... Mr. Sprague bought the wire and stuff, bored a hole
through her bedroom floor, and fixed it all hisself."
"Did anyone know Nita had taken this precaution to protect herself?"
Dundee asked.
"Mis' Lois did, because one day not long ago she stepped on it
accidentally, when she was in Nita's room. The bell buzzed in my room
and I come up to answer it, and Nita explained it to Mis' Lois."
So that was why no attempt had been made to murder Nita while she
slept!--Dundee told himself triumphantly. For of course it was more than
probable that Lois Dunlap had innocently spread the news of Nita's
nervousness and her ingenious method of summoning help instantly....
There was a knock at the door.
"Come in!... All finished, Carraway?... Fine! I'd like to see the prints
as soon as possible, and now I'd like you to go over to the morgue with
Lydia, and wait there until she has the body dressed in these clothes,
and the hair done according to the instructions Mrs. Selim left.... I'll
leave the posing to you, but I want a full-length picture as well as a
head portrait."
As Lydia's work-roughened, knuckly hands were returning the funeral
clothes to the suitcase, another question occurred to Dundee:
"Lydia, did you know, before I questioned you at the Miles home
yesterday, that Sprague had returned for that bag he had left in the
bedroom upstairs?"
Her scarred cheek flushed livid, but the maid answered with defiant
honesty: "Yes, I did! He spoke to me through my basement window just
before you come running down to talk to me.
Pages:
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234