“He just wanted to get in!” Cassie said. “That’s what he wanted— Bill, what time did he come? When was he here?”
Leonidas answered her without any hesitation. He had been making mental timetables.
“He came first at ten-thirty. Then about eleven-fifteen, and the last time, around a quarter to twelve.”
“Peters must have seen him, then,” Cassie said. “If he came before noon, Peters must have seen him! Cuff, will Peters be in Car Fifteen now?”
Cuff glanced at the kitchen clock.
“Naw. He’s off at five. But I can call him, if you want to find something out—”
“Wait,” Leonidas said as Cuff reached for the red phone. “You’ve opened up a new train of thought, Cassie. Peters must be in a position to tell us a great deal, if he was in Car Fifteen from twelve until quarter past two. From his post on the corner, he could have seen—”
“No,” Cassie shook her head. “I thought of Peters right away, Bill. But he won’t be able to help us a single bit. You see, from noon till one-thirty, the cars have to go to the schools and look after the children, coming and going from their lunch. Rutherford simply boils about it, because he says it’s just asking for noontime holdups, and the Retail Merchants say so, too. But the Safety Council wanted it, and got the Parent-Teachers Association to back them up, and there are more parents and teachers than merchants. And Rutherford can’t say anything after those hideous pictures!”
“Aw, the one of me wasn’t so worse,” Cuff said. “Margie thought it was good only for around the mouth. She cut out the kid with a pair of shears I was holding the hand of, and put it in a frame.”
“Er—the hand?” Leonidas asked.
“No, me. They had my name on it, too, Bill. It said, ‘Officer Cornelius X. Murray guards Dalton kiddies from traffic—’” he paused.
“Hazards,” Cassie said. “Or perils. Or something. Anyway, the parents and teachers thought it was fine that Dalton took such good care of the kiddies, so Rutherford can’t say anything till there’s a good noon holdup. Hm. I must remember about that.”
“Say,” Cuff said, “maybe we—”
“No!” Leonidas said. “You two do not engineer any noon holdups. Now, it is definitely a generally known fact that the prowl cars spend the midday interval in the vicinity of the schools?”
“Heavens, yes,” Cassie said. “Mrs. Gibson next door to me practically has to go without lunch. Her Maggie used to refuse point-blank to get the children at noon, and now she drops everything and rushes off at eleven-thirty to get them. The school yards simply crawl with cooks and nursemaids. Some fine noon, of course, while the prowl-car men are leading kiddies across streets by the hand, something terrible will happen— Bill, that’s what you’re driving at, isn’t it? Someone knew that Car Fifteen usually parked around the corner, so they just waited till they knew it wouldn’t be there!”
Leonidas nodded.
“Personally,” he said, “if I intended to commit a murder, I should try to pick a time when I knew for sure that the prowl car would be busy serving the kiddies. M’yes. I think I should get as much pleasure out of waiting till Colonel Carpenter’s prowl car was gone as I’d get out of using Colonel Carpenter’s pickax.”
“Why, I’ve thought all along that someone was trying to make a fool out of Rutherford!” Cassie said. “But I can’t think who. People like Rutherford. He hasn’t any enemies, has he, Cuff?”
“Show ‘em to me,” Cuff said simply.
“Rossi, perhaps?” Leonidas said.
“Aw, no, Rossi likes the colonel,” Cuff said. “He’s getting up a fund to give the colonel a watch on his birthday. You’re all wrong about Rossi, Mrs. Price. Maybe he’s taken a little cut once in a while, but he likes the colonel. I never once heard Rossi say nothing about the colonel that it wasn’t something good. He thinks the colonel is a fine man.”
Leonidas twirled his pince-nez.
“What about Medora?” he asked.
“No,” Cassie said positively. “When Medora got mad at anyone, she told them so. Only last week, she gave Rutherford some money for the new pistol range he wants and the city won’t spend the money for. I’ll give Medora credit. When she was annoyed about something or at someone, she came right out in the open and said so. Just the way she threatened you.”
“Aunt Medora threatened Bill?” Leslie asked in amazement.
“Yes. She was furious about this house. She didn’t like it. She said she’d run Bill out of town,” Cassie said, “and because Dow was the architect, and her nephew, she got mad at Dow and disinherited him. Didn’t I explain all about that part, dear?”
“You missed that,” Leslie rumpled her curls with a quick gesture. “You—er—you skipped around some, you know.”
Leonidas bit his lip and tried not to smile. He could imagine how Cassie might have summed things up for Leslie’s benefit during that interval while he had entertained the Pussycats in the living room. As a matter of fact, he admired the girl for maintaining her composure. A lesser spirit might well have gone a little berserk.
“Well, dear,” Cassie said, “Dow’s the one who wants to marry you—Lord knows where he is. He ought to be here. Bill, it simply amazes me, the amount we’ve found out without even leaving this house. Someone came here between twelve and two-fifteen, and Medora came with them—she must have, mustn’t she?”
“If you mean that Medora Winthrop must have been alive when she came here, yes,” Leonidas said. “Otherwise, I think we could reasonably assume that the place would have been a shambles.”
“And they knew the police car wouldn’t be here. I don’t like that.” Cassie said. “That smacks of a lot of planning. I don’t like that part.”
“I don’t either,” Leslie said. “What with me walking around in a starving condition most of that time. No one is ever going to believe that. In fact, I don’t think anyone’s going to
