"Then why," barked the detective, "did you make the blunt statement that
Mrs. Lawrence killed Warren?"
"Because," said Barker simply, "I believe she did."
"How could she have killed him? When and how?"
"That's easy," explained Barker quietly. "If I'm right in thinkin' that they was goin' to call off the elopement—they could have seen that taxi standin' against the curb and he could have got in without bein' seen. It was awful dark where the taxi was standin' an' the driver says himself that he was over in the restaurant gettin' warm. So what I thought right away was that Warren got in the taxi, an' she called it. That was so they wouldn't be seen gettin' in together at that time of night. Then I thought they drove off. And then—"
"Yes—and then?"
"It was while they were alone together in that taxi, that she killed him!"
CHAPTER XIX
LABYRINTH
Long after William Barker left the room—held in custody under special guard—David Carroll and Chief of Police Eric Leverage maintained a thoughtful silence. Leverage wanted to talk—but refused to be the first to broach the subject which each knew was uppermost in the mind of the other. And it was Carroll who spoke first—
"Well, Eric," he said dully, "you called the turn that time."