Page:That Royle Girl (Balmer).pdf/46

 it. His clothes was off; but they're wet. He'd been washin' at them; but there's stains to show, all right."

"I hurt his head," Joan cried.

"You? How?"

"The door upstairs did it. He ran into the door when he was with me!"

"Who's she?" Denson inquired of Cummins calmly.

"A friend of his."

"You found her here?"

"No," Cummins reported. "They'd separated. She'd gone upstairs; but she'd been with him, earlier. You can see they was drinkin' together," he pointed out the wine glasses which Ket and she had used.

"She's goin' alibi for him," Cummins continued. "Their plan's plain enough. She's just been tellin' me that she went down to the lake before he come home and she was just in time to see his wife and another man in the flat together. She was just down for a stroll; then she come home and met him here outside.

"He hasn't been away from the place. He's been with her all the time. That's his story; maybe Goudy's got more now."

Denson disappeared into Ket's bedroom and, after the doors were shut, Joan heard Goudy's voice booming again. She heard outcry from Ket in wild, exasperated denial. Steadily and evenly, Goudy's voice boomed and maddened Ket the more.

Joan tried to gain the door, but Cummins caught her wrists and held her firmly, while within the bedroom Ket screamed in furious desperation: "I didn't. She didn't. . . ."

Evenly, aggravatingly the deep, calm voice boomed and Ket yelled: "She lied! . . ."

"Ket!" Joan cried out to him, "Oh, Ket!" as she twisted helplessly to gain the door.