"That story is Maud's angle of the case," Kee said. "Her own exclusive property and she must be allowed to exploit it as she likes. I'm free to confess I haven't much faith in it as a pointer, but I will say if the book is found on the bedside table of any one who benefits by Sampson Tracy's death, it will be a lead that must be followed up."
"Oh, all right," I said, grumpily. "I can see you all suspect Alma Remsen more or less, but why don't you come out and say so?"
"Gray," Keeley spoke a little sternly, "you've fallen in love with Miss Remsen, and while that's your own affair, you mustn't assume that it at once absolves her from all suspicion in this matter. Now, wait a minute before you explode. I don't say the girl is suspected of crime, but there is a possibility that she knows something she hasn't told, just as Ames knew about that step in the hall, and just as you know something that wild horses couldn't drag out of you."
"What do you mean?" I spluttered, angry and ashamed at the same time.
"You know what I mean. You have some bit of knowledge or information that you have been on the point of telling me half a dozen times, and then have concluded not to do so. I'm not asking you what it is, I'm not saying it is your duty to tell. That's your business. But I do say you have no right to cavil at anything I may do in the interests of justice, and no reason to get upset if my investigations tend toward Alma Remsen's connection with the case."
I was in love, I was upset, but after all, my sense of fairness was still with me.
"You're right, Kee," I said. "And I will not again let my admiration for Miss Remsen come into the question. Except where it concerns her, I am ready to help, if I can, with your work, and I am sure you can give me chores to do, away from that line of inquiry. Let me interview others, there must be others, and you will find that I am not the fool you think me."
"There, there, bless the boy," Maud patted my arm, and though I might have resented her manner in another there was something about her kindly sympathy that made me welcome her friendly interest.
"Of course I think you a fool, Gray," Moore assured me. "I've always thought so. But, aren't we all?"