CHAPTER FORTY-ONEThe way she smiled and the sound of her voice, the foolish inconsequent sound of it, were there in the room. They were there in a silence that no one seemed able to break. Thoughts beat against it, but it resisted them. In the end it was Edna Ford who broke it. She held the three account-books in her right hand. She glanced down at them now, still with that foolish smile, and said,
“Well, I mustn’t keep Mrs. Lenton waiting.”
Ellie gave a kind of gasp. Superintendent Martin said,
“Mrs Ford, you have just made a very serious admission. Do you wish to make a statement on the subject? I have to tell you that anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence.”
She turned round, the buckle in one hand and the account-books in the other.
“It was clever of me, wasn’t it
