It also suggests that the murderer fled very hurriedly, leaving the door open behind him." "It seems to me more likely that he escaped by the window, even if he did not enter that way.

Miss Heredith, who was the last inmate of the household to see Mrs.Heredith alive, thinks that the window was closed when she was in the room before dinner." Merrington walked over to the window and examined it, testing the lock and looking at the sill.
"Does Miss Heredith say that the window was locked, or merely closed, when she was in the room ?" he asked.
"She cannot say definitely.

She thinks it was closed because the air was heavy, and she knew that Mrs.Heredith disliked having her bedroom window open." Merrington shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
"A woman's fancies are not much to build a theory upon," he said.

"Have you any other reason for thinking that the murderer may have escaped by this window ?" "Yes.

After the shot was fired the guests rushed upstairs immediately, and the murderer would have run into them if he had attempted to escape downstairs." "Is there no other means of escape from the wing except by the staircase ?" "There is the back staircase I told you of, at the end of the corridor.
That staircase is never used.