Part 19 (2/2)
”And me,” added Penny. ”I'll need taxi service myself if I come back here.”
”That's all right,” agreed the boy.
”Here's a dollar on deposit,” Jerry said. ”Now remember, be here tomorrow from eight o'clock on, and don't hire out to any other person.”
”I won't,” the boy promised.
Jerry took Penny's elbow and escorted her to the press car.
”So you found Atherwald's hat?” he asked without preliminaries.
”It resembles the one he wore. The boy fished it out of the river.”
”Then that looks as if the fellow really was the victim of a plot!”
”I've thought so all along,” Penny declared soberly.
”What else did you learn? You seemed to be very chummy with Miss Kippenberg.”
”I'll not be from now on,” Penny returned ruefully.
As Jerry backed the car around in the dusty road, she told of her meeting with Sylvia Kippenberg and the ensuing conversation.
”So Miss Kippenberg doesn't like questions?” Jerry asked. ”And she refuses to notify the police? Well, after we publish our story in the _Star_ it won't be necessary. The police will come to do their own investigating.”
”I can't really believe she is trying to deceive the authorities,” Penny said thoughtfully. ”She seems to have a sincere regard for Grant Atherwald.”
”It may be pretense.”
”She wasn't pretending the day of the wedding. Atherwald's disappearance was a great shock to her.”
”Well, even so, she may know a lot more than she's putting out.”
”I think that myself. She closed up like a clam when I talked about her father.”
The car came to the main road and a short time later entered the town of Corbin. As they stopped for a red light, Penny touched Jerry's arm.
”Look over there,” she directed. ”See those two men standing in front of the drugstore?”
”What about them?”
”They're G men who attended the Kippenberg wedding. Salt pointed them out to me.”
”You don't say! Maybe we can learn a fact or two from them.”
Jerry parked the car at the curb and sprang out. Penny saw him walk over to the men, introduce himself and show his press credentials. She was too far away to hear the conversation.
In a few minutes Jerry returned to the car looking none too elated.
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