Part 12 (1/2)
Hammond, you were the first to arrive, I believe?”
”It seems that I was!” Clive Hammond answered curtly.
”And yet you did not enter the living room to greet your hostess?”
”I wanted a private word with Polly--Miss Beale--my fiancee,” Hammond explained briefly.
”How and when did you arrive?”
”I don't know the exact time. Never thought of looking at my watch,”
Hammond offered. ”I came out in my own roadster--that tan Stutz you may have noticed in the driveway. As for how I entered the house, I leaped upon the porch and opened a door of the solarium. I walked across the solarium, saw Polly just finis.h.i.+ng with bridge for the afternoon, and beckoned to her. She joined me in the solarium, and we stayed there until Karen screamed.... That's all.”
”Have you been engaged long, Mr. Hammond--you and Miss Beale?” Dundee asked, as if quite casually.
”Nearly a year,--if it's any of your business, Dundee!”
”And just when had you seen Miss Beale last, before late this afternoon?” Dundee asked.
”I refuse to answer!” Hammond flared. ”That at least is none of your d.a.m.ned business!”
”I believe I can answer my own question, Mr. Hammond,” Dundee said very softly.
CHAPTER EIGHT
”Then why ask me?” Hammond shrugged, but his eyes flickered toward Polly Beale.
”I thought perhaps you could give me a little additional information,”
Dundee soothed him. ”You see, it happens that I saw you, Miss Beale and another young man come into the Stuart House dining room about half past one today, just when I was thinking of lunch for myself.”
”The mysterious 'other young man' was Clive's brother, Ralph Hammond,”
Polly Beale cut in brusquely.
”Your decision to lunch with your fiance and his brother was quite a sudden one?” Dundee asked courteously. ”Just when did you change your mind about Mrs. Selim's luncheon party at Breakaway Inn, Miss Beale?”
The tall girl threw up her mannishly cropped, chestnut head. ”There is nothing at all sinister or even queer about it, Mr. Dundee! I was on my way to the luncheon, when I decided to drive past Nita's house, on the chance that she might like me to drive her over.”
”Then you didn't know that Mrs. Dunlap had already arranged to meet Mrs.
Selim downtown this morning and to take her to the Inn?” Dundee asked.
”No! I didn't hear of the arrangement,” Polly answered decidedly.
”You were a close friend of Mrs. Selim's perhaps?” Dundee prodded.
”Not at all! But that would not keep me from doing my hostess a courtesy.... She hated her Ford and liked expensive cars,” Polly added unemotionally. ”It was about a quarter to one when I got here, I should say. Nita wasn't here, nor was her maid, but I saw Ralph's car parked in front of the house--”
”_Ralph Hammond's car?_” a woman squealed, but Dundee let Polly continue.
”I rang and he answered the door. Said he was alone in the house, going over the premises at Judge Marshall's request,” Polly said evenly.