“I’m sorry, Miss Bendley, but the post mortem shows absolutely that the shot was fired from the direction in which Mr. Ames was facing, and the two witnesses, who are positive in their testimony, are men who are absolutely reliable.”
“Oh, well,” she sighed, “what’s the difference? It’s all up now. I knew when I read the account in the paper that I was in bad. I was disguised as a man, and I tried to stow away on a freighter. Some sailors found me, started to beat me up, found I was a woman — then you came along.”
She gave her undivided attention to the dog.
There was silence in the cabin for several seconds.
“The new wife had a second will made?” asked Sidney Zoom.
“No. She didn’t need to. In this State a marriage made subsequent to the execution of a will makes it void. Therefore the will is no good and the wife takes all the estate as the only heir. She was shrewd, that woman.”
Sidney Zoom clipped the end from a cigar, smoked it meditatively. From time to time he stared at the girl with thought-slitted eyes. The girl, still sitting on the floor, caressed the dog’s head. From time to time the heavy tail of the animal thumped lazy appreciation.
“There’s something strange about this case,” said Sidney Zoom. “From all the physical evidences, young lady, you’re lying.”
Her eyes showed no resentment “All right,” she said, “let it go at that.”
Sidney Zoom glanced at his secretary.
Vera Thurmond avoided the questioning eyes.
Zoom gave his attention to the cigar. “My faith in human nature has given me some queer hunches in my time,” he observed.
“If you fall for this case,” snapped Vera Thurmond, “you’ll be getting into trouble.”
“Go ahead,” murmured the girl, “don’t mind me. Say it.”
Zoom took the cigar from his mouth.
“The fighter,” he said, “rarely gets sympathy. That is particularly true with women. Men like women who are beautifully helpless. I’m different. I like the fighter. I’m going to stand back of you, Miss Bendley.”
“Meaning?” she asked.
“That we’re putting out to sea. That is, you are. I’m going to get you outside of civil jurisdiction on the high seas. I’m staying behind to work on the case. I’ll be in radio communication with the yacht.
“Tell me just one thing. This man, Gravy — who is he? Can I trust him?”
“Sure you can trust him. His name is Graves. He’s the butler out there, been with us for two years, and he’s a square shooter. He’s stuck up for me through thick and thin.”
Sidney Zoom stroked his chin.
“The return of Mr. Ames was rather unexpected?”
“You mean when he came back from the reception?”
“Yes.”
“Sure it was. His wife got sick — damn her, I wish she’d croaked!”
“Nothing serious?”
“No. She even forgot all about it, whatever it was, after she’d seen that the bullet had made her a fortune.”
“And you think she was glad the shooting took place?”
“Glad! I’m telling you she shot him. I don’t care how reputable your witnesses are. That woman did the murder.”
Sidney Zoom whistled to his dog, pressed his finger on an electric button. A white clad shape came softly and swiftly along the deck of the yacht.
“Put out to sea at once, Malcom. Stay beyond the twelve mile limit until you receive other orders via wireless. Understand?”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Come, Rip!”
And Zoom’s feet thudded to the planking of the float, followed by the padding of the dog’s feet as the tawny shape arched through the night.
Almost at once a line hit the deck of the boat, the running lights switched on, and the motor started its rhythmic chugging.
On the rail of the boat, just aft of the pilot house, the figure of Vera Thurmond showed, her eyes straining into the night, her arm up flung in a gesture of farewell.
Beside her was the indistinct shape of the girl who had boarded the yacht under such exceptional circumstances. She was motionless, silent.
The yacht swung out on the tide, the motor speeded up and a churning of cheesy water just under the stem, marked the pulsation of the screw as the craft gracefully melted into the darkness.
Chapter IV
The Adventuress
Mrs. Nettie Pease Ames regarded Sidney Zoom through tear reddened eyes.
“B-but you s-s-said you w-w-wanted to give me some information. N-n-now you’re asking questions. I w-w-would not have seen you at all so soon after the tragedy.” Sidney Zoom nodded.
“I am very sorry, madame, to intrude upon your grief; but I must get certain matters clear in my mind before I can give you the information. Then I believe I can clear up the shooting mystery and have the culprit in your hands.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Come up to my sitting room,” she said. “There are too many servants around here.”
And the sobbing stammers had entirely disappeared from her voice.
Sidney Zoom followed her up a flight of stairs, into a room, tastefully furnished. The woman indicated a chair, facing the window, and sat opposite.
“Now spill it,” she said.
Sidney Zoom chose his words cautiously.
“I know the police feel Eve Bendley is guilty of the murder. Yet there are certain facts which haven’t as yet been satisfactorily explained.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed.
“Such as?”
“Several things. I will come to them later. In the meantime, may I ask another question? There’s no possibility that the marriage didn’t annul the will, I take it? In other words, you are the sole heir?”
The eyes widened.
“Of course, I hadn’t thought of it. I’d been so prostrated with grief. But I guess that’s right. In fact, an attorney so advised me this morning.”
Sidney Zoom smiled, a close-clipped smile of frosty humor. “Your great grief didn’t prevent you from consulting him, I take it?”
The woman crossed her legs, leaned back in her chair and grinned.
“All right. There’s no use beating around the bush. I’m a gold digger. But I married him. I’m damned glad he’s gone. I wouldn’t have helped him along any, but I knew he wouldn’t live forever when I married him. He was in the late seventies. I’m twenty-nine. You’ve suspected all this, and I might as well own up to it — privately. You ever repeat a word of this conversation and I’ll call you a liar.
“But that’s all I have been keeping under cover. As for the rest, it’s right out in the open. The girl killed Ralph Ames. I don’t know whether she did it deliberately or whether she lost her head. She was getting money out of the safe when we came in. I’d recognize her figure anywhere, man’s clothes or woman’s. I know the way she carries head, the little swing she has to her shoulders.”
Sidney Zoom smiled.
“Thanks for being frank. You know, of course, that the girl only took the money from the safe that was due her under the bonus agreement with Mr. ’Ames.”
“I know nothing of the sort!” snapped the woman. “I know that the books she kept had been doctored, and I have an idea there was a lot more money in the safe than she admitted or acknowledged in her books.
“And I know something else. I know that she has been traced to the waterfront, that she was dressed in men’s clothes and tried to stow away on a freighter. I know that she was in a brawl with a bunch of sailors, and that some man who was about your build rescued her.
“Now you haven’t told me what your interest is in this case and I don’t know as you need to. But I’ll tell you something. You either get that girl into the hands of the police, or I’ll charge you with being an accessory!”