“Lieutenant.” Again the door was opened and a policeman stood there.
“Damn these interruptions!” Durango growled. He went outside again. “What is it?”
“Two things,” he was told. “First of all, the mileage checks out on the doctor’s car. Secondly, the boys are back from the Jorgenson dame’s apartment with something that should interest you.”
“Let’s have it.”
The policeman handed Durango an expensive-looking ring with a large ruby in the center of a lavish gold and emerald setting. “Now how do you suppose she affords this little doo-dad on her salary?” he asked Durango with a grin.
“Nice work.” Durango looked at the ring and palmed it. “How you coming on that Tappan Zee toll-booth attendant?”
“He’s off duty. The State Highway Patrol is trying to get him at home. They’ll call us as soon as they locate him.”
“Okay. Keep me posted.” Durango again went back into his office and sat down in the swivel chair behind his desk. His eyes scanned the suspects and then came back to fasten on Karen Jorgenson.
“Miss Jorgenson, would you come here a moment,” Durango requested. “That’s it. Stand right in front of my desk.” He stretched his arm out and lay his fist in the middle of the desk blotter. He opened his hand. The ruby ring glittered accusingly in the palm.
Blood rushed to Karen Jorgenson’s face. Her large breasts rose and fell rapidly as her breathing quickened in response to the shock. She said nothing, but the look of a trapped animal spread over her features.
“Well, Miss Jorgenson?” Durango said after a long, silent moment. “Do you recognize it?”
The question was unnecessary. The answer was written all over Karen Jorgenson. Her neck bent and she looked at the floor. She turned, went back to the chair in which she’d been sitting, and slowly sank into it.
The movement exposed the ring to the view of the others. “Wait a minute!” Dr. Zachary Golden got up slowly. “Just a minute.” He crossed over to the desk and stared down at the obiect lying in Durango’s hand. “That’s my wife’s ring. I gave it to her. I’d know it anywhere. I had it made especially for Mavis. There’s no other like it. How did you get it?” he demanded of Durango.
“It was found in Miss Jorgenson’s apartment,” Durango told him, looking past him at Karen.
“Then she must have taken it from my wife. She must have killed Mavis for it. She must be the murderer!” He stared at Karen and a little vein began to throb at the corner of his temple.
“It begins to look that way,” Durango admitted.
“Looks that way!” Anne Yolan interrupted excitedly. “What do you mean? It had to be her! The ring proves it!”
“It sure figures,” Jonnie O’Faye added. “It's always those big, bosomy types you have to watch. All apple-cheeked sweetness, trying to hide what they really are. They’re the sneaky ones who go off the deep end!”
“Well, it looks like the rest of us can go home now.” Reggie Ivers got to his feet.
“And about time, too.” Debbie also stood up.
“Sit down.” Durango told them coolly. “We’re not through yet. Nothing’s really been proven. Unless, that is, Miss Jorgenson would care to confess. How about it, Karen, are you ready to tell us how you killed Dr. Mavis Golden?”
“I didn’t kill her,” Karen said dully.
“Then how do you explain this?” Durango dangled the ring between his fingers.
“I-I don’t know.”
“Do you admit that you stole it from Dr. Golden?”
“I guess I can’t deny it,” Karen said in a low voice. “You’ve caught me with the goods.”
“Hey, wait a minute!” Reggie Ivers interrupted ex- citedly. “She must have taken it the night of the murder. She must be the killer. The doctor was wearing it during the group session. I noticed it on her finger.”
“Was she wearing it when you got there?” Durango asked.
“No. I don’t remember seeing it. And I’m sure I would have noticed.”
“Then you must have stolen it last night.” Durango turned back to Karen.
“All right! I did,” she confessed. “But I didn’t kill her.”
“She’s lying!” Connors interrupted. “She had motive and opportunity and she admits she stole the ring. What more do you need?” he asked Durango. “You might as well book her for murder.”
“I tell you I didn’t do it!” There was panic in Karen’s voice. “I may be a thief, but I’m not going to let you pin a murder rap on me!”
“If you didn’t, who did?” Connors asked skeptically.
“Wait a minute. I.et’s take it slow,” Durango said. “Suppose you tell us just what happened,” he instructed Karen. “What time did you get to Dr. Golden’s apartment?”
Maybe five or ten minutes before three. The apartment door was open. I went straight into her office. I took the strongbox out of the desk. I’d had a key made to fit it, and I was just opening it when I was interrupted.”
“What interrupted you?” Durango asked.
“Dr. Golden came into the room and turned on the light. I crouched down behind the desk and she didn’t see me. She went to take one of those window fans out of the window on the wall opposite the desk. While she was fooling with it, somebody else came in, called her name, shot her twice and ran out. I took just long enough to get the ring out of the strongbox, and then I ran myself. Outside the office, in the darkness of the anteroom, I bumped into somebody. I thought it was the murderer and I ran out of the apartment.”
“It wasn’t the murderer,” Debbie exclaimed. “That was me you bumped into.”
“Just a minute,” Durango said. “Did you see the murderer?”
“Yes.” Karen took a deep breath. “I was afraid to tell you before because then you’d nail me for the jewel theft. But now I’m not covering up for anybody.” She paused. “The murderer is right here in this room!” she announced dramatically.
“She’s just trying to pass the buck!” Reggie Ivers objected.
“Yeah!” Jonnie O’Faye agreed. “She’d pin it on any of us to get herself off the hook.”
“What does the word of a thief mean, anyway?” Dr. Zachary Golden murmured.
“She’s against me! Just like Paul! Just like Dr. Golden was!” Anne Yolan stood up and her voice was shrill, hysterical. “She’s out to get me! Don’t believe her!”
“It sure looks like she’s trying to wriggle out of it,” Debbie observed.
“All right, simmer down, all of you!” Durango told them firmly. “Now, Karen, if you really saw the murderer and can make an. identification, do it. Who killed Dr. Mavis Golden?”
Karen Jorgenson spoke a name.
There was a loud, hoarse yell. A mind snapped into paranoia and a body responded. The figure broke across the room in a sudden blur of motion and dived for the window. There was the crash of glass and the shocked reaction of the others.
Their voices sounded in a plea to stop the lunging figure before it was too late. And then there was a groan acknowledging that it was happening too fast. The figure was through the window.
Murder was plunging downward with arms outstreched to embrace Death!
CHAPTER 17
The Reform Movement
SERGEANT Connors cheated the piper. He was the only one with the presence of mind to dive for the murderer. His reaction almost cost him his life!
From his perch on the windowsill, he spun around and lunged for the fast-moving figure as it crashed through the glass. He got a hand around an ankle and the sudden weight almost pulled Connors right out the window after the killer. Only Durango’s quick action in grabbing him around the waist kept Connors from being pulled to his death.
Between the two of them, they finally managed to haul the slayer back to safety. “Whew!” Connors gasped. “Fourteen floors! That was a close one!” Now that he was safe, his body began to shake all over with the realization of his nearness to death.