Part 11 (2/2)
”Everyone says she was mixed up with him.”
”Manton may have philandered with her; undoubtedly he takes a personal interest in all his stars.” Kennedy, I saw, remembered the promoter's close attentions to Enid Faye. ”Nevertheless, Walter, he is first and foremost and all the time the man of business. His heart is in his dollars and Millard even suggests that he is none too scrupulous.”
”If he had an affair with Stella,” I rejoined, ”and she became up-stage--the note you found suggested trouble, you know--then Manton in a burst of pa.s.sion--”
”No!” Kennedy stopped me. ”Don't forget that this was a cold-blooded, calculated crime. I'm not eliminating Manton yet, but until we find some tangible evidence of trouble between Stella and himself we can hardly a.s.sume he would kill the girl who's made him perhaps a million dollars. Every motive in Manton's case is a motive against the crime.”
”That eliminates Phelps, then, too. He nearly owned the company.”
”Yes, unless something happened to outweigh financial considerations in his mind also.”
”But, good heavens! Kennedy,” I protested. ”If you go on that way you'll not eliminate anyone.”
”I can't yet,” he explained, patiently. ”It's just as I said. We're fis.h.i.+ng in the dark, absolutely. So far we haven't a single basic fact on which to build any structure of hypothesis. We must go on fis.h.i.+ng. I expect you to dig up all the facts about these people; every odd bit of gossip or rumor or anything else. I'll bring my science to play, but there's nothing I can do except a.n.a.lyze Stella's stomach contents and the spots on the towel; that is, until we've got a much more tangible lead than any which have developed so far.”
”Is there anything I can do to-night?”
”Yes!” He looked at his watch. ”There are two men who were very close to Miss Lamar. Jack Gordon was engaged to her, Merle s.h.i.+rley seemed to have been mixed up with her seriously. All the picture people have night haunts. See what you can find about these two men.”
”But I don't know where to find them offhand, and--”
”Both belong to the Goats Club, probably. Try that as a start.”
I nodded and began to hurry my dessert. But I could not resist questioning him.
”You think they are the most likely suspects?”
”No, but they were intimately a.s.sociated with Miss Lamar in her daily life and they are the two we have learned the least about.”
”Oh!” I was disappointed. Then I rallied to the attack for a final time. ”Who is the most likely one. Just satisfy my curiosity, Craig.”
He took a folded note from his pocket, opening it. It was the memorandum from Manton's desk which I had mentioned. In a flash I understood.
”Werner!” I exclaimed. ”They said he was mixed up with her, too. He was the first back and out of the car and he had time to clean a needle on the towel, had a better opportunity than anyone else. More”--I began to get excited--”he was lying on the floor close to her in the scene and could have jabbed her with a needle very easily, and--and he was extremely nervous when you questioned him, the most nervous of all, and--and, finally, he had a motive, he wanted to get Enid Faye with Manton Pictures, as this note shows.”
”Very good, Walter.” Kennedy's eyes were dancing in amus.e.m.e.nt. ”It is true that Werner had the best motive, so far as we know now, but it's a fantastic one. Men don't commit cold-blooded murder just to create a vacancy for a movie star. If Werner was going to kill Miss Lamar he never would have written this note about Miss Faye.”
”Unless to divert suspicion,” I suggested.
He shook his head. ”The whole thing's too bizarre.”
”Werner was close to her in the dark. All the other things point to him, don't they?”
”It's too bad everyone wasn't searched, at that,” Kennedy admitted.
”Nevertheless, at the time I realized that Werner had had the best opportunity for the actual performance of the crime and I watched him very closely and made him go through every movement just so I could study him. I believe he's innocent--at least as far as I've gone in the case.”
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