Stebbins interrupted angrily.
“And what about your amatol turning out to be arsenic. Got as clever a way out of that, lady?”
“I don’t need it—and wouldn’t take it if I did. It’s self-explanatory. Oh, you detectives!” Nadia threw back her head and laughed suddenly, weakly, brokenly. “If you want to send me to eternity for Crawford’s murder you are welcome to do it that I may have the last laugh on you with the Devil in Hell. He’d understand.”
She covered her face with her hands. It was impossible to be certain whether she was laughing still, or crying.
“Get out of here, you two,” Berry said quietly to Belknap and Stebbins. “I want a word with Miss Mdevani alone.” He herded them unceremoniously toward the door.
“We’ve got under her skin,” he added under his breath. “I think with an extra hint or two that I have the means to convey (remember she’s not new to me) we’ll have her where we want her in half a jiffy.”
He shut the door carefully and returned to Nadia.
XXIII
It was a defeated Nadia Mdevani who emerged from what proved to be a prolonged interview with Lieutenant Berry. If, before it, she looked worn and troubled, her will had at least remained indomitable. If her voice had flagged, her eyes lost their challenge, yet she had always managed to convey an impression of impregnable right shall be might. Now she had yielded everything, to all appearances, and came carrying her weapon by the blade and laid across her forearm for the victor to accept the hilt. Her face was haggard; her unquenchable color quenched; her feet scarcely lifted; she twisted her clasped hands together as though they were manacled. When she spoke it was in a voice not her own, a voice in which despair had even surpassed weariness.
“Very well, Mr. Berry,” she said. “I understand perfectly. I shall make no attempt to escape, I swear. I am not the kind. When I am beaten in fair play I am as willing to dance to the music as I am when I win and the tune is gayer. I only ask one favor before I go with you. May I have a few words with Mr. Belknap in private? That is, if he will condescend to have a few words with me. He may even put me to the indignity of a search for concealed firearms if he so desires.” There was a flicker of the old Nadia as she looked up at Belknap on the last words.