XIII - Motives
“I’VE GOT TO SPEAK, Ricky,” Miss Prall said, but her tone was not angry now. She seemed to have changed her mood and was half frightened, half sad. “I’ve got to speak, to save myself. Don’t you see that if that paper-cutter points towards me,—as Mr Gibbs implies, I must tell what I know——”
“What you know,” assented Bates, “but not what you suspect.”
“Yes, ma’am, what you suspect,” directed the detective. “The time has come, Miss Prall, when suspicions must be voiced, whether true or not, in order that we may prove or disprove them.”
“Then get up your own suspicions,” cried Bates. “Find your own suspects and prove their guilt or innocence.”
“We’re doing that,” Gibbs said, quietly, “but we necessarily depend also on the statements of witnesses.”
“But Miss Prall isn’t a w
