Besides, Pinto, we don’t know that Gage thought anything of the kind. We have nothing but your word for it. You were the only witness to the declaration you say Gage made. A man who will commit a cowardly murder is also capable of telling a lie.”
Great bluish veins stood out on Pinto’s forehead. “You’re doing fine for an amateur dick,” he jeered. “All you’ve got to do now is to figger out a motive, and the case will be complete.”