CONFESSION.
For the first time Lawrence showed signs of indignation. Cool and
logical as he had hitherto been, he could not quite restrain himself
in the presence of this woman, who had no shame or remorse, or
anything save admiring curiosity.
"Directly Bruce told his story," he went on presently, "I knew exactly
what had happened. I knew all about the motor car also. Then it was
time for me to act. I was using the house as a kind of trap for you
one night when Mr. Charlton appeared. He was good enough to pardon the
liberty we had taken and to tell us his story. Then I began to see my
way pretty clear. It was I who caused you to be informed about the
missing diamonds being still in the well. I had found out that you
were in desperate need of money. Isidore let me into that, also
through him I got to know Maitrank. You came for the diamonds, but you
did not get the real ones, for the simple reason that I had already
been down the well and got them for myself. They were simply and
plainly set, so that I had no trouble in getting paste imitations.
"So far, so good. Maitrank comes on the scene and asks for his money.
You have no money, therefore you give him your diamonds. You try to
get them back from him, but you fail in the long run, owing to the
courage of a young girl, who has watched the whole proceedings. I have
purposely refrained from dwelling upon the valuable aid Miss Lawrence
has given us all through."
Leona passed her tongue over her dry lips.
"I wish I had known," she murmured. "Oh, I wish I had known."
"I dare say," said Lawrence, drily, "but you didn't know. There would
have been another murder on your soul had it not been for my niece.
Maitrank was furious. But he was a valuable ally to me, in fact I
calculated on that. By his means I forced a confession from you that
it was yourself who paid the rest of those notes to Isidore, and this
I can prove out of your own mouth, by the production of that tuberose
perfume. You were mad and desperate that night to part with the last
of your store."
"How did you know it was the last of my store?" Leona cried.
"Why, it could not logically have been otherwise. Would you have
produced those notes above all others if they had not been the last
you possessed?"
"True," Leona murmured, "true. You are too strong for me."
"Meanwhile the clouds were gathering around you. Prout finds your
husband's brother by a happy chance. Once he has done this, things
become easy for us. The more easy they become for us the more
desperate they grow for you. Then you decide that you must recover
those notes from Isidore. You take out your motor car, so cunningly
disguised in blacklead----"
"That is true; but how did you know?"
"From Miss Lawrence's evidence at the first inquest. Also the evidence
of the reporter. The car was draped, they said. In places it shone.
Those places were where the lead was rubbed off; you could make the
car sombre black and brilliantly light at will.
"You used to lock it up in the yard here. We find a fresh cake of
blacklead in the scullery, which completely puzzled me for a little
time. When I heard about the autocar I knew. But we are getting away
from the point. When luck turned against you it did so completely. You
got into Isidore's rooms, only to find Mr. Charlton there, who was
waiting for him. Again fortune favoured us. Mr. Charlton gave the
alarm, and you had to fly. At length the motor was abandoned, and its
secret disclosed. You disappeared. Sooner or later I was certain of
seeing you again."
"You were. Why? I was quite certain----"
"Because my desperate woman hides by the scene of her crime. I was a
little dubious about you because that comes out in my plot. Perhaps
you counted upon that, and the fact I should not look for you here,
after all. It was a game of subtle cross-purposes. But I did look for
you here, and I found you. It is a rather long story that I have had
to tell, but it has been necessary. And if I repeated it in a court of
law I am afraid it would cause you serious inconvenience."
"It would hang me," Leona cried. "Why should I be afraid to confess
it? You have been too strong for me. Every word you have said is true,
every step you have taken has been fully justified. I was going to
defy you at first, but I am not such a weak and silly fool as that. I
have had a clever antagonist who has beaten me all along. I have been
criminally careless. If I had taken the trouble I could have evolved
as good a plot as one of your own."
"I fancy you could," said Lawrence.
"I am absolutely certain of it. I took you for a dreamer. I argued
that if I used this thing you would not be an atom the wiser. People
who talk so much about their own work as you do are generally very
foolish."
Lawrence looked a little confused for a moment. He knew his own
weakness in that respect.
"I have little more to say," he went on. "I have written out a
confession for you in a more condensed form than I have explained to
you. I thought that you might like to sign it. Not that it much
matters whether you do or not."
"The more reason why I should do so," Leona sneered. "If it did really
matter, I would see my right arm rotting off before I put a pen to
paper. But I have had a most worthy antagonist, and I know the game
too well not to play it correctly. Give me a pen and let me finish
it."
Lawrence took a fountain pen from his pocket. Without the slightest
hesitation and in a good dashing hand Leona Lalage appended her
signature. It was a great deal more firm and true than either of the
witnessing signatures.
"Now you go and leave me," she cried. "I am sick of the sight of your
faces. Give me a chance. Let me have an hour's start."
Charlton spoke for the first time.
"Never," he cried, "there is another name to clear----"
"Which I shall be able to do," Lawrence interrupted.
"And let that woman go? I tell you never. The very stones in the
street would cry out at me! You hear that knocking at the door? Go and
open it."
Lawrence crossed and opened the street door. Prout stood before him.