On the table were the telephone and an untouched tumbler containing whisky and probably soda. A cigarette stub had fallen off the glass ash-tray and burned a scar on the highly polished table.
There was no one in the room.
I beckoned to Kerman.
‘Pretty lush,’ he said, peering over my shoulder. ‘Imagine living in a joint like this. What do we do now?’
I walked into the room. The cigarette stub worried me; so did the untouched whisky.
Kerman sauntered in behind me and wandered around one of the settees before the fireplace to look at a Mexican saddle hanging on the wall. He took two steps towards it, then stopped with a start that flopped his hair into his eyes.
‘Gawd!’
I came around the settee fast.
A man in the black uniform of a chauffeur lay on his back. I didn’t have to touch him to know he was dead. There was a purple hole in the centre of his forehead, and a lot of blood had soaked into the Mexican rug on which he was lying. His yellow-brown hands were set rigid, his fingers were hooked like claws, and his small, brown face was twisted in a grimace of terror.
‘Sweet grief!’ Kerman said soberly. ‘He gave me a hell of a fright.’
I bent to touch the claw-like hand. It was still warm. The arm dropped to the carpet when I lifted and released it. He couldn’t have been dead for very long.
‘Looks bad for Dedrick,’ I said. ‘They must have arrived while he was talking to me.’
‘Think they’ve kidnapped him?’
‘Looks like it. Go ahead and call the police, Jack. There’s nothing we can do. You know how Brandon reacts to us. If he thinks we’ve been poking around, wasting time, hell raise Cain.’
As Kerman reached for the telephone, he paused, cocked his head on one side, listening.
‘Sounds like a car coming.’
I went out on to the terrace.
There was a car coming, and coming fast. I could bear the snarl of a powerful engine, and the whine of tyres as the car swept around the bends in the drive.
‘Hold it a moment,’ I said.
I could see the headlights of the car now through the trees. A moment later the car swept around the drive and pulled up a few yards from the Buick.
I walked along the terrace, and as I reached the head of the steps leading from the terrace to the garden a girl got out of the car.
In the dim, uncertain light of the moon and the combined parking lights of the three cars, I could just see she was tall, slender and hatless,
‘Lee…’
She paused, looking up at me.
‘Is that you, Lee?’
‘Mr. Dedrick doesn’t appear to be here,’ I said, and came down the steps towards her.
I heard her catch her breath sharply, and she made a half turn as if she was going to run away, but she controlled the impulse and faced me.
‘Who—who are you?’
‘My name’s Vic Malloy. Mr. Dedrick ‘phoned me about a quarter of an hour ago. He asked me to come out here.’
‘Oh.’ She sounded both surprised and startled. ‘And you say he isn’t here?’
‘He doesn’t seem to be. There’s only that light you can see showing. He isn’t in there. The rest of the house is in darkness.’
By now I was close enough to get a vague idea what she looked like. I could see she was dark and youngish and in evening dress. I had an idea she was pretty.
‘But he must be here,’ she said sharply.
‘May I ask who you are?’
For a fraction of a second she hesitated, then she said, ‘I’m Mary Jerome; Mrs. Dedrick’s secretary.’
‘I’m afraid I have a shock for you. Mr. Dedrick’s chauffeur is in there.’ I waved towards the lighted window. ‘He’s dead.’
‘Dead?’ I saw her stiffen.
‘He’s been shot through the head.’
She lurched forward, and I thought she was going to faint. I caught hold of her arm and steadied her.
‘Would you like to sit in the car for a moment?’
She pulled away from me.
"No; it’s all right. You mean he’s been murdered? ’
‘It looks like it. It’s certainly not suicide.’
‘What has happened to Lee—Mr. Dedrick?’
‘I don’t know. He telephoned me, saying someone had warned him he was going to be kidnapped. I came out here and found the chauffeur dead.’
‘Kidnapped? Oh!’ She drew in a quick, shuddering breath. He said that? Are you sure?’
‘Why, yes. We’re just going to search the house. We’ve only been here two or three minutes. Will you wait in your car? ’
‘Oh, no! I’ll look too. Why should they want to kidnap him?’
‘I asked him that. He said he was Serena Marshland’s husband.’
She pushed past me, ran up the steps and walked quickly along the terrace. I followed her.
Kerman came out and barred the way into the room.
‘I don’t think you should go in there,’ he said mildly.
‘Have you seen Mr. Dedrick?’ she demanded, staring up it him. The light from the room fell on her face. She was lovely in a hard, cold way, with good eyes and a firm mouth and chin. At a guess she would be about thirty, and not the type I would have expected to be a rich woman’s secretary. Her clothes were expensive-looking, and she wore a silk evening wrap over a winecoloured, strapless evening dress with the confidence and grace of a model.
Kerman shook his head.
‘Please look for him. Both of you. Search the house.’
I nodded to Kerman.
‘Phone the police first, Jack.’
Whilst Kerman was using the telephone, the girl went to look at the chauffeur. I watched her, saw the colour leave her face, but as I went to her, she pulled herself together and turned away.
‘Come out on to the terrace,’ I said. Kerman will look for Mr. Dedrick.’ I put my hand on her arm, but with a little shiver she shook it off and walked out on to the terrace again.
‘This is dreadful,’ she said. ‘I wish you would try and find Mr. Dedrick instead of hanging around me. Why did he ‘phone you? Does he know you?’
‘I run Universal Services. He’s probably seen one of our advertisements.’
She put her hand to her face, and leaned against the balustrade.
‘I’m afraid that conveys nothing to me. What is Universal Services? I have only been in Orchid City for a few hours.’
‘We handle any job from divorce to grooming a cat. Mr. Dedrick wanted a bodyguard, but I’m afraid we arrived a little late.’
I saw her flinch.
‘I can’t believe it. Please make sure he’s not in the house. He must be here!’
‘Kerman’s looking now. I understood from Mr. Dedrick that he had only just moved in here, and was alone with his chauffeur. Is that right?’
‘Mr. Dedrick has rented this house for the summer. Mrs, Dedrick and he have been staying for a few days in New York,’ she explained, speaking rapidly. ‘They have just come back from Paris. Mr. Dedrick flew from New York a few days ago. He went on ahead to make the arrangements about the house. Mrs. Dedrick arrives tomorrow. I came with him to make sure everything in the house was in order. We have rooms at the Orchid Hotel. Mr. Dedrick said he was going to look over the house this evening, I was to join him later,’
‘I see.’
Kerman came out on to the terrace.
"No one in the house,’ he said.
Take a look around the garden.’
He gave Mary Jerome a quick, interested look and went off down the terrace steps.
‘He’s never mentioned being kidnapped to you, has he?’
‘Oh, no.’
‘What time did he leave his hotel?’