I PUT the car in the garage at home and opened the back door. A cluster of anxious faces greeted me. Mother, Vangie, Marian, and Brett all threw questions at me.
That was all I needed.
I’m still apologizing for the things I said that morning but, at the moment, the sight of them and the sound of their yapping was too much for me.
I called them assorted and fancy damn fools, refused to answer any questions, and stalked to the phone alcove to call Dennis. I knew it was the hell of a time to awaken anyone but I had no intention of going to work at any 8:30 and I wanted to give him the story.
Rudely awakened, he started yowling like a sore bear, and set off another explosion of temper.
“All right dammit! If that’s the way you feel about it you can go to hell! It may not mean a thing to you that I almost got my head caved in tonight. But it’s my head and it means plenty to me! I’m through. I’m quitting. No job in the world is worth the trouble—not to mention the danger—I’ve been through tonight!”
I slammed down the phone and had my foot on the second floor landing when the phone bell shrilled.
“If that’s Dennis tell him I’ve gone to China where it’s nice and quiet!” I called to my mother. “And tell him to mail my check and get the story from the police. And,” I added viciously, “you can tell him he’s welcome to that pint he welched on—he can go soak his head in it!”
I marched to my room, locked the door, and plumped down on the bed. I thought: T’hell with it. I’m through with the whole kit and kaboodle. I’m going to bed and to sleep.
I kicked off my shoes, took off my hose, and removed my jacket. I’d just started to get out of my skirt when someone rapped on the door.
“I’m not home!” I called out.
“It’s me,” said my youngest sister, without regard for grammar.
“Well, go away,” I answered.
“Please, Margaret! I’ve got to see you!”
Something urgent in her tone propelled me to the door. I opened up and she slipped in, her pointed little face drawn and haggard, big blue eyes filled with tears and trouble.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “Can’t it wait until later?”
A burst of tears answered my question.
“Oh, Lord!” I exclaimed wearily. “Now what? All right, tell me.”
“Margaret,” she choked through tears, “Margaret, she killed Ned! I know she did. I heard her threaten him!”
“I don’t give a damn who killed him,” I said brutally. “He’s dead and good riddance to him. He was no good and what the hell are you bawling about?”
She backed off, a hand over her mouth, eyes stricken and staring at me as though I were some kind of a monster.
I thought: Very dramatic pose—and grew annoyed with her.
“I never thought my own sister would refuse to listen to me; would speak so about the man I loved!” Her voice throbbed huskily.
“You can stow the melodrama!” The words gritted between my teeth. “I’ve had enough real drama today to last me for a lifetime. I don’t mean to take any nonsense from you. Ned McGowan probably deserved what he got and you can be grateful the cops aren’t suspecting you of his murder. As far as I’m concerned I hope whoever did it gets away with it! Now beat it!”
She backed off a step, eyes wide and accusing.
“How can you be so cold-blooded?” Her eyes narrowed speculatively. “Or is it possible you were the one I heard threaten him?”
I actually heard the last thread of my patience snap. I grabbed her and started shaking her. A moment or two later Brett was holding me while Mother held onto Vangie.
I jerked away and felt the sides of my neck where she had used her too-long-for-good-taste nails on me. The scratches stung and over the sound of voices I could hear the phone ringing. Dennis, I supposed. Let him ring.
I gathered the raveled threads of my nerves together and faced my family. “Get that hellion out of here!” I snarled. “I can’t take any more. So get out, all of you, and let me go to bed.”
Brett took Vangie from Mother and half-carried, half-dragged her out of the room. Mother lingered, a question in her eyes.
“No!” I said tartly. “Positively no! I’ll tell you nothing and I’m not home to anyone until I get some rest. Then I’ll be able to cope with people again.”
She left and quiet settled over the room. But Vangie’s muffled sobbing was like a troublesome conscience. I resisted the impulse to go comfort her.
“Damn fool kid!” I muttered. “I suppose I shouldn’t have jumped her like that, but, good God! I’ve had enough!”
I got out of the rest of my clothes and too tired to put on a gown, climbed in bed in my birthday suit.
Dawn was sending its gray tones into the room. I stared at the window for a minute, then got up and pulled the shutters closed and piled back in bed. I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep, but my mind refused to obey and continued to race around in scattered thoughts.
My head began to ache again and I felt the back of it. Now the lump felt like a golf ball and was tender to the touch. I snapped on the bed lamp and looked in the night-table drawer for aspirin. There wasn’t any, so I got up and looked in the dresser drawers. None there. I knew there had to be a bottle in the bathroom but I hated to make the effort so I got back in bed. The pounding and throbbing got steadily worse and driven by near desperation I got up, pulled on a robe, and went to the bathroom.
Vangie stood by the basin, shaking and sobbing and holding a bottle of mercury tablets in her hand!
I lunged for her and grabbed the bottle.
“You fool!” I grated. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Give me that poison!” she demanded. “It’s my life isn’t it? I don’t want to live with Ned dead!”
I hauled back and let her have it and she went for me like a wild cat, fighting silently and viciously. But I had twelve pounds the best of her and in the close, panting struggle I soon had her winded. I shoved her aside and emptied the tablets into the commode. Then I turned on her in a rage.
“What the hell would your death solve?” I demanded. “Do you want to bring shame and disgrace on a decent family by killing yourself over a man who never gave a damn about you?”
She sneered at me. “Now who’s being melodramatic? What do you know of my affair with Ned?”
“I know he was going to marry another girl—not you!” I exclaimed vehemently. “Just wait until Mother hears about this little stunt!”
“You wouldn’t dare tell her!”
“Oh wouldn’t I though! Just wait!”
“She’ll be wild!”
“What do you think she’d have been if you’d managed to swallow that stuff? Tame?”
The fight went out of her like air out of a leaky tire.
“I must have been crazy. I didn’t think of that. Please, Margaret, don’t tell Mama on me.”
She was my kid sister again. I took her cold hand and held it in mine.
“Look, baby, tell we what this is all about. I knew you had a crush on Ned but I thought that was all over. It seems I was wrong.”
Several seconds dragged by before she spoke. Then, “Let’s go in your room,” she said in a small, tense voice.
I sat on the bed and pulled her down beside me, but she slid off and crumpled at my knees—sobbing uncontrollably.
“Why,” I inquired of the furniture, “must things like this happen to me?”
At last she quieted down and started to talk.
She was anything but over Ned McGowan, and when she heard he was going to marry Vette she was wild with jealousy.
“I went to the hotel last night and he wasn’t home,” she sobbed.
“Last night? But he was dead then!”
“I mean night before last,” she whimpered. “He wasn’t in and I sat on the exit stairs to wait. He had to pass by them and I knew I’d see or hear him go by.”
She described how she’d waited several hours until at last she heard the elevator stop and his voice asking the boy to bring him some cigarettes and the morning paper.
“He walked past the stairs and he was humming. I started to follow him in a few minutes but the elevator stopped again and I ducked back out of sight. A woman got off and went down the hall. I waited until I figured she had time to get in her room, then I came back out and went toward his.”
“Did you go in his room?” I asked tensely. Much depended on the answer.
“No!” She looked at me impatiently. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. That woman was going to Ned’s and she was in there when I got to the door. The transom was open and I could hear every word she said. I heard her tell him she’d kill him.”
“Who was she?”
Vangie shook her head. “I don’t know. I never saw her face.”
“But you heard her voice. You heard them talking. Didn’t he call her name while you were listening?”
“No. He just told her not to be silly, that he wasn’t worth the trouble she’d get into if she killed him.”
“Well, he told the truth that time!” I said bitingly.
I felt Vangie’s withdrawal and went on hurriedly. “What did you do, just stand there?”
“No. I knew the elevator boy was bringing Ned some things and I didn’t want him to catch me listening at the door. I left and walked down four flights and caught the elevator on the sixth floor. Then I walked down St. Charles three blocks and caught a cab.”
“Thank God you had sense enough for that!” I exclaimed. “Who, besides the elevator boy, saw you?”
“I don’t think anyone did. But I was so upset about Ned I didn’t notice.”
“Upset about him marrying Olivette or because a woman threatened to kill him?”
“Well, both. I even thought of calling the police and telling them what I’d heard.”
I didn’t say she might have saved his life if she’d done so. I didn’t really think so. But she might have put the police on a fresher trail if she had called. I didn’t mention that either. She had enough grief without adding self-reproach.
“What time did you get to the hotel?”
“Around 9:30.”
“What time did he come in?”
“It was after 1:00 I know. I got home just a few minutes before you came in. I heard you come upstairs. That was about 2:30.”
“That’s good,” I said, remembering Beton and his screwy ideas. “One more thing. Did the same elevator boy take you upstairs and bring you down?”
“I didn’t notice.”
“No one ever seems to notice bellboys, waiters, and such,” I remarked. “But they have a bad habit of noticing everything. I wish you’d have told me about this sooner.”
“I wanted to call you but I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Well, I was scared Mama might hear me talking.”
“Hmmm. Where did she think you went that night?”
“To a show.”
“A show—” I thought a second, my mind racing in circles. “What shows have you seen this week and did you go alone to them?”
“Loew’s and the Saenger. I went alone to the Saenger.”
“Listen, hon. You went to the Saenger night before last. Understand?”
Her smile was a little grim. “Alibi?”
“In a way. If anyone gets curious your story is that you went to the show, stopped in a drug store, had a soda, and came home. If you knew who that woman was it would be different, but you don’t. The police are going to suspect every woman Ned went out with and I don’t want you mixed up in a nasty scandal.”
She started crying again. “I don’t want to be mixed up in a scandal! But if my story will help find the murderess, I’ll be glad to tell it!”
“You’ll do nothing of the kind!” I said sharply. “Now stop blubbering and go to bed. He’s dead and your bawling won’t bring him back.”
“But it’s awful to know he’s been murdered and I can’t help catch who did it!” she wailed.
“Well, you can’t help. Can you describe the woman at all? How tall she was, the clothes she was wearing—anything?”
She thought a second. “She wore a wide-brimmed hat and a coat with a big fur collar. The coat was black or navy. She was short and plumpish.”
I smiled, remembering her accusing words to me. I’m five-six, in socks.
“That description is about as good as none at all,” I said. “Now go to bed and remember—you went to a show!”
She left and I crawled back into bed, my body one ache of weariness. But there was to be no sleep for me that day. I’d just settled under the covers when the doorbell pealed loudly, then pealed again and went right on howling through the house like a banshee. I cursed heartily and looked at the clock—6:10—it could be Dennis, it was about the time he’d be going in.
The ringing stopped and a grumbling, frightened Bertha rapped at my door and stuck her head in.
“Miss Marg’ret, dey’s two pleecemen wants you. I tole ’em you wuz asleep but dey sez git you up.”
I struggled into a robe, silently cursing all cops. Rudy and Tommy Gross were waiting in the living room.
“How come you ran out on me?” Tommy asked.
“F’crissakes I was dead tired and just before a fit!” I exploded. “I had damn good reason to have fits! And I didn’t run out, I told Rudy I was going home and get some sleep, but,” with heavy disgust, “sleep is what I’m not to be allowed. Was it necessary for you to put your finger on the bell and wake up everyone in the house?”
They ignored the last question.
“I don’t see why you got so rattled and left before I got there,” Tommy said blandly. “You had a gun and Rudy was with you.”
“I wanted to go home,” I snapped. “And you’d have been rattled too if you’d been through a night like I had. When that woman tried to sneak in it was just one thing too many for me.”
“It’s too bad you didn’t shoot her when you had the chance.”
“I don’t go around shooting people!” I retorted. “Besides I didn’t have the chance. She moved too fast and I’m not expert enough to hit a running target.”
“How did you get in that apartment in the first place?” Tommy asked. “The landlady, who lives in the rear, said the gate was kept locked.”
“I got in with some keys I had,” I said sullenly.
His eyebrows arched. “Keys you had! Where did you get them?”
“I took them off the dresser in the hotel room,” I muttered surlily. “So what?”
“So what? A man is murdered in his hotel; a woman is murdered in his apartment; you lift the keys to the apartment from the murdered man’s room and find the woman’s body, getting klunked on the head yourself—and you ask so what! My God, Margaret! You can’t be that dumb!”
“I’m not dumb at all!” I snapped. “I took them because I was curious. I couldn’t figure what Ned was doing with them and I meant to have a look at them and then put them back. But I forgot to replace them and later, when I found them in my pocket, I decided to have a look at the place. That’s all.”
He shook his head reprovingly. “Playing detective again. Now you’re in the very hell of a jam.”
“I don’t see why. I told you what happened.”
“Sure—and I believe you. But there are others who won’t.”
I gaped at him. “What do you mean?”
“The D.A. will be damn curious, for one. Les Beton won’t hesitate to point out that you have no alibi for night before last or last night.”
“Is that so?” I asked angrily. “Well, I do have an alibi for night before last! My kid sister heard me come in and knows what time it was. And I’ve a lump on my head that is alibi enough for last night! Besides, why try to pass the buck to Beton? It looks to me like you’re the one who’s trying to make a case against me!”
“You know better than that, Margaret. I’m just trying to show you how you have placed yourself in a spot to be suspected of these murders.”
“I suppose I bopped myself on the back of my head with a poker!”
“You could have. Lots of killers wound themselves to divert suspicion.”
I stared at him as if he’d gone crazy.
“In books and movies, maybe,” I sneered.
“No, ma’am. In life. It’s an old dodge.”
“Well,” I shrugged irritably, “I didn’t. Nor did I poison Ned McGowan and bash in Miss Cheng’s head. And I don’t see that this line of reasoning is helping to find the real killer!”
“It isn’t.” He looked at his watch. “But you’ll have to tell this whole tale to the D.A., so you better get dressed and come down with us now. The hotel people are coming in before the inquest to testify. As the person who found Miss Cheng’s body your testimony is important. Damn! I wish you’d left those keys alone!”
“So do I!” Rudy exclaimed fervently.
“What do you guys think I wish?” I asked sarcastically and started for the door.
Tommy grinned at me. “Better wash that blood off your face. Beton would make plenty out of that!”
“I always wash my face in the morning,” I stated tartly and left the room.
I took a warm shower, then let the cold water beat on me, took my time making up my face, and dressed in a blue tweed sports suit. I gazed with disfavor at the bloodstained jacket of my new beige wool outfit, threw it in the corner, and went back downstairs. I found the whole family and the cops drinking coffee in the dining room.
Bertha poured me a cup, rolling her eyes and slopping the coffee into the saucer.
“What’s the matter with you?” I asked. “You haven’t been out killing anyone, have you?”
She walled her eyes at me. “Lawd no, Miss Marg’ret! I ain’t nevah kilt a livin’ soul!”
We all laughed and the tension lifted.
I drank coffee, keeping a wary eye on Vangie who looked like she was wound on a spool and might unwind any second. I didn’t want her breaking down and confessing. One suspect in the family was enough.
Tommy finished his coffee and sighed. “I sure wish you’d have sent for me when you found the nurse’s body, instead of going to headquarters.”
Vangie leaned tensely forward. “Nurse’s body? What nurse?”
I gave her a warning look. “Miss Cheng. I didn’t want to upset you but I found her body last night. She’d had her head smashed in with a poker in a building where Ned had a lab.”
“The dirty killer!” Brett jumped to his feet. ’Why Miss Cheng?”
Tommy shrugged. “She must have caught the murderer in the place, so she had to be silenced. Your sister came in a few minutes later and got hit over the head too.”
Four pairs of eyes turned on me in surprise.
“Why, Margaret! You didn’t tell us about that!” Mother looked baffled.
“I was going to tell you the whole story after I’d rested,” I said. “But I haven’t rested and now it will just have to wait.”
Vangie stared at me, panic in her look. I finished my coffee hastily.
“Come on, Tommy, let’s get going.”
He stood up. “Okay. You want to ride with us or take your car?”
“I’ll take my car. That way I can leave as soon as I’m through.”
We drove off, Rudy riding with his brother. I smiled, thinking I wasn’t much shakes as a suspect if they let me go on my own. But I realized, with a slight sense of quaking, that I was in a tough spot. I decided I’d better call Dennis as soon as I reached a phone. There are times when a fellow needs a friend and the paper was an important one. Although Dennis might tell me I’d quit and to hell with me. I grinned wryly at the thought.
I drove into the police parking lot and braked right behind Tommy. We went up the steps arm in arm, the three of us.
“By the way, did you ever talk to the Merceron girls?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yep. Last night and again this morning while you were dressing. Your brother is going to bring them down this morning. After we get all the statements we’ll really get to work. This is going to be a tough one to crack.”
“It seems so,” I agreed. “One thing sure—when this is over I promise never to stick my nose into another murder. I’m through playing with fire.”
“I hope you mean that.” He smiled, then frowned. “If you’d have left those keys alone you’d have been okay. You should know better than to touch anything at the scene of a murder.”
“I didn’t know it was murder then!” I retorted, nettled. Then I remembered the notes and letters I’d taken from the apartment. I let go of Rudy’s arm and pulled Tommy to one side in the hall. I’d better come clean!
“Er, er, Tommy! There’s something else you should know about. I took some other stuff—from the apartment.”
“Now what?”
“Papers. Notes and letters. They were in the drawer where I found the gun. I don’t know why I lifted them.”
“I don’t either.” He sighed resignedly. “Well, where are they?”
“Right in my purse,” I said, and added virtuously, “I didn’t read the letters but the notes were made out to Mrs. Dellman for sixty-eight grand.”
“Sixty-eight grand!” He whistled. “Well, hand them over.”
“The notes?”
“And the letters. I could wring your neck, damn little meddler!”
I handed them over without another word. By that move I involved Vangie and got myself in deeper.
Tommy gave them to Rudy. “Here. You took these from that chest. I’ll tell you when to turn them in.”
We went on up to the district attorney’s office. No one was there and I looked at my watch. 7:35. Tommy went out, saying he was going to look in on the coroner and find out how the inquest preparations were coming along. I picked up the phone and called Dennis.
“Where in hell are you?” Dennis greeted me amiably. “I called and your mother said you’d left with two policemen. Are you coming in or not?”
“I’m not due in until 8:30,” I snapped. “Right now I’m in the D.A’s office and I have to wait for him.”
“Why? Oh, t’hell with him! You come in! Why didn’t you tell me last night that you’d found that Chinese girl’s body?”
“I tried to but you wouldn’t listen. You kept screaming at me.”
“Never mind. Just come in and make it snappy.”
“I can’t,” I reiterated.
“What’s stopping you?”
“The police,” I said bluntly.