“You knew Miss Lynn on a personal basis, then?” Nelson asked. E. B.’s steady eyes surveyed the detective over the top of his glasses. He hesitated for approximately two seconds as though debating just how to answer the detective’s question, then said curtly, “Yes.”
“Had you known Miss Lynn before she came to work here?”
“That is the point I was about to bring up,” Halsey said.
“Go ahead. Bring it up.”
“I knew Miss Lynn before she came to this city. As a matter of fact, she asked me about a position and I told her that I would be glad to refer her to the head of our personnel department and suggest that other things being equal — you understand, Mr. Nelson?”
Nelson nodded.
“—other things being equal,” Halsey went on, “I’d like to have her taken on. Of course, in a business the size of this the personnel department handles the entire thing. They know the vacancies and the abilities that are required. They have, I believe, tests for—”
“The point is that you interceded for her with the personnel department and Stella Lynn got a job?”
“That’s putting it in a rather peculiar way.”
Nelson turned to Peggy. “Did Stella Lynn seem to be brooding, worried, apprehensive?”
“I didn’t know her well, Mr. Nelson. I saw her off and on and chatted with her when I saw her. She was always cheerful. I’d say she was probably the least likely candidate for suicide—”
“I wasn’t thinking about suicide.”
“Well, a person doesn’t worry about murder.”
“I wasn’t thinking about murder.”
E. B. cleared his throat. “Well, then, may I ask what you were thinking about?”
Nelson glanced at Peggy Castle. “Something else,” he said. “Something Miss Lynn could well have worried about.”
“Good Lord,” Peggy said impatiently, “I understand English, and I understand the facts of life. Are you trying to tell us that she was pregnant?”
Nelson nodded.
E. B. put his elbows on the desk, his chin in his hands. “Good Lord!” he murmured.
“You seem upset,” Nelson said.
“He’s thinking of the good name of the company,” Peggy explained, “—of the publicity.”
“Oh, I see,” Nelson said in dry voice. He turned to Peggy. “I’d like to have your story, Miss Castle, right from the beginning.”
“There isn’t any story. Mr. Kimberly and I decided to look in on Stella Lynn, and we found her lying dead on the floor. We called the police.”
“That certainly is a succinct statement,” Nelson said.
“I don’t know how I could elaborate on it.”
“You didn’t know Stella Lynn well?”
“Not particularly well, no.”
“How did it happen that you went to call on her, then?”
“It was Mr. Kimberly’s suggestion.”
“And why did he want to call on her last night?”
She said, “I’m afraid Mr. Kimberly doesn’t think it necessary to confide in me.”
“Perhaps he’ll be a little less reticent with me,” Nelson said. “Perhaps.”
Nelson turned toward the door. “Well, I just wanted to find out what you knew about Stella Lynn’s background,” he said. “I’ll talk with Kimberly, and then I’ll be back.”
He walked out without a word of farewell.
As the door closed, E. B. picked up the telephone and said to the receptionist, “A man by the name of Nelson is leaving my office. He wants to see Mr. Kimberly. I want him to be delayed until I can get Kimberly on the phone and— What’s that?... Oh, I see... Well, that explains it. All right.”
E. B. hung up, looked at Peggy, and said, “That’s why he didn’t ask to have Kimberly in on our conference. Mr. Kimberly is not in the office this morning. No one seems to know where he is.”
He paused for a moment, digesting that information, then said, “Of course, that is a temporary expedient. It gives him a certain margin of time — I notice you didn’t tell Detective Nelson about that letter, Miss Castle.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“It doesn’t fit in with Kimberly’s version of what happened. Kimberly says Stella Lynn called him up around ten thirty in the morning and told him that she had to see him. He’s the one who suggested the Royal Pheasant. Yet this letter, which was postmarked the day before, informed me that Kimberly and Stella Lynn were going to be dining at the Royal Pheasant.”
E. B. regarded Peggy thoughtfully for a moment. “You have a remarkably shrewd mind, Miss Castle.”
She flushed. “Thank you.”
“Now, just what do you have in your mind?”
She said, “Stella Lynn’s desk. I’d like to clean it out. She’ll have some private stuff in there. I’d like to look through it before the police do. No one has said anything about—”
“A splendid idea,” E. B. said. “Get busy. And don’t tell me what you’re doing. I’d prefer not to know all the steps you’re taking. That desk, for instance. In case you should find a diary or something — well, you’ll know what to do.”
E. B. regarded her over the tops of his glasses. “I’m sure you’ll know what to do.”
Peggy placed a cardboard carton on top of Stella Lynn’s desk and began to clean out the drawers, fully realizing that the typists at the adjoining desks were making a surreptitious check on all her actions.
There was an old magazine, a pair of comfortable shoes to be worn at work, a paper bag containing a pair of new nylons, a receipt for rent on her apartment, a small camera in a case, and a half-empty package of tissues.
There was no diary. But there was a disarray of the drawers, as if they might have been hurriedly searched at an earlier hour.
Peggy wondered what had led E. B. to believe there might be a diary in the desk. She dumped the contents of the desk into the carton, tied the carton with heavy string, and then, with a crayon, printed the name Stella Lynn on the side. Having done all this to impress the typists at adjoining desks, Peggy carried the carton back to her own office.
When the door was safely closed she opened the package and inspected the camera. The figure “10” appeared through the little circular window on the back of the camera, indicating that nine pictures had been taken.
Peggy turned the knob until the roll had been transferred to the take-up spool, removed it from the camera, and carefully wiped off the camera to remove her fingerprints. She slipped the camera back into its case, put the case into the carton, tied the carton up with string, and stepped to the door of E. B.’s private office.
She tapped on the door. When she received no answer, she tried the knob; it turned and she gently opened the door.
E. B. was not in his office.
She went back to her desk. A piece of paper that had been pushed under the blotter caught her eye. She pulled it out.
It was a note from E. B., scrawled hastily.
Miss Castle:
As soon as you left my office I recalled an urgent matter that had escaped my attention in the excitement over the interruption of our regular morning program. It is a matter of greatest importance and must be kept entirely confidential. I am working on that matter and expect to be out of the office for some time. I will get in touch with you as soon as I have a definite schedule. In the meantime I will be unavailable.
It was signed with the initials E. B.
Peggy looked at it. “Well,” she said, “Kimberly and Halsey. That makes it unanimous.”