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It is only in moments of complete surprise that the human face fails to keep up some semblance of guard over the inmost feelings. At the discovery that the jewel-case was empty Miss Heredith's dignity dropped from her like a falling garment, and she stared at the velvet interior with half-open mouth and an air of consternation on her face.
It was Miss Heredith's constant regret that Phil had not married some nice girl of the county, in his own station of life, instead of a London girl. Miss Heredith terminated her reflections with a sigh, and turned away from the window. She was above all things practical, and fully realized the folly of brooding over the inevitable, but the marriage of her nephew was a sore point with her.
Nepcote hesitated before replying. "I was terribly upset by Mrs. Heredith's death," he said at length. "I knew her before she married Phil Heredith. We were old friends." The inconsequence of this statement convinced Colwyn that he was seeking time to frame an evasive answer. "If that is all you have to say it is useless to prolong this interview," he coldly remarked.
He glanced from one to the other of their attentive faces, and said abruptly: "Hazel Rath is innocent." "I was certain of it." Philip Heredith's hand came down emphatically on the table in front of him as he made this declaration. "I knew it all along," he added in additional emphasis. "This is an amazing piece of news, Mr. Colwyn," said Musard, turning earnestly to the detective. "Who, then "
"I should like to see if the jewels are all right." "Why, Phil, of course they are all right," his aunt replied. "We found the jewel-case locked, and not tampered with in any way." "Was Mrs. Heredith's jewel-case in her bedroom the night she was murdered?" asked Colwyn. "Yes," responded Miss Heredith. "We found it on her toilet-table, where she usually kept it." "Did it contain valuable jewels?"
"Caldew thinks that the murderer entered the house by scaling the bedroom window, and made his exit by the same means. He bases that view on Miss Heredith's belief that the window was closed when she was in the bedroom before dinner. After the murder was committed the window was found open. But Miss Heredith's statement about the closed window does not amount to very much.
There was not the slightest necessity for her to do so, because the appointments were as perfect as they could be made by the hands of old servants who knew their mistress and her ways thoroughly. But it was Miss Heredith's nightly custom, and Tufnell, standing by the carved buffet, watched her with an indulgent smile, as he had done every evening during the last ten years.
"It is even more difficult to say how the murderer, after entering the moat-house, found his way to Mrs. Heredith's bedroom in order to murder her. The house is a big rambling place, consisting of a main building and two wings. It would be impossible for you or me or any other stranger to find our way about it without previous knowledge of the place, unless we had a plan.
He drew from his pocket a small parcel wrapped in dirty tissue paper, and put it on the table. The untidy folds fell apart, exposing the missing necklace, but the diamond was missing from the antique clasp. "The diamond is in that," he said, placing a small cardboard box beside the pearls. "I wish I had never seen the cursed thing." "How do you come to have Mrs. Heredith's necklace?"
For the same reason that establishes Miss Heredith's innocence, the murderer could not have escaped by running down the staircase, because there was not sufficient time to get past the people who had been alarmed by the scream.
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