"I see! And now that I've remembered him again, suppose you tell me what you know about him and the case?" "It's principally about what I read in the papers this morning. Really, Mr. Carroll, there ought to be a law against newspapers printing such ridiculous things!" "As what, for instance?" "That thing they had in there this morning. Why, the way they mentioned Hazel Gresham, you'd have thought that they thought _she_ was the woman who killed Roland--the woman in the taxicab." Carroll's eyes narrowed slightly. The faint smile still played about his lips. "You don't think she was?" "Oh, Mr. Carroll! Please, _please_, don't be so irresistibly _absurd_! Why in the world should Hazel kill the man she was engaged to?" "I don't know." "And besides, what does _she_ know about killing some one? That is the most bizarre idea I have ever heard in all my life. Besides, she couldn't have killed him, anyway." "Why not?" "Even if she'd wanted to, she couldn't; and I'm sure she didn't want to. Not that I think Roland Warren was the finest man in the world, or anything like that. Of course, I do believe he was interested in me, and that made me know him pretty well; but still he was an awfully nice boy, and I'm sure Hazel was very much in love with him. So even if she could have killed him, she wouldn't, would she?" "I hope not; but you said she _couldn't_. What did you mean by that?" "I mean that nobody can be in two places at one time. Although I did read a funny article in the Sunday magazine section of one of the big newspapers, last year, which said that--" "If Miss Gresham had been with Mr. Warren last night at midnight--she would have been in two places at one time!" "Why, yes--and that's not possible; so, of course, she--" "What makes you think that, Miss Rogers!" "Think what?" "That Miss Gresham was not with Mr. Warren at midnight last night?" "Why," answered Evelyn Rogers simply, "I _know_ she wasn't--that's all." "You _know_?" "Yes, indeed--beyond the what-you-call-'em of a doubt." "How do you know that?" "It's very simple," she explained casually. "She was with me all night." Carroll gazed at the girl before him with new interest. Out of her chatter he had at last garnered one important fact. His mind, trained to seize upon the vital and instantly discard the inconsequential, clutched the bit of information, and turned it over. From the first Carroll had scouted the idea that the dead man's fiancee might have been responsible for his death; but still it was a line of investigation which demanded examination, and his pretty young visitor was making that road exceedingly simple. He injected all the warmth of his friendly, sunny nature in the smile which he bestowed upon her. "You have helped me tremendously with that piece of information, Miss Rogers."