Part 30 (2/2)
Having ticketed the big bronze lamp, which he had brought with him from the Selim house, and locked it away in the room devoted to ”exhibits for the state,” Bonnie Dundee hurried into Penny's office, primed with the news of his discovery of the secret hiding place and eager to lay his new theory before the district attorney.
”Bill's gone,” Penny interrupted her swift typing to inform him. ”To Chicago. He had only fifteen minutes to make the three o'clock train, after he received a wire saying his mother is not expected to live. He tried to reach you at the Selim house, but one of Captain Strawn's men said you had left.”
”I stopped on my way in to get a bite to eat,” Dundee explained mechanically. ”I'd dashed off without my lunch, you know.”
”Did you find the gun and silencer?” Penny asked.
”No. Whoever used it Sat.u.r.day afternoon walked out of the house with it, in plain view of the police, and still has it.... Very convenient, too, in case another murder seems to be expedient--or amusing.”
”Don't joke!” Penny shuddered. ”But what in the world do you mean?”
Briefly Dundee told her, minimizing the hard work, the concentrated thinking, and the meticulous use of a tape measure which had resulted in the discovery of the shelf between Nita's bedroom closet and the guest closet in the little foyer.
”I see,” Penny agreed, her husky voice slow and weighted with horror.
She sat in dazed thought for a minute. ”That rather brings it home to my crowd--doesn't it?... To think that Dad--!... Probably everyone at the party--except me--had heard all about Dad's 'simple and ingenious'
arrangement for hiding the securities he sent on to New York before he ran away.... And no outsiders--n.o.body but _us_--had a legitimate excuse for entering that closet.... Not even Dexter Sprague. It's one of his affectations not to wear a hat--”
”Is it?” Dundee pounced. ”You're sure he wore no hat that afternoon? Did you notice him when he left after I had dismissed you all?”
”Yes,” Penny acknowledged honestly. ”I paid attention to him, because I was hating him so. I believed then that he was the murderer, and I was furious with you and Captain Strawn for not arresting him.... He was the first to leave--just walked straight out; wouldn't even stop to talk with Janet Raymond, who was trying to get a word with him. I saw him start toward Sheridan Road--walking. He had no car, you know.”
”Did you observe the others?” Dundee demanded eagerly. ”Do you know who went _alone_ to the guest closet?”
Penny shook her head. ”Everybody was milling around in the hall, and I paid no attention. Lois said she would drive me home, and then I went in to ask you to let me stay behind with you--”
”I remember.... Listen, Penny! I'm going to tell you something else that n.o.body knows yet but Sanderson, Lydia and me. I don't have to ask you not to tell any of your friends. You know well enough that anything you learn from either Sanderson or me is strictly confidential.”
Penny nodded, her face very white and her brown eyes big with misery.
”I have every reason to believe that Nita Selim was a blackmailer, that she came to Hamilton for the express purpose of bleeding someone she had known before, or someone on whom she had 'the goods' from some underworld source or other.... At any rate, Nita banked ten thousand mysterious dollars--$5,000 on April 28, and $5,000 on May 5. I talked to Drake last night, and I have his word for it that the money was in bills of varying denomination--none large--when Nita presented it for deposit.
Therefore it seems clear to me that Nita got the money right here in Hamilton; otherwise it would have come to her in the form of checks or drafts or money orders. And it seems equally clear to me that she did not bring that large amount of cash from New York with her, or she would have deposited it in a lump sum in the bank immediately after her arrival.”
”Yes,” Penny agreed. ”But why are you telling _me_?... Of course I'm interested--”
”Because I want you to tell me the financial status of each of your friends,” Dundee said gently. ”I know how hard it is for you--”
”You could find out from others, so I might as well tell you,” Penny interrupted, with a weary shrug. ”Judge Marshall is well-to-do, and Karen's father--her mother is dead--settled $100,000 on her when she married. She has complete control of her own money.... The Dunlaps are the richest people in Hamilton, and have been for two or three generations. Lois was 'first-family' but poor when she married Peter, but he's been giving her an allowance of $20,000 a year for several years--not for running the house, but for her personal use. Clothes, charities, hobbies, like the Little Theater she brought Nita here to organize--”
”I wouldn't say she spends a great deal of it on dress,” Dundee interrupted with a grin.
”Lois doesn't give a hang how she looks or what anyone thinks of her--which is probably one reason she is the best-loved woman in our crowd,” Penny retorted loyally. ”The Miles' money is really Flora's, and she has the reputation of being one of the shrewdest business 'men' in town. When she married Tracey nearly eight years ago, he was just a salesman in her father's business--the biggest dairy in the state ... 'Cloverblossom' b.u.t.ter, cream, milk and cheese, you know.... Well, when Flora married Tracey, her father retired and let Tracey run the business for Flora, and he's still managing it, but Flora is the real head.... Now, let's see.... Oh, yes, the Drakes!... Johnny is vice president of the Hamilton National Bank, as you know, and owns a big block of the stock. Carolyn has no money of her own, except what Johnny gives her, and I rather think he isn't any too generous--”
”They don't get along very well together, do they?”
”N-no!” Penny agreed reluctantly. ”You see, Johnny Drake was simply not cut out for love and marriage. He's a born ascetic, would have been a monk two or three centuries ago, but he cares as much for Carolyn as he could for any woman.... The Hammond boys have some inherited money, and Clive has made a big financial success of architecture.... That leaves only Janet and Polly, doesn't it?... Polly's an orphan and has barrels of money, and will have barrels more when her aunt, with whom she lives, dies and leaves her the fortune she has always promised her.”
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