“Good thing you did too,” Wenston interposed. “Otherwise I couldn’t have prethented any alibi myself.”
Tragg suddenly whirled to Karr. “You,” he said.
Karr met his eyes with cold defiance. “I was here — alone.”
“That’s rather unusual, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“In your wheelchair?”
“No. In bed. I believe I’ve gone over all that with you before, Lieutenant.”
“You haven’t,” Tragg said meaningly. “Mason has.”
“What do you mean?” Karr asked.
Karr kept staring at the detective with the cold concentration of one who is completely the master of his own soul, and resents uninvited familiarities. “Do you have any fault to find with what Mr. Mason answered?” he asked.
“I may have,” Tragg said.
“Under those circumstances,” Karr announced with cold dignity, “I am afraid it will be necessary for me to ask Mr. Mason to speak for me again. I am not feeling well, Lieutenant, and this interview has wearied me.”
Tragg said affably, “Let’s not get off to a bad start, Mr. Karr. I’m trying to save you future trouble.”
“Thank you for your consideration. You don’t need to try to save me anything. I’m quite capable of looking after myself.”
“Despite the fact that you are unable to walk?” Tragg asked.
“Despite the fact that I am unable to walk.”
“I don’t want to have any misunderstanding about that,” Tragg observed.
Karr said, “You don’t need to have any. I can’t walk.”
“You were here alone in this flat,” Tragg said. “So far as is known, you, the housekeeper, and Hocksley were the only three persons under this roof.”
“Hocksley!” Miss Wickford exclaimed.
Tragg turned to look at her. “Hocksley,” he said.
“Why...!”
“The name mean anything to you?” Tragg asked.
She smiled and shook her head somewhat dubiously.
Tragg kept his eyes boring into hers. “But,” he asked affably in the manner of one making small talk, “you’ve known a Hocksley somewhere, I take it, Miss Wickford?”
She said, “No.”
“The name has some association for you? Come now, let’s not beat around the bush.”
She said, “My father mentioned a Hocksley in one of his letters.”
“How long ago?”
“Oh, perhaps twenty years.”
Karr laughed mirthlessly. “Hardly the same Hocksley,” he said.
Tragg didn’t shift his eyes. “You were a child at the time?”
“Yes.”
“How old?”
“Seven.”
“Where was your father?”
“China.”
“What did he say about Hocksley?”
She shifted her eyes to Karr as though looking for some signal. Tragg said insistently, “This is just between you and me, Miss Wickford. What did your father say about Hocksley?”
“My father was in a partnership in China. I believe Hocksley was one of the partners.”
Tragg thought that over for a few seconds, then asked abruptly, “When did you meet Mr. Mason?”
“About an hour and a half ago.”
“Karr?”
“About forty minutes.”
“Known anyone here longer than that?”
“I met Mr. Wenston before I met Mr. Mason.”
“How much before?”
“A few minutes before.”
“What are you doing here?”
Wenston interposed hastily, “She’s calling on a matter of business. It’s highly confidential. I don’t want anything thaid about it.”
Tragg pursed his lips. “Well, well, well,” he said. “Now let’s see. Wasn’t there an ad in this morning’s paper, an ad by someone who wanted to find the daughter of his dead partner?”
There was no sound in the room, save the rasping breathing of Elston A. Karr. As by common consent they turned to look at him.
“Your father’s name was Wickford?” Tragg asked the girl, whirling abruptly back toward her.
“In China he went under the name of Dow Tucker.”
“Wrote you about the partnership?”
“Yes.”
“When? Exactly what date?”
“In the latter part of 1920.”
“What happened after that?”
Karr said, “I can tell you. He...”
“Shut up, Karr,” Tragg said without taking his eyes from the girl’s face.
“I didn’t hear anything more from my father after a letter written in the first part of 1921. I heard later on that he had died.”
“How did he die?”
“I understood he was murdered.”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
“His body was never shipped home?”
“No.”
“Ever get any property from his estate?”
“No. Not yet.”
“Any other relatives living?”
“No.”
“When did your mother die?”
“Around eighteen months before Dad went to China.”
“With whom did you live after that? After your father left?”
“An aunt.”
“Mother’s sister or father’s?”
“Mother’s.”
“Where’s she?”
“Dead.”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
“And your father wrote about having a partnership arrangement with a man named Hocksley?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t mention his first name?”
“I...”
“You didn’t save that letter?”
“No.”
“Mention the name of the other partner?”
She hesitated a moment, then said, “Well... yes.”
“A man named Karr?”
“Yes.”
“Remember the first name?”
After she had been silent for several seconds, Tragg said abruptly, “I asked you if you knew his first name?”
“I was trying to remember.”
“Well, think fast.”
She turned to Karr. “Your first name is Elston, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
She said, “I have a haunting memory in the back of my mind that Karr’s first name was Elston. I can’t remember. Perhaps it’s just the association of ideas, having met Mr. Elston Karr this afternoon. I... I may have confused his first name.”
“With what?”
“With the name of my father’s partner.”
“What other Karrs do you know?”
“None who spell their names this way.”
Tragg looked up at Karr. “Well?” he asked.
Karr said, “In the fall of 1920 and the spring of 1921 I was in partnership with three men in Shanghai. One of them was named Dow Tucker. I think he’s this girl’s father. The other one was a man named Hocksley.”
“Indeed!” Lieutenant Tragg said, his voice showing only a courteous interest. “And what became of Hocksley?”
Karr said, choosing his words carefully, “Hocksley disappeared. He disappeared under suspicious circumstances. He carried away with him a very large sum of money in partnership funds. Fortunately, not all of the partnership funds, but a large amount.”
“So,” Tragg said, “naturally, you felt quite bitter toward Hocksley.”
A gleam showed in Karr’s eyes despite his attempt to control his expression. He said, “The man was beneath contempt.”
“And he took with him a large amount of partnership funds?”
“Yes.”
“In other words, some of your money?”
“Yes.”
“Naturally, you wanted that back.”
“Yes.”
“And naturally you made some attempt to trace him.”
“That’s right.”
“And, in short, Karr, your efforts finally were successful. You located Hocksley in this flat below you. You took the flat above him and...”