midnight
`` You can not explain ? Not even who the dead man was found murdered in your apartments ? '' `` I have n't the least idea . '' `` Fred has told me all he knows , '' broke in Westcott `` but it only extends to midnight when he left the city . He was in his apartments less than ten minutes after his valet retired . He supposed he left everything in good order , with a note on the writing-table instructing Valois what to do during his absence , and enclosing a sum of money . Afterward , on the train , he discovered that he had mislaid the key to his safe but this occasioned no worry , as he had taken with him all the cash it held , and the papers were of slight importance . ''