She sat with bowed head, trembling a little, and did not answer him. She couldn't explain to him that it had come to her suddenly that the man in the water might have been some woman's husband-some woman who perhaps had found illicit love more exciting and more zestful than the t2imer caresses he could offer her-a man whose name might be John.
It was a bizarre and inexplicable thought, and it made her weep silently as she sat in the boat with bowed head until it came up to the end of a deserted fishing pier.
And Norman saw the tears on her cheeks as he tied up the boat and awkwardly helped her out; and wondered what the hell had got into her, when she broke away from him with a little cry as he tried to comfort her.
He stood and watched her run down the pier to the place where she'd left her car parked when he met her earlier, and then he followed more slowly, giving her plenty of time to drive away from the spot before he reported his discovery to the police. And he had no way in the world of knowing that his affair with Muriel was already ended, and he never did understand why it was that she resolutely refused to speak to him every time he tried to telephone her in the following days.
THIRTEEN: 11:00 PM
When Shayne put the telephone down after Lucy's call, he strode back and forth across the office rumpling his hair angrily. 'Let's try to make a little sense out of all this. Let's see what we know at the moment.'
He stopped and held up one finger for each item as he said it aloud:
'First. The man who told me he was Bert Paulson-who had a wallet with Paulson's identification-isn't Paulson. He doesn't answer the description from Jax, and though he's trying to pose as Paulson, he evidently doesn't know that Nellie's brother has been living with her in Jacksonville all along. Else why would he have bothered with a story about working in Detroit and just coming down two weeks ago in answer to a wire from her?'
He glared at Gentry and Rourke as he frowned at his own question. 'Well, why did he tell me that? Damn it, if he does know about Nellie's trouble in Jax-and he must because he said he hired a private detective to locate her- then he must know she pulled the badger game there with her brother, and it ruins his chance of getting by with impersonating Paulson by adding the Detroit touch. So why do it?'
'You tell us, Mike,' Will Gentry said cheerfully. 'Right now this is your baby from the word go.'
Shayne said, 'All right. That's one thing we know for certain. That he isn't Paulson. Now, let's see what we actually know about Nellie.
'Fact number two. She evidently didn't lie about being frightened in the Hibiscus by some man not her brother. Their two stories agree on that one point-other than the mix-up in relationship. But what about the dead body she claims she saw? Her brother with his throat cut?'
'The body that isn't there any more?' Tim Rourke put in.
'Yeh. But we have proof that she did call down to report a body. At least, someone called down from three- sixty. Oliver Patton backs up that much of her story. Why would anybody do a crazy thing like that if there wasn't a body?'
'I think the crux of the whole matter lies in one word you just used,' said Gentry placidly. 'Crazy. If the girl's off her rocker, there's no use trying to find a reasonable motivation for anything she says or does.'
'But damn it. Will. I don't believe that girl's crazy. Scared and hysterical-sure. But I talked with her for ten minutes. She acted exactly as I'd expect a girl to act who'd been through exactly the harrowing experience she described.'
'You're not a doctor,' said Gentry impatiently. 'I think we better put out a pick-up on both of them, Mike. Sit down and write out the best description you can of both of them. I'll put it on the radio to all cars.'
Shayne shrugged and sat down and drew a sheet of paper toward him. He scribbled swiftly on it for several minutes, then shoved it toward Gentry. Knowing the girl tvas safely parked in Lucy's apartment was his ace-in-the- hole now. He didn't want her picked up for questioning yet, but he didn't mind her description going out on an All Cars because he knew they'd never find her. And he did want the scarred-face man picked up.
Will Gentry read the two descriptions over the intercom, and was about to switch it off when he stiffened and said, 'Yes. Give it to me.'
It was a voice from the Communications Room, and it said, 'Report just came in of a man's body found floating in bay. Throat cut. Ambulance dispatched to pier at Tenth Street to pick up for morgue. Unidentified man in rowboat reported body.'
The three men in Will Gentry's private office sat very silent for a long moment. Then Shayne asked quietly, 'The Hibiscus fronts on the bay, doesn't it?'
'Right on the edge overlooking it,' Rourke said.
Shayne got to his feet and the others followed suit. He said, 'If either three-sixty or three-sixteen face the east-'
Gentry nodded. 'I think it's time we took a look at the Hibiscus. We can go to the morgue from there.'
They went out together, parting at the end of the corridor with Gentry going ahead for his own car, Rourke and Shayne turning out a side door to ride together in the detective's Hudson.
They made it to the Hibiscus in a few minutes, and as Shayne pulled into the curb in front, Gentry's automobile with two uniformed men in the front seat nosed in behind them.
The trio entered the hotel together, and Dick and the bell-captain snapped to attention when they recognized the bulky figure of Miami's Chief of Police.
Dick spoke hurriedly over his shoulder to Evelyn, and as they came up to the desk he said brightly, 'Good evening. Do you want Mr. Patton? He'll be right out.'
Gentry nodded. He asked, 'What third-floor rooms front on the bay? Either three-sixty or three-sixteen?'
'Why, three-sixteen does. Chief. Three-sixty is-'
Gentry nodded, a pleased look on his face. He turned from the desk as the house detective came wheezing around the corner toward them. He said, 'Evening, Ollie,' shaking hands briefly. 'You know Shayne and Tim Rourke, don't you?'
'Sure.' Patton nodded at the reporter and detective. 'Tried to call you a short time ago, Mike. You know, you asked me to keep in touch if anything more came up on the Paulsons?'
'Yeh. What?'
'Her brother was in here asking for her. Big guy with a scar on his face. Just drove in from Jacksonville, he claimed, and she was supposed to be expecting him and he wanted to wait up in her room for her. Funny thing was, he decided he didn't want to wait when I offered to go up and sit it out with him. In fact, he made a funny excuse to beat it-saying he'd be back.'
Gentry said, 'Interesting. Let's go up and have a look at this room where you keep your bodies hidden, Ollie.'
As they went to the elevator in a solid group, Patton said forlornly, 'Hope you don't think I was negligent about not reporting all this crazy stuff, Chief. As a matter of fact, we're not even sure which room the body was supposed to be in. And then when there wasn't any body at all-'
Shayne said flatly, 'It was three-sixteen, Oliver. Miss Paulson explained to me about the mix-up in room numbers. After seeing her brother's body in three-sixteen, she rushed out to find another phone to report it on. Three-sixty was conveniently open and she used the phone in there. When she got back a few minutes later, the body had disappeared.'
'Her brother's body?' Patton asked in puzzlement as they went up. 'But I've just been telling you he was here looking for her.'
'Not her brother,' Gentry said. 'We got a description of him from Jax.'
'He had plenty of identification,' Patton protested. 'I made him sJhow it when he wanted in to her room.'
The elevator stopped and they got out. Shayne said, 'Yeh. He showed me his identification, too.'
As Patton led the way down the dim-lit corridor, he said thoughtfully, 'Maybe that begins to add up then.
