There was a moment’s complete silence. Then Heyman, the Dowager Countess’s maid, gave a shrill cry.
“It was her Ladyship’s jewels he’d taken – the scoundrel! I saw they were missin’, but was too upset to mention it. I thought perhaps her Ladyship had put them away somewhere, but they have been stolen – stolen, I tell you!
“I think you will find them intact at the back of the flowerbed,” Olinda said quietly.
“Did you recognise the man you saw climbing down the drainpipe and burying what I suspect were the jewels?” the Chief Constable enquired.
“Yes,” Olinda answered.
“Will you tell me who it was?”
Olinda looked towards Felix Hanson.
For a moment her eyes met his.
Then he exclaimed,
“Damn you! All right, I took the jewels! I thought no one would miss them. But I didn’t kill her. She
