"It's a matter for the police. I have no part or lot in it."
Elsie laughed unrestrainedly at his stiff dignity.
"You'll move heaven and earth to spare yourself a second humiliation like the present," she told him with a wise shake of the head. "It's ridiculous enough to search a man's rooms for a woman who isn't there, but you can't—you really can't arrest a man for harbouring a woman when there's no shred of evidence to show she was ever under the same roof."
Her mockery deepened the flush on Nigel's thin skin to an angry spot of red on either cheek.
"You forget that several of us visited this place the day after Miss Roden disappeared," he answered.
Elsie looked him steadily in the eyes.
"I have every reason to remember it."
"Your sister was here then."
"You saw her?"
"I heard her."