A hallway was immediately ahead, beyond it a larger room. To the right and left were two more doors, both closed. Through the one on the right he could hear what sounded like a radio, There was no one in sight. The lights in the suite were turned on.
Keycase went in. He slipped on gloves, then closed and latched the outside door behind him.
He moved warily, yet wasting no time. Broadloom in the hallway and living room muffled his footsteps. He crossed the living room to a farther door which was ajar. As Keycase expected, it led to two spacious bedrooms, each with a bathroom, and a dressing room between. In the bedrooms, as elsewhere, lights were on. There was no mistaking which room was the Duchess's.
Its furnishings included a tallboy, two dressing tables and a walk-in closet. Keycase began, systematically, to search all four. A jewelbox, such as he sought, was in neither the tallboy nor the first dressing table. There were a number of items - gold evening purses, cigarette cases and expensive - looking compacts - which, with more time and in other circumstances, he would have garnered gladly. But now he was racing, seeking a major prize and discarding all else.
At the second dressing table he opened the first drawer. It contained nothing worth while. The second drawer yielded no better result. In the third, on top, was an array of negligees. Beneath them was a deep, oblong box of hand-tooled leather. It was locked.
Leaving the box in the drawer, Keycase worked with a knife and screwdriver to break the lock. The box was stoutly made and resisted opening. Several minutes passed. Conscious of fleeting time, he began to perspire.
At length the lock gave, the lid flew back. Beneath, in scintillating, breathtaking array were two tiers of jewelsrings, brooches, necklets, clips, tiaras; all of precious metal, and most were gem-encrusted. At the sight, Keycase drew in breath. So, after all, a portion of the Duchess's fabled collection had not been consigned to the hotel vault. Once more a hunch, an omen, had proved right. With both hands he reached out to seize the spoils. At the same instant a key turned in the lock of the outer door.
His reflex was instantaneous. Keycase slammed down the jewelbox lid and slid the drawer closed. On the way in, he had left the bedroom door slightly ajar; now he flew to it. Through an inch-wide gap he could see into the living room. A hotel maid was entering. She had towels on her arm and was headed for the Duchess's bedroom. The maid was elderly, and waddled. Her slowness offered a single slim chance.
Swinging around, Keycase lunged for a bedside lamp. He found its cord and yanked. The light went out. Now he needed something in his hand to indicate activity. Something! Anything!
Against the wall was a small attache case. He seized it and stalked toward the door.
As Keycase swung the door wide, the maid recoiled. "Oh!" A hand went over her heart.
Keycase frowned. "Where have you been? You should have come here earlier."
The shock, followed by the accusation, made her flustered. He had intended that it should.
"I'm sorry, sir. I saw there were people in, and . .
He cut her short. "It doesn't matter now. Do what you have to, and there's a lamp needs fixing." He gestured into the bedroom. "The Duchess wants it working tonight." He kept his voice low, remembering the secretary.
"Oh, I'll see that it is, sir."
"Very well." Keycase nodded coolly, and went out.
In the corridor he tried not to think. He succeeded until he was in his own room, 830. Then, in bafflement and despair, he flung himself across the bed and buried his face in a pillow.
It was more than an hour before he bothered forcing the lock of the attache-case he had brought away.
Inside was pile upon pile of United States currency. All used bills, of small denominations.
With trembling hands he counted fifteen thousand dollars.
22
Peter McDermott accompanied the two detectives from the incinerator in the hotel basement to the St. Charles Street door.
"For the time being," Captain Yolles cautioned, "I'd like to keep what's happened tonight as quiet as possible. There'll be questions enough when we charge your man Ogilvie, whatever it's with. No sense in bringing the press around our necks until we have to."
Peter assured him, "If the hotel had any choice, we'd prefer no publicity at all."
Yolles grunted. "Don't count on it."
Peter returned to the main dining room to discover, not surprisingly, that Christine and Albert Wells had gone.
In the lobby he was intercepted by the night manager. "Mr. McDermott, here's a note Miss Francis left for you."
It was in a sealed envelope and read simply:
I've gone home. Come if you can.
- Christine.
He would go, he decided. He suspected that Christine was eager to talk over the events of the day, including this evening's astounding disclosure by Albert Wells.
Nothing else to do tonight at the hotel. Or was there? Abruptly, Peter remembered the promise he had made to Marsha Preyscott on leaving her at the cemetery so unceremoniously this afternoon. He had said he would telephone later, but he had forgotten until now. The crisis of the afternoon was only hours away. It seemed like days, and Marsha somehow remote. But he supposed he should call her, late as it was.
Once more he used the credit manager's office on the main floor and dialed the Preyscott number. Marsha answered on the first ring.
"Oh, Peter," she said, "I've been sitting by the telephone. I waited and waited, then called twice and left my name."
He remembered guiltily the pile of unacknowledged messages on his office desk.
"I'm genuinely sorry, and I can't explain, at least not yet. Except that all kinds of things have been happening."
"Tell me tomorrow."
"Marsha, I'm afraid tomorrow will be a very full day . . .
"At breakfast," Marsha said. "If it's going to be that kind of day, you need a New Orleans breakfast. They're famous. Have you ever had one?"
"I don't usually eat breakfast."
"Tomorrow you will. And Anna's are special. A lot better, I'll bet, than at your old hotel."
It was impossible not to be charmed by Marsha's enthusiasms. And he had, after all, deserted her this afternoon.
"It will have to be early."
"As early as you Re."
They agreed on 7:30 a.m.
A few minutes later he was in a taxi on his way to Christine's apartment in Gentilly.
He rang from downstairs. Christine was waiting with the apartment door open.
"Not a word," she said, "until after the second drink. I just can't take it all in."
"You'd better," he told her. "You haven't heard the half of it."
She had mixed daiquiris, which were chilling in the refrigerator. There was a heaped plate of chicken and ham sandwiches. The fragrance of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the apartment.
Peter remembered suddenly that despite his sojourn in the hotel kitchens, and the talk of breakfast tomorrow, he had eaten nothing since lunch.
"That's what I imagined," Christine said when he told her. "Fall to!"
Obeying, he watched as she moved efficiently around the tiny kitchen. He had a feeling, sitting here, of being at ease and shielded from whatever might be happening outside. He thought: Christine had cared about him enough to do what she had done. More important, there was an empathy between them in which even their silences, as now, seemed shared and understood.
He pushed away the daiquiri glass and reached for a coffee cup which Christine had filled. "All right," he said, "where do we start?"
They talked continuously for almost two hours, all the time their closeness growing. At the end, all they could decide on definitely was that tomorrow would be an interesting day.
"I won't sleep," Christine said. "I couldn't possibly. I know I won't."
"I couldn't either," Peter said. "But not for the reason you mean."
He had no doubts; only a conviction that he wanted this moment to go on and on. He took her in his arms and kissed her.