CHAPTER XVIII.--FANNIE ALTA.
In the meantime, Mrs. St. Clair, left to the quiet seclusion of her ownhome, became forthwith a very determined and resolute character.
First she summoned to her aid the old colored butler, who had been withher many years, and together they searched every part of the house whereshe had been the night before. They went over the attic thoroughly andsatisfied themselves that the lost pearl necklace could not have beendropped there. They hunted through the downstairs rooms, shook out thesofa cushions, looked under the rugs and behind curtains. There was nota crack nor cranny of the rooms she had lately frequented that Mrs. St.Clair and old Randolph did not scour.
Like many another easy-going, amiable soul, Mrs. St. Clair, when rousedto action, was capable of the most surprising, almost fiercedetermination, and when Fannie Alta returned, pleading the excuse of aheadache, she hardly recognized in the white intense face, the rosy,dimpled countenance of the widow.
Fannie retired to her room, but when Mrs. St. Clair went to thetelephone in the upper hall, she crept to the door, opened it a crack,and overheard snatches of this conversation:
"Do you happen to have a good detective? That's fortunate. The famousMr. Bangs home on his vacation? Has a motor cycle? Very well, he oughtto get here in an hour. Tell him to hurry. Thank you. Good-by."
A tray of luncheon was brought to Fannie, but she ate very little. Shesat in her room thinking hard. Then, with a sudden resolution, shejumped up and began to move about. First she packed her valise. Then,tying her handkerchief about her head, she put on a very woe-begoneexpression and left the room. Mrs. St. Clair was in the living room, amaid told her, and Fannie found her pacing nervously up and down thebright, chintz-hung place.
"I am afraid you are not feeling so well, Miss Alta," the widow saidpolitely, but with just a shade of coldness in her tone.
"I am much worse," answered Fannie. "I feel quite ill. I wish to returnto my mamma. May I be driven home?"
Mrs. St. Clair hesitated and a very strange expression came into herface.
"You may go in a few hours, Miss Alta. There is no one to take you justnow. Randolph is needed here and the other men are off working on theplace. Perhaps you had better lie down in your room until I can arrangeto send you back. Did you try the aromatic spirits of ammonia?"
"If no one can take me," said the Spanish girl irritably, not taking anynotice of the question, "I shall walk."
"But I thought you were ill?"
"I am, but the walk will help my head."
"No, I cannot permit it," said Mrs. St. Clair firmly. "Go to your roomand in another hour you will be sent home."
Fannie started to reply, but she checked herself and left the room. Mrs.St. Clair, stripped of her smiles and good-natured pleasantries, was nota person to be disobeyed, and Fannie was quick to recognize that fact.
She had hardly reached the second floor, when she heard the whirringsound of a motor cycle, followed almost immediately by a quick ring ofthe bell. Fannie leaned far over the banisters, and when she turned togo to her room, after a small, dapper-looking man had been admitted, shewas somewhat embarrassed to find Mrs. St. Clair's maid looking at herwith an expression of extreme amazement.
Fannie hurried to her room and for the next fifteen minutes stoodirresolutely first on one foot, then on the other. Finally, with an airof determination, she opened her satchel.
In the sitting room downstairs Mrs. St. Clair and Mr. Bangs were inclose conference.
"I do not really know the girl, Mr. Bangs. She is a Cuban or a SouthAmerican, or something. Her name is Alta and she was brought here by myson's guest. It is impossible for me to accuse a visitor in my own houseof stealing the most valued and handsomest possession I have in theworld. She is a queer little creature and looks sly and unreliable tome. But, of course, that is not really evidence. What I have beenracking my brain all night and morning to recall is whether it was notshe who, when she helped me off with my ghost dress last night, fumbledat my neck a moment.
"It amounts to this, Mr. Bangs," the widow continued after a pause, "Ican't get over the impression that she has stolen my necklace. The otherchildren here I have known all their lives. My servants have been withme for years, and she is the one suspicious person in the house. Now,what I want you to do is to help me to find out the whole thing withoutarousing her suspicions. If she is the thief, she may return thenecklace, and be sent back to town before the others arrive, and it willbe easy enough to make excuses. You are a very able man, Mr. Bangs, andI know that you are only home for a rest, but I do so need your help.Now, what do you advise?"
"Have you looked among her things yet?" asked the detective.
"No, because the conviction only came to me after she returned. I didhave suspicions, I will admit, but I put them aside. When she came backI saw that she was uneasy and anxious, and only a few moments ago sheasked to be sent home."
"H-m," mused the detective. "Suppose," he continued, "that you call herdown and let me talk to her as if I needed her assistance, she being theonly member of the party available."
The advice was acted upon, and presently Fannie, still with thehandkerchief swathing her forehead, looking very nervous and pale,entered the room.
"Miss Alta," began the widow kindly, "I am sorry to have disturbed youwhen you were ill, but we are in great trouble and we thought perhapsyou might help us. Did you know that last night I lost my beautifulpearl necklace, the most precious thing I have in the world?"
Fannie showed great surprise.
"Did it not come unclasped and slip?" she suggested.
"I have reason to believe that it did not slip from my neck, because wehave searched the place thoroughly. It must have been taken. I talked itall over with the other girls last night and they helped me look for it,but now I need some one else, and in their absence I have sent for you.Mr. Bangs, who is a detective, has come down to lend me his aid, and wethought we might take you into the conspiracy with us."
The widow paused for breath.
Fannie sat down and folded her hands nervously.
"I do not see how I can help," she said, after a pause.
"Possibly you cannot," put in Mr. Bangs, "but Mrs. St. Clair thought youmight have noticed something unusual, and being a guest were too politeto speak of it. For instance, were you standing near Mrs. St. Clair whenshe removed the sheet and pillow case?"
"Yes," said Fannie, "there were several of us in the party."
"Did you notice who unpinned the sheet for Mrs. St. Clair?"
Fannie paused a long time without replying.
"It was not you who did it?"
The young girl compressed her lips and looked the detective squarely inthe eye.
"The girl who unpinned the sheet was Mary Price," she replied, "andsince you are determined to question me, I will tell you."
She drew a deep breath, looked first at the detective, then at Mrs. St.Clair, and proceeded:
"I did notice that she removed the sheet from your shoulders and heractions were very strange. But, knowing what I did, I was not surprised,and I am not surprised to hear now that you have lost somethingvaluable, Mrs. St. Clair," she went on, more and more glibly, as she sawshe was gaining the interest of the other two.
"What were Miss Price's actions?" asked the detective, taking Fannie'sstatements in the order she had made them.
Fannie frowned.
"Oh, I do not know. She was strange. She behaved strangely and she wentaway at once."
"You mean she left the room?"
"I cannot say. I saw her no more until supper."
"Where were you?"
"Oh, I was about, dancing, playing, laughing with the others," repliedFannie carelessly.
"You said a moment ago you knew something about Miss Price. Will youtell us what it is?"
"Ah, but I hesitate. It is unkind to spread so terrible a story."
"We will treat it confidentially," said the detective drily.
"A great many pe
ople know it already," went on Fannie. "The whole schoolknows it, in fact. Miss Gray, the principal, and some of the teachers,who have lost money and articles. I, myself, have good reason to knowit."
"What is it that you know?" asked the detective.
"That Mary Price is a thief. She has been stealing all the autumn fromthe other girls and the teachers at the High School."
"Oh, impossible! I will not believe it," cried Mrs. St. Clair. "Dear,sweet, quiet Mary. There must be some mistake, Miss Alta. You should bemore careful how you spread such dangerous gossip. Mary Price and hermother have many devoted friends in West Haven."
"You may ask Miss Gray, then. She will tell you," said Fannie stiffly.
"Just to verify your statement, Miss Alta, I will telephone Miss Graythis instant," exclaimed the widow angrily, leaving the room andhastening upstairs to the telephone.
While she was gone, and she was away some time, the detective began toquestion Fannie. He was a very experienced man in his profession and hepressed her so skillfully that several times she tripped in her answersand finally grew excited.
"I tell you it is true," she cried. "She not only is a thief, but shehas a confederate. Billie Campbell is her assistant. Perhaps you think Itook the necklace," she burst out at last. "You have the right to searchamong my things. I had no way to know that suspicion rested on me. If Itook the necklace, it will still be among my things."
"Don't get excited, Miss Alta, nobody has accused you of anything. Wesimply needed your valuable evidence. Why do you say Miss Campbell is aconfederate to the thieving?"
Fannie had gone farther than she intended, however, and she refused togive any more information. But the detective saw that when she was angryand frightened, she would talk, and after a pause, he said:
"You perhaps know that you are the only person in the household on whomsuspicion might rest."
"I don't see why I should be suspected," she exclaimed hotly, "when MaryPrice is already known to be a thief----"
"Perhaps you have a grudge against Miss Price?"
"I have not," she cried, stamping her foot.
"Did no one ever suspect you of taking the things at the High School?You know that often happens--one girl is blamed for another's----"
Fannie flew into a passion.
"I tell you Billie Campbell and Mary Price are thieves. They have awhole box of valuable things they have stolen, stored away in Mrs.Price's safe."
"What sort of things?"
"Jewelry," burst out Fannie, then stopped and bit her lip. "But I may bemistaken about that," she added, trying to speak calmly.
Mrs. St. Clair hurried into the room with the necklace in her hand.
"Where did you find it?" asked Mr. Bangs.
"I found it," she began, then paused. "It was found," she added. "Youmay go, Miss Alta. Thank you very much. And if you care to go back totown, Randolph will drive you in at once."
When Fannie had left the room, the widow beat her hands together, andthe tears rolled down her cheeks.
"I found it in Mary Price's bag," she said. "And Miss Gray tells me thatit is true. Mary has been suspected of stealing all autumn."