“Did that often happen?”
“Quite frequently. She’s a first-class player, of course, and very nice. My father-in-law is a keen bridge player and, whenever possible, liked to get hold of Josie to make the fourth, instead of an outsider. Naturally, as she has to arrange the fours, she can’t always play with us, but she does whenever she can, and as” her eyes smiled a little “my father-in-law spends a lot of money in the hotel, the management is quite pleased for Josie to favor us.”
Melchett asked, “You like Josie?”
“Yes, I do. She’s always good-humored and cheerful, works hard and seems to enjoy her job. She’s shrewd without being at all intellectual and well, never pretends about anything. She’s natural and unaffected.”
“Please go on, Mrs. Jefferson.”
“As I say, Josie had to get her bridge fours arranged and Mark was writing, so Ruby sat and talked with us a little longer than usual. Then Josie came along, and Ruby went off to do her first solo dance with Raymond, he’s the dance and tennis professional. She came back to us afterward, just as Mark joined us. Then she went off to dance with a young man and we four started our bridge.” She stopped and made a slight, significant gesture of helplessness. “And that’s all I know! I just caught a glimpse of her once, dancing, but bridge is an absorbing game and I hardly glanced through the glass partition at the ballroom. Then, at midnight, Raymond came along to Josie very upset and asked where Ruby was. Josie, naturally, tried to shut him up, but-”
Superintendent Harper interrupted. He said in his quiet voice, “Why ‘naturally,’ Mrs. Jefferson?”
“Well-” She hesitated; looked, Melchett thought, a little put out. “Josie didn’t want the girl’s absence made too much of. She considered herself responsible for her in a way. She said Ruby was probably up in her room, she telephoned up to Ruby’s room, but apparently there was no answer, and he came back in rather a state temperamental, you know. Josie went off with him and tried to soothe him down, and in the end she danced with him instead of Ruby. Rather plucky of her, because you could see afterward it had hurt her ankle. She came back to us when the dance was over and tried to calm down Mr. Jefferson. He had got worked up by then. We persuaded him, in the end, to go to bed; told him Ruby had probably gone for a spin in a car and that they’d had a puncture. He went to bed worried and this morning he began to agitate at once.” She paused. “The rest you know.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Jefferson. Now I’m going to ask you if you’ve any idea who could have done this thing?”
She said immediately, “No idea whatever. I’m afraid I can’t help you in the slightest.”
He pressed her. “The girl never said anything? Nothing about jealousy? About some man she was afraid of? Or intimate with?”
Adelaide Jefferson shook her head to each query. There seemed nothing more that she could tell them. The superintendent suggested that they should interview young George Bartlett and return to see Mr. Jefferson later. Colonel Melchett agreed and the three men went out, Mrs. Jefferson promising to send word as soon as Mr. Jefferson was awake. “Nice woman,” said the colonel, as they closed the door behind them.
“A very nice lady indeed,” said Superintendent Harper.
George Bartlett was a thin, lanky youth with a prominent Adam apple and an immense difficulty in saying what he meant. He was in such a state of dither that it was hard to get a calm statement from him. “I say, it is awful, isn’t it? Sort of thing one reads about in the Sunday papers, but one doesn’t feel it really happens, don’t you know?” “Unfortunately there is no doubt about it, Mr. Bartlett,” said the superintendent.
“No, no, of course not. But it seems so rum somehow. And miles from here and everything in some country house, wasn’t it? Awfully country and all that. Created a bit of a stir in the neighborhood, what?”
Colonel Melchett took charge. “How well did you know the dead girl, Mr. Bartlett?”