"But the key in the outside door of the court was--"
"That might all have been arranged as a false clue to throw the police off the scent."
"I doubt it," said Shawe, decisively, "and remember that your theory is entirely destroyed by the very strong alibi of Madame Coralie. The woman could not have been in two places at once."
"Well," said Perry Toat, cautiously, "I stated that I suspected Madame Coralie had strangled Lady Branwin, but I did not say that she had actually committed the deed herself."
"Oh! Then you think she employed someone else to commit the murder?"
"Yes, and for her own sake was careful to provide the alibi we know of. Lady Branwin came at five o'clock to the shop, and was murdered, according to the medical evidence, about eight. Madame Coralie had, therefore, ample time to tell her accomplice that Lady Branwin possessed the diamonds. Also, as Lady Branwin talked frequently of coming for treatment, and Madame always refused her, the evening when she agreed to give the treatment might have been arranged. Madame could also explain to her accomplice about the door in the outer wall of the court, and have arranged for the window of the bedroom to be open. Then--well, the rest is easy."
"But the woman declared that the window was shut."
"Of course, for her own sake, in the same way that she declared her ignorance of the diamonds being in the red bag. I said lately," went on Miss Toat, in an apologetic manner, "that the key in the outer door of the court might have been arranged as a false clue. I am right in one way, as the key was, I fancy, left in the door to avert suspicion from Madame Coralie. But her accomplice must have entered and escaped in that way, and afterwards, when Lady Branwin was dead and buried and the inquest was over, she must have met her accomplice to share the spoil. Hence she is now in possession of money which, according to many people, she sadly needed."
"Have you traced the diamonds?" asked Ralph, abruptly.
"No; and it will not be an easy task to trace them, especially if they have been unset and sold as separate stones. But I am shortly going round the pawnshops and to various fences--you know what a fence is, a person who receives stolen goods, I suppose, Mr. Shawe?--and if Madame sold them or pawned them herself the mark may help to identify her."