‘Yeah, one to a call-box number. What of it?’
Mifflin said in his slow, heavy voice, ‘He could have been told during the day to call that number tonight, and got the warning that way.’
Brandon looked over his shoulder as if he wasn’t aware until now that Mifflin was in the room. Although he relied on Mifflin’s brains, he always acted as if Mifflin had no business to be on the Force.
‘Maybe,’ he said, ‘or Malloy could be lying.’ He looked at me, showing his small even teeth. ‘Are you?’
‘No.’
Tell me, why didn’t Dedrick call the police instead of you?’
I had an answer to that one, but I didn’t think he would like it. Instead, I said, ‘He wasn’t sure someone wasn’t pulling his leg. Probably he was anxious not to make a fool of himself.’
‘Well, go on. Tell me more,’ Brandon said, setting fire to the cigar. He rolled it around between his thin lips and stared heavily at me.
‘While he was talking, there was a sudden silence on the line. I called to him, but he didn’t answer. I could hear him breathing over the line, then he hung up.’
‘And that’s when you should have called Headquarters,’ Brandon snarled. ‘You should have known something was wrong.’
‘I thought maybe his chauffeur had come in, and Dedrick didn’t want him to hear what he was saying. I’m not all that crazy to mix up a man like Dedrick with the police without his sayso.’
Brandon scowled at me and flicked ash off his cigar.
‘You’d talk yourself out of a coffin,’ he said sourly. ‘Well, go on. You came out here and found Souki, That right?’
‘Souki? Is that the chauffeur’s name?’
‘According to the letters he had in his pocket, it’s his name. Did you see anyone on your way up; any car?’
‘No. As soon as we found the body I told Kerman to ‘phone your people. Before he could do so this girl arrived.’
Brandon pulled at his thick nose.
‘Yeah, now about this girl: what did she call herself?’
‘Mary Jerome.’
‘Yeah; Mary Jerome.’ He allowed a cloud of cigar smoke to obscure his face, went on, ‘She said she was Mrs. Dedrick’s secretary: right?’
‘Yes.’
‘She isn’t staying at the Orchid Hotel.’
I didn’t say anything.
‘Did she strike you as the secretary type?’
‘No.’
‘Do you think she had anything to do with Dedrick’s kidnapping?’
‘I doubt it. She seemed genuinely startled when I told her. And, besides, why did she come back here after Dedrick had been taken away if she knew?’
‘That’s right, Malloy,’ Brandon said, and gave me a foxy smile. ‘You’re on the right lines. She seemed upset, uh?’
‘That’s right.’
He sat farther down in the chair, stared up at the ceiling and rolled thoughts around in his mind. After a while, he said, ‘Now, look, Malloy, I want you to get this straight. When the Press are told about this snatch there’s going to be a lot of publicity and excitement. Dedrick’s wife is an important woman. She’s more than that: she’s a household name. And another thing, she’s got a lot of powerful friends. You and I could step off with the wrong foot if we’re not very careful. I’m going to be careful, and you’re going to do what you’re told.’
I looked at him and he looked at me.
‘It’s my bet this Jerome girl is Dedrick’sa mistress,’ Brandon went on. ‘It sticks out a mile. He comes down here to rent this house. Mrs. Dedrick stays in New York. We don’t know much about this guy, Dedrick. We haven’t had much time since this broke, but we’ve already done a little digging. The wedding was secret. These two met eight weeks ago in Paris, and got married. Old man Marshland, Mrs. Dedrick’s father, wasn’t told until the two of them arrived at his house in New York as man and wife. I don’t know why the marriage was secret unless Dedrick isn’t anything to shout about, and she thought it would be better to present him to Marshland as her husband and not as her husband-to-be. I don’t know, and it’s not my business. But it looks as if Dedrick was playing along with another woman, and this woman is Mary Jerome. It is pretty obviously they intended to spend the night together here, only Dedrick got kidnapped before he could stop her turning up. The facts fit together. You can see why she didn’t want to be questioned by the police, so she pulled a gun on you and cleared off before we turned up, and I don’t mind telling you, I’m glad she did clear off.’
He waited to see if I had anything to say, but I hadn’t. I thought it was likely he was right. The facts, as he had said, fitted together.
That’s why I wanted to have this little talk with you, Malloy,’ he went on, his cold eyes on my face. ‘Dedrick’s been kidnapped. Okay, that’s something we can do something about, but the other thing isn’t our business. You’re not to say a word about Mary Jerome, if you do, you’ll be sorry. I’ll take you both in as material witnesses and my boys will give you a working over every day you’re with us. I promise you that if any information gets into the Press about this woman. I’m not going to have any muck-raking in this case. Mrs. Dedrick is going to receive every possible consideration from me. It’s bad enough for her to lose her husband this way, but no one is to know her husband was cheating on her. Understand?’
I thought of Mrs. Dedrick’s possible powerful friends. Probably the Governor, who could crack Brandon on her say-so. He wasn’t looking after her interests or considering her feelings, he was safeguarding himself.
‘Yeah,’ I said.
‘Okay,’ Brandon said, getting to his feet. ‘Keep your traps shut, or you’ll regret it. You two get out of here, and stay out of here. If you try to horn in on this case, I’ll make you wish you were never born.’
‘That’ll be no new experience,’ Kerman said languidly as he drifted to the door. ‘Most mornings when I wake up I wish just that very thing.’
‘Get out!’ Brandon barked.
We got out.
CHAPTER TWO
I
THE following evening, around ten o’clock, I was trying to decide whether to go to bed early or open a new bottle of Scotch and make a night of it, when the telephone bell rang.
The bell sounded shrill and urgent and startled me, probably because, up to now, the cabin had been as still and as silent as a poor relation at a wedding.
I lifted the receiver.
‘Hello?’
Above the faint humming on the line I could hear a dance band playing a waltz. The high notes of the muted trumpet suggested Glyn Boos’s Serenaders; that would make the call from the Country Club.
‘Mr. Malloy?’ A woman’s voice: pitched low with a little drawl in it. A voice calculated to stimulate male interest. At any rate it stimulated mine.
‘Speaking.’
‘My name is Serena Dedrick. I’m at the Country Club just now. Can you come over? I can offer you a job if
