"What!" Shawe jumped up with an exclamation. "Do you mean to say that she has pawned the diamonds? In that case she must be guilty."
"It would look like it; but I am only theorising, remember."
"Oh, hang your theories! I think--" He stopped short, conscious that he had been rude to the little woman. "I beg your pardon," he went on ceremoniously, "but my nerves are out of order. Don't be vexed with me. I apologise."
Miss Toat nodded in a friendly way. "I quite understand," she said smoothly. "People unaccustomed to be mixed up with criminal matters usually do let their nerves get out of order, although I can't say that they usually apologise. There you have the advantage of the greater part of my clients. But to come to business. It is now some six or seven weeks since the murder. I discovered, by various inquiries, which I made here, there, and everywhere, that two months ago Madame Coralie was in deep water--financially. Now she is more prosperous." Miss Toat paused. "You can draw your own inference."
"You mean to say that she committed the murder in order to steal the diamonds, and has sold or pawned them to realise the spoil?"
Miss Toat nodded again. "That is my theory." The barrister put his hands into his pockets and began to pace the room, as was his custom when perplexed. "I don't see what evidence you have to support your theory," he remarked, after a pause.
"Well, as we agreed at our first interview, Lady Branwin only arranged in five minutes to sleep at the Pink Shop, and it was merely by chance that she had the diamonds with her. That the murder was committed for the sake of the jewels is positive, since they are missing. Yet any outside person could not have known that the unfortunate woman was possessed of those jewels at that particular time. Madame Coralie knew--"
"Pardon me," interrupted Shawe. "In my own hearing she declared that she did not know what Lady Branwin had in the red bag."
Miss Toat shrugged her shoulders. "Naturally, for her own sake, she would say that, Mr. Shawe. But the fact remains that owing to the rapidity and unexpectedness of Lady Branwin's decision to sleep at the shop no outsider could have arranged beforehand to commit the crime for the sake of the jewels."