'Write,' said Duff, 'that you thought you heard somebody in the house last night. Ask if tiiere's room for me to stay here. Say you think there ought to be another mail.'
Alice wrote.
Maud spoke. She knew perfectly well that something was being prepared for her to consider, but she chose to speak and upset the order of communications. 'What do you want to know about early history?'
Now Alice's note was irrelevant. 'This is the devil of an interview,' said Duff. 'Show it to her.'
'No room,' croaked Maud, having read. 'What do you mean, another man? There's three abeady. If you count Innes. Two and a half, say.' She roared.
Alice looked helpless. Maud stopped laughing and took another piece of Melba toast.
'She won't take the bait, will she?' said Duff without moving his lips much, though his voice was clear and penetrating. 'Stubborn old owl, I'd say.'
Maud chewed on.
Duff's voice dropped to a near whisper. 'Shall we tell her?'
'What?' whispered Alice.
Maud's finger investigated a tooth.
'About the telephone call in the night,' Duff said very quiedy.
Maud's light-colored eyes rested vacantly on the wall.
'I don't know.' Alice tried to think up some embroidery of her own. 'Do you think it's safe?'
Duff said, 'Write and ask her if she knows anything about what happened last night.'
Maud said, in the middle of his last word, 'Say, nobody was in this house last night, were they?'
'Write, yes, you think so. Write that Innes thinks so.'
Maud snorted as she read. 'Innes is a fraidy cat, always was. Jump at his shadow.'
Alice wrote, 'Did you see or hear anything?'
'Well, I was reading a book. Ehdn't see anything. Can't hear, you know. Rained, though, didn't it? Lemme see. Isabel went through.'
'Isabel!' Duff looked at a door m the far wall. 'That communicates with Isabel's room?'
'It must, I guess,' said Alice. 'We didn't know that, did we?'
'I must have the time. Isabel was the last one to be out of her room. She answered the phone. Ask her the time.'
'The time? But Gertrude says she went upstairs right after being in to see her, so we know the time, don't we?'
'Do we?' said Duff.
'Of course. If Susan knows what time she called up.'
'She says she called about eleven.'
'Well, tiien, Isabel came upstairs just after eleven. That would be just before Fred left Innes's room. Or just after.
If she came through this way he wouldn't have seen her. It must have been about then.'
'Ask Maud,' said Duff.
'She won't know,' said Alice. 'Why should she care what time it is. Look at her.'
Maud lay in her chair as if it were a hammock. Her feet fell sidewise balanced on their heels, the two of them looking like a flipper at the end of her legs. She was frankly appraising Alice's clothes and figure. Or seemed to be.
'But ask her,' said Duff. 'And ask her which way Isabel went through.'
Maud sent them a suspicious glance before she read the newest note. 'Say, what is all this? Isabel was coming up. She didn't want to go past the boy in the hall. She had her kimono on.'
'What time?' said Duff with his lips. He tapped his wrist watch.
'Eh? What time, you mean? Oh, about eleven,' said Maud sullenly.
Duff looked at the clock which stood behind Maud on the dresser. He compared it with his own watch. 'Ask her how late she was awake. Did Isabel go through here again?'
'She did not,' said Maud crossly. 'Say, look, who told you to ask questions?'
Duff seized the pad and wrote himself. 'Why were you outdoors about eight o'clock, night before last?'
Maud took the pad and grinned evilly. 'Innes's puking all over the place nearly made me throw up myself. What of it? Listen, Innes has got some bee m his bonnet What does he think I was doing outside? What the hell difference does it make what time Isabel went to bed last night or me or Gert, either? What's the matter with Innes? Does he think one of us is trying to murder him?'
Alice gasped.
Duff met Maud's bright eyes. He nodded his head. 'Yes, he does,' he said with his nps.
