I walked in. Mr. Ellis was one of these good-looking God’s-gift-to-women guys. I looked at him and could tell his story with that one glance — a nice college boy, an athlete by the looks of his shoulders and the bronze of his complexion, a football player for dear old Southern California, a model student with a high scholastic record, friends everywhere, and a habit of ingratiating himself with his professors. They’d manipulated him into the district attorney’s office as a deputy, and he was filled to the collar button with the abstract legal lore of a law school.
He said, “Mr. Lam, your activities in this case have been rather remarkable.”
I said, “Haven’t they?”
He flushed.
I said, “It’s an awful shock to learn that my own aunt is guilty of a murder.”
“And, by a remarkable coincidence,” he said, “in a case which you were investigating.”
I raised my eyebrows and said, “A case I was investigating?” and looked blankly at Bertha Cool.
Bertha Cool said, “There’s some mistake. Donald is working for me. We weren’t investigating any murder.”
“Why did he go to Oakview?” Ellis asked.
Bertha said, “I don’t know. That was private business. He asked for time off. It had something to do with finding his aunt. They’d been estranged for a while, and he wanted to look her up. He found her in Oakview, you know.”
Ellis frowned and said, “Yes. I know.” And then, after a moment: “Perhaps, Mr. Lam, if you had no interest in the Evaline Harris murder, you’ll be kind enough to tell me why you took it on yourself to run Miss Dunton into your rooming-house as your cousin, and—”
“Because I thought she was in danger,” I interrupted. “I formed a friendship with Miss Dunton while I was in Oakview.”
“So it would seem,” he said.
I said, “I got worried about her. She told me that she could identify a man she had seen leaving that apartment. Of course, at the time I thought that he was the murderer — sort of took it for granted, you know.”
“That’s a nice story,” he said, “but I happen to know that you were trying to keep her out of circulation. You were hiding her so we couldn’t find her.”
“So you couldn’t find her!” I exclaimed. “Good heavens! I don’t know— Oh, yes, I told her that I was going to notify you of her new address. That’s right. I forgot to do that. This business with my aunt came up and—”
“What business with your aunt?” he interrupted.
I said, “She was going to marry a man who was only interested in her money. I wanted to investigate him. I spoke to Mrs. Cool about it, and she said that she’d use the agency and see what could be done.”
Ellis picked up a telephone and said, “Send Miss Dunton in.”
A few moments later there were quick steps in the hall and Marian Dunton opened the door. I think she expected to find us there. She smiled and there was concern on her face. “Donald, how are you?” she asked, and came over to give me her hand. “I heard you were at the receiving hospital. You’re white as a sheet.”
I took her hand, and her left eye, the one that was farthest from Ellis, closed in a slow, solemn wink.
She said, “You’re trying to do altogether too much and you’re worrying too much, Donald. When you got worried about me, you should have communicated with the authorities instead of taking it on yourself to—”
“That’ll do, Miss Dunton,” Ellis said sternly. “I’ll ask the questions. I’d prefer that the information came from Mr. Lam.”
I said, “What information do you want, Mr. Ellis?”
“How did that apartment get all mussed up?”
“What apartment?”
“The one where Miss Dunton had been staying.”
I said, “I wouldn’t know.”
“You wouldn’t know anything about the blood either?”
“Oh, yes,” I said. “I know all about that. You see, I’d been having terrific nosebleeds at intervals during the day. I went up to pack some things for Miss Dunton and my nose started to bleed. I had a lot of trouble with it, trying to stop it. I was afraid I was going to have to go to a doctor. I couldn’t take her things. I was holding my nose. I left the apartment, headed for a doctor’s office, but my nose stopped bleeding before I found one.”
“And you never did get back to pick up Miss Dunton’s things?”
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t. I started back, and came to the conclusion someone was watching the apartment. I was afraid he would shadow me and find out where Miss Dunton was staying.”
“And you didn’t push the furniture around?”
“Why, no,” I said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I do remember I fell over a chair. I was holding a handkerchief to my face, you know.”
Ellis said, “It looked as though there’d been a struggle in that apartment. Miss Dunton’s purse was lying open, and—”
“He told me he’d dropped my purse when he had the nosebleed,” Marian said.
Ellis frowned, but his eyes, meeting Marian’s, couldn’t hold a stern expression. He said, “Let me do it, please, Miss Dunton.”
“Oh, very well,” she said in a hurt voice.
Ellis couldn’t get up any steam after that. He was licked. Five minutes later, he said, “Very well. The circumstances are exceedingly strange. After this, Mr. Lam, if you want to protect any witness who is in communication with our office, simply advise the office and don’t take the responsibility on your own shoulders.”
I said, “I’m sorry, but I did what seemed best at the time.”
I glanced at Bertha Cool, and then decided I might as well get the whole thing straightened out while I was about it. I said to Bertha, “What was this about some charge on a hit-and-run case being made against me?”
She said, “Some officers were trying to pick you up at the agency office.”
Ellis said hastily, “That’s quite all right. That matter has been taken care of. You can simply ignore that. An officer at Santa Carlotta telephoned in a short time ago. The witness who saw the car made a mistake on the licence number.”
I said to Bertha, “Well, I guess we can go.”
Marian said, “I’m coming along, Donald, if you don’t mind.”
Ellis said, “Just a minute, Miss Dunton. I’d like to ask you a few more questions, if you please — after the others leave.”
Bertha Cool said, “It’s all right, Marian. We’ll be waiting for you in a taxi down at the main entrance.”
Walking down the corridor, I said to Bertha Cool, “Do you have that letter Flo wrote with you?”
Bertha said, “Do I look that simple, lover? That letter’s in a safe place. How about notifying our client?”
“Too dangerous,” I said. “A lot of heat has been turned on. Our lines may be tapped. Let him read it in the papers: ‘Amelia Lintig of Oakview Confesses to Murder of Night-Club Entertainer and Commits Suicide.’ ”
Bertha Cool said, “You’ve never going to get away with this aunt business, lover. They’ll nail you on that.”
I said, “They’re going to have a sweet time doing it. She really was my aunt.”
Bertha Cool looked at me in surprise.
“You don’t know anything about my family or antecedents,” I said.
“And what’s more, I don’t want to,” Bertha hastily told me. “This time you’re on your own.”
“That’s swell. Just remember that.”
We waited in the cab for about ten minutes, then Marian came down looking rather flushed and elated. She flung her arms around me and said, “Donald, it’s so good to see you. Gosh, I was afraid you were going to make the wrong play with Mr. Ellis. I’d already squared things for you. I told him we’d formed a very close friendship, and that you were really concerned about me.”