CHAPTER ELEVEN
"You are damned impertinent, sir!" Judge Marshall shouted, the ends ofhis waxed grey mustache trembling with anger.
"Then I take it that you do not wish to divulge the circumstances ofyour friendship with Mrs. Selim?" Dundee asked.
"Friendship!" the old man snorted. "Your implications, sir, aredastardly! I met Mrs. Selim, or rather, Nita Leigh, as she wasintroduced to me, only once, several years ago when I was in New York.Naturally--"
"Just a moment, Judge. You say she was introduced to you as Nita Leigh.Then you knew her as an actress, I presume?"
"I refuse to submit to such a cowardly attack, sir!"
"_Attack_, Judge?" Dundee repeated with assumed astonishment. "I merelythought you might be able to shed a little light on the past of thewoman who has been murdered here today, with a weapon you admit tohaving owned.... However--"
The elderly ex-judge stared at his tormentor for a moment as if murderwas in his heart. He gasped twice, then suddenly his whole mannerchanged.
"I apologize, Dundee. You must realize how--But that is beside thepoint. I met Nita Leigh at--er--at a social gathering, arranged by someNew York friends of mine. She was young, attractive, more refinedthan--er--than the average young woman in musical comedy. Naturally Itold her if she was ever in Hamilton to look me up. And she did."
"And because she was 'more refined than the average young woman inmusical comedy'--than the average chorus girl, to put it simply," Dundeetook him up, "you co-operated with Mrs. Dunlap to introduce her to yourmost intimate friends--including your wife?"
"Oh, Hugo! Why didn't you tell me?" Karen Marshall wailed.
"You see, sir, what you are doing!" Judge Marshall stormed.
"I am truly sorry if I have distressed you, Mrs. Marshall," Dundeeprotested sincerely. "But--" He shrugged and turned again to thehusband. "I understand you were Mrs. Selim's landlord.... May I ask howmuch rent she paid?"
"The house rents for one hundred dollars a month--furnished."
"And did Mrs. Selim pay her rent promptly?" Dundee persisted.
"Since this is the 24th of May, sir, Mrs. Selim's rent for June was notyet due."
Not before poor little Karen could Dundee force himself to ask what,inevitably, would have been his next question--one which could not havebeen evaded, as the ex-judge had evaded the other two questions: "_Is itnot true, Judge Marshal, that Nita Leigh Selim paid you no rent atall?_" But there were other ways to find out....
"Look here, Dundee!" a brusque voice challenged, and the detectivewhirled to face Polly Beale. It was like her, he thought with a slightgrin, to address him as one man to another....
"Yes, Miss Beale?"
"I'm no fool, and I don't think any of my friends here areeither--though two or three of them have acted like it today," themasculine-looking girl stated flatly. "You've made it very plain thatany one of us here, except the Sprague man, could have stolen Hugo's gunand silencer.... Has the gun been found?"
"It has not, Miss Beale."
"O. K.!" The queer girl snapped her fingers. "I move that you orCaptain Strawn search the men for the weapon, and that I search theWomen.... Wait!" she harshly stopped a flurry of feminine protests. "I'llask you, Dundee, to search me first yourself. I believe the technicalterm is 'frisking,' isn't it?... Then 'frisk' me.... Here is my handbag.I wore no coat, except this--" and she pointed to the jacket of her tweedsuit.
As she strode toward the detective Clive Hammond sprang after her withan oath and a sharp command.
"Shut up, Clive! I'm not married to you yet!" she retorted, but her eyeswere gentler than her voice.
His face burning with embarrassment, Dundee went through the traditionalgestures of police "frisking"--running his hands rapidly down the girl'stall, sturdy body, slapping her pockets. And his fingers fumbled sadlyas he opened her tooled leather handbag.
"Satisfied?" Polly Beale demanded, and at Dundee's miserable nod, thegirl faced her friends: "Well, come along, girls!"
"Lord! What a girl!" Dundee muttered to Strawn, as the young Amazonherded Flora Miles, Penny Crain, Karen Marshall, Carolyn Drake, LoisDunlap and Janet Raymond into the dining room.
Silently, and almost meekly, as if shamed into submission by PollyBeale's example, John Drake, Tracey Miles, Clive Hammond, JudgeMarshall, and Dexter Sprague permitted Captain Strawn and SergeantTurner to search them.
"How about the guest closet and the cars?" Dundee asked of Strawn in alow voice, when the fruitless, unpleasant task was finished.
"Gone over with a fine tooth comb long ago," Strawn assured himgloomily. "And not a hiding place in or outside the house that the boyshaven't poked into--including the meadow as far as anyone could throwfrom the bedroom window."
The women were filing back into the room, some pale, some flushed, butall able to look each other in the eye again.
With surprising jauntiness Polly Beale saluted Dundee. "Nothing moredeadly on any of us than Flora's triple-deck compact."
"I thank you with all my heart, Miss Beale," Dundee said sincerely. "Andnow I think you may all go to your homes.... Of course you understand,"he interrupted a chorus of relieved ejaculations, "that all of you willbe wanted for the inquest, which will probably be held Monday."
"And what's more," Captain Strawn cut in, to show his authority, "I wantall of you to hold yourselves ready for further questioning at anytime."
There was a stampede for coats and hats, a rush for cars as if the housewere on fire, or--Dundee reflected wryly--as if those he had torturedwere afraid he would change his mind. Rushing away with hatred of him intheir hearts....
Only Penny Crain held back, maneuvering for a chance to speak with him.
"I don't have to go with the rest, do I?" she begged in a husky whisper.
"And why not?" Dundee grinned at her, but he was glad there was nohatred in _her_ eyes.
"I'm 'attached' to the district attorney's office, too, aren't I?"
"Right! And you've been a brick this evening. I don't know what I shouldhave done without you--"
"Well, I can't see that you've done much _with_ me," she gibed. "But I'dlike to stick around, if you're going to do some real Sherlocking--"
"Can't be done, Penny. I want to stay here alone for a while and mullthings over. But I'd like to have a long talk with you tomorrow."
"Come to Sunday dinner. Mother loves murder mysteries," she suggested.Then realization swept over her. Her brown eyes widened, filled withterror. "Stop thinking one of us did it! _Stop_, I tell you!"
"Can _you_ stop, Penny?" he asked gently.
But she fled from him, sobbing wildly for the first time that long,horrible evening. Dundee, watching from the doorway of the lighted hall,saw the chauffeur open the rear door of the Dunlap limousine, saw Pennycatapult herself into Lois Dunlap's outstretched arms....
"When did the Dunlap chauffeur call for his mistress?" he asked Strawn,who stood beside him.
"About ten minutes after you arrived," Strawn answered wearily. "Saidhe'd dropped Mrs. Dunlap and the Selim woman at about 2:30 and had beenordered to return around 6:30.... Knows nothing, of course." The chiefof the Homicide Squad drew a deep breath. "Well, Bonnie, he has nothingon me. In spite of all the palaver I don't know nothing either."
"You need some dinner, chief," Dundee suggested. "And the boys must begetting hungry, too."
"Somebody's got to guard the house, I suppose," Strawn gloomed. "Notthat it will do any good.... And what about that maid--that Carr woman?Shall I lock her up on general principles?"
"No. I want to have another talk with her, and if she bucks at spendingthe night here, I'll take her to the Rhodes House, and turn her over tomy old friend, Mother Rhodes. We haven't anything on her, you know."
"No, nor on anybody else, except that old fool, Marshall, and we can'tclap him into jail--yet," Strawn agreed, his grey eyes twinkling.
"Take your crew on in, chief," Dundee urged. "I'll stick till midnightor longer, if you don't mind. You can arrange to
have a couple of theboys to relieve me about twelve.... And by the way, will you telephoneme the minute you get hold of Ralph Hammond?"
"Well, maybe not so quick as all that," Strawn drawled. "I'll take thefirst crack at _that_ baby, my lad!... Not so dumb, am I, Bonnie-boy?Not so dumb! I can put two and two together as well as the nextone--pretty near as well as the district attorney's new 'specialinvestigator!'"
* * * * *
Although Bonnie Dundee had taken Captain Strawn's none-too-gentleparting gibe with good grace, it was a very thoughtful young detectivewho set about locking himself into the house in which Nita Selim hadbeen murdered.
Captain Strawn had beaten him to the job that evening by at least twentyminutes. Had the old detective stumbled upon something which Dundee, forall his spectacular thoroughness, had overlooked or had been unable toturn up because Strawn had suppressed it?
What if Strawn's parting boast was not an idle one, and he really had"the goods" on Ralph Hammond? Had the old chief been laughing up hissleeve during the farce of playing out the "death hand at bridge," andduring the merciless quizzing of old Judge Marshall?
But Dundee's native common sense quickly routed his gloom. CaptainStrawn was too direct in his methods, too afraid of antagonizing therich and influential, to have permitted even a "special investigator"from the district attorney's office to torment those twelve peopleneedlessly. Probably Strawn, feeling a little hurt at having playedsecond fiddle all evening, had simply wanted to get him fussed, was evennow chuckling over the effect of his parting boast....
Much cheered, Dundee lingered in the dining room whose windows he hadmade fast against any intrusion, so that his task of guarding the housealone might be minimized. As he glanced at the table, with its silverplates heaped with tiny sandwiches of caviar and anchovy paste, itslittle silver boats of olives and sweet pickles, he discovered that hewas very hungry indeed....
As he munched the drying sandwiches and sipped charged water--thevarious liquors for cocktails on the sideboard offered a temptationwhich he sternly resisted--Dundee's thought boiled and churned, throwingup picture after picture of Nita Selim, alive and then dead; of PennyCrain--bless her!--helping him at the expense of her loyalty tolife-long friends; of Flora Miles, lying desperately and then confessingto a shameful theft; of Karen Marshall gallantly playing out the "deathhand"; of Karen's stricken, childish face when she learned that herelderly husband had met and at least flirted with Nita Selim at a chorusgirls' party....
At that last picture Dundee flushed so that his skin prickled. Had hemade a fool of himself, or was he right in his suspicion that HugoMarshall had given Nita Selim this cottage rent free? That point shouldbe easily settled, at any rate....
Ruefully reflecting that appetizers do not make a satisfactory meal hebetook himself to the dead woman's bedroom.... Yes, his memory hadserved him well. Here was her desk--a small feminine affair of rosewood,set in the corner of the room nearest the porch door.
The desk was not locked. As Dundee let down the slanting lid, whosepolish was marred with many fingerprints, he saw that its contents werein a hopeless jumble. So Strawn had beaten him to this, too! Had hefound an all-important clue in one of the many little pigeon-holes anddrawers, stuffing it into his pocket just before a bumptious young"special investigator" had arrived?
But Dundee's returning gloom was instantly dispelled. Here was Nita'scheckbook, a flutter of filled-in stubs attached to only one remainingblank check. So Nita had banked with the Hamilton National Bank, ofwhich John C. Drake--who apparently hated his fattish, fussy wife--was avice president! Another tiny fact to be tucked away.... She had openedher account, apparently, on April 21, the day of her arrival inHamilton--the guest and employe of Mrs. Peter Dunlap. Probably LoisDunlap had advanced her the two hundred dollars as first payment for herprospective work in organizing a Little Theater movement in Hamilton.
Turning rapidly through stubs, Dundee stopped twice, whistling softlywith amazement each time. For on April 28th, and again on May 5th, NitaSelim had deposited $5,000! Where had she got the money? Were the sumstransfers from accounts in New York banks? But it was hardly likely thata little Broadway hanger-on had had so much hard cash on deposit. Thenwhere had she got it--$5,000 at a time, here in Hamilton?
_Blackmail!_
Hastily but thoroughly Dundee ran through the remaining checkstubs.... _No record at all of a check for rent made out to Judge HugoMarshall!_
But there was a stub that interested him. Check No. 17--Nita had spenther money lavishly--was filled in as follows, in Nita's pretty backhand:
No. 17 $9,000 _May 9, 1930_ To _Trust Dept._ For _Investment_
Had John C. Drake, who as vice president in charge of trusts andinvestments had doubtless handled the check, wondered at all where the$9,000 had come from?
One other revelation came out of the twenty-three filled-in stubs. Onevery Monday Nita Selim had drawn a check for $40 to her maid, LydiaCarr.
Again Dundee whistled. Forty dollars a week was, he wagered to himself,more money than any other maid in Hamilton was lucky enough to receive!Nita in a new light--an over-generous Nita! Or--_was Nita herself payingblackmail on a small scale_?
He reached into a pigeon-hole whose contents--a thick packet of unusedenvelopes--had not been disturbed by Strawn, and was about to remove anenvelope in which to place the all-important checkbook, when he noticedsomething slightly peculiar. An envelope in the middle of the packetlooked rather thicker than an empty case should....
_But it was not empty._ And across the face of the expensive,cream-colored linen paper was written, in that same pretty, very legiblebackhand:
TO BE OPENED IN CASE OF MY DEATH --JAUNITA LEIGH SELIM
His heart hammering painfully, and his fingers trembling, Dundee drewout the two close-written sheets of creamy notepaper. After all, who hadbetter right than he to open it? Was he not the representative of thedistrict attorney?... And he hadn't damaged the envelope. It had openedvery easily indeed--its flap had yielded instantly to his thumb-nail....
Wait! It had been _too easy_! Before unfolding the letter or whatever itwas, Dundee examined the flap of the envelope.... Yes! He was not thefirst to open it since its original sealing. God grant he hadn'tdestroyed any tell-tale fingerprints in his criminal haste to learn anysecret that Nita Selim had recorded here!... Perhaps Nita herself hadunsealed the letter to make an addition or a correction?
Well, whatever damage had been done was done now, and he might as wellread....
Five minutes later Bonnie Dundee was racing through the dining room,pushing open the swinging door that led into the butler's pantry. Wherethe devil were the steps that led down into the basement? A preciousminute was lost before he discovered that a door in the dark back hallopened upon the steep stairs....
An unshaded light, dangling from the ceiling, revealed the furnace inone corner of the big basement, laundry equipment in another. He plungedon.... That must be the maid's room, behind that closed door.... God!What if she had escaped, while he had been munching caviar and anchovysandwiches? A fine guard he'd been!... And it wasn't as if he hadn't hada dim suspicion of the truth....
The knob turned easily. He flung open the door. And then his kneesnearly gave way, so tremendous was his relief. For there, on the thinmattress of a white-enameled iron bed, lay the woman he so ardentlydesired to see.
She had apparently been asleep, and the noise he had made had startledher into panicky wakefulness. Instinctively her hand flew to the ruinedleft side of her face--that hideous expanse of livid flesh, scarred andridged so that it did not look human....
"What--? Who--?" Lydia Carr gasped, struggling to a sitting position,only to fall back as nausea swept over her.
"You remember me?" Dundee panted. "Dundee of the district attorney'soffice. I questioned you this afternoon--"
The woman closed the single eye that had escaped the accident which hadmarred her face so hideously. "I--remem
ber.... I'm sick.... I told youall I know--"
"Lydia, why didn't you tell me that it was your mistress, Mrs. Selim whodid--that?" Dundee demanded sternly, pointing to the woman's sightlessleft eye and ruined cheek.