“Here’s a hunch!” I spoke excitedly. “Myra answered the telephone while her husband was absent and replied to the anonymous telephoner without consulting Leslie. In view of what we’ve just learned... that she was tangled up in an affair with her millionaire neighbor... we know she had a good reason for wanting Leslie out of the way. How do we know the voice over the wire wasn’t more specific than she admits... we have only her unsupported word for what was said. Instead of doing the natural thing... putting the woman off, promising to urge Leslie not to go, playing for time... she admits accepting the challenge, taunting the threatener with the announcement that Leslie would go in spite of the threat.”
Burke was nodding. “That begins to make sense, Asa. There might even have been a definite threat which she hasn’t told us about. She might have watched Leslie ride away at two o’clock, knowing it was the last time she would see him alive.”
“Then hurried to signal Raymond Dwight to come on over,” I carried the theory on. “Providing herself with a perfect alibi in case she needed it.”
“Going on from that premise... we’d better start looking for a woman with a good reason for preventing Leslie Young from keeping his appointment in Mexico with the O’Toole girl.”
We sat and looked at each other in silence until I said: “That certainly puts Laura Yates in the clear. Of all the females involved she had the strongest reason for hoping Leslie would keep the appointment.”
“Unless,” Burke said drily, “she realized it was something big and didn’t want to split the story with him.”
“But she wouldn’t have been waiting out in the rain for a man whom she knew to be dead,” I objected.
“It would have been smart to pretend to be waiting for him. And if she was after a story, she had to get to the hacienda somehow.”
Jerry Burke was like that, damn his soul. He has the uncanny faculty of looking beneath the surface for hidden motives not apparent to a guileless person like myself. I was suddenly glad I wasn’t cursed with a suspicious mind which couldn’t take any fact or person at face value. I said so, somewhat sulkily, I’m afraid.
Burke was unmoved. “There’s only one basis for a murder investigation, Asa. We must assume the possible guilt of every man or woman even indirectly involved, and scrutinize every action of every suspect on the assumption that it may be motivated by murder. On that basis, we cannot yet eliminate Miss Yates.”
“Let’s scrutinize the actions of some of the others on that same basis,” I muttered lamely.
“Exactly what I intend to do. The anonymous telephonist was a woman, according to Myra’s testimony. Only four women are thus far involved: Mrs. Young, Laura Yates, Michaela O’Toole, and... Desta Dwight.”
He smiled grimly when I started with surprise at hearing the last name on his list.
“I’m not at all sure that she doesn’t know more than she’s told us. She admits knowing Leslie Young.”
“She had just met him once,” I objected.
“According to her statement.”
There it was again. Another instance of my guileless acceptance of a statement as fact. I stammered something about making a lousy detective, and Burke agreed, with a grin which took the sting out of it. Then he settled back seriously to his theorizing:
“Going back to our four women: Myra is out... she received the telephoned warning. I’ve conjured up a thin motive for Laura Yates wanting Young to stay away from the hacienda. Thin... but possible. Michaela O’Toole is definitely out. She wouldn’t write a note asking him to come, and then turn around and kill him to prevent it. That leaves Desta Dwight to be considered.”
“What possible motive can you conjure up for her?”
“Until we know the real object of the meeting of these various people at the hacienda, we can’t do much guessing. She let it slip that her father had some plan for bringing political pressure on Rufus Hardiman in regard to Mexican oil payments. We also know that Desta recognized Leslie Young as a stumbling-block in the way of forcing any such payments from Mexico. By her own admission, her father just laughed at her when she warned him against Young. What would be more natural than for a headstrong young girl like that to decide to take matters in her own hands and remove the menace to her father’s business dealings with the Mexican government?”
“All I hope is that you don’t start analyzing me for a motive.”
He grinned that slow grin of his, then said: “I’m interested in the identity of the Senor Rodriguez Desta mentioned.”
“Dwight was talking with someone in another room when we first reached the hacienda,” I reminded him. “It could have been the unknown Senor Rodriguez.”
Burke was refilling his pipe, an expression of intense concentration on his face.
“I’m going to build up a hypothetical case and I want you to tear it to pieces if you can. It’s evident that Dwight’s daughter is more or less in her father’s confidence. Suppose she was aware that Rufus Hardiman isn’t simply vacationing here... that her father has brought pressure to bear in the right places in Washington and has persuaded the State Department to abandon their hands-off policy in regard to oil payments... that Hardiman is here in his official capacity to present a note demanding payment for expropriated property to an accredited representative of the Mexican Government... one Senor Rodriguez, shall we say? Secrecy is necessary because the demand for payment is being made only on Dwight’s behalf... leaving the rest of the owners of seized property to hold the bag... so they arrange to meet secretly at the Hacienda del Torro...”
“Aided and abetted by Michaela O’Toole?” I scoffed. “She’s on the other side of the fence, Jerry. She would be doing her best to prevent such a meeting.”
“Exactly.” Burke’s eyes were shining. “Through some hold on Rodriguez she plans to be present and stop it if she can. Needing help and knowing Leslie Young by reputation to hold views similar to hers, mightn’t she invite him to join the conference? It would explain her rather strangely-phrased note. Young, not knowing what it’s all about, might mention the note to Desta Dwight who would immediately realize the importance of keeping him away from the hacienda. She tries a telephone message... then an automatic. Remember, there is well over a hundred million dollars involved. Enough motive for a million murders.”
I was hanging on the ropes by that time, too confused by Burke’s relentless logic to offer a single objection. Also, I suppose I was ready to grab at any straw that pointed away from Laura Yates. I said:
“You make it sound swell. All we need is to prove a few of those hunches.”
“We’ll start right now,” he said as Raymond Dwight came back into the drawing room followed by a servant with a tray of glasses, whiskey, and a siphon.
When the man had set the tray down and withdrawn, Dwight mixed whiskey and soda in three glasses and gave us each one.
“I sent Mrs. Young home in my car to pack a bag and return,” he said casually. “It is naturally a strain on her to stay alone in that house with its unpleasant memories, so I’ve invited her to remain here as my house-guest for as long as she wishes.”
Personally, I thought they had their nerve... with Myra’s husband not buried yet, but I guess a few million dollars make a man contemptuous of the conventions. Burke nodded as though it was a perfectly natural development, and said:
“There are several points you can clear up for me, Mr. Dwight.”
The financier settled himself with his glass. “I’m happy to cooperate, Burke. Though I don’t see what possible help I can give you.”