What took place in that brief yet vital space of time?
Did Thalassa hold his master in a grim clutch while the girl took the revolver out of the drawer and shot him?
What took Robert Turold to the clock in his dying moments?
These are questions we cannot answer at present.

But it is certain that whoever committed the murder left the room immediately after firing the shot, and the door was locked on the outside and the key removed.

If the daughter committed the murder it was probably Thalassa who replaced the key in the room afterwards." "Have you any doubt on that point ?" "The probabilities point to Thalassa, but it was Austin Turold who actually picked up the key.

It is as well not to lose sight of that fact." Inspector Dawfield looked up quickly, but his colleague's face revealed nothing of his thoughts.
"Hadn't you some idea that the marks on the arm might have been caused by the removal of the body into the next room ?" he hazarded.
"Not now," Barrant replied.

"That theory was only tenable on the supposition that life was not completely extinct when the body was removed.