“A great many people know it already,” went on Fannie. “The whole school knows it, in fact. Miss Gray, the principal, and some of the teachers, who have lost money and articles. I, myself, have good reason to know it.”
“What is it that you know?” asked the detective.
“That Mary Price is a thief. She has been stealing all the autumn from the other girls and the teachers at the High School.”
“Oh, impossible! I will not believe it,” cried Mrs. St. Clair. “Dear, sweet, quiet Mary. There must be some mistake, Miss Alta. You should be more careful how you spread such dangerous gossip. Mary Price and her mother have many devoted friends in West Haven.”
“You may ask Miss Gray, then. She will tell you,” said Fannie stiffly.
“Just to verify your statement, Miss Alta, I will telephone Miss Gray this instant,” exclaimed the widow angrily, leaving the room and hastening upstairs to the telephone.
While she was gone, and she was away some time, the detective began to question Fannie. He was a very experienced man in his profession and he pressed her so skillfully that several times she tripped in her answers and finally grew excited.
“I tell you it is true,” she cried. “She not only is a thief, but she has a confederate. Billie Campbell is her assistant. Perhaps you think I took the necklace,” she burst out at last. “You have the right to search among my things. I had no way to know that suspicion rested on me. If I took the necklace, it will still be among my things.”
“Don’t get excited, Miss Alta, nobody has accused you of anything. We simply needed your valuable evidence. Why do you say Miss Campbell is a confederate to the thieving?”
Fannie had gone farther than she intended, however, and she refused to give any more information. But the detective saw that when she was angry and frightened, she would talk, and after a pause, he said: