“It was really Mrs. Draycott. As soon as she heard his name she did nothing but ask questions about him. When he came here; where he came from; what was he like, and that sort of thing. I may have been wrong, but I had a distinct impression that she had met him before.”
“Why didn’t she see for herself? She had plenty of opportunities. He came two or three times while she was staying here, didn’t he?”
“That was the funny thing. I don’t believe she wanted to meet him. As a matter of fact, I chaffed her about her curiosity and suggested she should stroll casually into my room and have a look at him. She laughed and seemed quite ready to fall in with the idea, but she never came.”
“Did you ever tackle him on the subject?”
“Yes. On one occasion, I asked him point-blank if he had ever met her. He laughed and said that, unless she had ever been addicted to slumming, she was the last person he was likely to meet. All the same, I had an odd conviction that they had come across each other at some time or other and that neither was anxious to renew the acquaintance. Of course, I’ve nothing to go on but my own very vague impressions. That and the fact that I see more of him than most of the people here made me suspect that you had him in your mind.”
“It’s funny how it fits in with what I was going to tell you. My suspicions were roused in very much the same way. When he drove me to the station to meet Grey we discussed Mrs. Draycott and he seemed quite extraordinarily bitter against her, considering they had never met. Also, he struck me as knowing a good deal about her, nothing that gossip and newspaper reports would not account for, but enough to show that he had followed her career with considerable interest. Unfortunately I said something that put him on his guard and he shut up like a clam. Mine, like yours, was only a vague impression, but, oddly enough, Leslie seems to have been struck by the same idea. It’s only fair to say, though, that Leslie may have been influenced by certain leading questions Grey put to him at my request.”
“What roused John’s suspicions?” asked Cynthia.
“Gregg’s manner when he was called to view the body. Also, according to him, Gregg did not actually deny having met Mrs. Draycott when he was questioned by the police. He said, apparently, that she was ‘no friend of his’ and the police naturally took it to mean that he did not know her. It may have been merely his way of putting it. We’ve none of us really got anything to go on.”
“Also, if he’s got anything to hide, he’s giving himself away rather stupidly, isn’t he?” suggested Sybil Kean.
“He’s apparently being criminally careless and he’s not a stupid man. I admit to being puzzled by him, he’s such a queer mixture of bluntness and reserve.”