“Nor who took it—naturally.” He dropped into a chair beside me. “Now, Miss Keate, tell me exactly how you came upon it.”
Feeling that it was no time to mince matters I complied, much as I disliked the implications the story involved. He listened thoughtfully, drawing a red pencil from his pocket and actually using it to scribble some notes in a small, shabby notebook he brought forth. He did not comment when I had finished, save to ask if Miss Day was on duty. And at the moment Maida herself entered the corridor from some sick room, O’Leary rose and intercepted her at once and the two disappeared into the drug room.
I was left to wait, always a difficult task for one of my temperament and particularly unpleasant that night. It seemed hours but was actually not more than twenty minutes by my watch, before they emerged. Maida’s chin was in the air, her cheeks quite scarlet, and her eyes flashing blue fire, but O’Leary was imperturbable. He stopped for a word with me and I suppose noted the anxiety which I was at no pains to hide. He smiled into my gaze a bit ruefully.
“She has a reason for everything,” he said quietly. “If I could only be sure that she is telling the truth!”
“She always tells the truth!” I cried indignantly.
“I hope so——” he hesitated. “It is difficult to explain, but all through her story I had the strangest impression that she had—rehearsed the whole thing.”
“What did she say of the radium?”
“Says she found it in a pot of lobelia that was in the hall outside Room 18. She noted that the flowers were withered and needed water, took it to the kitchen to water, noted that it had been disturbed and—found the radium hidden below the plant! She took the radium to her own room until she could get in touch with me. She says she did not know that I was in the hospital after the inquest until she saw me leaving.”
“That is true,” I said quickly. “And I remember the pot of lobelia, too. Only——” I wrinkled my forehead thoughtfully. “Why, the last I saw it, the thing was still in Room 18! Not in the corridor, at all!”
“When did you see it last?” he asked quickly.