Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction
"You know him better than that, Mr. Calvert," burst in the professor.
"He is engaged to Miss Baldwin, the great friend of the young lady whom
you are to marry."
Arnold turned on the Greek sharply. "How do you know that?"
"I live in a house near Mrs. Baldwin. She is my landlady. I know
Tracey and Miss Baldwin. I have met Miss Mason, and----"
"And Miss Mason told you," interposed Arnold.
"No. Mr. Tracey, informed by Miss Baldwin, told me. And it struck me
as strange," added Bocaros, in rather a venomous tone, "that you should
be engaged to the girl in whose house Flora was murdered."
"It belongs to her brother-in-law," said Calvert coldly. "Do you mean
to hint, professor, that I know anything about this crime?"
"No," interposed Jasher, making a sign to Bocaros to hold his tongue,
"he doesn't mean anything of the sort. Merely a coincidence, Mr.
Calvert, such as will occur in real life."
"Of course." Bocaros nodded and spoke with less significance. "I mean
that it is merely a coincidence."
Calvert looked from one to the other suspiciously, but set a mask on
his face so that they should not guess what was passing in his mind.
"We may as well understand one another," he said coolly. "If you,
professor, or you, Mr. Jasher, are under the impression that I have
anything to do with this crime--and you may think so from the fact
that being notoriously hard up and notoriously anxious to marry Miss
Mason I wanted this money--you are quite mistaken. I am engaged at the
Frivolity Theatre from seven till close on midnight every night. I can
prove what the law calls an _alibi_, and if you will apply to the
stage manager of the theatre, you may convince yourself of the fact."
"My dear sir," said Jasher deprecatingly, since Calvert was now his
employer, "no one suspects you."
"I thought from what Bocaros hinted----"
"No! no! I said it was merely a coincidence," said the professor
quickly. "The very fact that you are willing to employ Jasher, and
offer so large a reward, proclaims your innocence."
"I have no need to resort to such things," said Calvert angrily. "I
only learned that the dead woman was my cousin from the fact of the
White Room----"
"But how did that lead to your identification of Flora with the dead
woman?" asked Bocaros shrewdly.
Arnold seemed confused. "I saw in the paper that the White Room had
been remarked by a man called Webb, who had communicated with the
police. It was then found by Inspector Derrick that Mrs. Brand had
been missing. I fancied that she might be the unknown woman. I was
informed that this was the truth by Merry, who has communicated with
the police. I did not see the body or I would have been able to
identify it. But Derrick found a portrait of my cousin, and says it is
that of the dead woman."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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