It was nearly nine o'clock Monday morning, and Special Investigator
Dundee sat alone in the district attorney's office, impatiently awaiting
Sanderson's arrival. Coroner Price, with the approval of Captain Strawn
of the Homicide Squad, had set the inquest into the murder of Juanita
Leigh Selim for ten o'clock, and there was much that Dundee wished to
say to the district attorney before that hour arrived.
When the thoroughly tired and dispirited young detective had returned to
his apartment late Sunday afternoon, after having seen Ralph Hammond
completely exonerated of any possible complicity in the murder of Nita
Selim, he had found a telegram from the district attorney, filed in
Chicago:
"CALLED CHICAGO SERIOUS ILLNESS OF MOTHER STOP RETURNING HAMILTON
EIGHT TEN MONDAY MORNING STOP SEE BY PAPERS YOU ARE ON SELIM JOB
STOP GOOD BUT WATCH YOUR STEP--SANDERSON"
Well--and Dundee grinned ruefully--he had been on the job all right, but
would Sanderson consider that he had "watched his step"? At any rate, he
had been thorough, he congratulated himself, as he weighed the big
manilla envelope containing his own transcription of the copious
shorthand notes he had taken during the first hours of the
investigation. A smaller envelope held Nita's tell-tale checkbook, her
amazing last will and testament, and the still more startling note she
had written to Lydia Carr. The last two Dundee had retrieved from
Carraway only this morning, after having submitted them to the
fingerprint expert on Sunday.
Carraway's report had rather dashed him at first, for it proved that no
other hands than Nita's--and his own, of course--had touched either
envelope or contents. But he was content now to believe that Nita
herself had unsealed the envelope she had inscribed, "To Be Opened in
Case of My Death".... Why?... Had she been moved by an impulse to give a
clue to the identity of the person of whom she stood in fear, but had
stifled the impulse?
Strawn had said, too, that the little rosewood desk had been in a fairly
orderly condition, before his big, official hands had clawed through it
in search of a clue or the gun itself.... Well, Strawn had been properly
chagrined when Dundee had produced the will and note....
"Why did she stick it away in a pack of new envelopes, if she wanted it
to be found?" Strawn had demanded irritably, and had not been appeased
by Dundee's suggestion: "Because she did not want Lydia, in dusting the
desk, to see it and be alarmed."
Yes, he had been busy enough, but what, actually, had he to show for his
industry? He had worked up three good cases--the first against Lydia
Carr, the second against Dexter Sprague, and the third against Ralph
Hammond--only to have them knocked to pieces almost as fast as he had
conceived them.... Of course Lydia Carr might be lying to give Sprague
an alibi, but Dundee was convinced that she was telling the truth and
that she hated Sprague too much to fake an alibi for him.... Of course
there was always Judge Marshall, but--
Through the closed door came sounds which Dundee presently identified as
connected with Penny Crain's arrival--the emphatic click of her heels;
the quick opening and shutting of desk drawers....
The down-hearted young detective debated the question of taking his
perplexities out to her, but decided against it. She probably wanted to
hear no more of his theories, was undoubtedly burning with righteous
indignation against him because of Ralph Hammond.... Did she still
consider herself engaged to Ralph, in spite of the fact that young
Hammond had gallantly insisted upon releasing her from her promise as
soon as he suspected that it had been given merely to prove her faith in
his innocence?
It was a decidedly unhappy young detective whom Sanderson greeted upon
his arrival at nine o'clock.
The new district attorney, who had held office since November, was a
big, good-natured, tolerant man, who looked younger than his 35 years
because of his freckles and his always rumpled mop of sandy hair. But
those who sought to take advantage of his good nature in the courtroom
found themselves up against as keen a lawyer and prosecutor as could be
found in the whole state, or even in the Middle West.
"Well, boy!" he greeted Dundee genially but with an undertone of
solemnity in his rich, jury-swaying baritone. "Looks like we've got a
sensational murder on our hands. It's not every day Hamilton can rate a
headline like 'BROADWAY BELLE MURDERED AT BRIDGE'--to quote a Chicago
paper.... But I'm afraid there's not enough mystery in it to suit your
tastes."
Dundee grinned wryly. "I've been pretty down in the mouth all morning
because there's a little too much mystery, chief."
"Fairly open-and-shut, isn't it?" Sanderson asked, obviously surprised.
"New York gets too hot for this Selim baby--probably mixed up with some
racketeer, racketeers being the favorite boy-friends of 'Broadway
belles', if one can believe the tabloids. Lois Dunlap offers her a job
to organize a Little Theater in Hamilton--which the fair Nita would
certainly have described as a hick town and which she wouldn't have been
found dead in if she could have helped it--" and the district attorney
grinned at his own witticism, "--but Broadway Nita jumps at it. Her
racketeer sweetie has a long arm, however, and Nita gets hers. Justly
enough, probably, but I wish to the Lord she had chosen some other town
to hide in. Lois Dunlap is the finest woman in Hamilton, but she's too
damned promiscuous in her friendships. As it is now, some of the best
friends I have in the world are mixed up in this mess, even if it is
only as innocent victims of circumstance--"
Until then Dundee had let his chief express his pent-up convictions
without interruption, and indeed Sanderson's courtroom training had
fitted him admirably for long speeches. But he could keep silent no
longer.
"That is what has been worrying me, chief," he interrupted. "Captain
Strawn has given the papers very little real information, but the truth
is I am afraid _one_ of your friends was not an innocent victim of
circumstance."
District Attorney Sanderson sat down abruptly in the swivel chair at his
desk. "Just what do you mean, Dundee?"
"I mean I am convinced that one of Mrs. Selim's _guests_ was her
murderer, but I'd like to tell you the whole story, and let you judge
for yourself."
"My God!" Sanderson ejaculated. Slowly he drew out a handkerchief and
mopped his freckled brow. "If I hadn't had a good many years of
experience with criminals, Dundee, I'd say it is obvious on the face of
it that none of those four men--Judge Marshall, Tracey Miles, Johnny
Drake, Clive Hammond--could have committed such a cheap, sensational
crime as murdering a hostess during a bridge game.... Not that I haven't
wanted to commit murder myself over many a game of bridge," he added,
with the irrepressible humor for which he was famous. Then he groaned,
the rueful twinkle still in his eye: "I'm afraid we're in for a lot of
gruesome kidding. Why, last night, in the club car of my train, three
tables of bridge players could scarcely play a hand for wisecracking
about the dangers of being dummy!... Well, boy, now that I've talked
myself past the worst shock, suppose you give me the low-down. But I
warn you I'm going to take a powerful lot of convincing."
Painstakingly, and in the greatest detail, Dundee told the whole story,
beginning with his arrival Saturday evening at the Selim house,
including the ghastly replaying of the "death hand at bridge"--a phrase,
by the way, which the prosecutor instantly adopted--and ending with
Ralph Hammond's establishing of an alibi, to the entire satisfaction of
Captain Strawn, as well as of Dundee himself. He was interrupted
frequently of course, scoffingly at first, then with deepening solemnity
and respect on the part of the district attorney.
"Let me see the plan of the house again," he said, when Dundee had
finished. "Also that table you've worked up showing the approximate time
and order of arrival of the four men.... Thanks!... Hmm!... Hmm!"
"You see, sir," Dundee repeated at last, "the list of possible suspects
includes Lydia Carr, Dexter Sprague, John C. Drake, Judge Marshall,
Polly Beale, Flora Miles, Janet Raymond, Clive Hammond--"
"But Polly and Clive were in the solarium _together_ all the time!"
Sanderson objected.
"So they said," Dundee agreed. "But it is a very short trip from the
solarium by way of the side porch into Nita's bedroom. And either Polly
Beale or Clive Hammond could have made that trip, on the pretext of
speaking to Nita about Ralph!... Motive: murder to end blackmail.
Naturally such a theory would not include _both_ of them, but if _one of
them_ was being blackmailed and made use of the pretext of warning Nita
of Ralph's overwrought condition--"
"Sprague's your man!" Sanderson interrupted with relief. "Motive:
jealousy because Nita was ditching him to marry Ralph.... As for the gun
and silencer, it seems pretty clear to me that Nita herself stole it
from Judge Marshall, and that Sprague got it away from her. You say the
maid, Lydia, went upstairs to tell Sprague he had to pack his things and
take them away--for good!... Very well! Sprague goes down the backstairs
with the gun in his pocket, through the back hall into Nita's bedroom,
shoots her, bumps into the lamp, goes out by the back door, and comes
around front to join the party.... You say yourself he has admitted to
everything but the trip to Nita's room and the shooting--even to
sneaking back to get his bag, which I believe also contained the gun
until he had a chance to dispose of it on his way to his hotel in
Hamilton."
Dundee shook his head. "I'd like to agree, chief, but I believe Lydia is
telling the truth. She says she was in the upstairs bedroom with Sprague
and remained behind only two or three minutes at most, to put his
shaving kit into the packed bag, and to clean up the bathroom basin. On
her way down the backstairs she says she heard Lois Dunlap's second ring
and went to answer it. Sprague and Janet Raymond, with whom Janet says
he stopped to talk a minute on the front porch, were in the dining room
_before_ Lydia entered it.... I'm convinced Lydia hates Sprague and
would be glad to believe him guilty.... No, Mr. Sanderson, I don't
believe Sprague did it, but I do believe it was Sprague's revenge that
Nita was afraid of when she made her will Friday night. Naturally she
figured she'd have time to tell the person she was blackmailing that she
was through with him--or her, but I believe Sprague and Nita were
lovers, even partners in blackmail, and that she feared he would kill
her when he knew she was going to marry Ralph Hammond and give up their
source of income."
Sanderson considered for a long minute, pulling at his full lower lip.
"Well, thank God for those precious footprints Strawn is building on!
Don't think I fail to follow your reasoning that the crime _must_ have
been committed in the bedroom, and not from the window sill, but those
footprints may save us yet, and will certainly get us through the
inquest. You agree, of course, that none of all this you've told me must
even be hinted at during the inquest?... Good! Let's be going. It's
nearly ten."
Dundee's whole soul revolted at the very thought of the barbaric farce
of an inquest--the small morgue chapel crowded to the doors with
goggle-eyed, blood-loving humanity; the stretcher with its sheeted
corpse; reporters avid of sensation and primed with questions which, if
answered by indiscreet witnesses, would defeat the efforts of police and
district attorney; news photographers with their insatiable cameras
aimed at every person connected with the case in any way.
Mercifully, this particular inquest upon the body of Juanita Leigh Selim
promised to be quickly over. For Coroner Price, in conference with
Sanderson, Dundee and Captain Strawn, had gladly agreed to call only
those witnesses and extract from them only such information as the
authorities deemed advisable.
Lydia Carr, whose black veil had defeated the news camera levelled at
her poor scarred face, was the first witness called by Coroner Price,
and she was required for the single purpose of identifying the body as
that of her mistress. To two perfunctory questions--"Have you any
information to give this jury regarding the cause and manner of the
deceased's death?" and "Have you any personal knowledge of the identity
of any person, man or woman, of whom the deceased stood in fear of her
life?"--Lydia answered a flat "No!" and was then dismissed.
Karen Marshall, looking far too young to be the wife of the elderly
ex-judge, Hugo Marshall, was the second witness called. Dr. Price guided
her gently to a brief recital of her discovery of the dead body of her
hostess, emphasizing only the fact that, so far as she could see, the
bedroom was unoccupied except by the corpse at the time of the
discovery.
He then handed her the photostatic copy of a blueprint of the ground
floor of the Selim house, with a pencilled ring drawn around the
bedroom. Karen falteringly identified it, as well as the pencil-drawn
furniture, and was immediately dismissed--to the packed rows of
spectators and reporters.
Dr. Price himself took the stand next and described, in technical terms,
the wound which had caused death and the caliber of the bullet he had
extracted from the dead woman's heart.
"I find, also, from the autopsy," he concluded, "that the bullet
traveled a downward-slanting path. I should add, moreover, that I have
made exact mathematical calculations, using the position of the body and
of the wound as a basis, and found that a line drawn from the wound, and
extended, at the correct slant, ends at a point 51.8 inches high, upon
the right-hand side of the frame of the window nearest the porch door."
And he obligingly passed the marked blueprint among the jury. When it
was in his own hands again, he added: "It is impossible to state the
exact distance the bullet traveled, more nearly than to say the shot was
fired along the line I have indicated, at a distance of not more than
fifteen feet and not less than ten."
Captain Strawn rose and was permitted to question the witness:
"Dr. Price, that blueprint shows that the bedroom is fifteen feet in
width, don't it?"
"That is correct."
"Have you also measured the height of that window sill from the floor?"
"I have," the coroner answered. "The height from floor to sill is 26
inches."
"Now, doctor, from your calculations, would it be possible for a man
crouching in the open window to fire a shot along the path you have
calculated?"
"It would," Dr. Price answered. "But as I have pointed out, it is
impossible for me to say at exactly what distance from the body the shot
was fired."
But Strawn, of course, was amply satisfied. And so were Dundee and the
district attorney, for it suited their purposes admirably for the public
to be convinced at this time that an intruding gunman had murdered Nita
Selim.
Captain Strawn, sworn in, told briefly of his being called to the scene
of the crime, of the activities of Carraway, the fingerprint expert, and
of the exhaustive search of his squad of detectives.
"Did you find any person concealed upon the premises, that is, within
the house itself, or in the garage or on the grounds?" Dr. Price asked.
"No, sir."
"Did you or your men discover the weapon with which the deceased was
killed?"
"No, sir."
"Did you question all persons in the house at the time of the crime, as
to whether or not a shot had been heard?"
"I did. The answer in every case was that they heard no shot."
"And you also questioned every person present in an effort to place
responsibility for the death of Mrs. Selim?"
"I did. I couldn't find that anyone present had anything to do with it."
"Who were these persons?" Dr. Price then asked.
"Judge and Mrs. Hugo Marshall, Mr. and Mrs. Tracey A. Miles, Mr. and
Mrs. John C. Drake, Mrs. Peter Dunlap, Miss Janet Raymond, Miss Polly
Beale, Miss Penelope Crain, Mr. Clive Hammond, Mr. Dexter Sprague--of
New York, and Mrs. Selim's maid, Lydia Carr," Captain Strawn answered
promptly, rolling out the names of Hamilton's elect with sonorous
satisfaction, which obviously had the desired effect in convincing the
jury that not among those proud names, at least, could be found the name
of the murderer.
"Did you find on the premises any clue which you consider of importance
to this jury?"
"I did! A bunch of footprints under the window you've been talking
about. Here are life-size photographs of 'em, doctor.... And the rambler
rose vines that climb up the outside of the window had been torn."
After the photographs had been duly inspected by the jury of six Dr.
Price said: "That is all, and thank you, Captain Strawn.... Mr. Dundee!"
As had been agreed between the coroner and the district attorney,
Dundee's testimony, after the preliminary questions, was confined to the
offering of Nita Selim's "last will and testament" and the note to
Lydia.
The reporters, who had obviously feared that nothing new would
eventuate, sat up with startled interest, then their pencils flew, as
Dundee read the two documents, after he had told when and where he had
discovered them. As District Attorney Sanderson had said; "Better give
the press something new to chew on, but for God's sake don't mention
that checkbook of Nita's. It's dynamite, boy--dynamite!"
While the morgue chapel was still in a buzz of excitement, Dundee was
dismissed, and District Attorney Sanderson requested an adjournment of
the inquest for one week.
The police were urging the crowd upon its way before it became fully
aware that it had been cheated of the pleasure of hearing, at first
hand, the stories of that fatal bridge and cocktail party from the
guests themselves.
"Tell the Carr woman I want to speak to her," Sanderson directed Dundee.
"She'll thank you for rescuing her from the reporters."
As Dundee pushed his way through the jam he heard a reporter earnestly
pleading with Lois Dunlap: "But I'm sure you can remember the cards each
player held in that 'death hand,' Mrs. Dunlap--"
Cheerfully sure that he could trust Lois Dunlap's discretion and
distaste for publicity, Dundee went on, grinning at the reporter's use
of his own lurid phrase.
Two minutes later Sanderson, Strawn and Dundee were closeted in Dr.
Price's own office with Lydia Carr.
"First, Lydia," began Sanderson, "I want to warn you to give the
reporters no information at all regarding the nature or extent of your
mistress' bequest."
"It was little enough she had, poor girl, beyond her clothes and a few
pieces of jewelry," Lydia answered stubbornly. "Are you going to let me
do what she told me to, in that note?... Not that I hold with burning--"
"I see no reason why you should not take charge of the body, Lydia, and
arrange it immediately for cremation.... Do you, Captain Strawn?"
Sanderson answered.
"No, sir. The quicker the better."
"Then, Lydia, if Captain Strawn will send you out to the Selim house
with one of his boys, you may get the dress described in Mrs. Selim's
note--"
"And the curls she cut off and had made into switches," Lydia
interrupted. "I can't dress my poor girl's hair in a French roll without
them!"
"The curls, too," Sanderson agreed. "Now as to the cremation--"
"Mrs. Miles let me come in early to see about that," Lydia interrupted
again. "They can do it this afternoon, and you don't need to worry about
the expense. I've got money enough of my own to pay my girl's funeral
expenses."
"Good!" Sanderson applauded. "The will shall be probated as soon as
possible, of course, but it makes it simpler if you will pay the
necessary expenses now."
"Just a minute, chief," Dundee halted the district attorney as he was
about to leave. "Under the circumstances, I think it highly advisable
that we get pictures of the burial dress. I suggest you have Lydia bring
the things to your office before she lays out the body, and that
Carraway photograph the dress there, from all angles. I should also like
to have a picture of the body after Lydia has finished her services."
The maid's scarred face flushed a deep, angry red, but she offered no
protest when the district attorney accepted both of Dundee's
suggestions.
"Then you'll have Carraway with his camera at my office in about an
hour?" Sanderson turned to Captain Strawn. "Let's say twelve o'clock. By
the way, Lydia, you may bring in with you the few pieces of jewelry you
mentioned. I'll keep them safely in my offices until the will is
probated and they are turned over to you."
"I don't know where she kept them," Lydia answered.
"_What?_" exclaimed Bonnie Dundee.
"I said I don't know where she kept her jewelry," Lydia Carr retorted.
"It wasn't worth much--not a hundred dollars altogether, I'll be bound,
because Nita sold her last diamond not a week before we left New York.
She owed so many bills then that the money she got for directing that
play at the Forsyte School hardly made a dent on them."
"Do you know whether the jewelry was kept in the house or in a safe
deposit box?" Dundee asked, excitement sharpening his voice.
"It must have been in the house, because she wore the different pieces
any time she pleased," the maid answered. "I didn't ask no questions,
and I didn't happen to see her get it out or put it away. I didn't ever
do much lady's-maid work for her, like dressing her or fixing her
hair--just kept her clothes and the house in order, and did what little
cooking there was to do--"
"Her dressing-table?" Dundee prodded. "Her desk?"
The maid shook her head. "I was always straightening up the drawers in
both her dressing-table and her desk, and she didn't keep the jewelry in
either one of them places."
"Captain Strawn, when you searched the dressing-table and desk for the
gun or anything of importance, did you have any reason to suspect a
secret drawer in either of them?"
"No, Bonnie. They're just ordinary factory furniture. I tapped around
for a secret drawer, of course, but there wasn't even any place for
one," Strawn assured him with an indulgent grin.
"I want to see Penny Crain!" Dundee cried, making for the door.
"Then you'd better come along to the courthouse with me," Sanderson
called after him. "I sent her back to the office as soon as the inquest
was adjourned."
The two men passed through the now deserted morgue chapel and almost
bumped into a middle-aged man, obviously of the laboring class in spite
of his slicked-up, Sunday appearance.
"You're the district attorney, ain't you, sir?" he addressed Sanderson
in a nervous, halting undertone.
"Yes. What is it?"
"I come to the inquest to give some information, sir, but it was
adjourned so quick I didn't have time--"
"Who are you?" Sanderson interrupted impatiently.
"I'm Rawlins, sir. I worked for the poor lady, Mrs. Selim--gardening one
day a week--"
"Come to my office!" Sanderson commanded quickly, as a lingering
reporter approached on a run.... "No, no! I'm sorry, Harper," he said
hastily, cutting into the reporter's questions. "Nothing new! You may
say that the police have thrown out a dragnet--" and he grinned at the
trite phrase "--for the gunman who killed Mrs. Selim, and will offer a
reward for the recovery of the weapon--a Colt's .32 equipped with a
Maxim silencer.... Come along, George, and I'll explain just what Mrs.
Sanderson and I have in mind."
The district attorney and Dundee strode quickly away, and the man,
Rawlins, after a moment of indecision, trotted after them.
"I don't understand, sir, and my name ain't George. It's Elmer."
"You don't have to understand anything, except that you're not to answer
any question that any reporter asks you," Sanderson retorted.
When the trio entered the reception room of the district attorney's
suite in the courthouse Sanderson paused at Penny Crain's desk:
"Bring in your notebook, Penny. This man has some information he
considers important."
A minute later Sanderson had begun to question his voluntary but highly
nervous witness.
"Your name?"
"It's Elmer Rawlins, like I told you, sir," the man protested, and
flinched as Penny recorded his words in swift shorthand. "It was my wife
as made me come. She said as long as me and her knowed I didn't do
nothing wrong, I'd oughta come forward and tell what I knowed."
"Yes, yes!" Sanderson encouraged him impatiently. "You say you worked
for Mrs. Selim as gardener one day a week--"
"Yes, sir, but I 'tended to her hot water and her garbage, too--twice a
day it was I had to go and stoke the little laundry heater that heats
the hot water tank in summertime when the steam furnace ain't being
used. I live about a mile beyant the Crain place, that is, the house the
poor lady was killed in--"
"Did you come to stoke the laundry heater Saturday evening?" Dundee
interrupted. "Excuse me, sir," he turned to the district attorney, "but
this is the first time I've seen this man."
"No, sir, I didn't stoke it Sat'dy night," Rawlins answered uneasily.
"You see, I was comin' up the road to do my chores at half past six,
like I always do, but before I got to the house I seen a lot of
policemen's cars and motorcycles, and I didn't want to get mixed up in
nothing, so I turned around and went home again. I didn't know what was
up, but when me and the wife went into Hamilton Sat'dy night in our
flivver we seen one of the extries and read about how the poor lady was
murdered. But that ain't what I was gittin' at, sir--"
"Well, what _are_ you getting at?" Sanderson urged.
"Well, the extry said the police had found some footprints under the
frontmost of them two side windows to Mis' Selim's bedroom, and went on
to talk about the rose vines being tore, and straight off I said to the
missus, 'Them's _my_ footprints, Minnie'--Minnie's my wife's name--"
"_Your_ footprints!" Sanderson ejaculated, then shook with silent
laughter. "There goes Strawn's case, Bonnie!" But immediately he was
serious again, as the import of this new evidence came to him. "Tell us
all about it, Rawlins.... When did you make those footprints?"
"Friday, sir. That's the day I gardened for Mis' Selim.... You see, sir,
the poor little lady told me she was kept awake nights when they was a
high wind, by the rose vines tapping against the windows. Says she, 'I
think they's somebody tryin' to git into my room, Elmer,' and I could
see the poor little thing was mighty nervous anyway, so I didn't waste
no time. I cut away a lot of the rose vine and burned it when I was
burnin' the garbage and papers in the 'cinerator out back."
"Is that all, Rawlins?" Sanderson asked.
"'Bout all that 'mounts to anything," the laborer deprecated. "But they
was somethin' else that struck me as a little funny, when I come to
think of it--"
"Well?" Sanderson prodded, as the man halted uncertainly.
"Well, it's like I told you, it was my job to burn the papers. That
scar-face maid of Mis' Selim's put everything--garbage and trash--in a
big garbage can outside the back door, and I burnt 'em up. So I was
kinder surprised Sat'dy mornin', when I went to stoke up the laundry
heater, to find somebody'd been meddlin' with my drafts and had let the
fire go clean out. I had to clean out the ashes and build a new fire--"
"You're trying to say, I suppose, that you could tell by the ashes that
someone had been burning papers in the laundry heater?" Sanderson asked,
with a quick glance at Dundee's tense face.
"That's right, sir," Rawlins agreed eagerly. "You know what kind of
ashes a mess o' paper makes--layers of white ashes, sir, that kinder
looks like papers yit."
"Yes, I know.... And you found layers of white ashes, which you took
particular pains to clean out?" Sanderson asked bitterly.
"Yes, sir. So's I could build a new fire--"
"Did you speak to the maid--ask her if she'd been 'meddlin' with your
drafts'?"
"Yes, sir, I did!" the man answered with a trace of the belligerence he
had undoubtedly shown to Lydia. "She said _she_ didn't open no dampers,
claimed the heater was the same as usual when she left Friday night to
go to a movie. So I reckin it was the poor lady herself, burnin' up love
letters, maybe, or some such truck--"
"You're to keep your 'reckins' to yourself, Rawlins," Sanderson cut in
emphatically. "Remember, now, you're not to tell anybody else what
you've just told me.... If that's all, you can go now, and I'm much
obliged to you. Leave your address with the young lady here. You'll be
needed later, of course."
The relieved man hurried out of the room on Penny's heels. Sanderson
shrugged, then, when the door had closed, began heavily:
"It looks like you're right, Bonnie, about that blackmail business.
As the astute Rawlins says, 'love letters, maybe, or some such
truck....' Of course it all fits in with your theory that Nita had made
up her mind to reform, marry Ralph Hammond, and be a very good girl
indeed.... All right! You can have Penny in now. I think I know pretty
well what you're going to ask her. And I may as well tell you that when
Roger Crain skipped town with some securities he was known to possess, he
hadn't got them from a safe deposit box, because he didn't have one," and
Sanderson pressed a button on the edge of his desk....
"Penny, do you know whether there is a concealed safe in the Selim
house?"
The girl, startled, began to shake her head, then checked herself. "Not
that I ever saw, or knew of when Dad and Mother and I lived there,
but--" She hesitated, her cheeks turning scarlet.
"Out with it, Penny!" Sanderson urged, his voice very kind.
"It's just that, if you really think there's a secret hiding place in
the house, I believe I understand something that puzzled me when it
happened," Penny confessed, her head high. "I was at the Country Club
one night--a Saturday night when the whole crowd is usually there for
the dinner and dance. I'd been dancing with--with Ralph, and when the
music stopped we went out on the porch, where several of our crowd were
sitting. It was--just two or three weeks after--after Dad left town.
Lois wouldn't let me drop out of things.... Anyway, it was dark and I
heard Judge Marshall saying something about 'the simplest and most
ingenious arrangement you ever saw. Of course that's where the rascal
kept his securities--...' I knew they were talking about Dad, from the
way Judge Marshall shut up and changed the subject as soon as he saw
me."
"Who was on the porch, Penny?" Dundee asked tensely.
"Why, let's see--Flora, and Johnny Drake, and Clive," she answered
slowly. "I think that was all, besides Judge Marshall. The others hadn't
come out from dancing.... Of course I don't know whether or not it was
some 'arrangement' in the house--"
"Where are you going, boy?" Sanderson checked Dundee, who was already on
his way to the door.
"To find that gun, of course!"
"Well, if it's tucked away in the 'simplest and most ingenious
arrangement you ever saw' it will stay put for a while," Sanderson said.
"Lydia's due here within half an hour, and you don't want to miss her,
do you?"