“Have you planned just what you will do?”
“With a woman like Mrs. Endicott there wouldn’t be any use in planning anything. All that I can do in advance is to create an atmosphere and then do whatever occurs to me as being best when the proper time comes. There won’t be anything complicated about it.”
“Just what sort of an atmosphere, Lieutenant?”
“Well, in the first place I’ll call the nurse outside into the corridor and you can tell her not to go back in again until I say so. You might suggest to her that she go down to the kitchen and make some coffee—she seems a little dippy about coffee—or something. Then we’ll leave Mrs. Endicott quite alone in her room for a minute or two. If she’s really faking, she’ll begin to worry about what is going on. Then the door will open again and, instead of the nurse, I’ll come in. She’ll be pretty certain to suspect that I’ve found the slipper, but will be all the more careful to keep up her pretence of being under the influence of the narcotic. If she gets away with that, you know, she can always claim that Roberts herself must have dropped the slipper onto the balcony as a plant. The main thing is that Mrs. Endicott won’t know just what’s up, and when a woman of her temperament can’t figure a thing out mentally, it about drives her crazy.”
“Then I suppose, Lieutenant, that when you get her into this receptive state you’ll speak to her?”
Lieutenant Valcour laughed. “On the contrary, Doctor, I haven’t the slightest intention of saying a single word. Shall we go now? After you’ve arranged things with Nurse Vickers you can come back in here again and start watching from the bathroom.”