Part 46 (2/2)
”Now, look here, Ziz,” and Wise replaced the mirror, ”get it in your head that women may have been interested in getting this recipe. To suppose a woman may have been acting for a man, while possible, is not probable.”
”Why not? Suppose a woman, say a working girl, so devoted to a man that she'd commit murder at his bidding----”
”No man could be such a coward as that!”
”Oh, Penny, what an exalted opinion you have of your s.e.x! Of course he could! A man who would murder would use a woman to help him murder. Of course he offered a big inducement,--marriage maybe----”
”You're romancing----”
”No, I'm not; I'm reconstructing. I see a man wanting that recipe desperately. He sets a woman to get it. He may not have meant her to go to such lengths as murder, to get it, but----”
”All right, but stick to facts. The recipe has been stolen by someone in the know. Some one who realized why Sir Herbert had his room repapered----”
”Clever trick, wasn't it?”
”Yes, but unnecessary. He could have put the thing in safe deposit.”
”Englishmen are queer that way. And he may have distrusted our American inst.i.tutions----”
”Well, anyway, there's no doubt he did hide the paper behind the new wallpaper, and there's no doubt somebody has stolen it. I suppose you agree to that?”
”Yea, my lord! But it may have been taken after the murder.”
”Of course it was. Why kill the man, else?”
”Why kill him at all?”
”To get him out of the way, in order to get the recipe and manufacture the buns.”
”For whom?”
”That's just it. There are several bakeries interested,--others beside the princ.i.p.al ones, of which we know. Now we must find out which baker could have worked his deadly scheme through women.”
”Does this let out the Prall or Everett suspects?”
”To my mind, yes. But I never suspected them, anyway.”
”Nor I. And I've exonerated Mrs Everett to my satisfaction, and I'm going to find out for sure about the Grenadier. Now, there's that Molly,----”
”Yes, she's in it, up to the neck, I believe. And she's such a liar----”
”Oh, Penny, you can't let a lady liar fool you, can you? Get her up here, and put her through an inquisition. _I'll_ tell you if she's telling truth or not.”
”Yes, you're first cla.s.s at that.”
Molly was summoned and when she appeared Zizi saw at once something had happened. The girl's demeanor was entirely changed. She was more self-important and self-a.s.sertive, and Zizi wondered if she had learned something definite against some suspect.
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