a quarter to ten in the evening
he cried . `` It is Diane ! '' The report of the affair was enlarged from a briefer account that had appeared in a late edition on the previous night . It seemed that Mrs. Rickett , the landlady and proprietress of 324 Beak street , had discovered the crime at a quarter to ten in the evening . A red stain , coming through the ceiling of her sitting-room , attracted her attention . She went to the room overhead , which was occupied by a female lodger calling herself Diane Merode . The door was locked , and her demands for admittance brought no response .