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Show UncoiifeJlM Bradley A ; vW-U. SERVICE. V SAT5, I SYNOPSIS Leila Seton, young and beautiful nd an expert on paintings, Is commissioned com-missioned to go over the collection 0( paintings In the home of the wealthy Kellers In New York, where a party Is In progress. From her iP;s: window she witnesses a man In ante, an-te, jv other room strike a woman. Shortly after Mrs. Keller sends up word, l;s' asking her to Join the party at din-"it- ner Leila hastily dresses and goes xv ' down She Is seated between Mr. "I' Deck' a critic, and Monty Mitchell, ''!., notcd lawyer. Introductions fol-. fol-. low. There are Mr. Harriden, Miss itri" Letty Van Alstyn, Mrs. Crane, Mrs. "'Watkins and Prince and Princess Rancini, guests. Leila finds she is taking the place of Nora Harriden. Dan Harriden leaves the table, and PfC Mitchell explains he has gone up to CIS ee how his wife's headache is. He " returns shortly. Deck, saying he must put In a call, leaves. Upon his return, he begs Leila to secretly take a message to Nora to "take no steps until 1 see you." Leila consents. Ca, Leila finds the Harriden rooms empty E'esr and so Informs Deck. Coming out ("'he passes Letty. Harriden asks ,:Princess Rancini to run up and see his wife. The princess reports the absence of Nora. Harriden admits that he had a row, and believes she is spitefully hiding. Letty tells of ADL?seeing Leila come from the room. Leila accuses Harriden of having lAi-ttruck his wife. This Harriden defies. de-fies. From the Harridens' window Leila sees what proves to be Nora's lifeless body. A ghastly head wound caused death. Dan says she was lying ly-ing on her bed when he went to dinner, din-ner, and when he ran up later the room was dark. Thinking she was ssleep, he left without seeing her. Mrs. Keller comes upon a pool of blood In the closet. A diamond chain s missing. Donahey, police inspector, questions the guests. Harriden fails :o report the row he had with Nora. He brands Leila's story of seeing a nan strike a woman a lie. Anson, a maid, tells of seeing Deck outside the Harriden door. Deck says he passed by in seeking a lost handker-phief. handker-phief. Elkins, a servant, tells of jverhearing Deck threaten Mrs. Harriden Har-riden earlier In the day. Deck explains ex-plains he was intoxicated and does not remember. That night Leila iwakes with the impression of some pne being in her room and then Dears steps in the hall. Believing she was mistaken, she does not report it. Later Donahey sends for Leila. She dentines the dress he has as hers. Pinned to it is a handkerchief confining con-fining the missing chain. Leila tells if her Intruder. Mitchell tries to lelp clear her. CHAPTER VI Continued 6 "Very feasible," said Mitchell, "if le found the trail getting too hot. . . But you don't know that the me who hid them was the one who liil the murder." "No?" said Donahey. a. "-N'o," said Mitchell, very firmly. Some one may very well have ound them afterwards and just not v lenlioned it. And then he got cold L'tH for fear of being suspected of lie murder and so got rid of them :i this hiding place." "iSouuds far-fetched," was Dona-I Dona-I ey's comment. "What's the mat-;r mat-;r with this girl's hiding them erself?" It was out In the open at last, " le accusation. "Well, there are lots of matters ?ainst that," said Mitchell in a wy reasonable tone. "One Is that Uss Seton isn't that sort of person II goes about hiding diamonds." II The Inspector grunted. "Somebody Ijd 'em. Somebody got 'em off Mrs. Miirritlen's neck. And you can't deny "it this girl had the opportunity hen she went upstairs, after din-!r din-!r " "The room was empty when I en-rcd en-rcd It," I flashed at him. "That's what you say." "Anson must know that she made e room before I came up," I said. lie Princess Rancini was up just ' me, and she found the room ady for the night. There wasn't ne between our visits " I couldn't go on. Donnhey's thoughts were follow- x 1 g mine. "No-no, there wasn't I I e, he conceded equably. "Not J f the killing But there.d hnve r en time enough for you to pick Hie shiners," he added. "You el't have found them lying about." I stared back at him and hardl- came to me, "You are very I said curtly, "and you are sting time you ought to spend In Wng the real criminal." Anybody might pick up cli.i-nls," cli.i-nls," said Donahey, looking me f lth his experienced eyes. ltrt why would they be left J"-1'" I went on, trying desper-y desper-y to be lucid. "Wbv would anv ' "ho killed Mrs. Harriden for J j"'s K0 Rwf,y and loave them (ue might not have killed her for Jewels," Donahey pointed out. h",5"" Cam6 along RUu diJ tlic larriden's voice overtook his. r t en had been standing there. cnlng, hs eyes as hard as Hints suddenly, he Intervened "She - Deck's confederate," he said, e thing's clear enough, lie did filing. It may have beeu for reasons of his own" the harsh voice grated over the words then went Indomitably on, "but certainly cupidity played a part afterwards. He took that chain. Stuffed it Into his pocket and went down to dinner. din-ner. Passed it to Miss Seton at the table. She went upstairs to hide them In her gown." "But why, then, would she go Into your wife's room?" Mitchell wanted to know. "There's a diamond missing," said Harriden grimly. "The big one. He sent her up to look for It. She made up this cock-and-bull story of a slapped cheek as an excuse." There was a dreadful silence. Harriden went on, "She may have found it, and she may not. Deck may have the diamond on him. He may have been holding out on her." I said in a low voice, "This would all be funny if it wasn't so terrible," ter-rible," and Mr. Keller murmured uneasily, "You're going pretty far in your accusations, Dan . . ." "You were meeting Mr. Deck In the gallery just before dinner," Donahey reminded me. "Now how about that?" "I told you that was sheer accident" acci-dent" Mitchell created a brisk diversion. diver-sion. "Mr. Harrlden's feelings are really not evidence. Now that cloth those diamonds were tied up In is evidence. May I see It?" Donahey handed It over. It was a piece of linen, a fine hemstitched handkerchief, with one corner torn out as If to remove a monogram. The cloth was crumpled and faintly stained. Mitchell examined it, then passed it to me. "What do you make of it, Miss Seton?" "It's been washed," I said, trying hard to speak normally. "Washed and dried. Those brown marks look like radiator marks." "Washed, by Jimmy!" Mitchell was alert as a terrier. "Now what do you think was washed out, Mr. Inspector?" We all knew the answer to that blood. 'Your man going over the handkerchiefs hand-kerchiefs in this house?" Mitchell rather sharply asked of Donahey, and Donahey passed on his disrelish dis-relish at the rebuke in the bfusk-ness bfusk-ness of his tone to his subordinate, as he gave the order. Harriden said, belligerently, that probably the man hadn't used his own. "Then why tear out the monogram?" mono-gram?" Mitchell retorted. His keen eyes, behind their glasses, studied Harriden almost banteringly. "Trying "Try-ing to discredit the clue. In case the hankies don't match?" Harriden reddened. "I'm not malting malt-ing a secret of what I think," he said harshly. "Deck threatened my wife, and he carried out his threats. And, by God, I'll bring It home to him ! As for this girl, who was his accomplice " "Don't let your feelings get the better of your judgment," the lawyer law-yer advised drily. "You've every reason to be sore as hell, but don't get a complex, and try to fit the He swung around to Donahey. "Let me know when you have that hanky report, and I'll be back for It, Both of us will," and his arm on my arm turned me about with him and headed me toward the door. "Let's go and talk this over," he said to me. His tone was so friendly, so intimate, in-timate, that I was touched to the quick ; I had never needed a friend more in my life. Together we went out into the hall and he led the way to a deep cushioned couch and proceeded to light cigarettes for us both. "Now this Is very interesting," he said cheerfully. "I wonder If you have any chemicals with you that could test those spots on that handkerchief? handker-chief? Find out if they are rust or blood?" At my assent he said," Good!" heartily and then, "I'll get Donahey to give you the handkerchief. He'll probably send a guard with it. It's pretty Important evidence about all we hnve so far." "Harrlden's down on Deck like bell." "I ventured, "Was Dick was Mrs. Harriden?" "Oli, her Infatuation was notorious. notori-ous. I don't know the Ins and outs I wasn't one of their Intimates. I never liked her." "I don't know how you could resist re-sist her," I said honestly, and thought of her dark, amazing eyes, her slim, seductive loveliness. "Oh. a man could lose his head over her Deck did, apparently but I don't lose my head," the young lawyer informed me. "She wasn't likable." And I thought of Nora Harriden'-dead Harriden'-dead mouth, with Its sharp, cm.-. edges. . "Whatever they were quarreling about," Mitchell went on, "I don't see the motive for killing her. He may have been cooling to her and going after some other girl, and she was threatening to tell the girl but that's not motive enough for murder. "All that they have against you now Is that you had t lie opportunity opportu-nity to pick up the chain and that It was found, this morning, secreted secret-ed In your dress. It was secreted In a handkerchief whose identifying marks were torn out, that had been recently washed and dried without the benefit of ironing, and the implication im-plication from that is that the handkerchief hand-kerchief might have been bloodstained. blood-stained. Now, could Deck have passed you the chain at dinner in that very handkerchief? Going into the horrid details we have to imagine imag-ine Deck thrusting Nora Into the closet, wiping his hands on his hanky, or wiping off the point of whatever he jabbed her with, and then promptly washing out the aforesaid hanky and drying it on the radiator. Then he put Nora out the window, snatched his hanky off the radiator, and came down to dinner. . . . Yes, it just could have been done. ... Or he could have done the hanky washing and the consignment of the gems to you later In the evening, while all the bustle was going on." "I hardly saw him " "Who's to prove that? What I'm examining is the strength of the possible case against you. How can you prove that you didn't know him in New York? You should never have let yourself meet him accidentally in that gallery! ... I'm not saying, mind you, that you couldn't get a jury to believe that the chain was planted on you, as you say, but you don't want to get into all that if you can be kept out. And the best way to keep you out Is to find who did the planting." I nodded, rather helplessly. "If the jury believes it was Alan Deck, they will at least look into the case against yon as an accomplice. accom-plice. If the jury Is shown that It is Deck, there Isn't any accomplice accom-plice case against you." "Yes, but suppose they do find the murderer and he doesn't confess con-fess to stealing the diamonds. How am I going to prove that I didn't find the chain in the room when I came up and hide it myself?" "You wouldn't have the bloodstained blood-stained hanky to hide it In, silly If those stains prove to be blood." This was our chance, he said to look Into the situation. Rapidly, incisively, in-cisively, he spread that house-party out like a pack of cards about me. The servants he swept away with one conclusive gesture, ne had been going into that all morning; every one was a retainer tried and true, some Inherited from the elder fColliara nnrl nlmncf nt rtf tnyirr S3,'1 !' 1 MSP M Lfe W v fr Mv' l''l;I We All Knew the Answer to That Blood. standing here. Elkins, the most recent re-cent addition, bad impeccable references. ref-erences. And every one of them was downstairs after eight o'clock, except the maids busy with the rooms. Then he dealt out the guests. It had to be some one who came along after eight o'clock when both Harriden Har-riden and Anson had seen Mrs. Harriden Har-riden on her bed. The thing was to discover in what order they had come down to dinner, and he had been working on that, he told me. The Kellers had been down first, then Mrs. Crane, and after that there had been a confusion of accounts. ac-counts. The Watkins said they had come down and sat out In the lounge behind the long entrance hall before be-fore they registered among the others. "Susy Watkins might have something some-thing against Nora Harriden." he said. "She was crazy over Deck, once upon a time, but he couldn't see her for Nora. But that was the moment to put Nora out of business and not no v." He went on to speak of the Ran-elnls. Ran-elnls. "They're just landed he'd hardly have cooked up an Infernal passion for Nora so soon." "But he knew her abroad," I told him. "A European past! That needs scrutiny, lie might have been the gent In the room with Nora about seven-thirty. He might have slipped in before Dan came up, and they had that fracas that you saw." I objected. "But he couldn't have Uiiled her then she was seen afterwards aft-erwards at eiiiit." "He might have popped In again after Dan had gone down. The princess prin-cess admitted they didn't go down together. She says he was late." "It might have been the princess herself," I said. "She might have found out that he'd been in Mrs. Harriden's room and had one of those spasms of jealousy." "But there were no signs of Jealousy Jeal-ousy downstairs. Murder seems to serious for a first explosion. . . . Of course, she might not have meant murder just meant to speak her mind about the prince's visit And then, Nora, being in a state of nerves, tried to thrust her out and she caught up something handy they haven't been able to find out yet what it was done with. But we'll take that up later. . . Now you'd say the Rancinis, one or the other, might have been the one?" I couldn't imagine it of them. But then, I couldn't imagine It of any one. To murder, I thought, one would have to be literally possessed by fury. I asked a really sensible question. "What time was Harriden down? Before or after Rancinis?" "Ah, there they differ. He thinks before they think after. So think the Kellers. But people were drifting drift-ing about so, that it's easy to overlook over-look some one in the room. ... I was next to the last Or Deck was, we differ there. Letty Van Alstyn was the last. Now what about Letty?" Let-ty?" "Well, what about her?" I echoed. "She's cuckoo over Harriden," be told me. "Harriden?" "Yep. She might have dropped in to see Nora and Nora twitted her about something Nora knew all about Letty's pash for Dan, and Letty got in a rage and caught up something that was handy. . . ." I flung out, "But a girl couldn't have killed her like that " "Somebody killed her like that." "And dragged her, first to a closet, clos-et, then to a window " "You can do a lot when you have to. Letty went up right after dinner," din-ner," he pointed out. "She wouldn't give a hoot in Hades what happened to any one so she got clear. Tagging Tag-ging the diamonds to you would be just her line." "A sweet menagerie," I commented. comment-ed. "I know all these people involved except the Rancinis and you don't I'm not sure but that gives you the edge over me for you've no preconceptions. Except about Deck," he added, suddenly. "You think Deck is innocent, don't you?" Under the quizzical gleam of his eyes, I felt the weight of his look upon me, a shrewd, legal, estimating estimat-ing look, and a sudden cold doubt of his, friendliness blew like a chill wind through my uncertain mind. I had a horrid thought. . . . What was his own share in this involved affair? At what time Tiad he, himself, him-self, come down to dinner? About the same time as Deck. Just before Letty Van Alstyn. He had never liked Nora Harriden ; he had admitted ad-mitted it with a frankness meant, perhaps, to disarm suspicion. My look twisted away from his but not quickly enough. He rose, laughing at me with a chiding note of raillery. "Shall we go see If my hankies match?" I looked again and laughed with him; I felt horribly ashamed of mv self. CHAPTER VII CLANCY had returned and his re port was a curious one. There had been three separate finds of handkerchiefs exactly similar to that stained and crumpled piece of linen In Donahey's hand ; they had been found among the possessions of Harriden, and of Keller and of Deck. Donahey sat glowering over thai bit of news. Mitchell urged the Immediate examination ex-amination of the handkerchief and Donahey agreed, sending Clancy up with it to the picture gallery. But before I could join him with my case of materials I had to be subjected sub-jected to a search both of my belongings be-longings and of my person. I was told that this was a routine matter that everyone was undergoing, in the effort to discover the missing perfdant After having seen that glittering chain brought out of the hanky Inside In-side my dress I was really afraid they'd conjure the famous pendant out of my powder box or the toe of a slipper. That demon thief might have tucked It anywhere. I breathed a good deal easier when the ordeal was over. I was glad to be In the gallery again, where Clancy was waiting beside'a card table that Elkins had set up. I was grateful to have the work on the handkerchief, grateful to Mitchell for trying to range me on the side of the investigators. 'JO BE COXT1MED) |