“There is no need for you to be other than frank with me. I saw the whole thing. I saw you get that message. I followed you into the woods. You took a gun with you, and you hid in the trees where you could see your husband arrive. I saw the flame of your shot, and that same second Dick Bracknell fell in the snow. Mark you, I do not blame you. Dick Bracknell was worthless and—”
“But oh!” sobbed Joy with horror in her face. “You are mistaken. It is not true. I never—”
“Why try to bluff me, Joy? I say I saw you and if you were not the person who killed Dick Bracknell, why did you make no mention of what had occurred when you returned to the Lodge? That is not the way of innocence.”
Joy did not reply. Her face was buried in her hands and she was sobbing convulsively. Rayner looked at her with shrewd eyes, then after a moment resumed in an altered tone—
“As I have said, Joy, my dear, I do not blame you; I even went out of my way to help you that night.”
“You ... you went—”
“Exactly, I saw that policeman find Dick’s body, and afterwards leave it, and go towards the Lodge. I knew that things might be awkward if the truth came out, so I disposed of the body.”
“You disposed of the body?” She lifted her head suddenly, and through her tears looked at him incredulously.
“Yes,” he answered airily. “It is difficult to prove a crime if there is no evidence of it, so I removed the material evidence, to the utter confusion of any theory that Corporal Bracknell might have formed.”