What about Anne?"
"She was a few pews behind, and apparently inattentive, but a small girl called Cissy Jinks——"
"A most precocious child," interpolated the lady.
"She is smart," admitted Steel. "Well, she declares that Miss Denham was watching the tall man all the time.
Whether she saw him give the paper to Miss Kent no one seems to know; I think myself she must have done so, if she was as watchful as Cissy Jinks declares.
Moreover, she followed the tall man when he went out."
"Immediately?"
"Five minutes afterwards."
"Ha!
Then it was a quarter of an hour before she followed Daisy. Humph!
Didn't Trim see them come out of the church?"
"The groom?
No, he was at the lych-gate with the car, and the snow was falling fast; besides, the night was so dark that he could see nothing.
The first intimation he had of Miss Denham was when she came through the lych-gate to tell him that his master was with Miss Kent on the way to The Elms and wished to see him.
Trim followed, and left her in charge of the car.
When he was gone she went off, leaving the body of the girl behind her.
The case is dead against her."
"As you make it out, it certainly is," said Mrs. Parry scathingly. "But what about the tall man—what became of him?"
"He has vanished, and no one seems to know anything about him."
"Ha!" said the old lady, with satisfaction; "well, I can enlighten you on that point.
He was the man who called to see Mr. Morley, and who left just before Anne entered the library."
"Are you sure Morley said nothing about that?"
"Morley can hold his tongue when necessary," said the old lady dryly. "Yes, that was the man.
The footman at The Elms told me that Mr. Morley's visitor wore a great-coat and a white scarf."
"The same dress," murmured Steel, "and the man was afterwards in church.
He passed a note and went out apparently to see Miss Kent.
I must question Mr. Morley about him.
I wonder if he went away in the motor also."
"Of course he did," replied Mrs. Parry calmly. "Anne was watching him, according to Cissy Jinks, and she followed him five minutes later.
It would seem that she knew him, and after he killed Daisy helped him to escape."
"What do you say," asked Steel, wrinkling his brows, "that this man killed Miss Kent?"
"The evidence is nearly as strong against him as against Anne.
He was in the library also and might have obtained the stiletto.
It was he who lured Daisy out of the church.
He was five minutes absent before Anne followed—quite long enough for him to kill the poor girl."
"It sounds feasible, I admit," said the detective thoughtfully; "but even if this is true, it incriminates Miss Anne.
She helped him to escape, according to your theory. She must, therefore, have known about the murder, and that makes her an accessory after the fact.
In any case she should be arrested."
"But not hanged," insisted Mrs. Parry. "I am sure she did not kill the girl.
As for the man, she had a strong reason to get him out of the way, but that does not say she knew of the crime."
"I don't see what other reason she could have had," said Steel. "I daresay you are right, and that this stranger did go with Miss Denham on the car.
What a pity no one saw them!"
"Did no one see the car?"
"No, it was found overturned in a hedge, near Tilbury."
"I know," said Mrs. Parry, not liking to have her omniscience questioned; "Trim told me.
He came on the car by chance.
It was quite cold—the furnace was extinguished. It must have been abandoned for some time when he came across it.
I wonder where the pair went then."
"You seem certain that the stranger was with Miss Denham."
"Yes, I am quite satisfied on that point.