Page:Chipperfield--Unseen Hands.djvu/147

Rh "No; and the weakest of all the weak spots in this skeleton of a theory of mine is that I cannot believe him capable of having had any part in the death of his mother. I told you of the quarrel between himself and his brother on the last night of Julian's life, which the cook overheard; and it is just possible that they may have had a struggle with that razor in the early morning; but I don't think he would have had nerve enough to go immediately afterward to join the others at the breakfast-table and wait for discovery to come." The detective shook his head. "As a case, it is full of holes any way you look at it; and yet there is that coincidence of the date, the sixth.

"There is another thing, too. Conspicuous upon Gene's dressing-table is a silver photograph-frame, empty. And when in the course of my questioning I asked him if he and his brother got on well together he flushed, and his eyes flew to that frame; but he looked away again quickly when he was conscious that I had noticed the glance. Titheredge told me that part of the trouble between Julian and his stepfather over money matters was caused by his infatuation for a woman; and Marcelle when she listened to the brothers' quarrel that night heard Gene call Julian a thief.

"Now, there are other precious things that can be stolen besides those which have money value; love, for instance. If a young man keeps an ornate photograph frame upon his dressing-table it usually contains the picture of the object of his present regard; but when that frame is empty it might be that he had destroyed the picture in a moment of jealous rage but kept the frame there as a reminder of his injury. Gene is the sullen sort who would hug misery, real or fancied, to his bosom and nurse revenge. If he had been