Bundle was silenced, but not convinced. Jimmy proceeded to sum up methodically.
“I think we can say we’re sure of certain facts. There’s a secret society, with points of resemblance to the Mafia, in existence. Gerry Wade came to know about it. At first he treated it as rather a joke—as an absurdity, shall we say. He couldn’t believe in its being really dangerous. But later something happened to convince him, and then he got the wind up in earnest. I rather fancy he must have said something to Ronny Devereux about it. Anyway, when he was put out of the way, Ronny suspected, and he must have known enough to get on the same track himself. The unfortunate thing is that we’ve got to start quite from the outer darkness. We haven’t got the knowledge the other two had.”
“Perhaps that’s an advantage,” said Loraine coolly. “They won’t suspect us and therefore they won’t be trying to put us out of the way.”
“I wish I felt sure about that,” said Jimmy in a worried voice. “You know, Loraine, old Gerry himself wanted you to keep out of it. Don’t you think you could—?”
“No, I couldn’t,” said Loraine. “Don’t let’s start discussing that again. It’s only a waste of time.”
At the mention of the word time, Jimmy’s eyes rose to the clock and he uttered an exclamation of astonishment. He rose and opened the door.
“Stevens.”
“Yes, sir?”
“What about a spot of lunch, Stevens? Could it be managed?”
“I anticipated that it would be required, sir. Mrs. Stevens has made preparations accordingly.”