He made his way back to the doctor's sanctum, and found that gentleman awaiting him impatiently.
"I say," said the doctor, "that's all bunkum about this girl being wanted as a witness. I had my doubts and I looked up the Scotland Yard warning which I received a couple of days ago. She's Odette Rider, and she's wanted on a charge of murder."
"Got it first time," said Tarling, dropping wearily into a chair. "Do you mind if I smoke?"
"Not a bit," said the doctor cheerfully. "I suppose you're taking her with you?"
"I can't imagine a girl like that committing a murder," said Dr. Saunders. "She doesn't seem to possess the physique necessary to have carried out all the etceteras of the crime. I read the particulars in the _Morning Globe_. The person who murdered Thornton Lyne must have carried him from his car and laid him on the grass, or wherever he was found--and that girl couldn't lift a large-sized baby."
"Besides," Dr. Saunders went on, "she hasn't the face of a murderer. I don't mean to say that because she's pretty she couldn't commit a crime, but there are certain types of prettiness which have their origin in spiritual beauty, and Miss Stevens, or Rider, as I suppose I should call her, is one of that type."
"I'm one with you there," said Tarling. "I am satisfied in my own mind that she did not commit the crime, but the circumstances are all against her."
The telephone bell jingled, and the doctor took up the receiver and spoke a few words.
"A trunk call," he said, explaining the delay in receiving acknowledgment from the other end of the wire.
He spoke again into the receiver and then handed the instrument across the table to Tarling.
"It's for you," he said. "I think it is Scotland Yard."
"It is Whiteside," said a voice. "Is that you, Mr. Tarling? We've found the revolver."
Tarling's face fell. But after all, that was nothing unexpected. He had no doubt in his mind at all that the murder had been committed in Odette Rider's flat, and, if that theory were accepted, the details were unimportant, as there was no reason in the world why the pistol should not be also found near the scene of the crime. In fact, it would have been remarkable if the weapon had not been discovered on those premises.