“But you did go to Cap’n Hugo.”
“I went to Cap’n Hugo and told him about the tape recording and about what Nadine felt had happened.”
“And then what?”
“Cap’n Hugo said that he thought the proper thing to do was to let Mrs. Newburn know about that confession.”
“Why?”
“Because Mrs. Newburn would start an investigation, and after the investigation was started Cap’n Hugo could tell about having removed the poison from Nadine’s room and the whole thing could be cleared up, otherwise he was afraid Dr. Denair would preserve her confidence as a professional secret and she’d have that thing weighing on her mind.”
“You detected the distinctive odor of cyanide about those pills?” Mason asked.
“Yes. I unscrewed the top of the bottle and smelled.”
“But you don’t know how many pills were in the bottle?”
“No.”
“Let’s have it straight,” Mason said. “Could you make an estimate?”
“Well, frankly, I didn’t think... I didn’t count.”
Mason looked at him and said, “Locke, you’re lying.”
Abruptly Locke’s lips quivered.
“Go on,” Mason said, “how many pills were in the bottle?”
“Twenty-one,” Locke said.
“That’s better,” Mason told him. “Now I understand why you don’t want to talk with the police.”
“Mr. Mason, I’ll never admit that to the police. I’ll... I’ll lie.”
“You think you will,” Mason told him. “You don’t have any idea of what you’re going up against. You aren’t a good enough liar to convince the police. Your associate will tell the police how many pills were short. He’ll also tell the police that he told you the number of pills that were short. The police won’t believe for a minute that you took that bottle of pills from Cap’n Hugo without counting them. Now did Cap’n Hugo count them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you ever ask him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I... I was afraid to.”
“Exactly,” Mason said. “Now then, the police will break you wide open. They’ll get the truth out of you. And when they get the truth it’ll make a case of cold-blooded, deliberate murder against Nadine Farr. They’ll feel that she had taken four cyanide pills out of that bottle and had them ready to put into Mosher Higley’s chocolate, that she did put them in Mosher Higley’s chocolate and that he died of cyanide poisoning. What did you do with those pills?”
“I drove into a service station, flushed the pills down the toilet, washed out the bottle several times, then put it in the wastepaper container.”
Mason thought over that information.
“I tell you I won’t tell them, Mr. Mason. I... I’d let them—”
“You’re talking to keep your spirits up,” Mason said. “You know damn well that when the party gets rough you can’t hold out on them. You can’t lie well enough. You’re too conscientious a lad and you don’t know about police tactics. They’ll hammer it out of you.”
“All right,” Locke said desperately. “What am I going to do?”
Mason’s face was grim. “Right now,” he said, “I’m damned if I know.”
Chapter Eleven
Mason turned his car into the freeway.
“Where are we going?” Locke asked,
“Just at the moment,” Mason said, “we’re going wherever traffic is the heaviest. The police are looking for you. They’re probably looking for me. I thought that I’d get you and that we’d try to find Nadine before the police found her. Now the main problem is to keep the police from finding you until we work out some method of handling this thing.”
“What method can we work out?” Locke asked.
“If I knew the answer,” Mason said, “we wouldn’t be driving around. I can tell you one thing. If Nadine is guilty of murder she’s going to have to face the facts.”
“She isn’t. Mr. Mason, I can assure you absolutely and positively that she isn’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know Nadine.”
“Because you have faith in her,” Mason said. “That’s your only reason. And the reason you have faith in her is because you’re in love with her.”
“Don’t you feel the same way?”
“Not right now I don’t,” Mason said. “I’m not in love with her... not by a damn sight.”
“Well, we can’t drive around this way all night,” Locke said. “If the police are looking for me they’ll — I tell you, Mr. Mason, I don’t have to tell them this. I can keep my own counsel. I know I can.”
Mason’s silence was an eloquent refutation.
“Couldn’t I get an attorney to represent me? Couldn’t he advise me not to answer questions on the ground that it would incriminate me?”
Mason shook his head, then after a moment said, “You’d simply make matters worse.”
Della Street caught Mason’s eye after looking at him significantly for a few moments. “Do you suppose,” she said, “Paul Drake has something new to report?”
“It’s a thought,” Mason admitted.
“He may have the whereabouts of the person—”
Mason nodded, then interrupted by turning to John Locke. “Look here, John,” he said, “I want you to be frank with me. You knew that something was troubling Nadine?”
“Yes.”
“Did you have any idea what it was?”
“At the time, no.”
“You have now?”
“I understand that Mosher Higley had told her she had to go away and... well, that he wouldn’t permit us to get married.”
“Do you know why?”
“No, I don’t,” Locke said angrily. “Mr. Mason, you try not to hold things against the dead, but every time I think of that it makes my blood boil.”
“Did he perhaps have some idea that Nadine wasn’t good enough for you?”
“Probably the other way around,” Locke said. “Although of course, I’m not exactly an angel, I think I’m perhaps average. Mosher Higley lived such a completely isolated life I don’t think he ever... well, he never had any human emotions. He was just a damned old—” Locke caught himself in the midst of what threatened to become an angry tirade.
“Nadine never told you what he had... what he was holding over her?”
“All he was holding over her was an arbitrary authority,” Locke said. “You didn’t know Mosher Higley. You have no idea how cold that man could be, how petty, how overbearing, how completely domineering. I tried to be respectful to him. He was a friend of my family and... well, of course, he was an older man.”
“All right. Now let’s talk about Jackson Newburn,” Mason said.
“You don’t mean his wife?”
“No, I mean Jackson himself.”
“All right, what about him?”
“How did Nadine feel toward him?”
“More friendly than she did toward any of the others. Jackson tries to be reasonable. And I think Jackson saw a lot of things.”
“Any attachment?” Mason asked. “Anything personal?”
“Between Jackson and Nadine?” Locke asked in surprise.
Mason nodded.
“Good heavens, no!”
“Sure?” Mason asked.
“Of course I’m sure. Jackson is married to Sue and Nadine is... well, Nadine’s affections are spoken for.”
“Meaning with you?” Mason asked.
“I didn’t want to express it in just that way and in just those words,” Locke said, “but Nadine and I are in love and want to get married.”
“She has nothing in common with Jackson Newburn?”