“Because you might ask me a lot of questions as you have done and find out where I’d been just before dinner. Naturally I didn’t want people to know that I’d been in a man’s room when he was dressing.”
“What made you think you’d have the chance to wipe them off before he found and photographed them?”
“I heard Mr. Landis tell the man to look on the armor. He mentioned that first.”
“I see. Go on! What did you do?”
“The first thing I saw when I got to my room was Isabelle’s handkerchief. I grabbed it and raced down the backstairs. There was nobody in the hall out there. So I scrubbed the door and ran back to the servants’ hall. But I dropped the handkerchief. I hadn’t the nerve to go back for it.”
“You mean you saw that the finger-prints had chalk on them! So you dropped the handkerchief to put the blame of wiping them off on your sister!” accused Bernard.
“I didn’t either! Why, I came down to get it, so she wouldn’t get into trouble! A fat lot she deserves it!”
“Then you did notice the chalk! Otherwise, why should her handkerchief get her into trouble?”
“I didn’t, I tell you! But the handkerchief was near the library door and Dad was shot from there!”