CHAPTER XXVI

THE HAND JACK looked at his watch. “I guess she’ll be in bed by now, but it’s worth while trying. Would you like to see her?” Michael hesitated. Stella Mendoza was a friend of Penne’s, and he was loath to commit himself irretrievably to the view that Penne was the murderer. “Yes, I think we’ll see her,” he said. “After all, Penne knows that he is suspected.” Jack Knebworth was ten minutes on the telephone before he succeeded in getting a reply from Stella’s cottage. “It’s Knebworth speaking, Miss Mendoza,” he said.…