“The story of the hatpin,” I said, “is very curious, but quite simple. Nora Lepley, when she found Sir Philip dead, recognised the bottle as one she had found in Grainger’s shop. She had known Mr. Grainger for many years, and had been his daughter’s bosom friend. She jumped to the conclusion that Grainger had poisoned Sir Philip, and it was in the hope of diverting suspicion from him that she took away and hid the bottle and—er—used the hatpin. There is the whole story.”
“But suppose somebody had been involved—Kitty, for example, or Ronald—would she have spoken?” the younger Lady Clevedon demanded.
“Undoubtedly,” I replied.
But I spoke without knowledge, because that was a question I had carefully refrained from putting to Nora herself. My own impression was that she would cheerfully have seen the whole Clevedon family hanging in company if that would have secured Ronald Thoyne’s immunity. But I did not tell them that.
THE END