“What causes you to think this?” she inquired. “Because I distinctly remember that the brooch was still at her throat when I found her lying in the road. Yet when I returned it was missing. The assassin was not the thief.”
“That has been my theory all along,” she said.
He noticed the effect his words produced upon her, and was puzzled.
“You have never explained to me, Liane, the reason you did not keep your appointment with me on that evening,” he said gravely. “If you had been at the spot we had arranged, Nelly’s life would most probably have been saved.”
“I was prevented from meeting you,” she answered vaguely, after a second’s hesitation.
“You have already told me that. What prevented you?”
“A curious combination of circumstances.”
“What were they?”
“I started out to meet you, but was prevented from so doing.”
“By whom?”