Detective Fiction Weekly. Vol. 62, No. 2, October 3, 1931
- Автор: Энгланд Джордж Аллан, Philips Judson P.
- Год: 1931
- Язык: английский
- Год: The Red Star News Company
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Detective Fiction Weekly. Vol. 62, No. 2, October 3, 1931». Краткое содержание книги:
“But why didn’t you stay and swear to Cleet’s alibi?” asked Tom in amazement.
“I didn’t dare.” Louise shook her head. “Walter told me when he left the Wiltham house he bribed the chauffeur at the garage not to tell any one he took his car out. The chauffeur sleeps over the garage and he couldn’t get away and return without him knowing it. He just didn’t know then that those terrible murders would be committed while he was with me. It was just a precaution like he always took when we were together. Not a soul suspected our affair. And it was a perfectly innocent one. It was for me that Walter wanted Paul’s farm. Not for Enid.”
Tom was too amazed to put in a question, and the girl’s sweet, slightly petulant voice went on:
“You must see that if I told the police and reporters that Walter had been with me and they found out that he had bribed the Wiltham chauffeur and that we were in love, it would give him a powerful motive!” said Louise sharply. “The only thing to do, Hallston and I decided, was for me to disappear until the truth about the murders came out.”
“Good heavens!” groaned Tom helplessy, wiping his perspiring face.
Enid Cleet and this handsome Devore fellow at the night dub — Louise Lee and Enid Cleet’s artist husband. This little Maida and those three prisoners at the city hall — a maze, all of it. And where did Paul Nicolay enter the thing?
“You speak of Enid Cleet and her lover at the night club,” said Tom at last. “Where does Paul Nicolay enter into the affair? He was interested in her, wasn’t he?”
“I don’t know,” said Louise with a frown. “I never understood that. He took her out now and then and I didn’t want him to. I liked Paul. He was kind to me. I’ve been starving and crying up here alone ever since he died.”
Her beautiful eyes overflowed as she spoke, and she sobbed.
“Now I have ruined Walter!” she cried. “And he had nothing to do with it. If Paul had only listened to me last night. I knew he was going out with Enid again and I asked him not to. I was afraid.”
Tom sat up with renewed interest.
“Why were you afraid?” he asked quietly.
“Afraid that Edgar would fly off the handle and do something wild,” was the astounding reply.
“Edgar Malliett?”
“Yes. He didn’t want Paul to pay much attention to Enid, for some reason. I never understood that, either, for he wasn’t in love with Enid. Edgar couldn’t love any one. He isn’t responsible entirely. He has what you would call a criminal streak. None of us trusted him. Ann watched him as much as she could. I was always afraid of Edgar. For the past month he has been furious whenever Paul paid any attention to Enid.”
“But I don’t see why Nicolay should pay her attention,” said Tom, frowning. “They were so different. And if she was in love with this Larry Devore, this—”
“That’s it, I never understood it, but Paul was crazy about Enid,” sighed Louise. “I don’t know why. They were together a lot.”
“Well, Miss Lee, you must come down to your room now,” said Tom sternly. “You can do your lover no good by this sort of thing. The police are looking for you, too. Carson got them all worked up about you. He’s worried.”
“Carson?” Louise lifted her brows. “The lawyer? Why would he worry?”
“I don’t know, but he does,” replied Tom. “Now you come down to your room and be comfortable. And tell a straight story to any one who asks for it. The truth can’t harm any one and if Cleet is innocent it will all come out right.”
“I loathe this house,” said Louise. “I hate the people in it. And I don’t trust that prince. He is after Dorcas’s money. If I were you, I’d be interested in the prince.”
“Why?” asked Tom.
“Because he never brought Dorcas in this morning until after three,” said Louise. “I heard that from Hallston. You could find out if they were at that Bartell swimming party at Myron until that hour. It was close to four when I came in myself.”
“My gosh!” groaned Tom. “Doesn’t anybody ever go to bed?”
“I don’t,” smiled Maida. “That is, I don’t... often. I was up myself most of last night. I heard Dorcas come in and I heard you, Miss Lee.”
“But you didn’t tell—” began Tom.
“No.” Maida shook her head, smiling strangely. “Now, Miss Lee, if you will just go down to your own bed — I want to talk to Mr. Grant a little while.”
After a little more persuasion Tom and Maida succeeded in installing Louise Lee and her dog in her own cool, capacious room on the second floor of the house, and Tom waited impatiently for Maida Malone.
Chapter XXXI
Maida Helps
“I want to know how you can shed your character of maid so quickly,” smiled Tom when the girl came to him through the cool shadows of the reception room.
“I am not a maid at all,” said the girl gravely. “I work for the Atwood Detective Agency, and Mr. Nicolay engaged me a month ago to keep an eye on Edgar Malliett. That is why I am in this house.”
“Paul Nicolay!” Tom gasped. “Well, I’ll be damned!”
Maida nodded and sat down by Tom on a small divan.
“My name is Maida Strathwyn,” she told him. “And I’ve been fairly successful since I’ve been with the Atwood Agency. That’s been about ten years now. I’m thirty.”
“You?” Tom looked his amazement. “You can’t be. Why, I’m thirty myself, and look at you, and then look at me!”
“A waste of time,” smiled Maida. “And now here is the case as far as I know it. Mr. Nicolay came to us and said he fancied that Edgar was playing some crooked game. He had seen him with a couple of young men several times whom he knew to be crooks and loafers. Just youths beside Edgar. Well, I came here as maid, with no one knowing except Mr. Nicolay. I looke’d up these two young men and found that One worked in the Underwood grocery store. By offering to run errands for the cook, I got acquainted with Bill Brasson. I led him on and tried to pump him. I finally got everything out of him that I wanted to know. But that was not until recently. I found out—”
“I guess I know,” said Tom, and in as few words as possible he gave Maida the events of that night.
The girl nodded when he finished, her lovely eyes intent and eager.
“Yes, that is what I learned from Bill,” she said. “And I think Edgar got onto the fact that I knew Bill. He was making himself very unpleasant. I was about to report to Mr. Nicolay and drop the job, when — this terrible thing happened. By the way, I had the telephone call traced, the call that came from the woman just before Nicolay went out last night. It was Enid Cleet who called, or at any rate, it was from her home.”
“Well, you are good,” said Tom warmly. “And it was swell of you to let me in on this instead of Farrell or one of the city police.”
Maida colored.
“Oh— well—” She tossed her charming head.
“You knew Louise was in the house, I suppose,” Tom asked.
“No, I didn’t. I knew when she came in this morning, and I guessed that Hallston was helping her in some sort of stunt. Of course I knew of her affair with Cleet. But I never did think of her staying right here in the house. The silly little thing! She may have done him a lot of harm by that act.”