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Sergeant Velie, who had been hurriedly superseded in his direction of the search for the dead man’s baggage in order that he might be at hand for the raid on Irene Llewes’s apartment, reported to the Inspector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.”
“Because I hadn’t quite figured it out,” snapped Ellery.
“Oh, then you know now why she did it?”
“On examination it’s simplicity itself. I was stupid not to have thought of it instantly.”
“Well, why?”
But they had reached the twenty-second floor, and Ellery preceded his father and the Sergeant from the elevator without replying.
Mrs. Shane gulped a frightened, bosom-raising greeting from her desk. But the Inspector ignored her and strode straight to the door of Donald Kirk’s office and opened it without knocking. Sergeant Velie grunted: “Hey, wake up, flattie,” to a uniformed officer who had been drowsing on a chair near the door to the death-room.
Osborne rose from his desk and dropped his stamp-tongs. “Inspector?Mr. Queen! Is anything wrong again?” He was a little pale.
“Yet,” growled the Inspector. “Listen, Osborne. Is there a piece of jewelry in Kirk’s collection known as the Grand Duchess’s Tiara?”
Osborne looked puzzled. “Why, certainly.”
“And one called the Red Brooch?”
“Yes. Why?”
“A beaten-silver lavaLli&re with an emerald pendant?”
“Yes. But what’s happened, Inspector Queen?”
“Don’t you know?”
Osborne looked from the old man’s grim face to Ellery’s, and slowly sank back into his chair. “N-no, sir. I don’t have much to do with Mr. Kirk’s collection of antique jewelry, as he can tell you. He keeps them in a vault at the bank, and only he has access to them.”
“Well,” barked the Inspector, “they’re gone.”
“Gone?” gasped Osborne. He was utterly and sincerely flabbergasted. “The entire collection?”
“Just some choice pieces.”
“Does?does Mr. Kirk know?”
“That,” said the Inspector with a sour smile, “is what I’m going to find out.” He jerked his head at his two companions. “Come on. I just wanted Osborne’s corroboration. Just in case.” He chuckled and started for the door.
“Inspector!” Osborne clutched the sides of his desk. “You’re?you’re not going to question Mr. Kirk now, are you?”
The Inspector stopped short, whirled around, and cocked his head at Osborne with an expression of complete unfriendliness. “And suppose I am, Mister Osborne? What’s it to you?”
“But they’re all?I mean,” said Osborne, licking his pale lips, “Mr. Kirk’s having a little celebration, Inspector. It wouldn’t be nice?”
“Celebration?” The Queens regarded each other. “In the Kirk rooms?”
“No, sir,” said Osborne eagerly. “In Miss Llewes’s suite on the floor below. You see, she invited them all to a cocktail party when she heard that Mr. Kirk had become engaged. So that’s why I?”
“Engaged 1” murmured Ellery. “Will wonders never cease, O Power of Darkness? I take it, Ozzie, that this is a Sino-American alliance?”
“Eh? Oh, yes, sir. Miss Temple. Under the circumstances you couldn’t very well go?”
“The Temple girl, huh?” muttered the Inspector.
“While we’re here,” drawled Ellery. “Ozzie, did you ever hear of a postage stamp?” his eyes swept lazily over the stamp-littered desk?”of Foochow, $1 denomination, ochre and black, with the black erroneously printed on the gum-side of the stamp?”
Osborne sat very still. His weary eyes shifted, and his knuckles became a dirty white. “Why?I can’t?remember any such error,” he muttered.
“Liar,” said Ellery cheerfully. “We know all about it, Ozzie. If I may call you Ozzie . . . .”
“You?know?” said Osborne with difficulty, raising his eyes.
“Oh, certainly. Don Kirk himself told us.”
Osborne took out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead. “I’m sorry, Mr. Queen. I thought?”
“Come on,” snapped the Inspector impatiently. “You, there!” he bellowed at the policeman, who started and went pale. “You see that this man Osborne here doesn’t touch that house ‘phone for five minutes. Be good, Osborne . . . . Well, come on, boys. If there’s any fun we might’s well be in on it, too!”
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