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bucks for information, and if he liked to raise the ante she would keep her mouth shut. Mrs.

Salzer had an answer to that. She sent along an ex-gunman who was working at the

sanatorium to reason with her. According to Mrs. S. he got rough and killed her.”

Willet drew in a long, slow breath. He took a drink like a man who needs a drink.

“The family butler, John Stevens, also knew something, or suspected something,” I went

on. “I was persuading him to loosen up when he was kidnapped by six Wops who work for

Sherrill. They got a little tough with him, and he died, but that still makes murder. Two

murders. Now we get to the third. Are you liking this?”

He said in a gritty voice, “Go on.”

“You will remember Nurse Gurney? Mrs. Salzer admits kidnapping her, only, according to

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her, Nurse Gurney fell down the fire escape and broke her neck. Mrs. Salzer hid her

somewhere in the desert. That’s murder, too.”

“This is fantastic.” Willet said. “It’s unbelievable.”

“It’s unbelievable only because of the motive. Here we have two people, Mrs. Salzer and

Sherrill, committing three murders between them, to say nothing of kidnapping Anona

Freedlander and myself, to protect a girl from newspaper publicity. That’s what makes it

unbelievable. I think there’s a lot more to this business than we know about. It seems to me

these two are desperately trying to keep a very lively cat from hopping out of the bag, and I

want to find out what kind of cat it is.”

“It’s not newspaper publicity they’re worrying about,” Willet said. “Look at the money

that’s involved.”

“Yeah, but I still think there’s a strange cat we haven’t found yet. I’m going to hunt for it.

Anyway, I’ll get on. I haven’t finished yet. The punch line comes last. Maureen told me when

she came into her money, Sherrill reverted to type. He turned blackmailer. He said he would

circulate the rumour that because she stole him from Janet, Janet shot her father and killed

herself. But if Maureen bought the Dream Ship for him, he would keep quiet. She bought the

Dream Ship: that’s why she converted the insurance money into bearer bonds. She gave the

bonds to Sherrill. Imagine how the newspapers would scream if it got out that Maureen

Crosby was the backer of a gambling-ship. Wouldn’t that drop the whole of the Crosby

money into the Research Centre’s lap?”

Willet managed to look green without actually turning green.

“She bought the Dream Ship,” he said in a stifled voice.

“That’s what she tells me. She also said she was frightened of Sherrill, and at that dramatic

moment Mr. Sherrill made a personal appearance. He announced he was going to put

Maureen where no one would find her and dispose of me in the same way. I was beginning to

argue with him when someone from behind bent a sap over my head, and I woke up in

Salzer’s sanatorium. We won’t waste time going into what happened there. It’s enough that

my assistant kidded Lessways he was a well-known writer and got himself invited to the

monthly visit to the asylum with the City’s councilmen. He spotted me, and got out and we

took Anona Freedlandcr with us. What we have to find out is whether Sherrill has carried out

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his threat to hide Maureen away. If she doesn’t show up tomorrow, my bet is she’s hidden

away: probably on Sherrill’s ship. But if she does show up, then I’ll be inclined to think she’s

in this business with the rest of them, and she took me to her house so Sherrill could get at

me.”

Willet poured another drink with a hand that wasn’t too steady.

“I don’t believe that’s likely,” he said.

“We’ll see. If Sherrill is holding her, have you any power to stop her money?”

“I haven’t any power over her money at all. All I can do is to advise the other trustees that

she has broken the terms of the will.”

“Who are the other trustees?”

“Mr. Glynn and Mr. Coppley, my chiefs, who are of course, in New York.”

“Should they be consulted?”

“Not at this stage,” he said, and rubbed his jaw. “I’ll be frank with you, Malloy. They

would follow out the terms of the will without hesitation, and without taking into

consideration the girl might be innocent. To my way of thinking the will is over-harsh.

Crosby has stipulated that if Maureen figures in the newspapers the money goes to the

Research Centre. I imagine he got a little tired of her pranks, but he didn’t realize he was

giving an unscrupulous blackmailer a weapon to use against her. And that’s what has

probably happened.”

“It’s occurred to you we are covering up three murders?” I said, helping myself to another

drink. All this talk made me dry. “So far Brandon isn’t digging too deep because he’s scared

of the Crosby’s money, but if the facts turn out that Maureen’s hooked up in these murders,

he’ll have to forget about her money and take some action: then you and I will be out on a

limb.”

“We’ve got to give her the benefit of the doubt,” Willet said uneasily. “I’d never forgive

myself if by acting too previously we caused her to lose her money unfairly. How about this