“I thought at first it might be Mrs. Graham screaming again. Then I thought of Anita. She is good to me. I went to her room to see if she was all right. But she failed to answer my knock. So I returned to my bed and my book.”
“You made no attempt to investigate further?”
“No. I went back to my book.” Joel glanced about the library and began to look puzzled and annoyed. “Excuse me,” he diverged, “I don’t wish to seem discourteous or inhospitable. But it seems strange that you should ask me to rise and come downstairs after I was in bed. Would it not have been possible for you to call tomorrow?”
Humor deserted Landis, giving place to a shadow of pity.
“You know,” he said quietly, “we owe you an apology about that. But now we’re here, we may as well have a chat, Mr. Harrison. You just said that you thought the scream you heard might be Mrs. Graham again. Has she screamed before?”
“Yes. She screamed a few nights ago. Miss Mount told me it was she when I inquired.”
“When was it that she screamed, do you know?”
“A few nights ago. I believe it was Wednesday as I was in my bath. Wednesday and Saturday are my bath nights.”
“Have you ever used the Japanese bow?” asked Landis.
“I bent it one day. My brother asked me not to use it so I refrained.”