The Chinese Orange Mystery

“He must have looked the Llewes wench up quietly and discovered something about her the very afternoon of the murder. I suspect his source of information may have been identical with Velie’s¯the woman’s maid. At any rate, he felt that he had to warn Kirk against her at the earliest opportunity¯ergo, the note. Yes, yes, I’m sure that’s it.”

“Sounds plausible,” admitted the Inspector grudgingly.

“Shows you that it never pays to use strong-arm methods, father dear. You’ve been reading too much Hammett. I’ve always said that if there’s one class who should be excluded from the reading of contemporary blood-and-thunder of the so-called realistic school of fiction it’s our worthy police force. Breeds shocking illusions of grandeur . . . . Where was I? Yes; here we’ve solved a mystery without so much as a suspicion in the minds of the principals that we know where the body is¯er¯buried.”

“Don’t you think Donald Kirk has discovered his note from Macgowan is missing?” grinned the Inspector.

Ellery murmured: “I doubt it. He was in a terrific stew that night. And even if he has discovered it’s missing, he must think he lost it somewhere. Certainly he doesn’t suspect me of burglarious methods. That’s one advantage of looking scholarly.”

“He hasn’t acted funny towards you?”

“That’s precisely why I made that really scintillant assertion.”

“Hmm.” The Inspector watched Ellery struggle into his coat. “I have the funny notion something’s due to break on this case.”

“Baggage?”

“You wait,” said the Inspector slyly, “and see.”

* * *

Ellery had not long to wait. He was lounging comfortably before his fire that evening reading aloud to Djuna¯who looked fiercely bored¯the Mock Turtle’s oration when the Inspector burst into their apartment.

“Ell What d’ye think?” The old gentleman flung his hat down and thrust his jaw at Ellery.

Ellery put the book down and Djuna, with a huge sigh of relief, slipped away. “It’s broken?”

“It’s broken. Busted wide open, my son. Wide open!” The Inspector strutted up and down in his coat like some latter-day Napoleon. “We searched the Sewell woman’s rooms at the Chancellor this afternoon.”

“Do tell!”

“I’m giving it to you. She was out somewhere and we worked fast. What d’ye think we found?”

“I haven’t the remotest idea.”

“Jewelry!”

“Ah.”

The Inspector sneezed cheerfully over his snuff. “Well, it was a plain figure. Trench cables that the woman’s got a yen for jewels; and here we find a slough of the stuff hidden in her apartment. Damned good stuff, too; no junk. So we assumed it wasn’t hers and I sent the boys hot on the trail to try and trace the ice. Know what we found?”

Ellery sighed. “I suppose this is vengeance. Am I as exasperating to you at times as you are to me now? No I WTiat?”

“We hit the regular jewelry trade and found that the ice is unique. Old pieces in rare settings with histories attached to ‘em. Collectors’ items.”

“Good lord!” exclaimed Ellery. “Don’t tell me the fool stole them!”

“As to that,” murmured the Inspector, “I wouldn’t know, y’see. But one thing I do know.” He yanked at Ellery’s lapel. “Get out of that chair; we’re going places. One thing I do know . . . . The trade to a man told us who’s supposed to own that stuff. Matter of common knowledge, they said.”

“Not¯” Ellery began slowly.

“Sure. To a piece, they all come from the jewelry-collection of Donald Kirk!”

Chapter 12. A GIFT OF GEMS

Sergeant Velie, who had been hurriedly superseded in his direction of the search for the dead man’s baggage in order that he might be at hand for the raid on Irene Llewes’s apartment, reported to the Inspector in the lobby of the Chancellor.

“Clear coast, Chief. I had a man¯Johnson¯in the dame’s apartment after the raid dressed up as a hotel porter fixin’ the plumbing. The maid’s okay, too. She didn’t come in from her afternoon off till just before six.”

“She doesn’t know what happened?” asked the Inspector sharplv.

“Not her.”

“How about Irene?”

“She trots in, Johnson says, around half-past six and dressed in doodads, like she’s goin’ on a party. She never even looked for the ice in the wall-safe. Her own stuff¯in her jewel-box in the vanity¯she did look at, though. Wore some of it.”

“Did she put her wrap on when she left her rooms?” demanded Ellery.

The Sergeant grinned. “But she didn’t leave ‘em, Mr. Queen.”

“Is she alone?”

“Not so you could notice it. She’s throwin’ a party for the Kirk crowd¯cocktail party, Johnson reports he heard her say. They’re all up there now.”

“Hmm,” said the Inspector. “Well, one place is as good as another. Before we tackle her, though, I want to go up to the twenty-second.”

“Now why on earth,” said Ellery, “do you want to do that?”

“Just a notion.”

The elevator was jammed and they were crushed against the rear bronze wall. The Inspector whispered: “If this Marcella girl’s at the shindig, I’ll kill two birds with one stone and pump her about those books of her old man’s. I don’t know why you told me to lay off the other day.”