Part 30 (2/2)
”No, I didn't,” said Dorcas, frankly. ”I really wanted to know just what I asked. Will you forget it,--since you've answered me as you have?”
”Yes, indeed, miss,” the woman agreed, her decision influenced perhaps by the bill that was quietly slipped into her not unready hand.
”Well, I must say,” and Bates looked at his companion as they went slowly along the hall to the elevator, ”you did stir up a tempest without even a teapot! What's the big idea?”
”Don't speak like that, Rick,” Dorcas implored. ”Try to see things as I do. Or must I tell you right out that if there's no chorus girl, no chambermaid, no elevator girl to fasten suspicion on, it is going to be fastened on some one else. Can't you guess who?”
”That I can't,” and Bates looked blankly at her. ”Do you mean some of Uncle Bin's English people came over here and did for him?”
”I do not. I mean that there are people who will think,--who are already thinking there's reason to direct their inquiries toward--toward your aunt.”
Bates stared; ”Aunt Let.i.tia?” he said, half understandingly; ”she didn't do it.”
”I don't think she did!” Dorcas was irritated at his bewilderment. ”But I tell you the detectives think so!”
”Oh, Dork, what awful rot! Dear child, you must keep out of this affair.
It makes you crazy.”
”I'm not crazy! But you're blind. I tell you, Rick, the detectives _do_ suspect Miss Prall,--I heard them tell mother so,--and you _must_ wake up and look into things.”
”I should say so!” Bates seemed to get awake all at once. ”You heard this, Dorcas? I'm glad you told me. Go home, dear, and I'll look up Gibbs or Corson at once!”
CHAPTER XII
One Woman and Another
Bates' search for Gibbs or Corson resulted in finding the former in the rooms of the late Sir Herbert Binney. Peters was also there, packing up the personal effects of the dead man preparatory to vacating the apartment.
As sole heir, Bates was in authority regarding these effects, but he had paid little attention to them beyond giving orders to have them packed and stored for the present.
”Thought I'd dig around a bit,” Gibbs vouchsafed, ”but there's no indicative evidence that I can find. No papers of an incriminating sort, no sign of any special woman friend--or feminine enemy, for that matter.”
”Never mind generalities or suppositions. Look here, Mr Gibbs, what about my aunt's connection with this matter?”
Gibbs looked up quickly. ”Just what do you mean by that?”
”Only that I've heard that you are considering the possibility of her being implicated. Are you?”
”I'm considering any possibility I can find to consider. Yes, since you ask me, I am looking into the question of your aunt's connection with the case. I know you want me to be frank.”
”I do. Have you any real evidence to work on?”
”Only talk. Only somewhat vague reports that I have yet to investigate.”
”Reports, no doubt, from Mrs Everett, my aunt's longtime foe.”
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