Informal, in spite of the dead
woman's obvious effort to couch it in legal phraseology....
Was Lydia's frenzy assumed? Did she hope to leave fingerprints now which
would account for fingerprints she had already left upon it? Was it not
possible that Lydia's had been the prying fingers which had opened the
envelope after Nita Selim had sealed it with God only knew what fears in
her heart? If so, Lydia Carr had found that she was her mistress' sole
legatee.... _Revenge, coupled with greed...._ What better motive for
murder could a detective ask? And who had had so good an opportunity as
Lydia Carr to dispose of the weapon?
The woman crouched back on her haunches, an agony of pleading in her
single eye.
"Lydia, I think you know already what this note tells you," Dundee said
slowly.
To his astonishment the maid nodded, the tears starting again. "I asked
her once what she wanted to keep that old dress for, and she--she said
I'd find out some day, but I never dreamed she'd want it for a--oh, my
God!--for a _shroud_!"
For the second time that evening Lydia Carr completely routed Dundee's
carefully worked-up case against her. It was inconceivable, he told
himself, that a mind cunning enough to have executed this murder would
give itself away in such a fashion.
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