A thoughtful expression came over Inspector Dallas’ face.
“That was quite the proper thing to do,” he said. “I suppose you don’t know what time the key was fetched again from the office?”
“Oh, that I cannot tell you. You see, I went to bed about two o’clock and I was up again at seven. When I took Mrs. Delahay up her cup of early tea she was in bed then.”
“Really! Did you notice anything strange about her?”
“There was nothing to notice. She appeared to be very bright and cheerful, and chatted to me in the friendliest possible way. She did say something to the effect that she was a little uneasy about her husband, who had not yet returned, and that she must go and look for him. But beyond that I saw nothing that was in the least out of the common.”
“I think that will do,” Dallas observed. “I won’t detain you any longer. I know how busy you are.”
Dallas went straight away downstairs and interviewed the clerk in the office. The latter’s memory was a little vague on the subject of the coming and going of the various hotel guests. There were hundreds of them in the course of a week, and it was the habit of most of them to leave the key of their rooms in the office every time they went out. The speaker had no recollection of Mrs. Delahay calling for her key very late on the night of the tragedy. He debated the point thoughtfully for a moment, then his face lighted up.
“I think I can help you,” he exclaimed.
XI
The Express Letter
“Take your time,” Dallas said, encouragingly. “I don’t want to hurry you. All I want are facts.”
“It is beginning to come to me now,” the clerk said thoughtfully. “Yes, I remember it quite distinctly. You see, Madam Leona Farre, the great French actress, is staying in the house, and she did not come in till just two o’clock. After I had given her her key Mrs. Delahay came up and asked who the lady was. She wanted her key, too, which she told me was missing from the door of her room.”
“Oh, indeed,” Dallas said softly. “She had just come in, I suppose? Had she taken off her things?”
“No,” the clerk said. “She had just come in from the street. I had to explain to her how it was that the key had found its way back into the office again.”
“She did not appear to be annoyed at that?”
“Not in the least. Indeed, she seemed to be rather amused at her own carelessness. No, I saw nothing suspicious in her manner. I think that is all I can tell you.”
“Possibly,” Dallas said. “But there is one other little matter in which you may be of assistance. I suppose you can recollect the night that Mr. Delahay left the hotel. Did he happen to ask for letters or anything of that kind? It would be quite the usual thing to do. Of course, it is a small point—”
“There were no post letters,” the clerk interrupted. “But just as Mr. Delahay was going out a messenger boy brought an express letter for him, which he read hastily, and then asked the hall porter to call him a cab. No, I can’t say that the message disturbed him at all, but it seemed to hurry him up a bit just as a telegram might have done. That was the last I saw of him.”
On the whole Inspector Dallas was not disposed to be dissatisfied with his morning’s work. He had discovered some important facts, and, at any rate, it had impressed the detective with the truth of John Stevens’ evidence. As to the rest, it would not be a difficult matter to find out the name and number of the messenger boy who had brought the unfortunate Delahay that letter. There was nothing for it now but to take a cab and go off in the direction of the district office whence the messenger boy had come. As Dallas walked briskly down the steps of the hotel he met Lord Ravenspur coming up.
“I am just going to see Mrs. Delahay,” the latter said. “By the way, Inspector, that was remarkable evidence which the witness Stevens volunteered this morning. But, of course, he was mistaken. It is absolutely impossible that Mrs. Delahay could have been with her husband at the time he stated.”
“Well, I am not so sure of that, my lord,” Dallas replied. “Really, I don’t know what to make of it. At any rate, I have discovered an absolute fact: that for two hours, between twelve and two, Mrs. Delahay was not in the hotel. I have it on the independent testimony of two witnesses who corroborate one another down to the minutest detail. I don’t know what to make of it.”
All the healthy colour left Ravenspur’s face.
“This is amazing,” he said. “Yet I cannot believe that Mrs. Delahay has been deliberately deceiving us. I will go up and see what she has to say for herself. I suppose I am at liberty to tell her what you have just said to me?”
“I don’t know why not,” Dallas said after a thoughtful pause. “You see, she is bound to know sooner or later. And I hope you will make her see the advisability of accounting for her movements. Nothing can be gained by trying to deceive us, to say nothing of the wrong impression which Mrs. Delahay is creating in the minds of other people. Really, if you come to think of it, she is standing in an exceedingly perilous position, my lord.”
Ravenspur was not destined to make any impression upon the widow of his unfortunate friend, for she refused to see him. One of the servants came down
