“Were you born in this country, Frau Mannheim?”
“I was born in Baden,” she answered, in flat, rather guttural tones. “I came to America when I was twelve.”
“You have not always been a cook, I take it.” Vance’s voice had a slightly different intonation from that which he had used with Sproot.
At first the woman did not answer.
“No, sir,” she said finally. “Only since the death of my husband.”
“How did you happen to come to the Greenes?”
Again she hesitated. “I had met Mr. Tobias Greene: he knew my husband. When my husband died there wasn’t any money. And I remembered Mr. Greene, and I thought——”
“I understand.” Vance paused, his eyes in space. “You heard nothing of what happened here last night?”
“No, sir. Not until Mr. Chester called up the stairs and said for us to get dressed and come down.”
Vance rose and turned to the window overlooking the East River.