That had been a nice touch, Wayne thought — parceling the MS, addressing it to himself. It should prove, as nothing else could, that she wasn’t expecting him.
“How awful,” Wayne murmured sadly.
“Don’t misunderstand me,” Inspector Grey said, “but where were you this afternoon?”
“This afternoon?” — he expressed surprise — “Why, here, in Brighton, Inspector. I went to bed at the hotel, in fact — to refresh myself for tonight’s show.”
“I see.” Grey nodded. There was a pause. “That’s a most unusual ring you’re wearing, sir.”
“Ring?” Wayne glanced casually at the ring which he wore as a mascot. “Oh... yes. It belonged to my father. He brought it from Burma.”
“I see that it’s embossed,” Inspector Grey said. “With a snake?”
“Yes,” Wayne nodded, “a snake.” He was half-frowning. For the first time he was feeling oddly uncomfortable.
“Like this one,” the inspector added. He took from his pocket a sheet of quarto paper. Near the edge of the paper was a clear impression of a snake.
Wayne swallowed. “Where did you find this?”
“On Miss Bowman’s desk,” the CID man answered. “You must have leaned your knuckles on her desk when you spoke to her, Mr. Wayne. The embossing of the ring pressed against two sheets of paper with a carbon in between. It registered on the paper underneath.”
Wayne had paled. “I... I really don’t recall—”
“But you should recall, sir,” the inspector pointed out. “It was only this afternoon. Miss Bowman had pulled the papers and the carbon out of her machine for some reason, but she’d already begun to type something and you’ll see that today’s date is on the top. She’d finished the manuscript and was writing a personal letter — dated today!”