Seven
IW hen they were outside Jefferson’s door, Superintendent¹ Harper said:
“Well, for what it’s worth, we’ve got a motive², sir.”
“H’m,” said Melchett. “Fifty thousand pounds, eh?”
“Yes, sir. Murder’s been done for a good deal less than that.”
“Yes, but—”
Colonel Melchett left the sentence unfinished. Harper, however, understood him.
“You don’t think it’s likely in this case? Well, I don’t either, as far as that goes. But it’s got to be gone into all thesame.”
“Oh, of course.”
Harper went on:
“If, as Mr. Jefferson says, Mr. Gaskell and Mrs. Jefferson are already well provided for and in receipt of acomfortable income, well, it’s not likely they’d set out to do a brutal³ murder.”
“Quite so. Their financial standing⁴ will have to be investigated, of course. Can’t say I like the appearance ofGaskell much—looks a sharp, unscrupulous sort of fellow—but that’s a long way from making him out a murderer.”
“Oh, yes, sir, as I say, I don’t think it’s likely to be either of them, and from what Josie said I don’t see how itwould have been humanly possible. They were both playing bridge from twenty minutes to eleven until midnight. No,to my mind there’s another possibility much more likely.”
Melchett said: “Boy friend of Ruby⁵ Keene’s?”
“That’s it, sir. Some disgruntled young fellow—not too strong in the head, perhaps. Someone, I’d say, she knewbefore she came here. This adoption⁶ scheme, if he got wise to it, may just have put the lid on things. He saw himselflosing her, saw her being removed to a different sphere of life altogether, and he went mad and blind with rage. He gother to come out and meet him last night, had a row with her over it, lost his head completely and did her in.”
“And how did she come to be in Bantry’s library?”

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