“Then one day I chanced to pick up a letter which someone had dropped. It contained a key to this house. I decided it was too good an opportunity to miss. Posing as Jacob Winters’ nephew I came here to look over the situation.”
“I never had a nephew,” Mr. Winters declared.
“That was the first mistake I made. The second was in underestimating the ability of Penny Nichols. I thought she was only a school girl.”
Penny smiled broadly as she inquired: “Didn’t you enter into an agreement with Mrs. Leeds to defraud Rosanna?”
“I forged the will for her if that’s what you mean. I wasn’t interested in getting any of the money myself.”
“That was because you knew it couldn’t be done,” the detective interposed. “You considered the ivory collection more profitable.”
“Of course you forged the letter stating that Jacob Winters had been buried at sea,” Penny mentioned.
With a nod of his head, the man acknowledged the charge. It was Christopher Nichols’ turn to ask a question. Penny’s letters had mentioned the mysterious mansion ghost and he was deeply interested in the subject.
“I suppose you were the ghost, Max?”
Jacob Winters answered for him.