A Possibly-Relevant Quote

From Chapter 13 of The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey:

Carradine had not been gone more than twenty minutes when Marta appeared, laden with flowers, books, candy, and goodwill. She found Grant deep in the fifteenth century as reported by Sir Cuthbert Oliphant. He greeted her with an absent-mindedness to which she was not accustomed.

“If your two sons had been murdered by your brother-in-law, would you take a handsome pension from him?”

“I take it that question is rhetorical,” Marta said, putting down her sheaf of flowers and looking round to see which of the already occupied vases would best suit their type.

………

“Of course, I'm only a policeman,” Grant said. “Perhaps I've never moved in the right circles. It may be that I've met only nice people. Where would one have to go to meet a woman who became matey with the murderer of her two boys?”

………

“Now would you play her?” Grant asked, remembering that the understanding of motive was Marta's trade.

“Play who?”

“The woman who came out of sanctuary and made friends with her children's murderer for seven hundred marks per annum and the right to go to parties at the Palace.”

“I couldn't. There's no such woman outside Euripides or a delinquent's home. …