“Do you mean that, Joan?” said Ellery, with a sense of disappointment. “I hoped you would be able to explain to me what motive he could have had. Come now, doesn’t he really stand to gain something—I mean, don’t you think Sir Vernon may make him his heir, or something of that sort?” Joan paused. “Yes, Bob,” she said, with a sigh. “There I think you’re right. Sir Vernon will very likely put Carter in John’s place, I should imagine. But——” “Well, isn’t that a motive?” “No, my dear, it isn’t. After all, we don’t know that he will, and I’m quite sure people don’t commit carefully planned murders just on a chance like that. Really, Bob, it’s ridiculous.” Ellery said nothing, but got up and strode across the room. Then he turned and faced Joan. “Look here,” he said, “supposing we hadn’t cleared old Walter, and he had been put out of the way as well as Prinsep and George. Who’d have been the heir then—the next of kin, I mean?” “Oh, Carter, I suppose. But you don’t suggest——” “My dear child, we’ve been a pair of fools. By George, I wasn’t sure; but I’m sure now. What you’ve just said makes it clear as clear.” “Makes what clear?” “Why, the motive. Of course, I ought to have seen it before.” “Ought to have seen it before? Ought to have seen what?” “Why, whoever murdered John and George did his best to throw the suspicion on your stepfather, didn’t he?” “Yes, I suppose he did.” “And if your stepfather had been convicted, Woodman could have stepped into Sir Vernon’s shoes without a word said as the next heir.” “When Sir Vernon died—yes. Probably, he could.” “And wasn’t all this the surest way of hastening his end? But that is not my point. As long as Walter Brooklyn was likely to be convicted, the man I suspect stood to inherit Sir Vernon’s money, and to step at once into Prinsep’s shoes. He had murdered two of the people who stood in his way, and he did his best to murder the third judicially by faking up evidence against him. If Walter Brooklyn was convicted, he was quite safe to get both the money and the control of the theatres. That’s what he was after when he tried to get your stepfather convicted of murder. Doesn’t that theory fit the facts?” “I suppose it does, Bob. But it would be a simply horrible thing to have to believe, and it doesn’t convince me in the least. I don’t like Carter; but we’ve treated him as almost one of the family all these years. Could he possibly have done such a thing?” “I don’t like him either—in fact, I dislike him very strongly—and I believe he could—and did. But it won’t be easy to prove it.” “But, Bob, it can’t be true. Carter was with the others at the Cunningham all the time on the night when John and George were killed.”