CHAPTER 11 _THE WOODEN DOLL_
Mr. Parker studied the bank secretary and his wife with more interest.But he said mildly:
"I see nothing especially significant in Potts coming here, Penny. Theclub is public."
"It's expensive too. The cover charge is two dollars, and you can't toucha dinner for less than another four! How can Potts afford to pay suchprices?"
"He may earn a good salary working for Mr. Rhett--probably does. Anyway,folks don't always spend their money wisely, even if they have verylittle of it."
Potts and his wife swept past the Parker table without noticing Penny orher father. A trifle self-consciously, as if unaccustomed to appearing insuch places, they sat down and studied the menu with concentratedinterest.
Penny tried but could not keep her eyes from the pair.
"Dad, I wonder if Potts has any more information about Mr. Rhett'sdisappearance," she presently remarked. "I have a notion to go over thereand ask him."
Mr. Parker nodded absently, so Penny started across the room. She wasonly midway to Potts' table, when the bank secretary raised his eyes andsaw her approaching.
A startled, almost dismayed expression came upon his face. He spokehurriedly to his wife. She looked puzzled, but both arose and walkedquickly toward the exit.
Penny started to follow, then thought better of it.
"Mr. Potts knows I'm a reporter," she reflected. "Probably he doesn'tcare to be annoyed by having to answer questions. On the other hand, isit possible he doesn't want to be recognized in this night club?"
Mr. and Mrs. Potts obtained their wraps at the checkroom and left thebuilding. Somewhat crestfallen, Penny returned to her own table to findher father chatting with acquaintances.
Under the circumstance, she had no opportunity to speak of Mr. Potts'queer behavior. Soon, dinners were brought and after that the floor showbegan.
Not wishing to keep his daughter out late, Mr. Parker insisted that theyleave in the middle of the entertainment. However, the drive home gavePenny time to tell him about the bank secretary. The incident did notseem to impress her father greatly.
"If I were you I wouldn't pester Potts too much," he advised. "Heprobably doesn't enjoy being the center of public attention."
Penny slept late the next morning, and because it was Sunday, did notvisit the _Star_ office. The paper that day was voluminous. But in goingthrough it she could find no new facts about the Rhett case. No word hadbeen received from the missing banker; there had been no ransom demandreceived; and neither had Albert Potts nor Mrs. Rhett shed the slightestlight on what might have become of him.
After breakfast, Penny telephoned Jerry Livingston to inquire if he hadheard from the Cherry Street landlady.
"Not a word," he reported. "I dropped back there late last night, but theman we're looking for apparently never returned."
Disappointed that the case had reached a dead end, Penny next telephonedthe Rhett home. No one answered.
"I'm certain someone is there," she thought. "Mrs. Rhett probably hasgiven orders not to answer the phone."
At a loss to know what to do, Penny spent the morning at home, haddinner, then went down the street to see Louise Sidell. However, her chumhad gone to visit an aunt for the day.
"What miserable luck!" Penny muttered. "No one with whom I can talk overthe Rhett case! Nothing to do!"
Suddenly it dawned upon her, that she might call on Albert Potts at hishome, and perhaps induce him to reveal a few helpful facts about themissing banker.
From a telephone book she obtained the secretary's address. Thirtyminutes later found her standing before a modest cottage on BerdanAvenue. In response to her knock, the same woman Penny had seen theprevious night at the Gay Nineties, came to the door. Now she looked veryplain and frowsy in a messy housedress, and her hair hung in untidystreamers.
The woman stared at Penny without recognition.
"Is Mr. Potts here?" the girl inquired.
"No, he's not," Mrs. Potts answered without cordiality, her voice coarseand unattractive. "Anything I can do?"
"I wanted to talk to him. Will he return soon?" Penny moved inside thedoor.
"When he goes off, I never know when he'll get back. He went to the bank,I guess."
"On Sunday?"
"Al's had a lot of work lately. I tell him he ought to let up. He'sgetting so jumpy he doesn't sleep at nights. Just tosses and keeps meawake."
Before Penny could ask another question, a boy of ten, who had AlbertPotts' sharp features, came racing across the yard up to the door.
"Has the bicycle come yet, Ma?" he shouted.
"No, it hasn't, and I wish you'd quit pestering me!" she snapped. "Therewon't be any deliveries today."
To Penny, the woman explained: "My husband bought Eddie a new bicycle andhe won't give us any peace until it comes. Deliveries take such a longtime these days. None of the things we bought have come yet."
Penny did not mean to be inquisitive, but instantly it struck her asunusual that the Potts' family should be indulging in a sudden orgy ofspending. Nor had she forgotten the couple's hasty departure from the GayNineties club.
"Eddie is getting quite a few new things, I take it," she observedcasually.
The woman became more friendly. "Oh, yes, my husband ordered a trapezeset for him, and an electric train. But he bought me a lot too! A newpiano and a living room rug. We have a new refrigerator on order, avacuum cleaner and a bedroom suite!"
"Imagine!" exclaimed Penny. "Your husband must have come into a smallfortune."
"He was given a raise last week at the bank. I don't know exactly howmuch, but it must have been a big one, because Al says we'll have enoughnow for everything we need."
"I think I've seen you before, Mrs. Potts," Penny remarked, seekingadditional information. "Weren't you at the Gay Nineties last night?"
"Yes, we were! But we didn't stay long. Before we had ordered our dinner,my husband remembered an important appointment he had made. We had toleave suddenly. It was awfully disappointing. I never went to a nightclub before and I wanted to see the show!"
Mrs. Potts paused, obviously waiting for Penny to leave. "I'll tell myhusband you called," she said. "You didn't give me your name."
Edging out of the door, Penny pretended not to hear the latter remark.Calling over her shoulder that she would try to see Mr. Potts at the banknext day, she retreated before the woman could learn her identity.
Walking toward the bus stop, the girl reflected upon what she hadlearned. The financial good fortune of the Potts' family was verypuzzling. Apparently the bank secretary's salary had been increased sincethe disappearance of his employer, Mr. Rhett.
"It seems a queer time to raise the man," she mused. "If his duties havebecome so much heavier, I suppose the bank board may have granted acompensating wage increase. But it must have been an enormous one toenable him to buy everything in the stores!"
As Penny waited at the street corner for a home-bound bus, she saw oneapproaching which was headed for the outlying section near the Rhettestate area. Impulsively, she decided to go there to see Lorinda.
"I may not get into the house," she thought. "My luck is running badlytoday. Anyway, I'll give it a try."
It was nearly four o'clock by the time Penny alighted from the bus andwalked to the Rhett estate. Her heart sank as she noticed that curtainswere drawn in nearly all of the front windows of the house.
"No one here," she thought. "Lorinda and her mother may have left town toescape questioning by reporters and the police."
Because she had come so far, she knocked on the front door. No one came.Giving it up, she wandered around the house, into the garden.
Curiously she gazed toward the thatched roof cottage, wondering if anyonewere there. The whispered warning she and Salt had heard the previousday, remained unexplained. She longed to investigate, yet hesitated totrespass.
As she deba
ted, Penny observed a small column of black smoke rising fromamid the shrubbery. Someone apparently had built a bonfire on the beach.
Seeking the steps which led down to the river, Penny presently saw thather guess was correct. A small fire of driftwood had been built on thesands. Lorinda, in slacks and an old sweater, was so engrossed in feedingthe flames that she did not hear when her name was called.
Descending the steps, Penny hastened to the beach to join the Rhett girl.Lorinda did not hear the approaching footsteps. Deeply absorbed in whatshe was doing, she stirred the flames with a stick until they leapedmerrily.
Then, from a paper sack she withdrew a queer wooden object which evenfrom the distance Penny could see was a doll. Its body appeared to betightly wound with scarlet thread.
Lorinda held the doll gingerly in her fingers. She stared at it a moment,shuddered, and then with a gesture of abhorrence, hurled it into thecrackling flames.