"The butler was off for the afternoon until six o'clock. There
was no one in the house but the nursemaid and the-three-months-old
baby."
"Well? And I suppose you think Clive and Polly didn't have a chance to
head Ralph off, as you say, but that they did see him running away after
he killed her?" Her voice was still brittle with anger, but there were
indecision and fear in it, too.
"No," Dundee replied. "I don't think they saw him. I feel pretty sure he
came into the house by the back way, and through the back hall into
Nita's room. He must have known Clive and Polly would be on the lookout
for him.... At any rate, I have proof that whoever shot Nita from in
front of that window near the porch door fled toward the back hall."
And he told her of the big bronze lamp, whose bulb had been broken,
reminding her of its place at the head of the chaise longue which was
set between the two west windows.
"That was the 'bang or bump' Flora Miles heard while she was hiding in
the closet," he explained. "I suppose Flora has told all of you about
it?... I thought so. Muffled as she was in the closet, it is unlikely
that she could have heard Nita's frantic whisperings to Ralph.... I
doubt if he spoke at all. Nita must have been sure he was about to leave
by the porch door--"
Dimly there came the ring of the telephone.
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