UNMASKED
Disgrace was in the air; the country club had seen its vice president in
handcuffs. There was a great gathering up of petticoats and raising of
moral umbrellas to keep clear of the dirty splashings. It made me think
of a certain social occasion in Israel some thousands of years ago, when
Absalom, at his own party, put a raw one over on his brother Amnon, and
all the rest of King David's sons looked at each other with jaws
sagging, and "every man gat himself up upon his mule and fled." Here, it
was limousines; more than one noble chariot--filled with members of the
faction who'd helped to rush Vandeman into office over the claims of
older members--rolled discredited down the drive.
Yet a ball is the hardest thing in the world to kill; like a lizard, if
you break it in two, the head and tail go right on wriggling
independently. Also, behind this masked affair at the country club was
the business proposition of a lot of blossom festival visitors from all
over the state who mustn't be disappointed. By the time I'd finished out
in front, getting my prisoner off to the lock-up, sending Eddie Hughes,
with Capehart and the other helpers he'd picked up to guard the Vandeman
bungalow, handed over to the Santa Ysobel police the matter of finding
Fong Ling, and turned back to see how Barbara was getting on, the music
sounded once more, the rhythmic movement of many feet.
"The boys have got it started again," Jim Edwards joined me in the hall,
his tone still lowered and odd from the amazement of the thing.
"Curious, that business in there yesterday," a nod indicated the little
writing room toward which we moved. "Bronse stepping in, brisk and cool,
for you to question him; pleasant, ordinary looking chap. Would you say
he had it in his head right then to murder you--or Barbara--if you came
too hot on his trail?"
"Me?" I echoed sheepishly. "He never paid me that compliment. He wasn't
afraid of me. I think Barbara sealed her own fate, so far as he was
concerned, when she let Worth pique her into doing a concentrating stunt
at Vandeman's dinner table last night. The man saw that nothing she
turned that light on could long stay hidden. He must have decided, then,
to put her out of the way. As for his wife--well, however much or little
she knew, she'd not defend Barbara Wallace."
At that, Edwards gave me a look, but all he said was,
"Cummings has suffered a complete change of heart, it seems. I left him
in the telephone booth, just now, calling up Dykeman. He'll certainly
keep the wires hot for Worth."
"He'd better," I agreed; and only Edwards's slight, dark smile answered
me.
"There's a side entrance here," he explained mildly, as we came to the
turn of the hall. "I'll unlock it; and when Barbara's ready to be taken
home, we can get her out without every one gaping at her."
He was still at the lock, his back to me, when a door up front slammed,
and a Spanish Cavalier came bustling down the corridor, pulling off a
mask to show me Bowman's face, announcing,
"I think you want me in there. That girl should have competent medical
attention."
"She has that already," I spoke over my shoulder. "And if she hadn't, do
you think she'd let you touch her, Bowman? Man, you've got no human
feeling. If you had a shred, you'd know that to her it is as true you
tried to take Worth's life with your lying testimony as it is that
Vandeman murdered Worth's father with a gun."
"Hah!" the doctor panted at me; he was fairly sober, but still a bit
thick in the wits. "You people ain't classing me with this crook
Vandeman, are you? You can't do that. No--of course--Laura's set you all
against me."
Edwards straightened up from the door. With his first look at that
fierce, dark face, the doctor began to back off, finally scuttling
around the turn into the main hall at what was little less than a run.
They had Barbara sitting in the big Morris chair while they finished
adjusting bandages and garments. Our young cub of a doctor, silver
buttoned velveteen coat off, sleeves rolled up, hailed us cheerily,
"That bullet went where it could get the most blood for the least harm,
I'd say. Have her all right in a jiffy. At that, if it had been a little
further to one side--"
And I knew that Edward Clayte's bullet--Bronson Vandeman's--had narrowly
missed Barbara's heart.
"This wonderful girl!" the doctor went on with young enthusiasm, as he
bandaged and pinned. "Sitting up there, wounded as she was, and
forgetting it, she looked to me more than human. Sort of effect as
though light came from her."
"I was ashamed of myself back there in the Square, Mr. Boyne," Barbara's
voice, good and strong, cut across his panegyric. "Never in my life did
I feel like that before. My brain wasn't functioning normally at all. I
was confused, full of indecision." She mentioned that state, so
painfully familiar to ordinary humanity, as most people would speak of
being raving crazy. "It was agonizing," she smiled a little at the
others. "Poor Mr. Boyne helping me along--we'd got somehow into a crowd.
And I was just a lump of flesh. I hardly knew where we were. Then
suddenly came the sound of the shot, the stinging, burning feeling in my
side. It knocked my body down; but my mind came clear; I could use it."
"I'll say you could," I smiled. "From then on, Bill Capehart and I were
the lumps of flesh that you heaved around without explanation."
"There wasn't time; and I was afraid you'd find out what had happened to
me, and wouldn't bring me here," she said simply. "I knew that the one
motive for silencing me was the work I'd been doing for Mr. Boyne."
"Sure," I said, light breaking on me. "And every possible suspect in the
Gilbert murder case was under this roof--or supposed to be--the grand
march would be the show-down as to that. And just then the clock struck!
Poor girl!"
"It was a race against time," Barbara agreed. "If we could get here
first, hold the door against whoever came flying to get in, we'd have
the one who shot me."
"But, Barbara child," Laura Bowman was working at a sweater sleeve on
the bandaged side. "You did get here and caught Bronson Vandeman; it had
worked out all right. Why did you risk sitting up in that strained pose,
wounded as you were, to concentrate?"
"For Worth. I had to relate this crime to the one for which he'd been
arrested. Within the hour, I'd gathered facts that showed me Edward
Clayte killed Worth's father. When I brought that man and his crime to
stand before me, and Bronson Vandeman and his crime to stand beside
it--as I can bring things when I concentrate on them--I found they
dove-tailed--the impossible was true--these two were one man." She
looked around at the four of us, wondering at her, and finished, "Can't
they take me home now, doctor?"
"Sit and rest a few minutes. Have the door open," the young fellow said.
And on the instant there came a call for me from the side entrance.
"Mr. Boyne--are you in there? May I speak to you, please?"
It was Skeet Thornhill's voice. I went out into the entry. There,
climbing down from the old Ford truck, leaving its engine running, was
Skeet herself. Her glance went first to the door I closed behind me.
"Yes," I answered its question. "She's in there." Then, moved by the
frank misery of her eyes, "She'll be all right. Very little hurt."
She said something under her breath; I thought it was "Thank God!"
looked about the deserted side entrance, seemed to listen to the
flooding of music and movement from the ballroom, then lifting to mine
a face so pale that its freckles stood out on it, faltered a step
closer and studied me.
"They phoned us," scarcely above a whisper. "Mother sent me for the
girls and--Ina. Mr. Boyne," a break in her voice, "am I going to be able
to take Ina back with me? Or is she--do they--?"
"Wait," I said. "Here she comes now," as Cummings brought young Mrs.
Vandeman toward us. She moved haughtily, head up, a magnificent evening
wrap thrown over her costume, and saw her sister without surprise.
"Skeet," she crossed and stood with her back to me, "there's been some
trouble here. Keep it from mother if you can. I'm leaving--but we'll get
it all fixed up. How did you get here? Can I take you back in the
limousine?"
The big, closed car, one of Vandeman's wedding gifts to her, purred
slowly up the side drive, circling Skeet's old truck, and stopped a
little beyond. Skeet gave it one glance, then reached a twitching hand
to catch on the big silken sleeve.
"You can't go to the bungalow, Ina. As I came past, they were placing
men around it to--to watch it."
"_What!_" Ina wheeled on us, looking from one to the other. "Mr.
Boyne--Mr. Cummings--who had that done?"
"Does it matter?" I countered. She made me tired.
"Does it matter?" she snapped up my words, "Am I to be treated as if--as
though--"
Even Ina Vandeman's effrontery wouldn't carry her to a finish on that. I
completed it for her, explicitly,
"Mrs. Vandeman, whether you are detained as an accomplice or merely a
material witness, I'm responsible for you. I would have the authority
to allow you to go with your sister; but you'll not be permitted to even
enter the bungalow."
"It's nearly midnight," she protested. "I have no clothes but this
costume. I must go home."
"Oh, come on!" Skeet pleaded. "Don't you see that doesn't do any good,
Ina? You can get something at our house to wear."
She gave me a long look, her chin still high, her eyes hard and
unreadable. Then, "For the present, I shall go to a hotel." She laid a
hand on Skeet's shoulder, but it was only to push her away. "Tell
mother," evenly, "that I'll not bring my trouble into her house. Oh--you
want Ernestine and Cora? Well, get them and go." And with firm step she
walked to her car.
I nodded to Cummings.
"Have one of Dykeman's men pick her up and hang tight," I said, and he
smiled back understandingly, with,
"Already done, Boyne. I want to speak to Miss Wallace--if I may. Will
you please see for me?"
A moment later, he marched shining and jingling, in through a door that
he left open behind him, pulled off his Roman helmet as though it had
been a hat, and stood unconsciously fumbling that shoe-brush thing they
trim those ancient lids with.
"Barbara," he met the eyes of the girl in the chair unflinchingly, "you
told me last night that the only words I ever could speak to you would
be in the way of an apology. Will you hear one now? I'm ready to make
it. Talk doesn't count much; but I'm going the limit to put Worth
Gilbert's release through."
There was a long silence, Barbara looking at him quite unmoved. Behind
that steady gaze lay the facts that Worth Gilbert's life and honor had
been threatened by this man's course; that she herself was only alive
because the bullet of that criminal whom his action unconsciously
shielded missed its aim by an inch: Worth's life, her life, their love
and all that might mean--and Barbara had eyes you could read--I didn't
envy Cummings as he faced her. Finally she said quietly,
"I'll accept your apology, Mr. Cummings, when Worth is free."