"This is the first time," he declared, big with confidence, "I've felt that I had the right end of this case."
When she had closed the door on him, she went back to the living room and set back in its customary place the chair he had occupied. Her own was where it always belonged. From there she went into the bathroom and, as Hastings had seen her do before, drew a glass of water which she drank slowly.
Then, examining her hard, smooth face in the bedroom mirror, she said aloud:
"Pretty soon, now, somebody will talk business—with me."
There was no elation in her voice. But her lips were, for a moment, thick and wet, changing her countenance into a picture of inordinate greed.
XV
IN ARTHUR SLOANE'S ROOM
Hastings went back to Sloanehurst that evening for another and more forceful attempt to argue Arthur Sloane into frankness. Like Mrs. Brace, he could not get away from the definite conclusion that Lucille's father was silent from fear of telling what he knew. Moreover, he realized that, without a closer connection with Sloane, his own handling of the case was seriously impeded.