midnight
`` Oh , hello , Glenn ! One of the night clerks in the office , Kennedy , '' introduced the house detective . `` I 've just heard of the -- murder , '' Glenn began . `` I was in the dining-room , being relieved for my little midnight luncheon as usual , when I heard of it , and I thought that perhaps you might want to know something that happened just before I went off duty . '' `` Yes ; anything , '' broke in Kennedy . `` It was early in the evening , '' returned the clerk , slowly , `` when a messenger left a little package for Captain Shirley -- said that Captain Shirley had had it sent himself and asked that it be placed in his room . It was a little affair in a plain , paper-wrapped parcel .