The Phantom didn’t move for a moment or two. He sat there wondering if his little scheme had flopped, or if Hugh Royal had fallen into the trap but been warned off somehow, before the Phantom could spring it. At any rate, remaining here would be an utter waste of time; and the Phantom had important things to do.
He returned to where he had left his car and drove it to the hotel where Vicki Selden now lived. She wasn’t in, but after a glimpse of the Phantom’s police badge, the desk clerk gave him a master key. The Phantom let himself into Vicki’s single room and spent fifteen minutes checking over her belongings. He had to be very certain about Vicki.
When he finished this task, nothing looked disturbed; but he knew that if Vicki was involved with a murderer and some gyp game, no evidence of it existed in this room. He left the key with the clerk and then drove to the studio building where Hugh Royal maintained his studio. Vicki was just coming out – alone.
The Phantom pulled in to the curb and called her name. She looked startled, seemed ready to start running. Then recognition came, and she smiled warmly. He opened the car door for her, and she got in beside him. The Phantom drove away, entered one of the large public parks, and finally came to a stop in a quiet spot. It was dusk now, getting a trifle chilly. Vicki moved closer to him.
“I don’t want you to think I’ve been following you, Vicki,” the Phantom said, “but you were seen with Hugh Royal in the lobby of the Monarch Hotel a short time ago. You stayed only a minute after Royal received a phone call.”
SHE smiled at him. “Phantom, I’m not holding anything back from you. I want Arthur’s murderer punished as much, or more, than you do. But I have to live too. I’ve nothing left but my career, and for months I tried to get on Park Sunderland’s staff of models. Hugh Royal agreed to help me, and we were to have dinner with Mr. Sunderland tonight. He couldn’t come. That was what the phone call was about.”
“I see. Then you returned with Mr. Royal – to his studio?”
“Yes. He wanted to show me a magazine cover he’d painted of me. We intend showing it to Mr. Sunderland. It may impress him, we hope.”
“And did Mr. Royal make this appointment very quickly, perhaps unexpectedly, so far as you were concerned?”
“Why, yes. I told Hugh – Mr. Royal – where I’m living. He called me and said I must get right over.”
“What time was that, Vicki?”
“About four o’clock, perhaps a little after. He said he could give me only hour, and we were to meet in front of Hotel Monarch. Phantom, do you think Hugh is mixed up in this?”
“I don’t know. Someone seems to directing the whole thing and employing the use of certain gunmen and at least one confidence man. They were after Arthur’s money without any question – and got it, too. Vicki, did Arthur ever talk to you about a man named Dr. Winterly?”
“I think the name did come up.” Vicki frowned. “Isn’t Dr. Winterly, a scientist, an inventor of some kind?”
“Yes. Arthur gave him twenty thousand dollars. Have you any knowledge as to why he turned this amount of money over to Dr. Winterly?”
“Twenty thousand! But, Phantom, that was about all the money Arthur had. Arthur never mentioned that to me.”
“Perhaps,” the Phantom said, “Dr. Winterly will be able to explain it. I’ll take you home now, and I think you’d best remain there. It might be safest.”
She shuddered and linked one arm under the Phantom’s. “Hugh told me how this – this ugly looking man almost killed him. He was trying to find my address in Hugh’s files. You’re right, Phantom. They are after me. But I swear I don’t know a thing. Arthur was very reticent about this whole affair. I can’t help you very much, and if someone tries to make me tell what Arthur told me -”
“Vicki,” the Phantom said, “we take chances in this game. Arthur took one and lost. In order to avenge him we’ve got to stick our necks out a little. Winterly may clear this all up, and you’ll be out of danger by morning. Until then don’t do anything. Just try to relax and get some rest.”
He drove her to the hotel, watched her enter, and then telephoned Steve Huston. He assigned the redheaded reporter to take up a post in the lobby of the hotel and both guard and watch Vicki. The Phantom felt a bit easier about Vicki then. He started driving back to Lake Candle, where the whole network of murder and intrigue began.
The Phantom’s assurance about Vicki might not have been quite so secure if he’d lingered a few more minutes. Long before Steve Huston arrived, Vicki emerged from the hotel, hailed a cab from the taxi line in front of the place, and gave an address. She settled back in the seat, smiling slightly in what seemed to be complete happiness.
CHAPTER XVII
DRIVING at a steady clip, the Phantom Detective reached the north shore of Lake Candle soon after nine o’clock. He could have driven around the lake to Dr. Winterly’s place, but it might be a more revealing trip to go by boat. He parked the car near Sam Ruddy’s boat house. Almost at once the man came out to greet him.
“Oh,” Ruddy grumbled, “it’s you. The New York cop. What do you want now?”
“A boat,” the Phantom said. “On a rental basis. I’ll pay in advance.”
“Dollar and a half an hour gets you a dry boat, mister. Pick out any one you like.”
The Phantom made his selection, gave Ruddy a five dollar bill, and paused as he headed off to the boat.
“Mr. Ruddy, have you seen Dr. Winterly or his man around lately?”
“Both of ’em touring the lake this afternoon in that speed boat of his,” Ruddy declared. “He didn’t come over. Never was a sociable sort; and, anyway, I don’t like that man of his. Can’t trust him. Looks like seven kinds of a thug rolled into one.”
“Nobody been near the Arden place since the murder?”
“Not that I know of. Though it seemed to me that when Dr. Winterly and his man were riding the lake this afternoon, they spent an awful lot of time in that cove near Arden’s place. Time enough for ’em to have gone ashore.”
“Thanks,” the Phantom said. “We’ll see what Winterly has to say about that.”
The Phantom put one oar against the side of the dock, pushed off hard, and dipped both oars. He stopped, after five minutes of rowing, to turn and study his bearings. In the darkness, he had only the lights which came from Dr. Winterly’s place as a guide. He seemed to be in a direct line with his destination.
It was about a twenty minute row across the lake, and when the Phantom estimated that he was about half-way there he heard the faint roar of a motor. It was a fast craft of some kind; and he recalled that Dr. Winterly had a sleek, high speed job, which Sam Ruddy said the doctor had been using only this afternoon.
It was roaring closer and traveling without lights, which fact didn’t give the Phantom much consolation. That fast moving boat could split this muscle-propelled, flat-bottom craft in half. The roar of the engine grew louder; and then, suddenly, a powerful searchlight slashed through the darkness.
It swept in a wide arc, flashed across the Phantom’s boat, and dodged back to center its full flare on the small craft and the man who leaned hard on the oars now.
The oncoming boat seemed to be picking up speed, and it was undoubtedly heading toward the Phantom. He watched it for a few seconds and then reached under his coat for a gun. He plied oars hastily, shot out of the searchlight beam, but the bright finger shifted and enveloped him again. Then he knew they were going to try and run him down.
He couldn’t see who was in the boat. The searchlight blinded him for one thing; but if the craft carried no lights at all, the black night would have been ample protection for its occupants. But that searchlight did help them to spot their target.