"Bill's gone," Penny interrupted her swift typing to inform him. "To
Chicago. He had only fifteen minutes to make the three o'clock train,
after he received a wire saying his mother is not expected to live. He
tried to reach you at the Selim house, but one of Captain Strawn's men
said you had left."
"I stopped on my way in to get a bite to eat," Dundee explained
mechanically. "I'd dashed off without my lunch, you know."
"Did you find the gun and silencer?" Penny asked.
"No. Whoever used it Saturday afternoon walked out of the house with it,
in plain view of the police, and still has it.... Very convenient, too,
in case another murder seems to be expedient--or amusing."
"Don't joke!" Penny shuddered. "But what in the world do you mean?"
Briefly Dundee told her, minimizing the hard work, the concentrated
thinking, and the meticulous use of a tape measure which had resulted in
the discovery of the shelf between Nita's bedroom closet and the guest
closet in the little foyer.
"I see," Penny agreed, her husky voice slow and weighted with horror.
She sat in dazed thought for a minute. "That rather brings it home to my
crowd--doesn't it?... To think that Dad--!... Probably everyone at the
party--except me--had heard all about Dad's 'simple and ingenious'
arrangement for hiding the securities he sent on to New York before he
ran away.
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