"Now, look here, Molly," and Wise fixed her with his piercing gaze, "you say Richard Bates married you. I don"t believe it for a minute, but I do believe somebody married you, or pretended to, to keep your mouth shut on an important matter. It may have been Bob Moore, or----but I"m going to find out who it was, and I"m going to find out now. If, as you say, it was Richard Bates, why did he do it?"
Molly gulped in a scared, desperate fashion and her eyes rolled wildly about as she replied, "To shield somebody else."
"Who?" Zizi snapped at her.
"You know well enough," the girl sullenly answered.
"But you said it was _not_ Mr Bates" aunt."
"Oh, no, it wasn"t."
"Then,--it was----"
"Yes, it was."
"Dorcas Everett, she means," Zizi said, scornfully. "As well accuse me!
You must know, Molly, you can"t put over any such a bluff as that!"
"All right, you needn"t believe it if you don"t want to. But Miss Everett and her mother are the "women" you are after."
"That child couldn"t do such a thing!"
"Oh, _she_ didn"t do anything but obey her mother"s orders blindly. Mrs Everett and her maid, Kate Holland, committed the murder and Dorcas kept watch in the hall without knowing why she was doing it. Now, Mr Bates knows all about it,--and he knows that I know. And I said I"d tell if he didn"t marry me, so rather than have his girl accused, or his girl"s----"
"Zizi, why do we listen to this pack of lies?" exclaimed Wise. "This girl is making up as fast as she can talk,----"
"Indeed I"m not!" cried Molly, seemingly in desperation; "I can prove all I"m saying! Here"s my wedding ring----"
"Yes, but Mr Bates didn"t give it to you," said Zizi, scornfully. "I know who did, though, and if you"ll own up it will be better for you."
Now Zizi didn"t know at all,--in fact, she wasn"t sure that Molly hadn"t bought the ring herself, but both Wise and Zizi were at a loss to know which way to turn next, and they were omitting no possible chance at a stray bit of information.
"How do you know?" demanded Molly, and again she looked frightened.
"Now, see here, Molly," Wise tried again, "if you"ll tell us the truth you"ll be rewarded. But if you don"t, you"ll not only lose your reward but you"ll find yourself in the biggest pickle you"ve ever been in."
"I"m not afraid," was the pert reply. "My husband will look after me."
"Yes, if he _is_ your husband," Zizi jeered, and saw again that Molly"s greatest fear was that the wedding had not been a real one.
Therefore, Zizi argued, there had been a ceremony and why would it have taken place except to shut Molly"s mouth? And who could have been the bridegroom except the one interested in suppressing Molly"s secret, whatever it might be?
"Clear out, Molly," said Wise, suddenly. "Don"t clear far, for if you try to leave this house you"ll be arrested. Merely go about your work as usual, and say nothing to anybody. If you"ll take my advice you"ll run pretty straight, for I don"t mind telling you you"re in deep waters!"
"It"s a bad lookout, Ziz," said Wise after Molly had gone; "any way you take it it comes back to either the Pralls or the Everetts. There"s no other bunch of women implicated. I"ve been into everything thoroughly and if we go by that written message of Binney"s,--and how can we ignore it?--we"ve got to get women, and the women are the----"
"The Everetts," said Zizi moodily.
"Oh, no, the Pralls!"
"When you say the Pralls, you mean Miss Let.i.tia and Miss Gurney, I suppose."
"Rather Miss Gurney and Miss Let.i.tia. If they did it, the Gurney woman struck the blow at the bidding of the other. If the Everetts did it, the Holland woman stabbed at the order of her mistress. But I incline to the Pralls, and that explains Bates" anxiety to shield his aunt."
"He"d be equally desirous of shielding his sweetheart"s people, but in any case, I can"t believe _he_ married Molly, either really or by a fake ceremony."
"It isn"t like the chap,--he"s an all-round straight one; but he"s young, and in a desperate emergency,--well, anyway, things must be brought to a head. I"m going for Bates now."
The detective found his quarry and asked him for an interview.
The two men went into a small reception-room on the ground floor and Wise closed the door.
"There"s no use in my going on, Mr Bates," he began, "unless you want to see the thing through to a finish. I must tell you the evidences are pointing to women,--whom you would be sorry to see accused."
"I know--I know----" and Richard bowed his head in his hands and groaned. "It isn"t my aunt, I"m positive of that. I"ve not only satisfied myself by confidential talks with her, but I"ve proved it by definite facts and testimony of servants and others. Now, I suppose you hold that the only other possibility is----"
"Yes, I"m obliged to think that. I know what you mean, and this is no time to be squeamish. We both mean Mrs Everett and her maid, Kate. If there were any doubt about the written paper,----"
"There isn"t. It"s my uncle"s writing, undeniably. He was found with the pencil just falling from his nerveless hand. There"s no escape from all that. I"ve been over and over it. There"s no chance of the chorus girls or house girls,--oh, I"ve been over all the possibilities,--and there"s only Mrs Everett left. Honestly, Wise, I"d rather it had been my aunt!
That may sound dreadful to you, but after all, she"s only my aunt, while Mrs Everett is Dorcas" _mother_! And I"d rather bear sorrow and disgrace myself than to have my little love bear it. Can we drop the whole thing?"
"Not very well now. Bates, are you in any coil with Molly?"
"Molly? The chambermaid? No. Why?"
"Good! I believe you. She says you married her."
"What does she say that for? Is she crazy? But it doesn"t bother me; I"ve troubles of my own. I can"t think anybody will believe her."
"No; she said it to shield someone else. And of course, a man. So, that"s our one hope. Who is that man?"
"What matter? We"re looking for a woman."
"But the man might be a help. Why could Melly make a man marry her, unless he were desperately afraid of what she could tell?"
"But it may all have no connection with our case."
"I"ve got a hunch it has. And I"m going to find out. And, first of all, I want to go over the ground again of scrutinizing the place where Sir Herbert died."
"No evidence there. The floors have been scrubbed many times."
"But the marks remain."
The marks that had been drawn round the blood spots at the scene of the crime were still faintly visible, and Wise knelt down to study them. It seemed utterly useless to Bates, for what could possibly be gained from scrutinizing the floor where the dead man had lain?
Yet Pennington Wise found something!