Inspector? Is it a crime for a gentleman to present a lady with gifts of jewelry? For a moment I thought you meant that Mr. Kirk had stolen them. Heavens!”
There was a moment of thick silence. Then Ellery said swiftly: “Well, Kirk?”
Jo Temple was wrinkling her tiny nose in the most complete puzzlement. She tightened her grip on Donald’s arm. “Donald. Did you give her?those things?”
Kirk stood still, and yet Ellery got the impression that inside he was a caldron of seething little feelings twining about and grappling with one another like a miniature snake enveloping the miniature sons of Laocoon. There was no color whatever in his normally tanned face; it looked washed out, gray.
Almost absently he lifted Jo’s hand from his arm and said, “Yes.” He had not once looked directly at Irene Llewes.
“There!” cried Miss Llewes gaily. “You see? Much ado about nothing. I trust you, Inspector, to return my jewels at once. I’ve heard the most shocking stories about the dishonesty of the American police that?”
“Stop it,” said the Inspector curtly. “Kirk, what is this? You mean to say that you actually made a gift of those expensive pieces to this woman?”
His control collapsed like a stuck balloon. Under the steady eyes of Jo he sank into the nearest chair and buried his face in his hands. His voice came muffled, miserable. “Yes. No . . . . I don’t know what I did.”
“No?” said Irene Llewes swiftly. “Ah, Donald. You’ve such a poor memory,” and without a further word she hurried into her bedroom. The Sergeant, scowling, relaxed at the Inspector’s head-shake. In a moment she was back, bearing a sheet of notepaper. “I’m sure Donald didn’t realize what he was saying, Inspector Queen. I don’t care, as a rule, to display these intimate?things, but then I’ve no choice, have I, Inspector? Donald, shame on you!”
The Inspector stared at her, hard; and then took the note from her fingers and read it aloud:
Dear Irene: I love you. I feel that I can never do enough to convince you of that. Mygems are among my most precious possessions. Isn’t it a proof of my feeling that I have given you the Tiara, which adorned the head of a Grand Duchess of Russia; the Red Brooch, which belonged to Christine?s mother; the jade, which graced the finger of a daughter of a Chinese emperor?all those other pieces which I have had for years? But I give them willingly to the most glamorous woman in the world. Tell me you’ll marry me I
Donald.
Miss Temple quivered perceptibly. “What,” she asked in a cold voice, “is the date on that?that piece of erotica, Inspector Queen?”
“You poor dear,” murmured Miss Llewes. “I know exactly how you feel, darling. But you can see for youself that Donald wrote me that before you came to the city, before he knew you. When he met you . . . “ She shrugged her magnificent bare shoulders. “C’est la guerre, et jry tomba victime. I harbor no ill feeling, I assure you. Certainly my invitation to you and Donald tonight is proof of that?”
“Clumsy,” sneered the Inspector. “If that’s the passionate letter of a lover asking his Juliet to get hitched, I’m a monkey’s uncle. More like a historical essay. It’s a frame, and I’ll have the truth if I have to sweat it out of you?both of you! Kirk, what the devil hold has this woman over you that would make you write a note like this at her dictation?”
“Dictation?” Miss Llewes frowned. “Donald. This is becoming quite stupid. Please tell them. Talk, Donald.” She stamped her foot. “Talk, I say!”
The young man rose and faced the woman squarely for the first time. There was a veil over his eyes. And although he faced her he addressed the Inspector. “I see no point in continuing this farce,” he said in a voice that rasped from his throat. “I’m in for it and I might as well take my medicine. I lied.” Ellery saw a vast relief flood into the tall woman’s eyes, to be shut out instantly by her lids. “I wrote the note and I gave Miss Llewes?or Miss Sewell, if that’s her real name?the jewels. I didn’t know anything about her past. What’s more, I don’t care. This is a private matter and I see no reason why it should be dragged up now in this?this murder investigation, which hasn’t the least connection with my personal affairs.”
“Donald,” choked Jo, “you?you asked her to marry you?”
Miss Llewes was smiling her faintly triumphant smile. “Don’t be silly, now, my dear. What if he did? I’m not exactly the most hideous object in the world? Put it down to an infatuation. I’m sure that’s all it was; wasn’t it, Donald? At any rate, it’s all over now, and you have him. You’re not going to be provincial about this, are you?”
“Such heroinism,” murmured Ellery.
“Donald! You-you admit it?”
“Yes,” he said in the same harsh tone. “I admit it. For God’s sake, how long do I have to submit to this torture?” He did not look at the tiny woman from China. “I’m willing to call it all quits if there’s no publicity of any kind. It’s over now?finished, done. Why don’t you let me alone?”
“I see,” said the Inspector frigidly. “And the jewels, Kirk?”
“I gave them to her.”
Jo stepped quietly in front of the tall woman and said: “Of course you’re just the vilest creature. N-not even Donald could really have been taken in
.. She whirled on the frozen young man. “Don, you know I don’t believe all this?all this mumbo-jumbo! You?I know you so well, darling. You couldn’t have done anything really wrong. Oh, I don’t care about a?a petty affair with a cheap adventuress; it hurts me, I suppose, but . . . What is it, 1 Don? What has she done to you, darling? Can’t you tell me?”
He said in a queer soft voice: “You’ll have to take me as I am, Jo.”
The tall woman kept smiling. But there was something strong and sure and arrogant in her voice. “I think I’ve been most patient. Another woman would have made a scene. As for you, Jo Temple, I’ll overlook that nasty epithet and give you some advice based on very wide experience: Don’t be a silly fool. You have him, and he’s a very nice young man.” Jo ignored her; she still stared at the averted face of the young man. “And now, Inspector, I must insist that you call your dogs off. I won’t have this perpetual persecution. If you persist, I shall leave at once.”
“That’s what you think,” said the Inspector sourly. “But you’re not leaving until I give you permission to. If you make the slightest move to get out of the country, I’ll arrest you on suspicion. It’s a swell word, and it’s vejy elastic. Matter of fact, I could slam you behind bars this minute for being an undesirable character. So you stay put in this apartment of yours, Sewell, and be a nice girl. Don’t try any tricks on me.” He squinted at the silent pair before him. “As for you, Kirk, some day you’re going to be mighty sorry you didn’t make a clean breast of the whole miserable mess you’re in. I don’t know what devilment this woman is up to, but she seems to have hooked you good and proper. Bad business, young man . . . . Come on, boys.”
Ellery sighed, stirring. “But aren’t you going to question Marcella Kirk on that little matter of philology?” he murmured.
He was frankly astounded to see wildest alarm leap into Donald Kirk’s haggard eyes. “You let Marcella alone, do you hear?” the young man shouted, livid. “Don’t drag her into this! Let her alone, I tell you!”
Inspector Queen studied him with a coolly sudden renascence of interest. Then he said gently: “So. I was going to say I’d got a bellyful of the lot of you. But on reconsideration I can stand a little more. Thomas, get Miss Marcella Kirk and her father in here!”
Donald sprang like a released missile toward the door as Velie turned to open it, catching the Sergeant wholly by surprise and shoving him roughly aside. He stood trembling but determined before the door. “No, I tell you. Queen, for God’s sake. Don’t let him do it!”
“Why, you cocky little weasel?” the Sergeant began to growl, lunging forward.
“Whoa, Velie,” said Ellery in a drawl. “Why the dramatics, Kirk, old fellow? No one means to hurt your sister. It’s a little misunderstanding that must be cleared up. That’s really all.” He stepped forward and put his arm in friendly fashion about Kirk’s rigid shoulders. “Let Miss Temple take you upstairs, Kirk. You’re sadly in need of a drink and some rest for those jumpy nerves of yours.”
