“But that was no excuse for the crime.”
“She might have paraded the relationship before the world,” cried Opal. “She was positively dangerous. She was a perpetual menace. It was dreadful.”
“You took it upon yourself to put her out of the way. You went to the house——”
“To silence her tongue!” broke in Opal Lamont. “Murder was not in my mind at first. But she taunted me; she laughed at me when I offered to make her rich. She even threatened to appear in public and boast of the kinship. That was more than I could stand.”
“You struck her then?”
“I did. I broke the ring with the blow. I did not miss it till I came home. The other half strangely clung to my finger till I reached this house. I thought I had lost the rest on the street.”
“You nearly involved others in that crime.”
“How’s that?”
“Your brother was for a time suspected of the murder, and then his chum, George Richmond.”
“Did it deceive you?”