Colonel McIntyre had been in his office within the hour—the question was answered, and Kent's eyes brightened, then clouded—Barbara had been there as well, and Grimes had stated that before he received a knock-out blow in the McIntyre library he heard the swish of skirts!
Kent laid his hand on the envelope. It was time that he found out what it contained; but his finger, inserted under the flap, paused as his eyes fell on the check bearing Mrs. Brewster's signature. It was the check he had picked up from the floor of the McIntyre limousine that morning and inadvertently carried away with him.
From her signature his glance wandered to Sylvester's memorandum pad; it was uncanny the way his eye picked out the letter “B” as he stared at Clymer's note and its signature. Slowly his hand dropped away from the envelope and he left it lying forgotten on the desk as he picked up piece after piece of blotting paper, glancing intently at each and finally, pulling open a drawer of his desk, he hunted in feverish haste for a hand-mirror.
Some ten minutes later Kent rose, placed the papers he had been examining in the inside pocket of his coat and, using the private entrance from his office into the corridor, he hurried away.
When Helen McIntyre entered the office of Rochester and Kent for the second time that afternoon she found Sylvester transcribing stenographic notes on his typewriter.
“Mr. Kent is expecting you, miss,” he said, holding open the inner office door, and with a courteous word of thanks, Helen passed the clerk and the door closed behind her. Kent rose at her approach and bowed formally.
“Take this chair,” he suggested, and not until she was seated did Helen realize he had placed her where the light fell full upon her. “I asked you to come here,” he began, as she waited for him to speak, “Because I must have your confidence—if I am to aid you. Did you meet, recognize, and talk to Jimmie Turnbull in your house sometime between Monday midnight and his arrest on Tuesday morning?”
She colored hotly, then paled. “My testimony at the inquest,”—she commenced, but he gave her no opportunity to add more.
“Your testimony there does not cover the question,” he explained. “You stated then that you had not recognized Jimmie in the court room. Had you already penetrated his disguise at your house?”
“And if I had?”