"Colonel Holt was my uncle." Observing his surprised expression, she added, "The inspector suggested that perhaps the fortune Aunt Susan left to me was given to her by Colonel Holt. I told him the idea was preposterous. Why, Aunt Susan would have nothing to do with Uncle Marcus. To my knowledge she never saw him. I doubt if he even knew of my existence." Rodgers selected a cigarette. "May I smoke?" he asked, and for answer she handed him a box of matches. "I wish you and Colonel Holt had known each other. He was a fine old man; looked like a soldier of the French Empire." "Was he a friend of yours?" "I knew him slightly in a business way." Rodgers puffed at his cigarette until he had it drawing nicely. "How did Mitchell come to know that you were related?" "I don't know," Kitty laughed a trifle vexedly. "The inspector evidently informed himself as to my relations; he even told me that Leigh Wallace and I are cousins." Rodgers favored the "grandfather" clock across the library with a prolonged stare. Kitty was commencing to wonder at his silence, when he turned and addressed her. "So you and Leigh are cousins," he said. "I had not realized that before. How near is the relationship?" "We are first cousins, if what Inspector Mitchell said is true. My mother was Louise Holt, and I suppose her half-sister, Anne, was Leigh's mother. Odd, is it not, that Leigh never spoke of being related to me?" she added, after a slight pause. Rodgers' gaze was transferred from the clock to Kitty. "Was your aunt aware of the relationship?" he asked. "I imagine not. We haven't spoken of Colonel Holt for years," she answered. "Inspector Mitchell said the law suit was one of your big cases." "I was called in as a handwriting expert." Rodgers moved restlessly. "Has Mitchell discovered any clues to your aunt's murder?" "If he has, he has not confided them to me," she smiled mirthlessly. "He has succeeded in making me feel very uncomfortable--" "In what way?" quickly. "With his suspicions," she hesitated. "He insinuated that--" she did not complete her sentence; her eyes had strayed to the framed photograph of Leigh Wallace standing on a near-by table. After all, she could not voice her suspicions to Edward Rodgers. For nearly a month she had been aware of a growing coolness between the two men, and Wallace had been at no pains to conceal his anger whenever he had seen Kitty walking or motoring with Rodgers. Kitty had never detected any alteration in Rodgers' manner to Wallace. Whatever his opinion of the latter's surly behavior it had been cloaked under his customary air of good fellowship.