Kennedy nodded.  I could see, however, that he made a mental note of his intention to question the girl’s former husband.

All at once another thought struck me and I became eager.  It was a possible explanation of the mystery.

“Listen, Craig,” I began.  “Suppose Millard wanted to make up and she didn’t.  Suppose that she refused to see him or to meet him.  Suppose that in a jealous fit he—­”

“No, Walter!” Kennedy headed me off with a smile.  “This wasn’t an ordinary murder of passion.  This was well thought out and well executed.  Not one medical examiner in a thousand would have found that tiny scratch.  It may be very difficult yet to determine the exact cause of death.  This, my dear Jameson”—­it was playful irony—­“is a scientific crime.”

“But Millard—­”

“Of course!  Anyone may be the culprit.  Yet you tell me Millard did not contest her divorce and that it would have been very easy for him to file a counter-suit because everyone knew of her relationship with Manton.  That, offhand, shows no ill-will on his part.  And now we find this note from him, which at least is friendly in tone—­”

I shrugged my shoulders.  It was the same blind alley in which my thoughts had strayed upon the train on our way out.

“It’s too early to begin to try to fasten the guilt upon anyone,” Kennedy added, as we returned to the library through the living room.  Then he turned to Mackay.  “Have you succeeded in gleaning any facts about the life of Miss Lamar?” he asked.  “Anything which might point to a motive, so that I can approach the case from both directions?”

“If you ask me,” the little district attorney rejoined, “it’s a matter of tangled motives throughout.  I—­I had no sword to cut the Gordian knot and so”—­graciously—­“I sent for you.”

“What do you mean by tangled motives?” Kennedy ignored the other’s compliment.

“Well!” Mackay indicated me.  “Mr. Jameson explained about her divorce.  No one heard whom she named as corespondent.  That’s an unknown woman in the case, although it may not mean anything at all.  Then there’s Lloyd Manton and all the talk about his affair with Miss Lamar.  Some one told one of my men that Manton’s wife has left him on that account.”

“Did you question Manton?”

“No, I thought I ought to leave all that to you.  I was afraid I might put them on their guard.”

“Good!” Kennedy was pleased.  “Did you learn anything else?”

“This deputy of mine obtained all these things by gossiping with the girl who plays the maid, and so they may not be reliable.  But among the players it is reported that Werner, the director, was having an affair with Stella also, and that Merle Shirley, the ‘heavy’ man, was seen with her a great deal recently, and that Jack Gordon, the leading man, who was engaged to marry her as soon as her decree was final, was jealous as a consequence, and that Miss Loring, playing the vampire In the story and engaged to Shirley, was even more bitter against the deceased than Gordon, Miss Lamar’s fiance.