The way I planned it was this. I’d been cleaning up Mr. and Mrs. Connell’s flat after they had gone away on their holiday. That was the Tuesday, and I knew Ross was bringing someone back, because I heard him tell Peterson to put out champagne and two glasses. Miss Lucy Craddock was going off abroad, so it all suited well enough-one less person on the landing. But when I came past just to make sure she was gone I found Miss Lee Fenton was there. I told her I’d got one of my turns and I didn’t think I’d be fit to come on the Wednesday. Then I went off and stayed about in the King’s Arms till about a quarter past nine, and when I got to my room, there were half a dozen people besides the woman of the house ready and willing to swear I’d drunk myself stupid and was good for a dozen hours’ sleep.

I’d a ground-floor room, and I always locked my door. I let them hear me snoring for a bit, and then I got out of the window and came along back to Craddock House. Rush doesn’t lock up till eleven, and for twenty minutes before that he’ll be putting his wife all ready for the night. I had only to watch for the street being clear and walk in.

Craddock House has an alleyway ranning between it and the next house. I watched from there. Then I just ran in and up the stairs and let myself into the Connells’ flat, which was number five and right underneath Ross’s. If I’d met anyone I was going to say I’d dropped my purse, but there wasn’t anyone about, so I just sat down and waited.

I heard the front door round about twelve o’clock. I stood on a chair and looked through the fanlight over the door. That was Mr. Peter Renshaw coming in. It was an hour later when Ross came, and he had Mavis Grey with him. They went on up the stairs, and I opened my door and listened. I heard them go into his flat and shut the door, and right there it came over me, what was I going to do if she stayed there all night? I hadn’t thought of that before somehow, and it made me mad with rage. I made up my mind that I would shoot them both and try and make it look as if Ross had done it-I thought I owed him that. You see, I’d planned to shoot him with his own pistol. I once had to practise shooting for a show I was in, and I turned out quite a good shot, so I knew I could manage it all right. I waited a bit so as to let them get on with the champagne, and then, just as I was thinking about it, I heard a crash right over my head. I ran to the door and opened it to listen, and there was Mavis Grey calling out, and Mr. Renshaw out of his room hushing her up, and Ross talking queer and thick as if he was drunk. And in the end Mavis went into Mr. Renshaw’s flat and they shut the door.

Nothing could have been better for me. I made up my mind to wait till two o’clock, and as soon as I heard Mrs. Connell’s dining-room clock strike I came out of the flat. I turned off the light on that landing, and when I got up on to Ross’s landing I turned out that light too-that was in case I had to run for it. I had the key of Ross’s flat all ready, but I didn’t have to use it, because the door was ajar. He must have gone back in and left it like that, and when I looked round the sitting-room door I could see why. The light was on, and Ross was sitting right underneath it straddling across a chair with his arms along the back and his chin down on them. There was a lot of dried blood on his forehead and cheek, and his shirt was in such a mess that I thought someone had done my job for me. He didn’t move his head or take any notice of my coming in, he just sat there staring. There was something to stare at too. The table with the drinks had been pushed over, and there was a smashed decanter, and bits of broken glass everywhere. There was some in Ross’s hair-I saw it glitter under the light.

I had gloves on my hands. I went to the writing-table and got the pistol out of the drawer where Ross kept it. It was loaded when I was there before, but I opened it again to make sure. And all the time he never moved. He just kept on staring. I came over with the pistol in my hand, and when I was a yard away he put up his head with a jerk and said, ‘Who’s there?’ He took hold of the back of the chair to pull himself up, and I thought, ‘It’s now or never.’ There was something very heavy passing along the Embankment-all the windows rattled with it. I shot him like that, and he fell down on to the floor and never moved. That was the only mistake I made. I was on the left of him, and I fired too soon. I ought to have come round on his right, and then everyone would have believed he had done it himself. But I had to think about the lorry, because that was what I was counting on to cover up the sound of the shot. I put the pistol in his hand quickly and came away. I left the light burning, and the door of the flat ajar. I crept downstairs and opened the street door. I didn’t make a sound. I was afraid to risk shutting the street door in case of waking Mr. Pyne, so I left it just pushed to, and ran down the steps and along the alleyway. It took me half an hour to get back to my room. I got in through the window and went to bed. I didn’t see how anyone could possibly suspect me, and I don’t see now how they did.

I planned to disappear as soon as it was safe. Annie was getting worried, and I didn’t dare leave her alone too long. But I had to wait till after the inquest. I wrote to her to come down and meet me on the Saturday. She was to give up her room, and I sent her a letter for my old landlady at Doncaster to say I was coming back. Annie brought me down a suit-case and my own clothes and a transformation to cover my hair. I was puzzled to know what to do with Mrs. Green’s things, but I made sure I was safe, so I just brought them along. I thought I could get rid of them later on. Annie went back to her home. She’d given out she was away nursing a sister who was ill. She never knew anything-I’m dying and I swear she didn’t. She only thought she was helping me to get my divorce. I’m sorry about Annie, but I’m not sorry about Ross. I’d do it again tomorrow.”

Chapter XXXVIII

Lee let the typewritten pages fall. “It was you who began to suspect her! Oh, Peter-what put it into your head?”

“It was that business about the key. She was listening whilst Ross went for old Rush about his papers being disturbed, and she could tell the Inspector all about the row. But she didn’t say a word about one of the keys of the flat having been pinched. Well, when Rush told me about his row with Ross he laid great stress on this missing key, and said he’d reminded Ross about it then. He said a thing which stuck in my mind. He said, ‘Find the one that pinched that key and you’ll find the one that shot Mr. Ross.’ When I saw old Lamb at Scotland Yard I asked him whether he’d heard anything about this missing key, and he said he hadn’t. He read me the bit out of Mrs. Green’s statement, and she never mentioned it. I began to wonder why. Rush had been flinging it up at Ross, and it was such an obvious thing to take hold of-I didn’t see how she could have missed it. But she never said a single word about that key. When I came to wonder why, I could only find one answer. It was because she had taken it herself.”

“How horrible!” said Lee with a shudder in her voice.

“She very nearly brought it off,” said Peter-“very, very nearly. And it might have been you, or me, or Bobby, or Lucinda, or Mavis, or Rush, or even blameless Bingham who had to face the music. It seems to me they could have made out a pretty good case against any one of us. In fact, my dear, the only thing that saved us was the undoubted fact that we couldn’t all have done it. But Bobby certainly did his best to get the rope round his neck. He and Mavis are a pair.”

“Oh,” said Lee, “Lucy has heard from Mavis.”

“Lucy has what?”

“Heard from Mavis in a letter, quite calm, placid and comfortable.”