“Because the murders had been committed with it.”
“Had you heard of any finger-prints on the handle?”
“No.”
“Did it occur to you that you were interfering with justice in disposing of the axe?”
“Do you mean justice or law? They are not the same.”
“Tell us about your visit to the forward house.”
“It was between two and three. I met no one. I had a bunch of keys from the trunks and from four doors in the after house. Miss Lee knew I intended to try to get rid of the axe. I did not need my keys. The door was open—-wide open. I—I went in, and—”
Here, for the first time, Mrs. Johns’s composure forsook her. She turned white, and her maid passed up to her a silver smelling-salts bottle.
“What happened when you went in?”
“It was dark. I stood just inside. Then something rushed past me and out of the door, a something—I don’t know what—a woman, I thought at first, in white.”