The D.A. Breaks an Egg

Sylvia thought that over, nodded. “It all fits all right, Doug. I suppose Mosher grabbed Rose Furman’s purse right after he’d stabbed her?”

“That’s right. Remember Carr kept asking if we’d found her purse. Carr must have known Mosher had taken the purse, and he was questioning us about it to see if we realized the object of the theft — not money but to get car keys, apartment keys, and then leave the purse planted in the dead woman’s apartment so as to give an air of authenticity to the typed documents.

“I don’t think Carr knew Mosher was going to kill Rose Furman, but Carr went down there to the park to meet Moana and Daphne. It’s a pretty good chance he stumbled on the body, probably after Moana had driven back home.”

“Then you’re going to get Carr?”

“Darned if I know, Sylvia. But we’re going to give him a chase. So far our case against him is shrewd conjecture, and that’s not evidence. But we’re trying to get the evidence dug up so we can use it.”

“It seems to me you have him cornered, Doug. If Mosher should confess...”

Selby interrupted. “It isn’t that simple, Sylvia. As nearly as we can put the facts together, Carr went tearing off toward Los Angeles as soon as we removed Daphne Arcola from his machine. But he was too smart to try racing with us. He did the same thing we did.”

“Telephoned?”

Selby nodded. “Evidence shows that Barton Mosher received a mysterious and very urgent telephone call. Immediately after receiving that, he left his hotel and thereupon he seems to have vanished from the face of the earth.”

“But you can find him, can’t you, Doug? Won’t the...”

Selby said, “We’ll probably get him, but when we do get him we’ll have lost our most valuable weapon.”

“What?”

“Surprise.”

“And how about Daphne Arcola?”

“Daphne Arcola,” Selby said, “has changed her mind again and has decided to sit tight. She even denies having made the confession she did make on the road in. She’s now claiming we fabricated that. That’s going to make you an important witness, Sylvia. I want you to write down exactly what your recollection is of her...”

“You dope!” Sylvia interrupted. “What do you think I was doing while she was talking?”

“You mean you took it down?” Selby asked.

“Every word of it,” she said.

A smile spread over Selby’s face. “Sylvia, you’re a wonder, a darling.”

Her eyes were troubled. “You mean as a witness?” she said.

“As a woman — not a witness.”

There was a breathless catch to her laughter. “I’m glad you found that out, Doug.”

“What?”

“That I’m a woman.”

“I’ve known it for quite a little while,” he told her, “only I’ve been too busy to talk about it. And now, Sylvia, if you’ll just turn the wheel of this automobile directly around, we’ll head back to Los Angeles and if we can find music and...”

“Oh, Doug, I’d love to, but you know we can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Well, there’s the paper, for one thing, and this case for another.”

Selby said, “You’ve already phoned your story to your paper and, thanks to Rex Brandon, I have been elected to stay in Los Angeles and direct the search for Mosher at least for the next twenty-four hours. And we have every reason to believe we’ll catch him before then. And of course you’ll want to cover that story. It’ll be something we’ll have to wait out, so we may as well wait it out where there’s dance music and good food. Good old Rex fixed it up with the sheriff’s office so that I am to be quote available unquote.”

She thought that over for a moment, then turned the wheel of her car. “All right, Doug,” she said, “under the circumstances I guess I’d better be quote available unquote.”