A second man grabbed the purse from her hand. She could hear his fingers expertly rifling through its contents. It snapped shut again, and he moved past her to the car. By the light of the dashboard, she saw his arm reaching in to put the key into the ignition lock. In mounting terror, she watched as he pressed the starter and then, as the engine came to life with a roar, the accelerator.
Every muscle in her tensed to combat the next move of the man holding her. She knew now why the car had been swung around facing the yawning horror of the excavation.
The man at the car door turned on a flashlight. In its beam, she could see him adjusting the small, pebble-like block around the accelerator. The drone of the engine rose to an even more vibrant roar — stayed that way as the man moved back. These were no amateur murderers. Bina knew of the block trick. There would be no way of kicking it out in the split second between the time they tossed her into the car and it went hurtling through that barricade!
She didn’t wait for her captor to make the first move. In a convulsion of terror, she struggled frantically to free herself. But his arms clamped like steel bands around her, cutting off her breath. He began to drag her... and the old vertigo was back, making it seem as though he were moving her away from the car instead of toward it!
Dimly she saw the man at the car make his final move. One hand on the brake button, one on the gear. Then everything happened together. He leaped back — and the car shot ahead, plunging, with a splintering sound, through the barricade.
For one terrible instant it tilted in midair. Then, with engine roaring into a strange death crescendo, it left the ground behind, and followed the curving arc of its lights until everything was swallowed in the sudden, sickening crash from the depths of the excavation!
The steel-firm arms around her dropped away. The words of her captor were no longer a. mere rumble against her, but a voice that she instantly recognized. She swung around with a startled moan. His hand closed on her shoulder.
“You all right, Baby?”
She whispered back dizzily, “Yes, dad. But—”
“Up those stairs fast then. And quiet. It would be a shame if we’ve wrecked that car for nothing!”
The other man was Sergeant Ames. He said tersely, “Okay.”
Stealthily but swiftly they felt their way up the narrow, steep stairs, and across the service porch to the empty kitchen.
Sergeant Ames turned a warning glance at them from his post by the partially open dining room door. He gave Lefty a go-ahead nod. Cautiously, they crossed the kitchen to listen at his shoulder to a series of faint clicks. Someone was dialing the phone in the front hall.
Joe Ames exchanged a silent look with Lefty, then edged noiselessly through the door into the darkened dining room. Bina and Lefty followed, as Toto’s excited voice shrilled from the front hall.
“Plice? I make report, please! Ac-cident! Bad ac-cident! Terrible! Lady killed! Come, please!”
He gave the address in a dithering singsong, and hung up with a last plea for haste.
Bina glanced at Lefty, then Joe. They were making no move to go on, just waiting tensely.
Now Marge’s emotion-charged voice relaxed them. “Well done, Boy. Get down there and check now, before the crowd—”
The ringing phone cut her short. “Wait a minute,” she called to the houseboy. They heard the click of a lifted receiver. “Hello?” Marge’s voice changed to a frantic wail. “Oh, Jerry! Darling! It’s happened! It was horrible! Really horrible!”
Bina’s knees buckled. Lefty’s strong arm went around her, supporting her, but his fingers tightening on her wrist warned her to be silent.
Marge’s voice went on determinedly. It had become a little less hysterical. “Don’t feel too badly, darling! She was working for the cops. That’s why she married you — she told me! Isn’t that gruesome? Said she had it all sewed up — you and Lorraine!”
Bina’s strength returned in a sudden hot rush of protest that drowned all reason. “That’s a lie, Marge Norris!” she screamed.
Instantly, all was commotion. Lefty’s arm dropped from around her. He and Joe Ames were stiffly alert as Toto raced around the corner of the hall, his round face blanched with fear. Marge was right behind him.
Lefty’s voice broke the heavy silence. There was a droll edge to his curt tones. “Touching, Mrs. Norris. Sounded real touching.”
Toto’s arm made a lightning movement. Joe Ames was on him in one fast lunge. He slammed him back against the wall, and gripped his wrist, twisting it until he cried out. A knife went clattering to the floor.
Lefty said, “You may as well carry on through, Baby. Frisk her. You know just how to go about it.”
Miserably, Bina stumbled forward. So Lefty knew she had been playing cops and robbers, too. She ran light searching hands down over Marge’s dress. Words came back to her from their old, childhood games. “No hidden weapons, Chief.”
Marge had recovered her breath and temper. “Well, isn’t this cozy!” she flared.
“As soon as Jerry shows,” Lefty said coldly, “we’ll go down to the station.”
There was a screaming gasp. Joe Ames had grabbed Toto in a sudden attempt at flight.
“Get hold of yourself, Toto,” Marge glowered at him. “There’s no reason you should be scared of a cop.”
“Not even if the jade pieces came from his watch charm?” Lefty asked blandly.
“No! No!” Toto shrilled. “I no have watch charm!”
“The cleaning woman remembered different today,” Lefty said. “She saw it on your bureau — along with all those stubs from the Caliente tracks.”
A hissing gasp of dismay was draining the last color from Toto’s grey face. He began a singsong of shrill despair. “I no kill Missa Crevellin... I no plant the jade on Missa Bina...!”
“It was your afternoon off the day Mrs. Crevellin died. Why did you sneak back in?”
“Missa, Norris, she pay me to call for time downstairs.”
“To call for time—” Lefty’s frown broke into an expression of shocked admiration. “My God, that’s it!”
He wasn’t making any more sense than Toto was, Bina thought dazedly. “What’s it?” she demanded.
“Why the phone company swore there’d been no receiver off the hook. We knew Clarissa’s fall could have caused her death. But there were things that added up to fear. She’d dropped one slipper, her glasses half way across the room. Knocked over a small table in the hall...”
He snapped at Toto harshly, “You scared her, after you’d plugged the downstairs line into the time recording. She wasn’t able to dial out on her own phone, so she tried to make it to the downstairs phone. She stumbled — or her heart wouldn’t take it.”
Abruptly, Toto broke out of his listening trance. “I no scare her!” he screamed. “Missa Norris, she called Missa Crevellin! Say Missa Bina want to marry Missa Jerry. Put something in Missa Crevellin’s medicine—”
Marge’s voice cut in furiously. “Toto, you poor maniac! What an imagination!”
“Did you give Mrs. Crevellin medicine that day, Bina?”
“Of course. I did every day.”
“If you’re cherishing the thought that I killed my closest friend,” Marge whirled on Lefty, “just say so. And you’ll lose your badge. When a police officer makes an absolutely unfounded accusation — he’s heading for trouble.”
Admiration flickered again in Lefty’s eyes as he returned her gaze. “You are a manager, aren’t you, Mrs. Norris?” You weren’t trying to kill Clarissa Crevellin, probably. You were just trying to scare her into getting rid of Bina — after Jerry confided in you that he was falling for Bina. You had to nip that in the bud, didn’t you? Because Jerry Crevellin was the reason you dropped your husband so fast.