A. E. W. Mason

“ To every question! To every search! Nothing, nothing, nothing"; and as he ended in a sinking voice, a startled cry rang out in the bedroom.
"Betty!" Ann exclaimed.
Hanaud threw off his dejection like an overcoat. Jim fancied that he was out of his chair and across the dressing-room before the sound of the cry had ceased. Certainly Betty could not have moved. She was standing in front of the dressing-table, looking down at a big jewel-case of dark blue morocco leather, and she was lifting up and down the open lid of it with an expression of utter incredulity. ”

“ He went away to Betty. "Now, Mademoiselle, and you, Francine Rollard, will you both please come with me."
He walked towards the communicating door, but Betty did not even attempt to rise from her chair.
"Monsieur Hanaud," she said with her cheeks very white and her voice shaking, "I can guess what you propose to do. But it is horrible and rather cruel to us. And I cannot see how it will help."
Ann Upcott broke in before Hanaud could reply. She was more troubled even than Betty, though without doubt hers was to be the easier part.
"It cannot help at all," she said. ”

“ There is not even sex in a voice which whispers. We have no clue, no, not the slightest to the identity of the person who whispered, 'That will do now,' on the night when Madame Harlowe died." He waved his hand towards Monsieur Bex. "I will be glad if you will open now these cupboards, and Mademoiselle Harlowe will tell us, to the best of her knowledge, whether anything has been taken or anything disturbed."
Hanaud returned to the treasure room, leaving Monsieur Bex and Betty at their work, with the Commissaire and his secretary to supervise them. Jim Frobisher followed him. ”

“ He rounded off his threats with a quite friendly laugh and gently pushed Francine Rollard from the room. Then he returned to Betty, who had lifted the tray out of the box and was opening some smaller cases which had been lying at the bottom. The light danced upon pendant and bracelet, buckle and ring, but Betty still searched.
"You miss something, Mademoiselle?"
"Yes."
"It was, after all, certain that you would," Hanaud continued. "If murders are committed, there will be some reason. I will even venture to guess that the jewel which you miss is of great value."
"It is," Betty admitted. ”

“ Hanaud asked of Betty.
"Three years. No—a little more. She is the only maid I have ever had," Betty answered with a laugh.
"I see," Hanaud said thoughtfully; and what he saw, it seemed to Jim Frobisher that everyone else in that room saw too. For no one looked at Ann Upcott. Old servants do not steal valuable necklaces: Ann Upcott and Jeanne Baudin, the nurse, were the only new-comers to the Maison Grenelle these many years ”

“ No doubt we shall find it somewhere, tucked away in a drawer." She spoke with very great eagerness, and a note of supplication that the matter should rest there. "In any case, what has disappeared is mine, isn't it? And I am not going to imitate Monsieur Boris. I make no complaint." ”