“Of course.” Mrs. Hale brightened; Richards was at last expanding to the extent of asking questions—what had made him so morose? “I interviewed the servants immediately after leaving the library.” She did not add that she had scurried upstairs in dire haste so as to be the first person to go to their rooms and personally question each and every one—thereby upsetting Detective Ferguson’s well-laid plans, and depriving the servants of any sleep during the remainder of the night. “Not one of them,” impressively, “knew of his return.”
“Then how did he get in?” persisted Richards.
“With his latchkey, of course,” somewhat surprised by Richards’ manner. “Oh, I forgot, you did not know Austin, and perhaps we have not mentioned that he has always made his home with us since his adoption.”
“His what?” Richards’ voice rose in astonishment; and Mrs. Hale’s complacent smile reflected her gratification; she had at last aroused Richards’ interest. “Do you mean—was he not John Hale’s son?”
“No, only his stepson,” she explained. “John married a widow, Cora Price, much older than himself, when he was but twenty-four—in fact just out of college. John is only forty-seven now, ten years my husband’s junior. Dear me, where was I?” and Mrs. Hale pulled up short, conscious that she had wandered from the point.
“You were speaking of Austin’s adoption,” Richards reminded her gently.
“Oh, yes. Cora had a boy by her first husband, and when she died within the year of their marriage, she left him, then about five years of age, to John to bring up, and he legally adopted him, giving him our name. John,” she added, “is very kind-hearted, if somewhat hasty in his actions.”
Reminded of his cigarette by his burned fingers, Richards dropped the stub in his coffee cup and started to light another just as Maud, the parlor maid, appeared in the dining room.
“Detective Ferguson has called to see Mr. John,” she announced, addressing Mrs. Hale. “Do you know when he will return, ma’am?”
“I do not,” Mrs. Hale pushed back her chair and rose with alacrity. “Where is the detective?”