e. She was the young woman my
uncle had the appointment to meet there before ten o'clock. You will
remember Mr. Blanton's testimony. Miss McLean an' I compared notes, so
we were able to shave down the time during which the murder must have
taken place. We worked together. She gave me other important data.
Perhaps she had better tell in her own words about the clue she found
that we followed."
Rose turned to the Chief. Her young face flew a charming flag of
color. Her hair, in crisp tendrils beneath the edge of the small hat
she wore, was the ripe gold of wheat-tips in the shock. The tender
blue of violets was in her eyes.
"I told you about how I found Mr. Cunningham tied to his chair, Chief.
I forgot to say that in the living-room there was a faint odor of
perfume. On my way upstairs I passed in the dark a man and a woman. I
had got a whiff of the same perfume then. It was violet. So I knew
they had been in the apartment just before me. Mr. Lane discovered
later that Miss Harriman used that scent."
"Which opened up a new field of speculation," Kirby went on. "We began
to run down facts an' learned that my cousin James had secretly married
Miss Harriman at Golden a month before. My uncle had just learned the
news. He had a new will made by his lawyer, one that cut James off
without a cent an' left his property to Jack Cunningham."
"That will was never signed," Jack broke in quickly.
Kirby looked at Jack and smiled cynically. "No, it was never signed.
Your brother discovered that when he looked the will over at Uncle's
desk a few minutes after his death."
James did not wink an eye in distress. The hand of the woman sitting
beside him went out instantly to his in a warm, swift pressure. She
was white to the lips, but her thought was for the man she loved and
not for herself. Kirby scored another mark to her credit.
"Cumulative evidence pointed to James Cunningham," continued Kirby.
"He tried to destroy the proof of his marriage to Miss Harriman. He
later pretended to lose an important paper that might have cleared up
the case. He tried to get me to drop the matter an' go back to
Wyoming. The coil wound closer round him.
"About this time another factor attracted my attention. I had the good
luck to unearth at Dry Valley the man who had written threatenin'
letters to my uncle an' to discover that he was stayin' next door to
the Paradox the very night of the murder. More, my friend Sa
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