5
The night clerk at the Madison Hotel had turned down the lights in the lobby so that the single reading lamp behind the desk bathed the hotel switchboard in white light. He had his feet propped up on a stool and was reading a magazine.
Glancing into the dimly lit lobby, and seeing the two figures approaching, he got to his feet, pulled down his vest, and said, “I’m sorry, we’re all filled up. If you... why it’s Miss Martin and Mr. Selby!”
Selby nodded. “We’re trying to find out something about a young woman about twenty-two or twenty-three years old. We think she may have a room here. She’s probably registered from Windrift, Montana. Good-looking, red-haired, nice figure. Know her?”
“Why, yes, we do have a young woman from Windrift. She’s Miss Daphne Arcola, in room six hundred and two. I remember her because she checked in not very long after I came on duty at seven o’clock. She’s a very beautiful young woman, stunning. I’d never heard of Windrift, and told her so. She explained to me that it’s quite a dude ranching center. She answers the description.”
“I see,” Selby said. “Will you ring her room, please?”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“Well, of course, it’s pretty late,” the clerk said, glancing significantly at the clock. “Of course...” He let his voice trail into silence.
Selby held him with insistent eyes and the clerk hastily added, “However, since you request it, Mr. Selby...”
He moved over to the switchboard, plugged in a line and pressed a key. After several seconds he pressed it again, then held his finger down firmly.
“She doesn’t answer, Mr. Selby.”
“I think that’s our party,” Selby said. “Take a passkey and come on up.”
“I’m not supposed to leave the switchboard during the time I’m on duty, seven to three. I’m sorry, Mr. Selby. I...”
“Then give us the passkey.”
The clerk hesitated for a moment, then with a sigh, took a passkey from a nail. “All right, let’s go. I’ll take a chance.”
They rattled upward in the elevator.
The clerk took the precaution of knocking twice on the door of 602. When he received no answer he inserted the passkey, clicked back the spring lock, opened the door a scant two inches, said, “I beg your pardon,” then opened it an inch or two more. “This is the management.”
He reached in through the open door, groped for the light switch, then clicked it on.
“Well,” the clerk said, “there seems to be no one here.”
Selby glanced at Sylvia Martin, and pushed past the clerk into the room.
The clerk said, “Of course this is very irregular.”
Selby said, “It’s quite regular as far as I’m concerned. You can leave if you don’t want to have any part in it. Come in, Sylvia. I want you to look things over.”
The clerk stood for a moment undecided.
Selby said, “We don’t need to detain you any longer and you’ve been away from the switchboard a few minutes as it is. Just go on down and watch the switchboard. If anyone comes in and asks for Miss Arcola, give us a ring.”
“Suppose she should come in?”
“I don’t think she will. In case she does, ring the phone three times in quick succession. We’ll get out within five seconds after we get the signal. Now, if anyone comes in and takes the elevator to this floor, ring twice in quick succession. Do you understand? Twice for any other person, three times if it’s Miss Arcola.”
“Yes, sir.”
“All right. That’s all.”
The clerk retired and Selby closed the door.
“She seems to have traveled light, Sylvia. There’s only one small suitcase.”
“Which hasn’t been unpacked.”
“She got something out of it, however,” Selby said, indicating the oblong pattern on the bedspread. “She put the suitcase on the bed, opened it and took something out, or else put something in.”
“Yes, I guess she did... You’re right, Doug. She left a pair of stockings and some underthings in the bathroom. I can see them in the washbowl.”
“Well,” Selby said, grinning, “do your stuff.”
Sylvia went over to the suitcase, placed it on a chair and opened it.
“Neatly packed,” she observed. “She’s evidently done quite a bit of traveling.”
“Find anything?” Selby asked.
“Not a thing — dresses, underclothes, stockings, slippers, nightgowns, apparently just the things a girl would need in traveling. Nothing that’s personal like papers, letters, diary, anything of that sort.”
“There should be an overnight bag somewhere, with lotions and things of that sort, shouldn’t there?”
“Uh-huh. There it is over there by the side of the dresser.”
“Take a look in that.”
“Nothing in here,” Sylvia said, after a few moments, “except creams and toilet sundries.”
“Take a look at those clothes and see if you can find labels in them, and also take a look for cleaning marks. Leave things just the way they are as nearly as you can, but see if you can’t find something which will give us a clue.”
Selby walked over to the telephone, picked up the receiver, and after a moment when he heard the clerk’s voice on the line, said, “You keep a record of phone calls. Look up this room and see if she made any phone calls.”
“Yes, sir. You want to hold the phone?”
“I’ll hold it.”
“Yes, sir,” the man said after an interval. “There are two telephone numbers.”
“Local or long-distance?”
“Local.”
“What are they?”
“West 9328. That was the first one she called. And then Orange 8967.”
“Find out the listing on those numbers,” Selby said. “I’ll hold the line.”
“All right, Mr. Selby. Just a minute... Just hold the phone a minute. Someone’s coming in... Oh, it’s the sheriff... He says to tell you he’s coming right on up to the room.”
“All right,” Selby said. “Get me the listings on those numbers.”
Selby held on to the phone while Sylvia finished going through the suitcase.
“I can’t find a thing, Doug, that will help. There’s a label on a coat from an outfitting company in Los Angeles, and one from a San Francisco department store. She evidently travels and buys clothes here and there as she needs them.”
Selby said, “Rex Brandon’s on his way up here. He may have some additional information, and...”
The clerk said, “I have those numbers for you, Mr. Selby.”
“All right, what are they?”
“The West 9328 number is the number of Mrs. Lorraine Lennox at 836 West Chestnut, and the other is that of Mr. Carr.”
Selby said, excitedly, “You mean A. B. Carr?”
“That’s right, sir. Alfonse Baker Carr, the lawyer.”
“When did she call him?”
“We don’t keep the exact time of the calls. All I can tell is that first she called this number out on Chestnut, and then the Carr number. She arrived here at the hotel about eight o’clock, so it was some time after eight. That’s all I can tell. I’m sorry, Mr. Selby, but we just keep those numbers so we can keep our telephone record straight. The time isn’t important to us.”
“I understand,” Selby said.
Rex Brandon opened the door, grinned at Selby, and said, “I see you’ve struck pay dirt.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Selby said.
He said to the clerk, “All right, remember the signals. Let me know if anyone asks for this woman and if anyone should telephone and ask for this room, try to find out who’s telephoning. Tell them that at this hour of the night you have to keep a record of who’s calling. Do you understand that?”