“Did you?” said Reggie. “I haven’t a daughter. Irrelevant, isn’t it?”
The chief constable looked at him with a sort of awe. “Oh, well, you’ve made out a case against her,” he said slowly.
“You think so?” Reggie murmured.
“No doubt about that.” The chief constable squared his shoulders. “We’ll have to make her face up to it.” He rang the bell and sent for Ann.
She came quickly. “You wanted me again?” Her tired face was flushed. “What did you want? What can I do?”
“Sit down, please,” the chief constable said, and she sat on the edge of a chair and looked at them as Reggie had seen her first in Mrs. Healy’s noisy company, neither shy nor frightened but as if she found them strange. “Now, Mrs. Burchard, I have to warn you, you must be careful what you say. You told me last night your husband took your gun upstairs with him.”
“Oh, yes,” she answered at once.
“You stand by that? Now, take care.”
“But he did,” she said plaintively.
“But we know what really happened,” said Reggie. “That was the only twenty - bore gun in the house, Mrs. Burchard.”
“Was it? I haven’t any idea. I don’t know anything about guns.”
“Don’t you? He’d taught you something about shooting, hadn’t he?”
“Oh, yes. A little. I was no good.” She gave a faint smile. “He told me so.”
“Who told you about the angel’s eye?” Reggie asked.
Her eyes opened wide. “I don’t understand. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Come upstairs, please.” Reggie rose. Between him and the chief constable she was taken up to the gallery and the picture of the blushing bride. He moved that away from the wall. “You see, we’ve found out how it was done,” he said. He pulled down the panelling and flashed a torch into the priest’s hole, and crept in.
She gave a cry. “Ah, what a strange place!” She drew back.
“Yes. Come in again,” Reggie said.
“Come along, ma’am.” The chief constable gripped her arm.
“Oh, if you please,” she said faintly. “But it’s horrible.”
They helped or compelled her in. Reggie closed the panel again and turned his torch to the other side. “You see? We know all about it. Somebody came in here with that twenty - bore gun. While your husband was in his dressing - room on the other side. Somebody moved this bar -” He drew it away, and a ray of daylight came through the angel’s eye. “Somebody looked through that, saw your husband sitting down with his whisky and soda. Somebody shot at him through that hole, and the shot missed; went too high and broke the window. He started up. Somebody shot again and killed him. Then somebody pulled down the panel like this.” Reggie put his hand in the angel’s eye and opened the way to the dressing - room. “Somebody locked the doors, put the gun in the room by him, and the cartridge - cases, and shut the panel and went off by the way we came in. Somebody was very clever. But left behind golden hair on the wall scrambling through. I found that hair, Mrs. Burchard.” He turned the light of the torch upon her.
In the glare her face was white and still; she stared wide - eyed wonder, trying to see them in the gloom behind the torch. “I don’t understand,” she said. “You are sure he was killed like that? How can you be? He had the gun himself.”
“Oh, no. No,” Reggie said sadly. “Scorch of the shots in the angel’s eye. Golden hair on the wall.”
She cried out, “Golden hair? You mean it was mine? Oh, that’s cruel. That’s impossible. I never knew there was such a place. Besides, why should anyone tear out hair on the wall?”
“Scrambling out in a hurry,” said Reggie. “It was there, by the way out behind the picture.” He turned the torch to that side. “Just there.” As the light fell, he started. “Oh, my Lord,” he moaned.
“Yes, look at that too,” the chief constable exclaimed. “A bit of cloth. Bit of a brown tweed.” He picked it up and held it out on the palm of his hand. “You were wearing a brown tweed costume when I saw you last night, Mrs. Burchard.”
“Yes, I was, of course. But it wasn’t torn, was it?”
“I’ve got to own I didn’t notice anything,” the chief constable said slowly.
“There, you see! I’m sure there wasn’t a tear in it. You may ask my maid. Oh, it’s all absurd. I can’t believe it ever happened like this. It’s like a horrible bad dream. But if it did - if it did - I don’t know anything about it. I couldn’t. You see? Oh, you’ve been cruel to me. And it’s so useless. Let me go!”
Reggie opened the panel for her; she scrambled out and hurried away.
